This NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 727 was released Thursday, August 26th.
How to follow NARFE’s 31st National Convention on the web is the lead. NARFE’s Meet
Your Candidates Month continues. The next Hotline, scheduled for September 3rd, will report
on the Convention in Grand Rapids. (667 words; 3:24)
Daily Reports From Grand Rapids Convention: The next best thing to attending the NARFE convention in Grand Rapids is the DAILY CONVENTION REPORT
for NARFE members. Each day there will be a posting of the same bulletin read by convention delegates.
Each day the NARFE home page, www.narfe.org, will have “DAILY CONVENTION REPORT” with a Click Here that will allow NARFE members to access the DCR .
NARFE-PAC at Convention: Our Political Action Committee,
NARFE-PAC, is the federal employees and retirees defense fund. NARFE-PAC will have space at the Convention
for NARFE members to make a first or further NARFE-PAC contribution. Chris Farrell is expecting the generous
response to President Baptiste March letter to continue. Farrell will have NARFE-PAC lapel pins, forms
and table signs available. The annuity you save may be your own.
“Meet Your Candidates Month” Continues: Executing multi-chapter, multi-candidate forums continues around the country. Although
“Meet Your Candidates Month” runs through Labor Day, we encourage you to hold forums or meetings with your local
congressional candidates whenever they are available, now through election day, November 2nd. Copies
of the planning memo and support documents including NARFE’s “Candidate Questionnaire” and “Fiscal
Commission Talking Points” are posted for NARFE members on our web site. Chapter officers may want
to provide copies to their members. (On the Legislation home page, use the colorful Meet Your Candidates Month “CLICK
HERE” for all supporting materials.)
Report Meetings with Your Lawmakers: NARFE member feedback from any meetings or forums with any Member of Congress
during “Meet Your Candidates Month” provides exclusive and critical intelligence. Because this
feedback is so vital, www.NARFE.org has added a feature to our Legislative Action Center which allows you
to make online reports on your meetings with lawmakers.
Using www.NARFE.org To Provide Feedback: Here’s how you do it: (1)
log into the Members Section of the NARFE website www.narfe.org, (2) click the “Department” button on the top of the page and a menu
of all the NARFE Departments will drop down, (3) click on “Legislation” to visit our department’s page,
(4) scroll down to the bottom of the Legislative page and click on “REPORT MEETINGS WITH LAWMAKERS,” (5) this
will take you to our Legislative Action Center, where you will find a “Advocacy Activity Form,” (6) complete the
form and then click on the “Proceed” button on the bottom of the page, (7) then you will be asked to check off
which lawmaker you contacted, (8) the final form will list the lawmaker’s name at the top of the page, another block
is for the date of your meeting and then you can summarize, in 4000 characters of less, your meeting in “comments”
box. (The direct path to our “Advocate Activity Form” is:
http://www.capwiz.com/narfe/lrm/feedback.tt)
Who, What, When, Where and Why: Let
us know who you have met with – the member of Congress and/or their staff - and the subjects discussed at your meeting,
any commitments made by the legislator or staff and anything you or your NARFE colleagues are doing to follow up on the meeting
(e.g. providing information requested, asking if staff checked with lawmaker on a NARFE request, etc.) (Phone
text: Members unable to report online should send a written report to chapter, federation and regional NARFE leaders and the
NARFE Legislative Department, 606 N Washington St, Alexandria VA 22314-1914 or phone the Legislative Department, 703/838-7760
x267).
Obtaining the Hotline: Thank you for using the Hotline. This weekly legislative message
is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and sent to over 53,000 GEMS e-mail addresses. Each delivery channel is
a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.
This NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 723 was released Friday, July 16th. House passage of “telework”
legislation and consumer price news are covered. The next scheduled Hotline is set for Friday, July 23rd.
(745 words; 4:52)
Telework Passed in House: On July 14, 2010, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1722, the “Telework Improvements
Act of 2010,” to require executive branch agencies to establish policies to allow employees to telework to “the
maximum extent possible without diminishing agency operations and performance,” specifically ensuring that eligible
employees are authorized to telework at least 20 percent of their hours. The federal government defines
telework “as work arrangements in which an employee regularly performs officially assigned duties at home or other work
sites geographically convenient to the residence of the employee.” The 290-131
vote on H.R. 1722 set the stage for a House-Senate conference to resolve differences with an earlier Senate passed version
Prior to the vote, NARFE President Margaret
L.Baptiste sent a letter to each Representative urging them to vote in favor of the bill: “H.R. 1722 will foster a qualified
and reliable federal workforce while providing the federal government’s dedicated public servants with the ability to
maintain a healthy work-life balance.”
June Consumer
Price News: June’s CPI-W is 213.839 a decrease of 0.1 percent from
the May index 214.124. Consumer price indices for July 2010, the first month of the final quarter, are
scheduled to be released on Friday, the 13th of August. Unless the measurement year’s
final quarter (July through September) is marked by rapid inflation there is unlikely to be a cost of living adjustment (COLA)
in federally administered retirement programs including Social security, military retirement and federal civil service.
Full details are available on the NARFE web site. (The specific URL is http://www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=942 and for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (taped message 202/691-6994) release on June indices use http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf
WV Governor Appoints Temporary Senator:
Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced today he is picking Carte Goodwin,
his former chief counsel, as the interim replacement for the late Democratic Sen. Robert
Byrd. The replacement will serve until the state holds a special election later this year.
Planning/coordinating for August Is ‘Meet Your Candidates Month’ Because it is the largest block of time when incumbents need not be on Capitol
Hill, the August 7-September 14 summer recess (likely to start even earlier for the House) is NARFE’s “Meet Your
Candidates Month.” We are eager to improve on our successful 2008 election outreach to congressional
candidates. NARFE federation presidents and national legislative chairs participated in early planning
including regional conference calls in April (June NARFE, p. 16). Copies of the planning memo and
support documents including a “Candidate Questionnaire” and the new “Fiscal Commission Talking Points”
are posted for NARFE members on our web site and are available upon request. Chapter officers may want
to provide copies to their members. (On the Legislation home page, use the colorful Meet Your Candidates Month “CLICK
HERE” for supporting materials.)
Cantor Suggests “High-5” Proposal: For
several weeks, House Minority Leader Eric Cantor’s, R-VA, “You Cut” website http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut encouraged visitors to vote on five specific proposals to cut federal spending.
Earlier this week, a proposal to cut federal civilian retirement annuities by basing them on the highest five years
of salary – instead of the highest three years – was ranked as the second most popular reduction option on Cantor’s
website. The “high-5” proposal is no longer on the site. A proposal
made in May to deny federal workers a modest 1.4 percent pay raise in 2011 continues to be promoted as part of the “You
Cut” campaign: http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/week2.htm . NARFE has opposed, and will oppose, any attempt to add these proposals as amendments to legislation
being considered by Congress.
Baptiste: ENLIST to Defend: Now that President Baptiste has
testified before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, NARFE members must enlist in the defense of
our earned benefits. President Baptiste urges you to join the 7,234 members who have already enlisted using the Legislative
Action Center to send a MESSAGE to your Representative and two Senators.” (Again, the specific
link is http://capwiz.com/narfe/issues/alert/?alertid=14982226.)
Obtaining the Hotline: Thank you for using the Hotline.
This weekly legislative message is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on
NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and sent to over 54,000 GEMS e-mail addresses. Each delivery channel is
a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.
