Blog

March 01, 2023

See Your Texas Legislators

Retiree activists need to take advantage of every opportunity to influence our legislators. Here is a schedule for two important Texas lobby days from the President of our Austin Chapter:

 

• 10:00  Arrival for attendees
• 10:30-12:00 Orientation including Advocacy 101 and
• Respect Agenda Guide
• 12:00-2:30   Legislator Office visits and lunch
• 1:00-2:00    “People’s Hearing”
• 2:45-3:30 AFL-CIO Rally

Sign up at  Texas AFT’s Advocacy Day

Texas State Employees Union Lobby Day
Wednesday April 12 at the Capitol

 

9:30		Buses to Arrive, Wooldridge Square Park
10:00		Lunch served
11:00		Form march contingents
11:30		Begin march around Capitol
12:00		Begin rally
12:30	–	Form lobby groups
1:30		First lobby appointment
4:00		Last lobby appointment

Three especially important issues for retirees are pending;

1. voting rights
2. expanding Medicaid
3. pensions with COLA

In the last two sessions, the dominant political party has done everything they could to shred our right to vote. TARA has a lawsuit against voter suppression, but we intend to do a lot more than just litigate.

The Affordable Care Act was supposed to include massive federal dollars for expansion of Medicaid all over the nation, but the Supreme Court gave state governments a way to refuse the federal money. To spite Obama and the Democrats, Texas led the way in refusing to take the money. If they had expanded Medicaid, millions of our poorest citizens would have had insurance coverage and would not have had to clog up the hospital emergency rooms.

Cost-of-living-allowances, COLA, is the only way to defend against inflation. Social Security, which has COLA, increased 8.7% in 2023 because of rising inflation, but lots of people, especially state workers and state education workers, don’t get Social Security. They need COLA on their pensions. If they don’t get it, their incomes will continue to atrophy!

We cannot afford to ignore any kind of activity that might help Texas seniors!

Gene Lantz, President