LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE VAN HEATH ADDS TWO NEW FORM LETTERS
Our NCRLCA Legislative Representative, Van Heath, has provided two new form letters for your convenience and provided an update as to why these are important items for USPS Rural Carriers.
From Legislative Representative Van Heath:
For years we have worked toward getting back the RIGHT for our members to buy-back their RCA time. With the swearing in of the 118th Congress in January that opportunity has probably passed us by.
There were three bills that we were supporting in the 117th Congress. They were:
HR 3287, the USPS Shipping Equity Act which would have allowed the Postal Service to deliver alcohol.
HR 4268, the Federal Retirement Fairness Act or the Buy-Back Bill, and
HR 82, the Social Security Fairness Act.
Two of these bills have now been submitted into the 118th Congress, the first is the Social Security Fairness Act, HR 82. We support this bill and hope to see it become law. This bill has good support in the Congress and if passed could benefit two million Postal and Federal retirees by up to $512 per month.
The second HR 3721 the USPS Shipping Equity Act, which would provide the Postal Service the authority to mail alcoholic beverages. This bill was submitted just before the Memorial Day weekend and currently only has fifteen cosponsors; none from our state, and it is a bipartisan bill.
It would still be helpful to write to your member of Congress and ask that the Federal Retirement Fairness Act be resubmitted. That is the only way we will ever see that bill back on the docket. For those who worked many years as an RCA before making regular, this could make a huge difference in your retirement.
Letters, phone calls and emails are how we get to communicate with our members of Congress what we want them to do in Washington.
As for HR 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, we now are up to 278 cosponsors with six from NC, which means we have two new cosponsors, the cosponsors are:
Alma Adams, 12th district
Deborah Ross, 2nd district
Kathy Manning, 6th district
Don Davis, 1st district,
and the newest North Carolina cosponsors are:
Jeff Jackson, 14th district, and
Valerie Foushee, 4th district.
That’s four new cosponsors from our state this year. Thank you to those of you who have written or called your member of Congress.
Form letters are now posted on this website for both of the bills that have been submitted to the 118th Congress. Download the files, fill in the name and address of your representative and add your contact information at the end, print and mail. Feel free to personalize the letters as you see fit. This is how the Grassroots Lobbying works. It is how we get things done in Congress. If they don’t hear from us, they do not know what we want them to do.