Legislative Bob Martina

Legislative
Bob Martina
LRO – Legislative Director
NRLN - Grassroots VP
LRO Meeting
June 17 – Dallas, Texas
Open or closed, it’s always foggy
ALU
US Congress and Admin.
Legislative Regulatory
Direct
Talks
Proxy
Litigation Initiatives
NRLN
Actions
LRO – Lucent Retiree Organization
Service and
Feedback
to Members
Member Issues
& Concerns
With other
retiree
organizations
• The LRO is allied with many other retiree groups to
formulate legislative policy and action priorities. Some
have joined us in the NRLN fairly recently.
Aetna Ret. Assc.
Ameritech/SBC Ret.
AT&T Ret. Assc
Boeing Engr. Ret.
Chrysler Ret Orgs.
CWA Ret. Members Council
Delta Pilots Pension Org.
John Deere Ret Org.
Eastman Kodak Ret. Assn.
Detroit Diesel Ret. Org.
Detroit Edison Alliance of Ret.
Ford FAIR Alliance
General Motors Ret.(several)
Nat’l Assc. Prudential Ret. - NAPRI
TELCO Ret Org. - (Pac Bell)
Assc. US West Ret. ( NWB, MT Bell, PNWB)
American Airlines Retirees - (several)
United Airlines Retirees – latest
And members from 80 other companies
Regional NRLN Chapters now being formed for non- association members .
NRLN MEMBERSHIP RESOURCES:
25 Formally Organized Retirees Associations
 117 Companies Retirees Have Contributed To NRLN
 2,200,000 Retirees Receive Benefits from 117 Companies.
 320,000 NRLN Members belong to Formal Associations
 NRLN - Registered Lobbyist and Strategic D.C. Presence.
 Apx. 62,000 Data Base Members Can Lobby Congress.
 Grassroots Members: Live In 50 states & all Congressional
Districts and there are CD leaders in ~ 72% of the Districts
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NRLN STRENGTH COMES FROM MEMBER ACTION – No campaign
donations or free lunches, dinners, booze or trips for members of
Congress.
The LRO is well represented in the NRLN
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Bill Kadereit - President
Ed Beltram - VP Communications
Joe Dombrowski – VP Membership
Bob Martina - VP Grassroots Network/ NRLN SW Region 6 VP
Frank Minter - Pension Advisory Bd
Al Duscher - Pension Advisory Bd
Ron Hoth - Health Care Advisory Comm.
Herb Zydney - Health Care Advisory Comm.
Joe Sciulli - Web site, Data Base
John De Castro – NRLN Region 10 Dir. (CA-HI)
Paul Bayliss – NRLN Region 1 Dir (New England states)
Many others in Grassroots State and CD leadership posts
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Over the last four- six years –
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Reviews and initiates actions items in congress affecting
retirees such as:
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Stimulus checks (inclusion of retirees) - $250 – Obtained
Tax policy impacting. Anything impacting retiree taxes.
EEOC policy on health care impacting over 65 – Lost
Pension funding regulation (110% vs. 130% = 120%) - “A Win”
Health Care – provided inputs to White House. – not satisfactory
Hedge fund take over of pension funds --- blocked - “A Win”
Delay of IRA/401 K 2009 distributions – Obtained “A Win”
• Submitted comments on Social Security and Medicare to special
Budget Comms. Uncertain if action will be taken before election
• Influenced PBGC and DoL on decline of pension plans and
dangers of re-risking and requesting more disclosure.
Won some - Lost some -- but not by forfeit
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Initiates/Influences new/amendments to
legislation and regulation by:
• Pointing out problems with existing legislation.
• Providing position papers on proposed and in process legislation
• Providing outlines of new legislation to appropriate committees.
• Direct lobbying/calls to reps and staffers
• Grassroots Action Alerts - member action
• Advising NRLN members on congressional members positions on
legislation. - new online observation
• Empowering all members with tools to influence congress.
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The Legislative Agenda- General
• Revised Annually by NRLN Legislative Comm. •
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Based on bi-annual membership surveys
Reviewed by LRO BOD and other Associations.
