FULL TRANSCRIPT & VIDEO OF BOYLE WEP/GPO ELIMINATION SPEECH DURING SEPT. W&M COMMITTEE SOCIAL SECURITY HEARING

“I’d like to voice my strong support for HR 82--the Social Security Fairness act. For far too long, these two Social Security Act provisions have unfairly reduced and eliminated benefits for millions of Americans--including countless constituents in my district who have devoted their lives and careers to public service.  As of this past December, nearly 2,000,000 Americans—or about 3% of all Social Security beneficiaries—were impacted by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). And, at that same point, almost 750,000 Social Security beneficiaries had their benefits reduced by the GPO (Government Pension Offset). The elimination of these two provisions, would immediately benefit millions of retired firefighters, teachers, police officers, federal employees, and other public servants. So I thank every one of my colleagues on this committee, and I think we can all agree how important it is that we are having this conversation today, and that finally action is taking place. I am proud to be a co-sponsor of H.R. 82, and I urge its passage and its report to the full House of Representatives so we can finally get this done. This is about fairness. It is time to stop penalizing public servants.”