1 National Active and Retired Federal Employees vvv January 2015 Newsletter http://www.narfe1892.org Upcoming Meetings/Activities Chapter Schedule: (Guests are always welcome.) NOTE: Unless otherwise noted*, our meetings are held on the 4th Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. on the 2nd floor of the Holiday Park Senior Center, 3950 Ferrara Dr., Wheaton, MD 20906, 240-777-4999; parking in the rear. When Montgomery County schools close or open late or dismiss early because of weather, our meeting is canceled. -Member Meetings: Jan 28; Feb 25; Mar 25 (a joint Mtg with Holiday Park – 1:15 PM in 1st Floor Social Hall) -Newsletter input deadlines: Jan 23; Feb 20; Mar 27. -Newsletter Prep/Board Meetings: Jan 7; Feb 4; Mar 4. Outside Activities: -NARFE 2015 Legislative Training Conference -March 14-17. ___________________ Our Chapter’s meaningful year of 2014 ended with a well attended, very enjoyable Joint Aspen Hill and Rockville Chapters’ Holiday Luncheon. Many thanks to Rockville’s President, Jennifer Ramsey, her Chapter’s team, and all of our Chapter’s helpers. Special thanks to John Lass and Cathy Hobbs for their major roles. Sarah Weissmann, NARFE’s Grass-roots Program Manager, substituted for NARFE’s President who was testifying before Congress on the Office of Personnel Management’s progress in reducing the retirement claims backlog. She described the anticipated budget handling and our future. Welcome to 2015. Congress did avoid another government shutdown. The $1.1 trillion spending package was nicknamed the CRomnibus. It funds most government operations through the end of fiscal year 2015. The Department of Homeland Security has continued funding that expires in February. Some reports in the media wrongly mentioned provisions to reduce Federal retiree pensions. That was mistaken reporting about a provision that could reduce retiree benefits for individuals in failing, multi-employer, private pension plans. It did not apply to the Federal retirement system. None of the budget bill’s provisions negatively impact Federal employees or retirees. The funding picture however is not a rosy one. Sequestration, a ten year program for cuts in spending, continues to affect Agencies. The Internal Revenue Service had been hiring one person for every five who left. Vol. 33, No. 5 January Program January 28, 2015 Second Floor, Holiday Park Senior Center Speaker Bill Ferguson, Maryland NARFE Federation Legislative Chair “Influencing Your Legislators” It has a hiring freeze on now. Even though the IRS budget got no increase, its employees will get the 1% pay increase. Not a pretty picture. NARFE will continue to oppose some legislative proposals and to favor others. What are NARFE’s legislative interests? Look at th “NARFE’s Legislative Program for the 114 Congress 2014-2015” on pages 39-42 in the January NARFE Magazine. The last item on page 42 is the wording for what began as a resolution in our Chapter. Our grass-roots advocacy is very important. We need to help all politicians understand the Federal workforce, retirees, and the non-federal spouses/survivor-spouses and their interests. Speaking up is important. Always remember that we are non-partisan. When in doubt, it usually is best to “leave it out”. We speak to everyone. Our Legislation Chair, Paul Schwartz, now recognized by a number of politicians and respected by them for what he says, is a good model of a grass-roots advocate. He will attend the Legislative Training Conference March 14-17. We still have an opening to cover an additional person’s $175 registration fee. Attending this Conference and being with Paul could help you be more comfortable talking with politicians and their staff members. There is a NARFE webinar on Thursday, January 8, at 1:30 pm. Contact the NARFE legislation staff now, or email [email protected] for more information. If you want to attend the Conference, please call me at 301 460-4177 soon so we can register you before February. Our January 28 program on influencing legislation will be interesting. Be sure to read about savings and survivor benefits in the January NARFE magazine. To learn early and plan well while working is so important. What do we know about when it is best to select the higher premium Long Term Care coverage that begins 2 earlier than ninety (90) days? Also, how easily can changes be made in coverage, and when is such worthwhile? Until recently, only retirees could have automatic dues renewal. Their “dues