Mid-course correction as needed. 2 new pension issues this year
Priorities set for most effort for the upcoming year
On Line at http://www.nrln.org (summary and details)
Advisory committees work details of position papers
NRLN Legal and Lobby Efforts focused
Grassroots Initiatives formulated
All NRLN members
• Action Alerts - e-mails to congress.
• Twitter and Facebook to Congressmen
CD and State Leaders
• Meetings with Congressmen/staffs at offices; DC and home.
• Town hall meetings.
• Letters to editors.
2013
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Pension Asset Protection (PAP)
PBGC Reform Legislation
Bankruptcy Reform
Pension Benefit Protection from Global M&A Harm
Form Coalition - Lobby for Prescription Drug Agenda
Make Illegal – Payoffs to competitors to not introduce generics.
Senator Klobuchar (WI) introduced
S.214, Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act which would prohibit “pay for delay” contracts between drug makers.
Require HHS to require competitive bidding for Medicare Drugs – 2013 -Sen. Klobuchar (MN)
introduced S117. Medicare Prescription Drug Negotiation Act of 2011 ; Companion bill in House HR1102 Rep Welch (VT)
Importation of safe prescription drugs. Anticipated – was widespread support in 2012 but lost 43-54 in Senate
FDA funding to eliminate the generic drug backlog – Drug backlog has doubled but new user fees passed
in 2012 likely will help. Average approval time 31 months . Staff added
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Protect Medicare – (pass the above before any cuts considered)
Protect Social Security - CPI issues: no change or change to CPI-E (senior Cost of Living 2014
item)
2014 - Added-- De-risking and Increased Disclosure pension Issues.
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Detailed position papers on line at NRLN.org under Legislation
 Derisking. The dumping of the pension fund to a third party to
reduce corporate risk/liability. This can be done right or not. Several major
companies have taken this route. The NRLN has a special team working on
this issue. The LRO is a major contributor to this effort.
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AFN – Disclosure Interest Calculations for Pension Funding Levels.
Congress gave more relief to the corporations, resulting in a rosy picture
which may not be valid. The NRLN had a special fly-in lobby effort on this
matter in July .-The LRO will participated heavily.
These two will be covered under the pension section of our presentations
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Protection and Enhancement of Health Care Benefits
• Maintenance of Cost Protection (MCP)
• Medicare Buy-In for ages 55-65 - somewhat preempted by ACA
• Inclusion of Catastrophic Coverage in Medicare
• See full Legislative Agenda and position paper Exec.
Summaries, Talking points, and full position papers
at: www.nrln.org
• Deductibility of health care premiums - No 7.5% AGI
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HSA‘s for Medicare eligible - High-Deductible Plans.
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Penalty free withdrawals from 401k, IRA, SEP, etc.
when funds are used to Pay Health Care premiums.
• Stop Alternate Minimum Tax double taxation by raising the
exemption threshold level and indexing it to CPI.
• Amend tax codes to eliminate federal and state taxes on
Social Security Income.
See agenda details at: www.nrln.org
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Pension Asset Protection (PAP) “Back Door Reversions”
Bankruptcy Reform
PBGC Reform #1, PBGC Reform #2
Mergers and Acquisitions/Foreign (M&A) “ Pension Spinoffs”
De-risking
Disclosure
Health Care –
 Prescription Drugs
 Maintenance of Contribution Provision (MCP) & Tax Credit Continue
 Catastrophic Coverage
 Medicare buy-in (55-65)
Special Papers - NRLN Position- immediate budget concern
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Saving Social Security and Retiree’s Faith in America’s Promise.
Protecting Medicare and Trimming the deficit.
