1. Art and Diseño

F e l lo w s hi p - L eg is la t i on - B e ne f i ts - Su p p o r t
REACHING OUT
NARFE Chapter 7
National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association
Next meeting:
Wednesday, Feb.11
1:00 p.m.
Refreshments,12:30
Culpepper Garden
Senior Center
4435 N. Pershing Dr.
Arlington, VA
Topic:
Sustainable residential
redevelopment in
Arlington
Speaker:
Elizabeth Thurber
Infrastructure Team
Office of Sustainability and
Environmental Management
Arlington County
Executive Board meets
Feb. 19, 10 a.m.
Parking : Culpepper Garden provides parking passes only for
handicapped parking. Street
parking for all is available on Henderson Road.
Welcome,
new members
Arlene Griff
Welcome,
reinstatements
Joseph Bailey
Donna Heivilin
Phillip Rotondi
In Memoriam
Edna Guire
Frank Lushe
Eileen Pickenpaugh
February 2015
President’s message:
In full swing!
By Mark McLachlan
The New Year started with three
NARFE meetings back-to-back. On
Wednesday, January 14, we had our
General Meeting with two Arlington
County detectives warning us about
a wide range of scams. On Thursday, the chapter’s Executive Board
met and spent some time planning
activities for the rest of the year.
And, on Friday, the Northern Virginia
Caucus of NARFE Chapters met.
The Executive Board discussed
the programs and speakers for the
next couple of months, including inviting elected representatives to two
of the meetings - one from the State
Senate and another from the U.S.
Congress. After the details are
firmed up, we’ll let you know and invite members from the other Northern Virginia chapters.
The board looked at opportunities like the Arlington County Fair,
the Beacon Newspapers 50+ Expo,
retirement seminars, and county
meetings where we might interact
(Continued on page 2)
February meeting:
Sustainable residential redevelopment in Arlington: how to avoid getting steamrollered by that
new house next door
By Norbert Erickson
One day the postman leaves a
return receipt notice among all those
real estate brokers‘ flyers boasting of
top dollar for the sale of your modest
single family dwelling. The Post Office clerk watches as you affix your
signature.
One of many builders of custom
homes, whose snappy, colorful ads
have stuffed your mailbox these recent years, announces the immanent
demolition and replacement. You and
all neighbors of the adjacent lots in
the subdivision are officially informed,
as required by law.
The corporation may have
“cottage” in its name, but in the
months to come, a six or eight bedroom and like number bathroom edifice on four living levels, resembling
more hotel than cottage, arises.
Arlington is vital. The county is
no sleepy backwater. Real estate development started apace along rail
lines before and after World War I.
Spurts of home and commercial
building continued with World War II
and Metrorail. Since the early decades of the 20th century, Arlington
County has had a substantial public
infrastructure, owing to the fact that it
owns its streets.
The Office of Sustainability and
Environmental Management sees to
compliance of county codes addressing building height, setbacks, lot coverage and storm water plans. Elizabeth Thurber, P.E., heads the Infrastructure Team. She and her colleagues will speak to these issues.
Be here February 11 at Culpepper
Garden for a great meeting.
PAGE 2
R E A C HI NG O U T
NA R FE C HA P T E R 7
ing. For example, nominations are due by February
15th for the R. David Smith Memorial Award that rec(Continued from page 1)
ognizes a member for significant leadership activities
and service contributions. Register for the convention
with potential members with the goal of getting them
by February 14th to avoid late fees. The Comptroller
to join NARFE. The board also discussed placing
General (head of the Government Accountability Ofsmall ads in some of the local community newsletters. fice (GAO)), NARFE’s National President, an AlzheiTo the extent possible, we’ll include our neighboring
mer’s researcher, and others will be speaking. The
chapters and avail ourselves of funding from the VA
chapter has budgeted a stipend for up to four memFederation of Chapters (VFC) and HQ to defray the
bers ($250 each) to attend the convention. Please let
me know if you’re interested. This year the VFC is ofexpenses. Please let us know your ideas!
fering exhibitor tables to NARFE members at a reAt the caucus meeting, they asked us to find
someone to be the 8th Congressional District Liaison duced rate of only $75 so they can sell their crafts
(jewelry, handbags, etc.). VFC officers will be elected
(CDL). The person would be NARFE’s point-ofat the convention - anyone interested in running for an
contact with Congressman Beyer’s office: someone
office?
the Congressman’s office could call with questions
and someone folks in NARFE could call to arrange
Coming up in the fall will be the Region 10
meetings and events. If you’re interested in filling this (Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and
vital position, please contact me.
West Virginia) Convention: September 29 to October
2 in Virginia Beach.
The VFC Convention planning continues - see
VANARFE.org for more information or contact one of
the officers. Some of the deadlines are fast approach-
President’s Message
Legislation Introduced to Provide a 3.8% Raise for
Feds. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-VA, introduced H.R.
304, the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act,
which will provide federal employees with a 3.8 percent
pay raise in 2016. Sens. Brian Schatz, D-HI, and Benjamin L. Cardin, D-MD, introduced the companion bill, S.
164, in the Senate. The legislation comes on the heels of
a 1 percent raise for federal employees in each of the past
two years, preceded by a three-year pay freeze. With the
wage gap expanding between private- and public-sector
jobs, a 3.8 percent raise will better allow the federal government to stay competitive and attract the best workers.
The Federal-Postal Coalition, which NARFE chairs, sent
letters of support to Connolly and Schatz.
Presidential Memorandum on Parental Leave. President Obama issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to advance up to six weeks of paid sick leave for employees upon the birth or adoption of a child. He also is
pushing Congress to pass legislation that would provide
federal employees with six weeks of paid parental leave.
