WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden signed a measure into law on Sunday that boosts Social Security retirement payments to some retirees who draw public pensions, such as former police officers and firefighters, in what the White House described as the first expansion of such benefits in 20 years.
The Senate voted last month to approve the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal two-decade-old provisions that can reduce benefits for people who also receive a pension. The House of Representatives had approved it earlier.
"The bill I'm signing today is about a simple proposition: Americans who have worked hard all their lives ... should be able to retire with economic security and dignity," Biden said. "That's the entire purpose of the Social Security system crafted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt nearly 90 years ago."
The law overturns a decades-old change to the popular retirement program that had been made to limit federal benefits to some higher-earning workers with pensions. Over time, growing numbers of employees such as postal workers also saw their payments capped.