Dear Colleagues,
I’ve returned to Louisville and wanted to forward this to you. I did receive a letter from Representative Brent Yonts, who shared that the state initiative was passed in Frankfort … which was to send a letter to the U.S. Congress asking them to repeal the GPO/WEP as it was affecting our educators in Kentucky. I’m not sure how this will affect our two senators who have not signed on, but it can’t hurt. I hope all of you are well. Please contact me by email or on my cell at 502.594.3884. We will have a booth set up at the KEA-Delegate Assembly next week, so if you are at the Executive West or have folks coming to the DA from your district, please ask them to stop by to pick up materials from NEA and KEA. As always, we appreciate all you do for the Association and others. Rhonda
From: <CLewis@nea.org>
Date: 2007/03/19 Mon PM 03:05:15 EST
Subject: Message from Reg Weaver and John Wilson on GPO/WEP Activities
Memorandum
TO:
GPO/WEP Activists
FROM:
Reg Weaver
John Wilson
RE:
GPO/WEP Legislative Activities
Thank you all very much for the excellent work you have done and
continue to do in the fight to repeal the Government Pension Offset
(GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). Many of you have been
asking us how our campaign to repeal the offsets will proceed in the
coming months and what the next steps are that you can take to move us
toward our goal. We would like to take this opportunity to give you
some information about NEA’s current priorities and how the GPO/WEP
efforts fit into our agenda.
As you may know, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most
recently reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act, is up for
reauthorization this year. Advancing NEA’s Positive Agenda for the ESEA
Reauthorization to address the many concerns about the law’s impact on
educators and the students they serve is now our top legislative
priority. We have reorganized our staff into an ESEA Campaign with
lobbying, grassroots, and media components. Many of our lobbyists, as
well as grassroots, field, and policy staff, will be spending most, if
not all, of their time on this ESEA Campaign.
We will also be focusing our grassroots activities on the ESEA Campaign.
Because we do not want to confuse our message, we do not anticipate
holding lobby days or grassroots calls to action on other issues,
including GPO/WEP, in the near future. We will continue, however, to
send out our weekly cyber alerts on any education-related issues moving
in Congress and needing immediate attention.
Our focus on ESEA reauthorization does not in any way diminish our
efforts to repeal GPO/WEP. Much of our work on the issue will proceed
uninterrupted. For example:
* NEA lobbyist Al Campos will continue to lobby Congress to move
the Social Security Fairness Act forward for debate and vote.
* We will continue to look for and take advantage of every
opportunity to push the GPO/WEP message in every available forum and on
every potential legislative vehicle. For example, NEA has been invited
to testify this week before the Senate Finance Committee (which has
jurisdiction over Social Security as well as tax policy and other
financial issues). The focus of the hearing is on ways in which that
particular committee can help strengthen public education. Repeal of
the GPO and WEP will feature prominently in NEA’s testimony.
* Our grassroots cadre will continue their work in the states to
build grassroots support for repeal. Each cadre team will continue to
receive funding for their work.
* We will continue to send out periodic updates on the progress
of the Social Security Fairness Act, including the latest cosponsors.
* Our website will continue to feature advocacy tools and the
latest news on the fight for repeal and will continue to allow activists
to e-mail Members of Congress on this issue.
* We will continue to collect stories of impacted individuals for
use with Congress and the media.
* We will continue our work with the Coalition to Assure
Retirement Equity, which includes organizations representing police,
firefighters, federal employees, and other impacted populations.
We hope this information helps clarify NEA’s work on GPO/WEP in the
context of our focus on ESEA reauthorization. If you have any
questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
*******************************************************************
Only the individual sender is responsible for the content of the
message, and the message does not necessarily reflect the position
or policy of the National Education Association or its affiliates.
