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Visit Dulles Chapter website: www.vanarfe.org/1241/1241.htm
Dulles Chapter 1241 Officers President Charles (Chuck) McAndrew
703-620-0145
1st Vice President VACANT
2nd Vice President Kathleen (Kathy) Loftin [email protected]
703-424-7065
Secretary Bill Schmidt [email protected]
703-968-5837
Treasurer Joseph Irwin [email protected]
703-378-5607
Legislative Chair Bill Schmidt [email protected]
703-968-5837
Membership Chair
VACANT
Website Coordinator
Vicky Duarte [email protected]
703-858-3423
Service Officer
Wilma M. Grant [email protected]
703-430-8278
Program Co-Chair(s)
VACANT Chuck McAndrew (Acting)
703-620-0145
Hospitality Chair Shirley Boning [email protected]
571-442-8910
Public Relations Chair
Jean White [email protected]
703-858-5608
Alzheimer’s Chairs
Art Brophy [email protected]
703-860-0817
Sunshine Committee
Rosemarie Curry [email protected]
571-599-2515
Chaplain David LeRoy [email protected]
703-450-6028
Newsletter Editor Patricia M. Wolfe [email protected]
703-449-1582
Newsletter Distribution
Shirley & Jerry Carpenter [email protected] and [email protected]
703-435-3444
Photographer Randy K. Sayles [email protected]
703-606-5007
PRESIDENT’S GREETING: Thank you for electing me as your new President for a one year term. I want to thank all of the elected
officers for serving and those who have volunteered for committee positions. We still have a number of vacancies including that of First Vice President. As you read this page, you will see the open positions. I need your help in filling these positions. I cannot do it all by myself! We remain very concerned about the continuance of losing members. On December 13, 2017, I was invited by Maxwell Goldman, Political Associate from NARFE National Headquarters, to have lunch with Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, our NARFE National President Richard Thissen and also executives for various associations at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. I attended this luncheon in my official capacity of the 10th District Congressional District Liaison (CDL). See article on Page 3 of this newsletter. I look forward to working with all of you during 2018 in continuing Dulles Chapter’s rich history of outstanding programs and keeping our members informed. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU! Chuck McAndrew, President
MEMBERSHIP INFO
CURRENT CHAPTER 1241 VOTING & NON-VOTING MEMBERSHIP IS 530
Like other chapters, we continue to lose chapter members at an alarming rate. Our voting strength was 703 in January 1, 2017 with a total voting/non-voting strength of 749. It is 530 total as the NARFE report is no longer showing non-voting at the beginning of 2018,
NARFE National Active & Retired Federal Employees Association
Dulles Chapter 1241 Serving Current, Former & Retired Federal Employees,
Spouses and Survivor Annuitants In the Dulles Area of Northern Virginia.
January 2018
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a loss of 219 members with most transferring to NARFE National. During the period November 1, 2017 – January 2, 2018: New Members: 0 Reinstated Members: 0 Deceased-Spouse Transfer In: 0 Other Transfers In: 0 Prospective Members: 14 Dropped for Non-Renewal: 5 Transfers out of Chapter: 54 Deceased: 1 Sent Second Notices: 37 It has never been more important to belong to NARFE and we think it’s also important to be a part of a chapter. We try hard to provide interesting speakers, have an informative newsletter and we’re local – your neighbors with many shared interest. Ask a friend to join or renew today if your renewal date is close at www.narfe.org. Patricia Wolfe & Membership Committee
DULLES CHAPTER 1241 LUNCHEON PROGRAM, JANUARY 22, 2018
Speaker: Richard Eimas, Tax Advisor & Enrolled Agent, Block Advisors Tax & Business Services Topic: Impact of Tax Cuts & Jobs Act Luncheon Entrée Choices:
Shepherd’s Pie w/Seasoned Ground Beef, Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes w/Cheese
Chicken Brochette (Broiled, Marinated Chicken Skewers w/Roasted Veggies over Rice Pilaf
Pasta Jambalaya w/Baby Shrimp, Peppers, Onions, Plum Tomatoes
Served with salad, rolls, coffee/tea and dessert
The cost of the luncheon is $18 which includes tax and a small gratuity. Additional tips are welcome but not required. You may also order from the menu but pay the same amount as you enter the restaurant. Please call your reservation and choice of entree to Shirley Boning at (571) 442-8910 or e-mail [email protected] no later than Thursday, January 18. Reservations are very important so that
the appropriate number of meals can be ordered and prepared. OUR LUNCHEON WILL BE HELD AT AMPHORA DINER, 1151 ELDEN STREET, HERNDON, VIRGINIA AND BEGINS AT 11:30 AM!
