GPO Reform Offered in House

The Senate measure to eliminate the WEP and GPO is a counterpart to a bill (HR-147) introduced earlier in the House. Meanwhile, legislation (HR-750) offered by Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., would reduce the GPO, although not eliminate it. Under current law, the GPO reduces by $2 for each $3 in an annuity that the beneficiary receives from a retirement program—such as CSRS—that does not include Social Security. In many cases, the GPO totally eliminates the Social Security benefit, since CSRS typically pays a substantially larger benefit than does Social Security. The measure would reduce the offset to $1 for each $3. Other proposed GPO reforms in the past have sought to apply the offset only to combined benefits above a certain threshold, such as $1,200 a month.