The federal government currently offers no paid parental
leave when many private-sector companies do, and the
United States is the only industrialized country without a
paid parental leave policy. NARFE supports the President’s
action as a push toward a more family-friendly work environment for federal employees, which will help retain our
nation’s best and brightest .
From NARFE Legislative Hotline, 1/16/15
Alzheimer’s Update
out for items that would be good to put in the silent
auction and other raffles that the Federation conOur fundraising for NARFE Alzheimer's Reducts at convention to raise money for NARFE Alzsearch is off to a strong start in 2015 with $59.10
heimer's Research. We're talking crafts, art works,
raised as follows at our January chapter meeting:
linens, decorative items, china, crystal, etc. -- nice
 The raffle of a container of homemade minethings that you would like to find another home for.
strone soup netted $38 for NARFE Alzheimer's
Some of the other chapters prepare gift baskets of
Research.
food and beverage items. People even offer services
 One piggy bank was turned in with $21.10.
like catering, tax preparation, or use of timeshares.
Please call me (703-578-1935) with any questions or
Thinking ahead to April's Silent Auction at the
let me know if you have an item. This year's convenVirginia Federation of Chapters Convention, it's not
tion is in Fredericksburg, so you might want to take
too early to send out the annual request for donayour donations yourself and check out what happens
tions of items that you no longer want or need. This
winter, as you're downsizing, cleaning out closets, or at a convention. If not, our delegates will deliver them
for you.
sorting through accumulated "clutter," keep an eye
By Bonnie Franklin
NA R FE C HA P T E R 7
PAGE 3
R E A C HI NG O U T
Legislative corner:
The 114th Congress revs up: strap on your most potent amulet now!
By Ed Weiler
I’m guessing that many of you
caught Joe Davidson’s recent
piece (Wash. Post, 1/12/15) offering Jim Moran’s take on the new
Congress from his recentlyacquired status as an outsider.
While Moran’s predictions on how
we Feds are likely to fare during
the 114th Congress were not all
doom and gloom, he did in fact single out one area where we might
take a hit...viz., our benefit structure. To refresh your memory,
here’s what he said:
...There is the perception—I
don’t think it is a particularly fair
or accurate perception—that
federal employees have a more
generous benefit structure than
people in the private sector. So I
think there may be some attempts to chip away at that benefit structure.
A perception driving legislation? Could well be—let’s consider
two bills introduced right out of the
gate in the 114th:
(1) The No Exemption for
Washington from Obamacare Act
(S. 16), introduced by Sen. David
Vitter (R-LA): You might recall that,
under the Affordable Care Act
(aka, “Obamacare”), personnel in
the Legislative Branch were
pushed out of the FEHBP, and
henceforward were required to purchase their health insurance
through an exchange created by
the Act. It soon became apparent
that many of the higher-paid staffers, by losing their standard 70
percent federal contribution under
the FEHBP, would take a huge financial hit, since they would max
out of eligibility for a subsidy under
Obamacare. Consequently, OPM
was ordered to issue a rule that
maintained their normal employer
(i.e., FEHBP) contributions.
In response to OPM’s rule,
Sen. Ron Johnson (now the new
Chair of the Senate Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) filed a lawsuit,
which was subsequently tossed out
by a federal judge. Enter Sen. Vitter’s S. 16 to codify into law that
there would be NO exception in the
Legislative Branch to the applicability of the ACA; and further that
there would be NO government
contribution toward health insurance premiums.
(2) The Access to Insurance
for All Americans Act (HR. 138),
originally introduced in the 113th
Congress, and reintroduced in the
114th by Rep. Darrell E. Issa (RCA-49): This bill would repeal the
ACA, and replace it with a national
health insurance exchange, administered by OPM, for non-federal
employees not covered by any of
the health insurance programs authorized by the Social Security Act,
or by state or local governments.
Interestingly enough, in this parallel
system, the Federal Government
would make NO contribution toward the premium, although the
amount of premium paid by a nonfederal enrollee would be fully deductible for federal income tax purposes. In an apparent nod to
NARFE and its allies in their steadfast opposition to any attempt to
expand FEHBP eligibility, these
non-federal enrollees would be
kept in a separate risk pool.
While I can only speculate on
the motives underlying both of
these bills, it would seem that the
perception problem noted by Moran is in play here. In the case of
Sen. Vitter’s bill, one senses a
dose of “it’s high time that
‘Washington’ be made to live by
the same rules as the rest of the
folk out in the provinces.”
At first blush, Rep. Issa’s bill
might be viewed as a good-faith
attempt to provide access to health
insurance for all those not covered
either by their employer, or a publicly-funded program (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid). But the fact that
HR. 138 mandates two side-byside OPM-administered programs,
where one group gets a direct federal subsidy, while the other is offered a less-generous package
(i.e., premium deductibility) suggests one of two possibilities regarding the real motive underpinning HR. 138 : (1) creating a pilot
program for substituting a taxdeductible premium for the current
70-percent federal contribution toward the FEHBP premium; or (2)
making the federal FEHBP contribution look overly-generous by
comparison to what others get, and
thus prepare the ground for future
cuts to the FEHBP.
A little more than four years
ago in this space Legislative Corner, Jan. 2011), the headline read
as follows: “Fiscal Commission’s
Moment of Truth Gives New Meaning to ‘Open Season’ for Federal
Workers and Retirees.” In the intervening years, we’ve taken some
hits. As the two bills described
above show, we should expect
more of the same during the 114th.
Upcoming Chapter 7 meetings
Chapter 7 meets on the second
Wednesday of the month in February, March, April and May at Culpepper Garden.
Social time starts at 12:30 and the
meeting begins at 1:00 p.m. Those
dates are:

