Jane Banfield, TelCo member, February 17th, 2016

The NRLN has been our guardian angel for many years.  The Team has kept us all up to date on legislation or potential legislation and regulations that may harm our future retirement.  In the earlier years our interests were concentrated on Pensions.  In 2006, the Pension Protection Act was passed which offered us additional protection along with ERISA.   Even now, The NRLN is working with the PBGC to ensure that funding is maintained and regulatory loopholes are closed.

As we aged and changed so did our interests.  We now are looking for improved services and pricing for Medicare and Prescription Drugs.  There are currently 15 Bills in the Senate and 11 Bills in the House that would provide assistance.  Unfortunately, Congress is not going to do it on their own so they need us to promote our interests and we need the assistance of NRLN to keep it organized ad attend meetings with us and on our behalf.  The list is attached and if the BOD agrees, I think we should post it on the website and tell our members to ask their Congressional Members to consider supporting any one of them.  The one that are supported will stand and the others will disappear or be folded in if there is enough interest.

During our last meeting in Feb, our guest speaker from the House Ways and Means told us how difficult it is –in an election year—to get anything accomplished—This was only confirmed by my meeting with Sen. Kaine from Va.  He sponsors a bill S31 for Medicare Negotiation and sees it as an uphill battle and a lot of work that needs to be done by both parties to get some movement.  I keep in touch with his Legislative Aide and ask how we can help.