NARFE 2025-26 Advocacy Priorities

NARFE develops a set of advocacy priorities every two years, aligning with each Congress but applicable to legislative and executive actions. The priorities are available here. With the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), one major priority has happily been removed.

Before adopting the priorities, the NARFE National Executive Board (NEB) adopts NARFE’s advocacy positions, available here, which provide an extensive and specific enumeration of public policies NARFE supports and opposes. The NEB adopts the positions upon the recommendation of NARFE’s Advocacy Committee. The committee reviews the prior years’ positions, assesses staff recommendations, and considers proposals from NARFE members (with the support of at least five members), chapters and federation boards. The process empowers NARFE’s membership through an inclusive process and is represented via elected leadership to determine what policies to support or oppose.

The positions guide NARFE leadership in staff when deciding whether to endorse or oppose bills or executive actions and what stance to take in public statements. However, they do not dictate how to spend our limited time and resources on proactive advocacy efforts. For that, we develop advocacy priorities.

The priorities are informed by the positions but also by replies to membership surveys, the views of national, regional, federation, and chapter officers, and feedback directly to the advocacy team from NARFE members. They also account for expectations regarding the future political environment – what threats and opportunities may exist in the next two years. The priorities are recommended by advocacy staff to the National President for adoption. Once adopted, we develop a strategy and tactics to advance the priorities.

By John Hatton, Staff Vice President, Policy and Programs