John Ratcliffe: “I am humbled to represent thousands of teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers across the Fourth District…”

“I am humbled to represent thousands of teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers across the Fourth District of Texas who have dedicated their careers to public service. As the son of two schoolteachers and as a former law enforcement official myself, I have a personal and deep-felt appreciation for those who shape future generations by educating our children and protecting the communities where we live. Right now there are nearly 900,000 of these public servants who are being unjustly denied their hard-earned retirement benefits through an arbitrary formula called the windfall elimination provision, which can reduce their Social Security checks by up to $413 a month. That is why I have cosponsored and why I strongly support H.R. 711, the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act, to reduce and to eliminate the windfall elimination provision. I urge my colleagues to take it up for a vote as soon as possible so that we can ensure that our public servants receive both the Social Security benefits and the pensions that they most certainly have earned. ____________________”