Remember! If Fairfax Co. schools are closed because of inclement weather, Dulles Chapter 1241 Luncheon Meetings are also cancelled.
NOTE FROM NOVEMBER 27, 2017 LUNCHEON Jennifer Epstein, Education Specialist, National Park Service, gave an interesting and informative presentation with a “behind-the-scenes” look at some of our famous monuments on the National Mall and other areas.
L-R Past President Pat Wolfe, Jennifer Epstein, Vicky Duarte
DULLES CHAPTER INSTALLS NEW 2018 OFFICERS
L-R President Chuck McAndrew, 2VP Kathy Loftin, Treasurer Joe Irwin, and Treasurer are installed as 2018 officers on December 12, 2017 by Area 10 VP Wilma Grant.
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Thanks to your generous donations, Dulles Chapter donated 128 pounds of non-perishable food items that helped many families in need over the holidays. Thanks to Bill Schmidt for delivering the food to Western Fairfax Christian Ministries. Attendees at the annual Holiday Party enjoyed the music of Home Towne Chorus, a delicious meal, and great conversation. We recognized our servers at Amphora Diner Deluxe and helped our neighbors with food donations. It sounds like a success to me.
UPCOMING LUNCHEON PROGRAMS: February 26, 2018 – Richard Twombly, Crime Prevention Officer, Fairfax County Police Department March 26, 2018 April 23, 2018
11TH DISTRICT BUZZ
Congressman Connolly, along with fellow Oversight and Government Reform Committee members Elijah Cummings and Jaime Raskin, led 95 members of the House “in urging House Leadership not to use federal employees for governmental funding offset.” Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi were urged to oppose any further cuts to federal employee pay and benefits to offset increased discretionary spending. “Enough is enough. The federal workforce should be thanked for their honorable service, not treated like a piggy bank,” noted Connolly, Raskin, and Cummings. The upcoming budget battles are something we should closely monitor as federal employees and retirees as the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has many Freedom Caucus members who are always seem eager to use federal benefits to offset cuts. In the last two months of the year, Gerry attended two events in Reston which I attended. Not quite a “wedding and a funeral,” but a Hunter Mill victory party as we celebrated the wins not only of Hunter Mill candidates, but the wins of progressive candidates from Dranesville, Sully, and eastern Loudoun, some with precincts in Hunter Mill, as well as a sweep of the statewide offices. It is anticipated that the new representatives in Richmond should generally be more favorable to NARFE statewide goals. A memorial service honored the late Mary Ann Hovis, a Sully activist, philanthropist and daughter of the late Pat Jennings, former Congressman from Virginia’s 9th District. Delegate Ken Plum (D-36th District, who had
served with Mrs. Hovis’ brother in the House of Delegates, spoke and introduced Senator Tim Kane, who gave an informal eulogy. Judy Thorne, Congressional District Liaison, 11th District
Congressional District Liaison for 10th District
L-R NARFE President Thissen, Congresswoman Comstock, 10th District CDL Chuck McAndrew
As mentioned in President’s Message, I attended a luncheon on December 13 with Congresswoman Barbara Comstock. Both Mr. Thissen and Jessica Klement, Legislative Director from NARFE Headquarters spoke about what has to be done about keeping Government employees on the payroll beyond next week and not to have the Government shut down. They also spoke about other issues affecting Government employees including retired Federal employees. Jeff Marschner, Deputy Chief of Staff/Communications for Barbara Comstock also attended. I mentioned to Barbara that I was currently serving as the 10th District Congressional District Liaison (CDL) and also that I was elected President of our NARFE Dulles Chapter on December 12, 2017 for a one year term ending December 2018. I had the opportunity at this meeting to address Barbara Comstock on some major budget issues. I mentioned that it is so unfair for Congress to always
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pick on Federal Government and Federal retirees pensions and health benefits already earned by the Federal employee for budget reductions. I mentioned to Barbara that she and Members of Congress should carefully review all entitlements which make up almost 60% of the Federal budget. Please note that these are my personal ideas and do not necessarily reflect NARFE positons. I suggested that Social Security (SS) could be saved by simply adding five years to each age category for those under 40 years of age and remove the income cap and tax the entire income. The SS Fund is expected to go broke in 2034. In my opinion, illegal immigrants who do not pay into the SS Fund should not be entitled to SS. As for Medicare, I suggest simply raising the age to 70 for all employees under 40 years of age. In addition, Congress should review Medicare fraud of approximately $60 BILLION per year according to the Association of Government Accountants and vigorously pursue this blatant fraud. According to AARP, if these suggestions were implemented, the SS Fund and Medicare Fund would eventually end up with