Maxwell Frost: “the underlying bill, the Social Security Protection Act, is largely noncontroversial. Its main provisions would deny…”

“the underlying bill, the Social Security Protection Act, is largely noncontroversial. Its main provisions would deny supplemental security income, SSI, to fugitive felons, make it easier for seniors to get a lawyer for the complicated disability application process, and reform the representative payee program so that seniors are not defrauded. I support all of these reforms, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, this bill also has one very harmful provision. A change in the government pension offset that would hurt teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public servants around the country including in my home State of Texas. Specifically, section 418 of this bill would prevent these hard-working public servants from protecting their retirement benefits from the harsh impact of the government pension offset. Mr. Speaker, this issue is somewhat complicated, but it affects thousands and thousands of dedicated teachers and other public servants.”