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A Message From the National PresidentATime to Be ThankfulAs you receive this issue ofNARFE magazine, Thanksgiving will be just aroundthe corner. This is the timeof year when we tend totake stock of all that we have to be thankfulfor – our families, our friends, our health. Ihope that you will allow me to look at ourblessings from a NARFE standpoint as well.First of all, I am thankful for NARFE members, whose generosity is boundless. Throughyour donations and fundraising activities, wehave nearly reached our goal of raising 10million for the NARFE-Alzheimer’s ResearchFund. We also have provided more than 1 million in disaster relief grants and scholarships (since 1995), and distributed 600,000this year to congressional candidates whosupport our legislative agenda throughNARFE-PAC. Your contributions this year inresponse to our Note Cards and Calendar Program, as well as your Silver Circle donations,help us continue to do what we do best: protect your earned benefits.I am thankful for NARFE members whosehard work resulted in more than half a million emails, 66,000 handwritten letters and30,000 phone calls to elected officialsthrough the “Protect America’s Heartbeat”campaign.I also am thankful for those NARFE members who attended the National Convention in Reno-Sparks, NV,coming together to vote their approval of the new Bylawsand Standing Rules, which will guide us in the difficultyears ahead.Your National Executive Board will have already met by the time you receive this issue ofNARFE magazine. I am very optimistic thatthis new board, along with our members, willcontinue working together to enhance NARFEand spread NARFE’s name within the federalcommunity. This is what I mean when I say,“Working together, we can make a difference.”The fact that federal retirees have not lostany of their earned benefits over the last yearis something for which I’m especially thankful.And while active federal employees have seentheir wages frozen, we know that it could havebeen much worse as we saw federal employeesand retirees become easy targets while Congress proposed cuts to balance the budget andreduce the deficit.Now that the presidential and congressional elections are over, we will be lookingclosely at who was elected or re-elected – aNARFE friend or a NARFE foe. But regardlessof the makeup of the 113th Congress, we atNARFE Headquarters will continue to fight toensure that the federal community is not singled out for unfair cuts in benefits.Federation and chapter members alsoshould make contact with their newly electedlegislators to congratulate them and let themknow that we are willing to work with themfor the good of our nation. We all have a lot at stake inthe 113th Congress, and we must continue to work together to defend what is rightfully ours.Again, let me say how thankful I am for your loyalty anddedication to NARFE, and for your continued support.REGARDLESSof the makeupof the113thCongress,wewill continue tofight to ensurethat the federalcommunity isnot unfairlysingled out.Joseph A. Beaudoinnatpres@narfe.org6DECEMBER 2012 NARFE

LEGISLATIVE REPORTFederal AnnuitantsWill GetNARFE Opposes1.7 Percent COLA Changing MeasureRetirees under the Civil Service Retirement SystemTo C-CPI-U(CSRS) and the Federal Employees RetirementSystem (FERS) will receive a 1.7 percent increase totheir annuities in January 2013, the same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) Social Security beneficiaries will receive.“We are pleased to hear that retireeswill receive some relief from the risingcosts of everyday goods,” said NARFEPresident Joseph A. Beaudoin. “NARFEcontinues to support strong COLAsbased on fair assessments of increasesin consumer prices, including medicalcosts, to keep federal annuities in linewith inflation.”Under current law, COLAs for federal retirement annuities, as well as formilitary retiree pensions and Social Security payments, are determined in reference to the Consumer Price Indexfor Urban Wage Earners and ClericalWorkers (CPI-W), which is calculatedby economists and statisticians withthe Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPIW is the index used to measure increases in the prices of consumergoods throughout the economy. It includes prices on all consumer goods,including food and beverages,housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, recreation, education, communication and more.To trigger a COLA for 2013, the average CPI-W for the months of July,8August and September 2012 needed torise above the 2011 average for thosesame months.On October 16, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the September CPI-W was228.184. This figure reflects an increase of 0.5 percent from the Augustindex of 227.056. The 2013 COLA of1.7 percent reflects the percentage difference between last year’s thirdquarter average base index of 223.233and this year’s third-quarter averageindex of 226.936, computed by averaging July’s 225.568, August’s 227.056and September’s 228.184 indexes.“This is welcome news for retireeswho have seen the cost of living continue to increase over the past year,”continued Beaudoin. “As Congress debates ways to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff,’NARFE is prepared to oppose anychanges to the COLA formula thatwould have an adverse effect on retirees.”NARFE opposes a recommendationmade in 2010 by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Traditionally, when a newCongress convenes the sameyear as a presidentialinauguration, Congress willgavel in for a day the firstweek in January and thenadjourn until after the inauguration. The date for the113th Congress had not beenannounced at press time. January 20, 2013, falls on aSunday. By tradition, thepresident will take the oath ofoffice in a small ceremony onSunday, and the publicinauguration will be held onMonday, January 21, which, in2013, is the Martin Luther KingJr. Holiday. President Clinton’ssecond inauguration, in 1997,was the first to fall on theholiday. Only two other timeshas January 20 fallen on aSunday since the inaugurationwas moved to January.LEGISLATIVE HOTLINEToll-free! (24 Hours):877-217-8234Legislative Action Center:www.narfe.orgDECEMBER 2012 NARFE