surpluses. Barbara stated that the BIGGEST costs of healthcare is Alzheimer’s, dementia, and diabetes that are driving up the costs of healthcare. She said that if these diseases could be cured, healthcare costs would be reduced by “hundreds of billions of dollars each year”. She mentioned that they are close to finding a cure for diabetes and we certainly hope this is the case. Representative Comstock issued the following statement on December 19 regarding her vote on the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. She stated, “I voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act because it cuts taxes for hardworking families and businesses and will help revitalize and create a healthy economy where American workers can compete and win. Over the past several weeks I have worked with my colleagues to improve this bill from the initial version the House voted on. I’m pleased that this final bill included many of the provisions that we fought to have included in the bill to help hardworking families and businesses.” Come to our January luncheon to learn more about how this bill affects you. If you would like to see a brief summary of the tax bill, please contact me by telephone on 703-620-0145 or by email at [email protected].
President/10th District CDL Charles McAndrew
LEGISLATIVE REPORT: National Legislation: The issues
facing members of NARFE this month
are the same that we were looking at last
month. The final funding for the current
fiscal year must be sorted out by January
22. While the House has passed appropriation bills for
all departments several weeks ago, the Senate is
dragging its feet. We can only hope that the Senate will
get down to business and sort out its issues and be held
accountable if they do not. Along with the funding issue
the Senate must lift the borrowing limit to make sure
that the government is not using funds from the TSP and
other trust funds to continue to operate. There are
several other issues that must be addressed this month,
but for our members we need to be aware of just how
the problems are solved and that the solutions do not
impact our annuities.
The recently passed tax bill included wording to change
how the various tax exemptions are indexed with
inflation. The calculations, which had been based on the
change in the CPI-U calculation, will now be based on
the “chained CPI” calculation. This will result in a lower
increase, and this will save the federal government
significantly. NARFE has opposed making the same
change in the method for calculating the Federal and
Social Security COLA’s.
The Speaker of the House wants to address “entitlement
issues” this year. By this he is referring to Medicaid,
Medicare, Social Security and several other smaller
items that the Government funds which are not
discretionary. Federal annuities may be one of them. I
suspect that little can be accomplished this year with an
absolute need to address the DACA “Dreamer” issue,
immigration, building the wall, fixing the national
infrastructure and fixing the health care issues.
Also, this is an election year for 1/3 of the Senate and all
of the House. Every incumbent that is running for re-
election will be “grandstanding” their best position for
prospective voters.
State Legislation: It is difficult to make many
predictions concerning the legislative activity of the
General Assembly. Even at this late date it is not
absolutely clear who will control the House of
Delegates. One district was decided on the basis of a
random drawing after it was determined to be a tie. The
Republican incumbent won the drawing so there will be
a 51-49 Republican advantage if this holds. The
Democratic candidate has the right to ask for a re-count.
Since the first things that must be done after an election
is to organize the House, this requires a vote to select a
“Speaker” and a vote to establish the operating rules. By
Virginia law an issue that receives a tied vote means that
the issue fails. If the Republican prevails, Delegate Cox
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will be selected as Speaker and will control who is
assigned to various committees. If the Democratic
candidate should request re-count and win, the leader of
each party will have to sort out how the House will be
organized. I do not believe that it has happened before.
During the sessions of 1998-2001 the majority went
from a small 2 vote majority of Democrats to a 2 vote
majority of Republicans. As a general rule, during this
time the chair of the committees rotated between the
parties. The committees were essentially tied by party
affiliation. This does not mean that there were general
party splits in conducting business. Members of the
General Assembly have many loyalties. There are
groups in urban areas that have like-minded members in
both parties as are rural minded members. Issues such
as guns and immigration often split more on a regional
basis than a party split. This could be an interesting
session. The significant change in the party alignment
of the House of Delegates puts a question to the idea that
gerrymandering defines who sits in the legislature. Bill Schmidt, Legislative Committee Chair
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ACTIONS: The Executive
Committee did not meet in December.
