Newsweek reached out to Paul's office outside of business hours for comment Saturday morning.
Why It Matters
The current retirement age for full Social Security benefits is 66 to 67, depending on your birth year. However, you can start receiving some benefits as early as 62 years old. There are currently 55,965 Americans aged 65 or older who receive Social Security.
While Americans have been paying into the system for years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is scheduled to run out of money for full payments as early as 2035.
Social Security is a dicey issue on Capitol Hill as lawmakers want to solve the federal program's insolvency crisis but don't want to upset their constituents who benefit from it.
What To Know
The House passed a bill called the Social Security Fairness Act 327-75 in November, which eliminated two provisions, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), that limit Social Security benefits for people who receive pensions from government and public service jobs.
After the bill made its way to the upper chamber, Paul proposed an amendment that would've gradually raised the Social Security retirement age to 70 to offset the cost of the Social Security Fairness Act.
Paul, who opposed the bipartisan bill for Social Security reform, told The Hill that it "speeds the bankruptcy of Social Security. Social Security is due to go bankrupt in 2034. This will speed it up by a year or so. It's $200 billion added to a program that is already short of money."
The amendment failed on Friday night in a 93-3 vote. The only GOP senators to support the amendment were:
Newsweek reached out to Lummis' office via email and Lee's office via telephone outside of business hours for comment Saturday morning.
The Social Security Fairness Act passed the Senate early Saturday without the amendment. In total, 49 Democrats and 27 Republicans voted for the bill while 20 Republicans, including Paul, voted against it.
What People Are Saying
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said after the Social Security Fairness Act was passed, "Millions of retired teachers and firefighters and letter carriers and state and local workers have waited decades for this moment. No longer will public retirees see their hard-earned Social Security benefits robbed from them."
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who voted against the bill, said, "We caved to the pressure of the moment instead of doing this on a sustainable basis."