Executive Summary:
- TRTA’s leaders, including Executive Director Tim Lee, are going to Washington D.C. next week!
- The goal is to advance Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reform.
- Click here to contact your congressional Representative to ask for their support of WEP reform today!
The Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA) is committed to reforming the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The WEP is a harmful Social Security provision that unfairly punishes public workers for paying into both Social Security and a public pension fund. In the case of Texas educators, having their Social Security income reduced punishes retirees who worked in both the private sector and paid into the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS).
Two congressional Representatives, Richard Neal (D – Massachusetts) and Kevin Brady (R – Texas), have filed legislation that would reform the WEP. Neal’s bill is HR 4540, and Brady’s bill is HR 3934. You can learn all about these bills by using our fact sheet that we will be using in Washington D.C.
Our legislative advocacy team will be in the nation’s capital from October 27 through October 30. We need your help to contact legislators and let them know that the advancement of WEP reform is of the utmost importance! Click here to contact them!
Help us cut through the noise in Washington! We need to get Congress focused on what matters! Educators should receive their fair share of Social Security, and it’s time to take action on the WEP! You may use this link to find a phone number for your Representative. Please call your Representative’s office in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week and ask for their support of bills HR 4540 and HR 3934.
TRTA will be meeting with Texas congressional Representatives during its visit, and we will be informing them about how the WEP—which was first put into place in 1984—has a detrimental effect on tens of thousands of Americans who worked in public service.
Additionally, TRTA is working closely with its national partners, including the Massachusetts Retirees, to bring other Representatives up to speed. You can learn more about our national coalition, the Public Retirees Alliance, here.
The Texas Retired Teachers Association exists to protect your TRS retirement and fights to make it better. Please consider becoming a member and joining the largest community of TRS retirees in the nation.