Prescription Drug Costs – A Call for Action
Pacific Northwest
Judy Stenberg
Century Tel - Boeing,
TELCO, LRO
Great Lakes
Mountain- West
Midwest
Neil West
Cindy Hadsell
Century Tel - LRO
Century Tel - LRO, JM,
Raytheon, NAPRI
Aetna, Deere
Ray Sternot
AASBCR - DEAR,
LRO, JM, NAPRI,
GM, Chrysler, Ford
North East
Cathy Maher
ACER - LRO
NAPRI, JM
Aetna, Kodak,
Delphi
Far West
Chuck Gilbert*
John DeCastro
TELCO - LRO,
AUSWR, Raytheon
DEAR, GM
Mid Atlantic
Dick Ciocca /Jane
Banfield
NAPRI/ACER - LRO, GM,
Aetna
South East
Vacant/RFM
DP3, GM, Chrysler,
South West
Bob Martina
LRO – AT&T, AA ARR,
Delta , GM, IBM, NCRO
LRO,
DEAR, ACER,
Aetna, Raytheon,
SE- Florida – Terry Yates
SE-E TBD
SE-W TBD
Unique All Users
Total NRLN
2490
LRO/Lucent
350
( +XX wo Email)
Other Subscribed
Retirees from:
Chrysler, AT&T, Delta , General Motors, Kodak, American Airlines , Raytheon ,
Delta, Delphi
** It is important to let us know of e-mail changes.
* For newsletters and Action Alerts.
You must have e-mail and be subscribed to participate and get info.
350 LRO Texas Subscribed Members
Action Alert Messages Sent To Congress
All LRO members should be 21 or more at this point. Less than 10% are
How can our initiatives be successful without
the membership stepping up pressure on congress?
The process is easier than ever.
LRO TEXAS TOP RESPONDERS NRLN ACTION ALERTS
Name
From
E-Mail
William
Johnston
Normangee
[email protected]
Jim
Barnwell
Rockwall
[email protected]
Tom
Eustis
Nacogdoches
[email protected]
Doris Jean
Head
Southlake
[email protected]
David
Tatum
Rosanky
[email protected]
Shirley
Spradlin
Eustace
[email protected]
Donald
Metoyer
Cedar Hill
[email protected]
Rod
Campbell
North Richland Hills
[email protected]
Bruce
Schwaegel
Austin
[email protected]
Michael
Vandervoort
Abilene
[email protected]
Gene
Treadway
McAllen
[email protected]
Kimberly
Andrews
Conroe
[email protected]
Roy
Miller
San Antonio
[email protected]
Pamela
Grossman
Tomball
[email protected]
Jack
Boyd
McKinney
[email protected]
LRO is major player in Texas:
36 Congressional Districts
23 covered by CD leaders
5/14 in Coastal Section
10/11 in East Section (TX31 open)
8/11 in West Section (23,33,35
17/23 Covered by LRO or co-CD leaders.
Other states in the SW region are 25/27
DFW area
NRLN Grassroots –Texas Leadership Team
State/Section Leader
Senator – Congressman
Committee
NRLN Agenda Issues
It is important to keep in contact with all congressmen and senators, even more so with these.
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Remember:
* At a minimum , please respond to every Action Alert you
receive from the NRLN
* If you can, become a Congressional District Leader
- General Information on this will be provided
- Specific information on issues will be provided.
- Position/ White papers/ Exec. Summaries
- Talking points for issues
- When requested, join with some friends and go see your
Senator or Congressman at home. We will prepare you. It is easy,
takes very little time, and is very effective
* You can always write a letter to the editor, go to a town hall meeting,
send them a tweet or Face book message .
* Remind your friends to join the LRO or their retiree organization and
respond to Action Alerts.
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You can help make a difference.
Live demo
At this site
http://www.nrln.org/index.html
This allows you to contact any
congressman or senator
Take Action Now
This Action Alert link sends the current
Action Alert to both senators and your
congressman .
You can personalize it.
NRLN Action Alert: Legislation Needed
to Protect Medicare Beneficiaries
This is a good page to browse around in.
Get to it by using this on the home page.
Directly to current
Action Alert
To USA – State Maps
Complete contact info is provided,
including local offices -- and a lot more
The Action Alert page which will show:
• Both Senators, and your Rep. • Voting records on bills
• Current Action Alerts ( if more than one. ) – select
• NRLN letter comes up
- You can personalize message.---- Dear John, etc
• Fill in your contact info and hit “Send Message “
The whole process takes less than 5 minutes.
All members should be taking action
This is the minimum we ask from all member advocates and CD
leaders which we ask to do more in these critical times.
Other: Your congressman’s position on bills we are reviewing can be
found on our web site.
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End