withholding” also saves six dollars a year. A monthly Federal annuity reduction pays the dues and automatically renews membership. The retiree can also have spousal dues withheld anytime regardless of the retiree’s spouse’s work status or age. An application for this is in each month’s NARFE magazine. NOW, automatic dues renewal is available through NARFE for everyone. Call NARFE headquarters, 703 838-7760, anytime to request that future renewal dues be paid automatically. Linda Lee Cohen, President Legislation Report Federal: All too often the preferred method of reducing the federal deficit by Congress involves reducing the federal workforce and withholding cost of living increases. Congress certainly has succeeded in reducing the federal workforce. According to a November 7, 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal by Josh Zumbrun, "the federal government now employs the fewest people in almost 50 years. The federal government employs 2,711,000 people (excluding non-civilian military) and not since July of 1966 has the federal government's workforce been so small." It noted that government contractors are not counted as federal employees and, since they account for almost five times the number of federal employees, account for a much greater percentage of federal government expenditures. The efforts begun in the 1980's to privatize the federal workforce seem to have finally come to pass. As you may recall from a previous article in the November 2014 newsletter, federal employees, both current and retired, have contributed approximately $138 billion over the last five years in the amount of pay and benefits lost due to frozen cola's and changes in benefits as Congress deals with reducing the federal deficit. According to a November 20, 2014 report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), "the federal government could reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years by modifying federal worker pay and retirement." This, quite obviously, is alarming news for current federal employees as well as, potentially, federal retirees. According to the CBO, "cutting federal workers' annual raises by half a percentage point would save the government about $53.6 billion over the next ten years, the report says". Further, per the CBO, if the government "based its retirement benefits calculation on the highest five consecutive salary years rather than the highest three years, which is currently used, the government would save about $3.1 billion over the next ten years". "Reducing the number of open positions being filled would also save the government billions of dollars. If agencies filled only one of every three vacancies, with some exceptions, until the total federal workforce is reduced by 10 percent, the government would save nearly $50 billion," the report says. Of particular interest to retirees is the CBO's claim that using the chained consumer price index instead of the standard consumer price index to calculate inflation for federal retirement, military retirement and social security would save about $116 billion. Interesting enough, there is no mention in the report of raising the current pay cap of $117,000 on Social Security. Doing this would, of course, make Social Security solvent for years to come. As the new Congressional legislative session begins, NARFE will be focused on voicing our concerns regarding these very important issues. State: On a more positive note, Governor - Elect Larry Hogan has gone on record as being in favor of removing the state income tax on pensions. The State Legislative Committee is currently developing a strategy for following up with the Governor-Elect's office to pursue this agenda. In an article by John Wagner in the Washington Post, August 19, 2014, Larry Hogan is quoted as having told residents of a large seniors community that he "would like to eliminate taxation of all retirement income once the state gets its fiscal house in order". As reported in the article, Hogan stressed that his proposed tax break “would not happen overnight,” saying his priorities are to cut spending, create jobs and roll back many existing tax increases. He went on to say that, “once we get it under control, our plan — we can’t do it immediately — will be to completely eliminate state income taxes for pensions and retirement income”. Under current law, for individuals age 65 and older, pension income of up to $27,800 was exempt from taxation last year. 3 The State Legislative Committee