September Fly-In Report and Annual Request for Contributions – 9/20/2017
I attended the NRLN Fall Fly-In in Washington, D.C. on September 11-13, 2017. On Monday afternoon NRLN officers and Chapter leads heard presentations from a visitor from the Pew Research Center on prescription drug pricing and from Bill Kadereit, NRLN President, on the NRLN "Grand Bargain" Proposal. On Tuesday and Wednesday attendees visited members of Congress on the Hill to advocate for legislation on the four issues listed below. I personally met with staff members from the offices of Senator Grassley (Iowa), Senator Manchin (West Virginia), Representative Kevin Brady (Texas) and Representative Rochester (Delaware). The picture in the attached pdf is from my meeting with Doug Calidas, Senior Counsel for Senator Manchin.
- NRLN's "Grand Proposal" to use tax reform to fund Medicare and Social Security far into the future.
- Protecting retirees in corporate mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs
- Corporate bankruptcy reforms needed to protect retirees’ pensions and benefits
- Bills that need to be passed to reduce prescription drug price gouging
Information on NRLN proposals can be found at http://www.nrln.org/index.html . The Grand Bargain is described in the NRLN summer newsletter here. Information including white papers on the other 3 issues can be found at www.nrln.org under the Legislative Agenda tab at the top of the page.
While it is difficult to know if we will be successful in convincing Congress to take action on our proposals, I do believe we are getting traction on all these issues. There are bills in committee which include the NRLN proposals and that could reduce drug prices. Senator Manchin is interested in introducing legislation to improve retirees standing in corporate bankruptcy situations. The "Grand Bargain" proposal which advocates increases in payroll taxes for both Medicare and Social Security to be enacted in conjunction with tax reform/cuts is a new idea that we introduced to all of the members of Congress that we met. I also hear of a possible pension bill that may be introduced which could result in increased authority for the PBGC as they work to avoid corporate defaults on defined benefit pension plans.
The key benefits to DuPont retirees of belonging to the NRLN and having our own Chapter are:
- A webpage, on a professionally managed website that can be used to disseminate information specific to our own pensions along with media articles pertinent to our situation.
- An opportunity to influence new federal legislation to protect all retiree benefits. The NRLN identifies potential issues and then proposes/lobbies for specific legislation to protect all retiree benefits.
- A bulk email utility that we can use to send updates on our own pension issues.
- Networking with other retiree organizations, e.g. Chrysler, GM, Kodak, Lucent, TVA and many others.
- Strategic and tactical advice from experts on pensions and other issues.
Finally, I hope that you feel that our efforts are useful and will consider making a contribution to our Chapter and NRLN. You do not have to make a contribution to belong to our chapter, however the NRLN needs funding in order to be able to continue the work of advocating for legislation to protect our benefits. Twenty percent of your contributions go to our DRC chapter and are used to cover our participation on these Fly-In events.
Click here to mail your contribution or to use a credit card.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Jim Odle, President of DRC
odlejk@gmail.com