About the Arizona Chapter
The NRLN Arizona Chapter was the first to organize under the NRLN’s chapter structure in January 2013. The Arizona Chapter was originally established to reach out to US West/Qwest/CenturyLink retirees who were members of their retirement organization (TRA/AUSWR-AZ), which disbanded. In fact, many of the Board Members from TRA-AZ became leaders of the NRLN Arizona Chapter: Martha Deahl, Susan Olson, and Ken and Jennifer Gornall.
The Chapter also welcomes members from other companies and public entities as long as they are not already members of an NRLN Association (see Member Associations under “about us” at www.nrln.org. Retirees who become NRLN Chapter members will receive NRLN Action Alerts on federal legislation that impacts their retirement income security and reduce health care cost.
All AZ Chapter members are advocates belonging to the NRLN Grassroots Organization Network. Some NRLN AZ Grassroots’ advocates volunteer to become AZ Congressional District Leaders and make local visits to their respective Congressional District Offices and sometimes travel to Washington, D.C. to attend an NRLN “Fly-In”. The purpose of these visits are to educate the members of Congress on the NRLN’s Legislative Agenda (see the Legislative Agenda tab at www.nlrn.org), to make them aware of pending legislation that needs support and provide feedback of their performance (see Grassroots tab on www.nrln.org then click on Congressional Report Cards).
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Click HereThe NRLN Arizona Chapter Member Benefits:
- Members become advocates of the NRLN Grassroots Organization.
- Members have a dedicated website, Arizona Chapter, accessible from the “Chapters” tab on the NRLN website at www.nrln.org.
- The NRLN FOCUS newsletter will be mailed to those AZ Chapter members that do not have an email address. An email will be sent to the AZ Chapter members that have an email address to notify them when the NRLN FOCUS is available at www.nrln.org.
- Members will receive NRLN Action Alerts, and other pertinent information from the NRLN President via email.
- AZ Congressional District Leaders contact information will be provided on the Arizona Chapter webpage.
- Dedicated Lobbyist located in Washington, D.C. meet regularly with key Congressional committee members to advocate the NRLN’s legislative initiatives.
- The Chapter will have representation on the NRLN Board of Directors. Martha Deahl, AZ Chapter President is on the NRLN Board. Contact: marthadeahl@gmail.com, cell 602-672-6262
- Chapter Grassroots volunteers who become AZ Congressional District Leaders are provided with information to share with Arizona Congressional Members during the visits in Arizona and Washington, D.C. This information identifies size and intent of the NRLN and current issues that need Congressional action.
Or, send an email to arizonachapter@nrln.org with your name, email address, home address and telephone number. Note: you may be a chapter member whether you retired from US West, Qwest, CenturyLink or any other company, or whether you are still employed by the company.
We could use other retirees to help us interface with our AZ Senators’ and Representatives’ local offices. If they don’t hear from us, they assume we are happy with what they are doing. We need a voice for all retirees, many who cannot travel to visit their Senators and Representatives. Please help us spread the word about the NRLN and specifically the AZ Chapter and the work we are doing to help protect retirees’ interests. Please discuss the NRLN with all of you friends and encourage them to sign up to receive free emails at www.nrln.org. Remind them that their names, emails and home addresses are on a secure database designed for communicating with them and federal government officials.
Also, if you would like to go to a local congressional office with your Congressional District leader, please give them a call.
We always need constituents to go along on these visits. To find your Congressional District Leader, see “NRLN AZ Chapter Contact List” below.
May 15, 2020
Email sent to: All NRLN Arizona Advocates
NRLN Grassroots Nationwide Network is divided into 10 Regions which is headed by a Regional Vice President. I am the Arizona Chapter President and Regional VP for Arizona. Bob Martina, NRLN Executive Grassroots Vice-President holds a monthly conference call to discuss important issues. Many pending legislative bills are usually sent to important committees in both the Senate and House. These important committees are referred to the NRLN’s Relevant (or Key) Committees. A complete NRLN Relevant Committee List for all states can be found of the NRLN website under the Grassroots link.
Twice a year NRLN members attend a conference in Washington, DC which includes appointments known as the Hill visits directly with the DC offices of their specific Senators, Representatives or their Chief-of-Staff or Legislative Director. Due to Congressional votes and other interruptions visits could be scheduled with other various staff members. The NRLN prepares folders with supporting documentation of the important NRLN issues that will be discussed during the Hill visits and then left as handouts.
Click here to access the NRLN Talking Points used during these visits.
For the past 9 years I have been able to attend these conferences (referred to as Fly-ins) but I was unable to attend this past February.
