The U.S. Senate voted 73-27 in favor of invoking cloture on the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) on Dec. 18, with an expected final vote on the legislation Thursday, Dec. 19. However, Senators will also be voting on four amendments to the bill that could derail final passage.

NAPO’s Director of Governmental Affairs Andrea Edmiston sent out an email to members Wednesday evening notifying them about the pending vote on H.R. 82 and the four amendments, encouraging them to continue reaching out to their Senators.

The following amendments were submitted for consideration:

• Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) to require repeal to be paid for prior to taking effect.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to strip the repeal language from the bill and replace with a WEP-only proportional formula change.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to impose mandatory Social Security on all public sector employees as an offset to the cost of repeal. NAPO officials were unsure if this would apply to new hires only or also current workers.
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 to pay for repeal.

“All of these are poison pill amendments and if any of them are approved, they will effectively kill the bill,” Edmiston wrote. “NAPO is urging Senators to VOTE NO on all amendments and YES on final passage of H.R. 82. Please continue to press your Senators to vote no on all amendments and vote yes on final passage of H.R. 82.  Together we will get this across the finish line!”