February 11

March 11

April 8

May 13
Watch for information in about the
June luncheon meeting, to be announced.
NONPROFIT
US POSTAGE PAID
Merrifield, VA
Permit No. 942
NARFE
Arlington Chapter 7
P.O. Box 100971
Arlington, VA 22210
Return Service requested
Come to the VFC Convention in April
Please deliver by Feb. 10
Chapter 7 Officers
President Mark McLachlan
703-528-3158
[email protected]
1st VP & Legislative Chair
Edward Weiler
703-241-8798
[email protected]
2nd VP, Membership Chair
John Harms
978-235-3633
[email protected]
Sunshine Chair Madge Selinsky
703-527-2182
Program Chair Norbert Erickson
703-528-1168
Alzheimer’s Chair Bonnie Franklin
703-578-1935
[email protected]
Historian Elsie Cunningham
703-370-4062
[email protected]
Secretary /Web Coordinator
Nancy Palmerino
703-243-6546
[email protected]
Past President
Max Scruggs
703-536-9148
[email protected]
Treasurer
William (Bill) Thomson
703-358-9549
[email protected]
Social Chair
William (Bill) Thomson
703-358-9549
[email protected]
Parliamentarian/Service Officer
Richard Simpson
703-527-3867
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor/Distribution Mgr
Mary Knox
703-524-3499
[email protected]
Contact your elected officials
United States Senate
The Honorable Tim Kaine
B40C Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224-4024
Fax: 202-228-6363
Web: www.kaine.senate.gov
The Honorable Mark R. Warner
475 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224-2023
Fax: 202-224-6295
Web: www.warner.senate.gov
United States House of
Representatives (District 8)
The Honorable Donald S. Beyer, Jr.
431 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-225-4376
Fax: 202-225-0017
Web: www.beyer.house.gov