NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION

02/06/2008

Be a proactive Citizen Lobbyist

Remember, the Benefits you save maybe your own!

To encourage NARFE members to schedule personal meetings with their Members of Congress, the February NARFE magazine (page 12) will list scheduled 2008 “recesses,” during which, most Representatives and Senators seeking re-election conduct public meetings, hold Meet and Greet sessions and open their district and state offices in order to meet constituents. (The schedule listed below will aid federation and chapter legislative leaders in planning visits to Congressional offices in this election year.  (The best source of district office addresses, with maps and driving directions is http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm )

January 15 House convenes
January 22 Senate convenes
January 28 State of the Union
February 16-24 Presidents Day Work Period (both House and Senate)
March 15-30 St. Patrick/Easter Work Period (both)
May 24-June 1 Memorial Day Work Period (both)
June 28-July 6 Independence Day Work Period (both)
August 9-Sept. 7 Summer Work Period (both)
September 26 Target Adjournment Date (House)

Each Congressional Recess is an opportunity to make contacts with our members of Congress. Many members of Congress plan their family vacations during these breaks in the legislative session, but they also spend part of their time in their district offices, hold local town meetings, speak to civic groups, and participate in community celebrations.  And, with the 2008 Presidential election year already looming large on every politician's radar, to say nothing of the growing number of early primaries, we believe that this will be a good opportunity for NARFE members to arrange a few minutes of personal time with their elected officials.

Fortunately, the federal budget for the coming 2008 fiscal year contains no cuts in our federal retirement or health care.  This means that, for the moment, we do not have to focus our lobbying efforts on defending current benefits.  However, every member of Congress should be reminded that protection of our earned retirement and health care benefits is always NARFE's primary legislative objective.  But, with no immediate benefit threats under consideration, August congressional visits can be used to intensify our efforts on behalf of fairness and equity for federal retirees. The main purpose of these visits is to urge the legislators to push for serious consideration and ensuing votes on: 1) Premium Conversion to equalize tax break for annuitants with those available to federal workers; and, 2) repeal or reform of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) to restore fairness under the Social Security Act to over a million public service retirees.  And certainly, if the Representative or Senators have not yet cosponsored the bills to affect these changes, they once again should be asked to do so.

In short, NARFE members should use our personal contacts to make the following points to their members of Congress:

1. Preservation of the benefits we have worked and paid for is always our first priority.
2. Our continued support for Premium Conversion for federal civilian retirees and military personnel, with special emphasis for support from Ways and Means and Finance Committee members; and
3. Our continued support to repeal or reform the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), with special emphasis for additional support from Ways and Means and Finance Committee members.

Also, see links below to fact sheets on both Premium Conversion and GPO/WEP. This material is also posted on the National NARFE web site for easy printing and copying.