Sylvester Turner: “a few years ago a lady came to my office in my district whose husband had died before he had ever collected a single…”

“a few years ago a lady came to my office in my district whose husband had died before he had ever collected a single penny of Social Security. He had worked his entire life paying into the Social Security system thinking when he died, his wife would receive a survivor's benefit from his Social Security payments that would help keep her secure during her retirement. She sat in my office near tears explaining to me that because she had spent her career in teaching and because she receives a monthly Texas State teacher's retirement benefit, she would never see one penny from Social Security. To learn that she would have received a survivor's benefit if she had been drawing a retirement benefit from a private, rather than a public, retirement fund only added insult to her injury. Mr. Speaker, this is unfair and the government pension offset must be repealed. For the 6 years that I have been in Congress, I have cosponsored the legislation to end this unfair result caused by this provision we call the GPO.”