intends to work with both the Governor's office and Maryland legislators to develop proposed legislation that will bring this vision to reality and stem the current trend of emigration of Maryland seniors to more pension-friendly states. Paul Schwartz, 1st V-Pres/State & Fed Leg. Chair Contact Your Legislator -Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski 503 Hart Senate Ofc Bldg www.mikulski,senate.gov/contact/ -Sen. Benjamin L Cardin 509 Hart Senate Ofc Bldg www.cardin.senate.gov/contact/ -Rep. John P. Sarbanes Dist 3 2444 Rayburn House Ofc Bldg -Rep. Donna F. Edwards Dist 4 2445 Rayburn House Ofc Bldg -Rep John Delaney Dist 6 1632 Longworth House Ofc Bldg -Rep. Chris Van Hollen Dist 8 1707 Longworth House Ofc Bldg 202-224-4654 202-224-4524 Secretary…… ……………………………….Rosita Dee [email protected] Treasurer……………………..……….….Robert Arndt 301-774-4403…[email protected] Membership…………………....….……....Merle Biggin 301- 946-4485…[email protected] Programs/Service Officer …………..……..…John Lass 301- 871-6734…[email protected] Public Relations/Historian ……………..Charlotte Lass 301- 871-6734…[email protected] Newsletter Editor.…. ………………....Robert Kammer 301- 942-0882…[email protected] Alzheimer’s /Sunshine…………….........…Cathy Hobbs 301- 924-4633……[email protected] 202-225-4016 Past Pres/Fed Resolution Chair……..Saj Durrani 202-225-8699 301-774-4607… …[email protected] Past President ………………………..……Rudy Volin 301- 87-6635………[email protected] 202-225-2721 202-225-5341 Contact NARFE 703-838-7760 www.narfe.org The 50-50 winner in September was Martha Fouchard (she won $7.50) and the November winner was yours truly ($13.50)! Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to a great turnout for the December 10 luncheon and another big winner! Membership Report The membership report from NARFE Headquarters for November revealed our Chapter gained four new members: Myron B. Chance, Barbara L. Hunt, John D. Munns and Ruth K. Webb – Welcome! We had one member, Morton Schultz, transfer out and one member, Ruth E. Grossman, transfer in. There were three reinstatements: Lester Belsky, Claudette T. Guilford and Paula J. Kuhlman – Welcome back! Eight members were dropped: Daniel D. Brand, Shirley J. Burch, James D. Knight, Yvonne Paran, Evelyn Rivera, Arlene B. Siller, Robert F. Singfield and Sharon Whitt – If you know any of them, please encourage them pay their dues and return to the Chapter. Sadly Clementine H. Griffen has passed away. The Chapter experienced a net loss of two members in November. The good news is we also have four prospective members. . Chapter 1892 Leadership President ….….………………………........Linda Cohen 301- 460-5177…. [email protected] 1st V-Pres/State &Fed Leg/MD Sr Assoc. Rep 301- 260-1903… [email protected] ..Paul Schwartz NARFE Aspen Hill Chapter 12705 Weiss St. Rockville MD 20853 January Edition 4 NARFE Aspen Hill Chapter 12705 Weiss St Rockville MD 20853 January Edition ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Alzheimer’s Report The 50/50 held at our December 10 Holiday Luncheon was won by Marcia Swanson from the White Oak Chapter, her winnings were $21. The collection of loose coins netted $28 for Alzheimer’s Research! Please continue to collect those quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies! Thank-you to all who participate in our 50/50 raffles and those collecting loose change. Martha Fouchard gave me a copy of a newsletter from the “Friends Club News” - Winter 2014 issue, which serves the Alzheimer’s community. In its report on a great break-through in Alzheimer’s research called “Alzheimer’s in a Dish” – a Petri dish with human brain cells that develop the tell tail structures of Alzheimer’s disease. This will allow researchers to quickly, cheaply, and easily test drugs that might stop the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. Sunshine Request Do you know of a member who is celebrating a special occasion, recovering from an illness, ill, or has passed away? If so, please inform the Chapter’s Sunshine Chair at 301-924-4633 or [email protected]. Cathy Hobbs, Alzheimer’s/Sunshine Chair Program This month’s program will address what members can do to influence legislation. Our speaker: Bill Ferguson, Maryland NARFE Federation Legislative Chair. His topic will be “Influencing Your Legislators”. John Lass, Program Chair NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. Postage Paid Silver Spring, MD Permit #5715
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