Treasurer reported a bank balance of $9,964.26 as of December 31, 2017.
Distributed November-December 2017 newsletters: e-mail 240 and 370 via regular mail. Thanks to Jerry & Shirley Carpenter, Louise Rooney, and Vicky Duarte for distribution.
Finalized plans for Holiday Party.
Sent letters to members receiving second notices, prospective and new members. Followed up with phone calls and e-mails.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Jan 7-9, VFC Winter Board Meeting
Jan 26, NOVA Caucus Meeting
April 8-11, 2018 – VFC Convention, Charlottesville, VA
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER: Dulles Chapter must reduce its expenses as the membership and dues revenue decreases so I am urging you to please consider getting your newsletter via e-mail. You will receive it a few days early, usually see photos from previous luncheon and you can share it with others who may be interested in joining NARFE. Many organizations and NARFE chapters are going to
electronic only, but we want to serve ALL of our members, so please help us cut costs. I would like to set a goal of five people each month choosing electronic delivery. Contact Newsletter Editor at [email protected].
SUNSHINE COMMITTEE REPORTS: A Get Well card was sent to our luncheon server, Mary Watt, who was having hip replacement surgery and to Judy Thorne, 11th District CDL, who had surgery the first week of January. If you know of anyone who has lost a loved one, is sick or just needs cheering up, please contact President Chuck McAndrew or Rosemarie Curry at (360) 470-4599 or email: [email protected]. STAY SAFE and WARM!!!
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National Active & Retired Federal Employees Association Dulles Chapter 1241 P. O. Box 294 Herndon, VA 20172-0294
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
___________________________________
Time Sensitive Material Please deliver by January 16, 2018
IMPORTANT NUMBERS: Virginia Fédération of Chapters (VFC) Web site -- www.vanarfe.org;
NARFE National Web site -- www.narfe.org; Dulles Chapter Web site -- www.vanarfe.org/1241/1241.htm OPM Retirement Information 1-888-767-6738 -- email: [email protected], VA Senate 804-698-75XX (District #) ;
VA Delegates 804-698-10XX (District #) NARFE Legislative Hotline 703-838-7780; NARFE Membership Services: 1-800-456-8410.
- - - - - - CLIP THIS SECTION BELOW AND SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE! - - - - - - - -
CALL OR WRITE YOUR LEGISLATORS!
Virginia General Assembly 32nd Senator Janet D. Howell (D)
P.O. Box 2608 Reston, VA 20195-0608 (703) 709-8283; FAX (703) 435-1995
33rd Senator Jennifer Wexton (D) 20 West Market Street Leesburg, VA 20176 (703) 703-672-3696 [email protected]
37th Senator David W. Marsden (D)
P.O. Box 10889 Burke, VA 22009
32nd Delegate Thomas A. Greason (R) 19309 Winmeade Dr., Box 427 Lansdowne, VA 20176
[email protected] 703-203-3203 34th Delegate Kathleen J. Murphy (D)
P. O. Box 146 McLean, VA 22101 571-458-6128 [email protected]
36th Delegate Kenneth R. Plum (D) 2073 Cobblestone LN Reston, VA 20191 (703) 758-9733; FAX (703) 391-0865
[email protected] 37th Delegate David L. Bulova (D) PO Box 106, Fairfax Station Fairfax, VA 22039 (703) 310-6752 [email protected]
67th Delegate Karrie K. Delaney (D) P.O. Box 230542 Centreville, VA 20120 Ofc: 703-996-9415 Capitol: 804-698-1067
86th Delegate Jennifer Boysko (D) P.O. Box 347 Herndon, VA 201772 (703) 665-9518 (804) 698-1086 [email protected]
U. S. Congress
US Senate, Washington, DC 20510
VA Senator Mark Warner (D) 475 Russell Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-2023; FAX (202) 224-6295
www.warner.senate.gov
VA Senator Timothy Kaine (D) B40C Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-4024
www.kaine.senate.gov
US House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515
10th Representative Barbara Comstock (R) 226 Cannon House Ofc Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-5136 https://comstock.house.gov
11th Representative Gerry E. Connolly (D) 4115 Annandale Rd., #103 Annandale, VA 22003 (703) 256-3071; FAX (703) 354-1284 (202) 225-1492; FAX (202) 225-3071 www.connolly.house.gov
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PERMIT 6397
