Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Supporting Essential Workers in Retirement Act with my colleagues Senator Brown, Senator Cassidy, and Senator Casey. Our bill would ensure that workers who…
Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Supporting Essential Workers in Retirement Act with my
colleagues Senator Brown, Senator Cassidy, and Senator Casey. Our bill would ensure that workers who stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic and performed essential work in hazardous conditions, including our first responders and critical supply chain workers, do not have their Social Security benefits reduced for serving our country.
Semiretired workers make invaluable contributions across all sectors of our economy. Workers who retire at age 62 may collect Social Security benefits, but if these workers choose to continue working and earning income, then the retirement earnings test, or RET, will reduce the benefits they earn above a certain threshold.
I have heard from many constituents who stepped up to perform essential work during the pandemic, only to find later that the income they earned during that time unexpectedly put them above the statutory RET threshold. One of my constituents, a teacher aide at an Aroostook County elementary school, is an example of a semiretired worker who was negatively impacted by the RET. She worked extra hours delivering meals to children who were at home learning remotely from March through June of 2020, and as a result she earned more than the RET threshold and had to pay money back to the Social Security Administration. I have also heard from semiretired nurses who agreed to work extra hours as our hospitals were filled with COVID patients and part-time employees who worked overtime to produce desperately needed personal protective equipment and COVID tests. They answered the call to fulfill vital roles when many of us were locked down in the early stages of the pandemic.
Through no fault of their own, these workers' incomes surpassed the RET threshold due to overtime and hazard pay. They must now pay back thousands of dollars in benefits to the Social Security Administration or face a temporary reduction in their benefits until the money is recouped. Meanwhile, the money they earned during this time was to compensate for the exceptional work performed during the pandemic, and these semiretired essential workers did not plan or budget for a reduction in benefits or a sudden expense. Mr. President, this is profoundly unfair for those who aided us during a crisis.
The Supporting Essential Workers in Retirement Act would exempt premium pay earned by essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic from the RET. We should incentivize essential work, not discourage it. I encourage my colleagues to join us in supporting this bill to ensure that those brave individuals who performed essential work in hazardous conditions to help our country address a global pandemic are not punished for doing so.
Mr. President. I rise today to introduce the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act of 2022 with my colleagues Senator Sinema and Senator King. This legislation would allow individuals seeking asylum to be eligible for employment authorizations starting 30 days after applying for asylum, provided their applications are not frivolous; they are not detained; and their identities have been verified, with their names run through the federal--government's terrorist watch lists. This change would allow asylum applicants to work, support themselves, and contribute to society without being as dependent on assistance from local governments while their claims are being adjudicated.
Under current law, asylum seekers must wait extended periods of time after filing their applications before they are allowed to apply for work permits. These long waiting periods were originally adopted by the Clinton administration--and then extended to a full year by the Trump administration--out of concern that some migrants might apply for asylum primarily as a means of getting a work authorization. Clearly, this change has only transferred the burden of care for these asylum seekers onto communities across the Nation.
One such community is Portland, ME. Over the span of several months, a historic surge of asylum seekers has arrived in Portland after crossing our southern border. Currently, hundreds of asylum seekers are being housed in emergency shelters by the city of Portland. These asylum seekers could give a much needed boost to Maine businesses that are facing labor shortages--our State's unemployment rate is just 4.7 percent--but the lengthy work authorization process prevents these asylum seekers from getting jobs, even to support themselves.
While the Federal Government has provided assistance to Portland and other communities around our country dealing with a surge in asylum seekers, it would be a better solution if those seeking asylum were able to join the workforce and achieve self-sufficiency as quickly as possible while awaiting the outcome of their cases.
It is my hope that the changes proposed by our bill will lessen the burden on the budgets of communities hosting asylum seekers, while allowing these individuals and their families to support themselves as they want to do, bringing needed skills to the cities and towns in which they settle. I encourage my colleagues to support it.
