This important piece of legislation needs our attention in this Congress. HR 82 would eliminate the WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) and the GPO (Government Pension Offset) that punishes any of our CSRS retirees who also qualify for Social Security. It denies a Social Security benefit to survivors who happen to have a CSRS retirement. These people have paid their “dues” into Social Security and are only “punished” because we are considered double dippers taking a civil service benefit as well as a Social Security benefit. It is time to stop this egregious error foisted on us dating back to 1983. The number of retirees affected by this error are dwindling simply due to the fact that post 1984 there have been no civil service carriers since all carriers since then have been enrolled in the FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System) system which qualifies them for their full Social Security benefit.

 

We currently have six Michigan representatives on board as cosponsors. They are Stevens (D-11th), Slotkin (D-7th), Taib (D-12th), Dingell (D-6th), Scholten (D-3rd), and Shri (D-13th). We need to reach out to all other congressional reps to seek their cosponsorship. You can easily affect this by going to the legislative action center at nalc.org and send an email or phone call to your rep. There are currently (Jun 1st) 277 cosponsors in the House and 44 cosponsors in the Senate. If you are in my district (10th) you should call our new representative John James at 202-225-4961 and ask for his support for this important legislation. We need all the help and encouragement we can muster to get this bill to the floor for action.

 

Welcome New Board members

 

Our state board has an entire new group of trustees as well as a new secretary and new Vice President. We welcome all of you to our board and look forward to busying our group with political involvement and a more robust foray into our goal of advocating for legislation that will improve the lives and retirement of letter carriers. We need to “activate” our members to join the fight!!

 

 

-- Mike Sheridan

Director of Retired Members