Health Care Vote:  The House is expected to vote on Saturday and Sunday, March 20^th and 21^st on a massive bill overhauling the nation’s health care system.  NARFE officers, members and staff have worked to defend the nation’s largest employer sponsored plan, the FEHBP, from potential harm.  NARFE’s updated and detailed position paper is available on our web site the link is http://www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=2040 .  (This document is attached in a WORD ® format.)

Bipartisan TSP Legislation Introduced:  On March 17^th, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced bipartisan legislation that will allow federal employees to invest the cash value of unused annual leave in their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account.  “The Federal Employees and Uniformed Services Retirement Equity Act of 2010”, H.R. 4865, will give federal employees a benefit similar to one extended to private sector employees through a regulatory change announced by President Obama in September 2009.  In a letter of support to Reps. Lynch and Chaffetz, NARFE President Margaret L. Baptiste said as a matter of equity, NARFE believes that federal workers should have this choice if it is offered to private-sector employees.

February Consumer Price News: February’s CPI-W is 212.544, essentially unchanged from January.  Consumer price indices for March 2010 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.  Full details are available on the NARFE web site.  (The specific URL is http://www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=942 and for the Bureau of Labor Statistics release on February’s indices and methodology use http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf)

NARFE-PAC Letter from President Baptiste: Our biennial NARFE-PAC solicitation letter is now reaching NARFE members.  NARFE President, Margaret L. Baptiste, the letter’s author, thanks members whose contributions have begun to arrive and urges your generous contribution to NARFE-PAC.  President Baptiste is eager for every chapter meeting and spring conventions to feature NARFE-PAC.  The well dressed NARFE member is always wearing the latest NARFE-PAC lapel pin.

Harnessing the Web:  An updated and upgraded listing of “Lapsed Cosponsors of Premium Conversion” is now available on our web site.  (The specific URL is

http://www.narfe.org/pdf/LapsedCosponsorsPremiumConversion.pdf )  Another feature of the NARFE web site, the Legislative Action Center, allows users to display the voting records of Senators and Representatives on NARFE selected floor votes (use http://capwiz.com/narfe/dbq/officials/ and insert either your ZIP Code or a Member’s last name).  Another tool for activists displays the vote of an entire state delegation on a single NARFE selected vote.  (For instance, to display the Georgia delegations vote on the 2009 budget resolution offered as a budget substitute by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which NARFE opposed, use

http://capwiz.com/narfe/issues/votes/?votenum=191&chamber=H&congress=1111&state=ga  To obtain any other state, change just the last two letters to the USPS abbreviation. 
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Thank you for using the Hotline.  This weekly legislative message is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and sent to over 53,000 GEMS e-mail addresses.  Each delivery channel is a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.