Sullivan says he voted for Social Security bill for reason he never mentioned in his form letter to Alaskans

Sen. Dan Sullivan changed his tune on the Social Security Fairness Act, which passed the Senate on a 76-20 vote early Saturday and will be signed by President Joe Biden.

The bill ends what is known as the government pension offset, which reduced “Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own,” the congressional summary of the measure said. “The bill also eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which in some instances reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes.”

The two provisions reduced benefits for nearly 3 million Americans.

Before the vote, Sullivan’s office sent form letters to Alaskans in which Sullivan highlighted his reservations about the bill championed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who worked on changing the law for more than 20 years. He took no position on the bill in his form letter.

Sullivan refused to answer questions from reporters about the bill, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

“Spokesperson Amanda Coyne instead shared a statement prepared last month, indicating Sullivan favored a more tailored response from the Social Security Administration ‘to find an Alaska solution for Alaskan public servants,’” the Daily News reported last week.

In his form letter, Sullivan waltzed around the bill and took no clear position on it. He left the impression that he would go against it, however, because it would speed the depletion of Social Security funds by six months.

I suspect that Sullivan, who faces reelection in 2026, ended up voting for the bill after measuring the political winds, as more GOP senators voted for it than against it.

In Sullivan’s form letter to Alaskans who wrote him with their opinions on the bill in recent weeks and months, Sullivan said: “I am concerned about ensuring that Alaskans are able to afford retirement, and I have specifically advocated to the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration regarding some Alaska pensions and why they are subjected to WEP and GPO.”

“I recognize that these provisions affect Alaska’s retirees at a higher rate than other states, with WEP impacting 11.8% of all Alaska beneficiaries as of 2022. When WEP was established in 1983, it was intended to prevent ‘double-dipping,’ where employees with non-covered retirements receive a higher Social Security benefit than others with comparable lifetime earnings. While this reform, among others, was intended as a reasonable approach to improving the long-term financial stability of Social Security, the blanket offset lacks precision and creates its own inequities among beneficiaries,” Sullivan’s form letter said.

But after those noncommital paragraphs, Sullivan launched into his overall reservations about the survival of Social Security:

“More broadly, I am also very concerned with the long term viability of the Social Security program, which is vital for seniors in Alaska and throughout the country. The Social Security Trustees have stated that under current law and circumstances the Disability Insurance Trust Fund will become exhausted in 2098 and the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will become exhausted in 2033. By 2034, it is expected that without significant reforms, only 79% of scheduled benefits will be paid. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the Social Security Fairness Act would result in these funds reaching exhaustion roughly half a year earlier than current estimates. These estimates are also subject to uncertainty, as repeal of these provisions may lead to a weakening of state funded pension systems, and shift more financial burden onto federally funded Social Security,” Sullivan’s letter said.

“When reforms to Social Security are debated in the Senate, I will work to ensure that not only current beneficiaries get the benefits that they were promised, but also that future generations who have worked hard and paid into the program have access to the program as well. The sooner action is taken, the more options will be available to adequately change and improve Social Security so that it may continue serving its purpose for years to come,” he said.

The Senate debate did not change the text or the terms of the bill regarding future generations, however, as the measure was approved by the House November 12, and the Senate could not change it.

After the vote, Sullivan said he decided to favor the bill because of a reason that he never mentioned in his form letter to Alaskans.

“In a written statement, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he voted for the bill because the Alaska Legislature passed a unanimous resolution earlier this year supporting the federal legislation,” the ADN reported.

“I’ve been working on an Alaska-specific solution for this issue for years. The legislation we passed tonight will fix this problem, strengthen our state’s workforce, help with recruitment efforts, and benefit hard-working Alaska families,” Sullivan said.

He did not repeat the statement in his form letter that the bill “would result in these funds reaching exhaustion roughly half a year earlier than current estimates.”

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