NRLN Grassroots Regional VPs committee created a process by which Congressional Leaders would be email a copy of the NRLN DC Folder used during these Hill visits to Senators/Representatives’ Chief-of-Staff and Legislative Director that were not visited during the NRLN Conference but were on a relevant committee. Since I was unable to attend this past February, I sent emails to the following AZ Congressional Leaders:
- Senator Martha McSally,
- Pace McMullan, Chief of Staff, and,
- Emily Crow, Legislative Assistant, Healthcare
- Senator Kyrsten Sinema,
- Michael Brownlie, Legislative Director, and,
- Sylvia Lee, Senior Policy Advisor
- Representative Tom O’Halleran AZ01,
- Jeremy Norquist, Chief of Staff, and,
- Sally Adams, Legislative Director
- Representative Andy Biggs, AZ05,
- Kate Laborde, Legislative Director
- Representative David Schweikert, AZ06,
- Katherina Dimenstein, Chief of Staff, and,
- Tiffany Angulo, Legislative Director
- Representative Debbie Lesko AZ08,
- Matt Simon Chief of Staff
- Representative Gregg Stanton, AZ09,
- Seth Scott, Chief of Staff
It is important for you to know the NRLN is hard at work representing you. Please join as Individual Member for 2020.
Martha Deahl
NRLN Vice President
Desert Southwest Region
AZ/NM/NV and
NRLN Arizona Chapter President
NRLN Arizona Chapter Says – Wake Up AZ….
Now is the time for your Senators and Representatives to hear your voices! Let them know how you feel about their lack of action when it comes to protecting retirees’ benefits.
NRLN Report Cards on Arizona’s Members of Congress
The following “Report Card” shows whether Arizona members of Congress sponsored or cosponsored or voted for bills the NRLN supported in the current 115th Congress. Click here to access the Arizona Congressional delegation webpage on the NRLN website. Then click on the tab NRLN STATE REPORT CARD (EXCEL DOWNLOAD).
Message from Bill Kadereit, NRLN President
Do you know…Beginning in 2020, Social Security will pay more in benefits than it takes in from taxes and interest income? Social Security will deplete its $2.9 trillion reserve fund in 2035. While the program will not go bankrupt due to payroll taxes, projections are benefits would be cut between one-fourth to one-third.
Do you know…Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program (Medicare Part A) is pointed toward insolvency by 2026? At that time, Medicare Part A will only have enough funds to pay about 87% of costs. The Supplementary Medical Insurance (Medicare Part B and Part D) trust fund remains adequately financed throughout the projection period because of beneficiaries’ premiums and general taxpayer revenues.
Do you know…The NRLN and your Chapter are working to get Congress to adopt our proposals to save Social Security and Medicare for the next 75 years?
Do you know…Congress is allowing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize private insurance companies for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to serve as a “Trojan horse” to move toward privatization? The NRLN and your Chapter opposes the use of MA plans to privatize Medicare.
Do you know…An analysis has shown that privatizing Medicare would increase the cost to beneficiaries by 18%? This is not cost improvement. This is cost shifting to seniors and the NRLN opposes it.
Do you know…The NRLN supports legislation to allow Medicare to do competitive bidding>for lower prescription drug prices? We want to end pay-for-delay and other brand name drug makers’ tactics that obstruct generic drugs from coming to market, and allow importation of safe and less expensive drugs from Canada.
Do you know…Far too often pension plan sponsors find an error in the pension payment calculation and force retirees to pay back thousands of dollars and suffer a large cut in benefits? The NRLN proposes an amendment to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to indemnify individual plan participants from the requirement to refund overpayments by instructing actuaries to account for recoupment as a plan funding risk requiring very small adjustments to plan actuarial calculations.
Do you know…Many employers are selling pension plans to insurance company annuities? The steady decline in traditional defined-benefit pension plans through “de-risking” will continue with 76% of plan sponsors saying they plan to shed their pensions. When “de-risking” occurs with the purchase of an insurance annuity, pension plan participants lose the protection of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and the ERISA. The NRLN’s proposed legislation would protect retirees.
Topics of Interest
From: Martha Deahl, NRLN Vice President Desert Southwest Region, AZ/NM/NV Desertsouthwestregion@NRLN.org
Subject: Change in CenturyLink Concession Service
Changes in CenturyLink Concession Service policy was updated on May 3, 2018 which affects management retirees. The policy states:
“If you are enrolled in concessions prior to May 3, 2018, you may keep your current concessions. However, if you change your services, apply for the new concession program, or move to a new address any time after May 3, 2018, you may not be able to revert to your prior concession offer.”
Thanks, Martha
Make Your Voice Heard With Members of Congress
You can contact Congress in many ways– click here to see how!
Arizona Chapter Contact List
If you need the address or other personal information of either Senator or your Representative this is how to find it:
- Access www.nrln.org
- Look for the black link tab Grassroots, open it
- Scroll down to Legislative Action Network
- On the US Map, open AZ by double clicking it
- All the Congressional Leaders for AZ are pictured,
Double click any Congressional Leader for information.
Arizona Chapter Leaders' List
If you need assistance in finding information on www.nrln.org or the AZ State Chapter Link please contact:
- Martha Deahl, AZ Chapter President arizonachapter@nrln.org
- Ken Gornall, Arizona Chapter Legislative Director NRLN.LDDSW@nrln.org