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Legislative ReportReform (also known as the Simpson-Bowles Fiscal Commission) to switch from the current method of calculatingCOLAs for Social Security (and other indexed benefits) to anew method that uses the Chained-CPI-U (C-CPI-U). TheC-CPI-U would result in reduced COLAs for Social Security benefits, and federal and military retirement annuities,by as much as 4 percent after 10 years, and by more afterthat. In August, NARFE’s membership reaffirmed its commitment to protecting and improving COLAs for federal annuities when it adopted NARFE’s Legislative Program for the113th Congress.FECA COLA SET BY DIFFERENT FORMULADetermined by a different statutorily set methodology,benefits awarded under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) to individuals suffering work-related injuries or illnesses are adjusted according to each calendaryear’s percentage change in the CPI-W (rather than theSTORY HIGHLIGHTS Federal annuitants under both the Civil ServiceRetirement System and the Federal EmployeesRetirement System will receive a 1.7 percent costof-living adjustment (COLA) to their annuities in2013. The COLA is based on increases in the CPI-W. NARFE opposes any changes in the formula thatwould have an adverse effect on retirees.change from the highest previous third-quarter average).Looking ahead to next year, the September 2012CPI-W figure (228.184) is 2.7 percent higher than the December 2011 CPI-W figure (222.166), which is the reference figure for determining the 2013 COLA for recipientsunder FECA.By John Hatton, Legislative RepresentativeTraining Conference Sessions AddressSocial Media, Best PracticesPlanners have announced that one of the sessions at the 2013 NARFE Legislative TrainingConference will include how to use socialmedia and the Internet in grass-roots advocacy. The conference will be held March 9-12,2013, at the Renaissance Arlington Capital ViewHotel in Arlington, VA.The first two days of the conference will feature general sessions with speakers and multiple training sessions. Also new this year will bea “Best Practices” session for chapter and federationleaders to share their own successes and failures in getting members to participate in advocacy, scheduling meetings with members of Congress and other issues.The biennial conference provides NARFE members theopportunity to learn more about the policy issues facing thefederal community while providing resources on how tobreak through the “noise” and talk with their members ofCongress. NARFE members will be able to return home andconduct advocacy training and grass-roots organizing fortheir home chapters and federations.On Tuesday, March 12, NARFE members will have the10opportunity to meet with members of Congress and theirstaff on Capitol Hill. Following the success in 2011, the daywill begin with a rally on the Hill. New for this conference,NARFE’s Legislative Department staff will helpschedule meetings with congressional offices.They also will work with NARFE legislative activists who are not traveling to Washington,DC, so they can do their own legislative grassroots outreach to correspond with the workbeing done in Washington.All NARFE members are invited to attend, butchapter and federati

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