NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION

Our priority legislative bills before the 109th. Congress are:                                     Updated 11/29/06

With the elections over and the 109th. Congress drawing to a close in January 2007. Not much is expected to happen in regards to our priority legislation before the new Congress is seated. This page is currently being updated as we look forward to working with the new 110th. Congress. 

We would like to give our thanks to our outgoing Legislative Chairman: Diane Taylor who has done a tremendous job for our federation. Also welcome aboard to our new Legislative Chairman: John Wells.

• Premium Conversion; H R-994 sponsored in the House by Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia which has 339 cosponsors and S-484 sponsored in the Senate by Senator John Warner of Virginia which has 64 cosponsors. This bill would change the Internal Revenue Code and allow federal retirees the same benefit as federal employees making it possible to pay their federal health insurance premiums with before tax dollars. Federal employees already have this benefit, but not retirees; this would save retirees 200 - 500 dollars each year. Note that in the House every Representative in Tennessee with the exception of Rep. John Duncan of the 2nd. District is a cosponsor and neither senator for our state of Tennessee has signed on to cosponsor this bill.
• Repeal of the Social Security Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision GPO/WEP. The House bill is H R-147 which has 325 cosponsors and the Senate bill is S-619 which has 29 cosponsors. Again neither of our state senators have signed on to this bill. On the House side, Marsha Blackburn of the 7th. District has recently signed on as a cosponsor. Many thanks to those who have contacted her and encouraged her support. This means that in Tennessee all our Representatives except three have become cosponsors. The three holdouts are; Zach Wamp 3rd. District, Jim Cooper 5th. District. and John Tanner 8th. District. Let's keep working on them.

A late-stage discharge petition on H.R. 147, repeal of the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision has been filed. On September 21, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett became the first signers of Discharge Petition #15 (URL: clerk.house.gov/109 ). With Congress scheduled to recess September 29th or 30th, until after the November 7 elections, chances for discharging H.R. 147 from the Ways and Means Committee are slim, at best. A nearly identical discharge languished almost a year in 2004 and never achieved the requisite 218 signatures.

We encourage you to email and phone your elected officials. To do this, NARFE headquarters provides a toll free telephone number to the capitol switchboard. To contact the Washington office of your senator or representative call this number 1-866-220-0044 and ask for his or her office by name, or if you do not know who your representative is, tell them your city and state or zip code and they will look it up. Note: postal mail, because of security concerns takes weeks to reach officials in Washington so emails and telephone calls are better.

Each of your legislators maintain offices in Washington DC and in their districts. For a list of all the phone numbers, FAX numbers and the mailing addresses, click here.

To keep up on the latest legislative information, go to the NARFE national website and sign up to receive the weekly GEMS messages in your email. You can also call the toll free Hotline number 1-877-217-8234 to hear the weekly hotline message

Please take note that the current Congress, the 109th. comes to a close at the end of this year and if we do not get our bills passed before then, we must start all over next year  with the 110th. Congress. So work extra hard now to remind your legislators of NARFE's goals. 

Elections are coming up this year. In Tennessee Senator Frist is not running and his seat must be filled. All 9 of the US House seats are up for election. So you are encouraged to vote for the candidate that will support NARFE's interests and our legislative agenda.

For a map showing the Congressional Districts by Tennessee counties, click here

Many legislators do not list their email addresses, but you Use this handy box to write an email message to your elected officials. Enter your zip code and click GO!: You will see a list of your elected officials, then click email under their picture. You can choose from selective topics or compose your own message. 

One last thought, your Tennessee Federation is always looking for a few good men and women who are willing to use their abilities to serve on committees or other work such as legislation. If you are interested contact John Wells.

Tennessee Federation of Chapters