It\u2019s July 9th, and it\u2019s already hot! And wet! Here in Central North
\nCarolina Tropical Storm Chantal passed through and dumped a
\nbunch of rain! I had over five inches in about 12 hours. Other
\nplaces around me had over 10 inches! I live on a small lake, and the
\nwater was the highest I\u2019ve ever seen it! Another lake near me has
\nhouses and boathouses underwater! But all this pales in comparison
\nto the devastation in central Texas. We should keep the folks there in
\nour thoughts and prayers!<\/p>\n
You know what else is happening? As you know, Congress just
\npassed HR1, the so-called \u201cOne Big, Beautiful Bill,\u201d and it does all
\nkinds of things. But one thing it didn\u2019t do was include federal
\nworkforce benefit provisions. NARFE members made their voices
\nheard, and our hard work helped get the bill across the finish line with
\nno cuts to our benefits. We should count that as a huge victory
\nbecause the original bill contained draconian measures that would
\nhave affected us for years to come!<\/p>\n
Couple that with the big WEP\/GPO win from late last year, and we are
\non a roll. The problem is, we always have to be vigilant and not rest on
\nour laurels. Congress and the administration can bring up those
\nchanges in other bills, so we have to keep our ears to the ground.
\nWe need to stay in touch with our congressional offices, if for no other
\nreason than to let them know we\u2019re still here. When was the
\nlast time we paid a visit to our congressional friends?<\/p>\n
Another thing I want to babble about is the upcoming Region X
\nConference. It\u2019s in Pigeon Forge, TN, October 21-23 at the Staybridge
\nSuites. You all should have seen an email from me a few weeks back
\nannouncing the conference. That email included a registration form
\nand an advertisement form. The registration form also has a place
\nfor you to sign up for an evening out at a local variety show that
\nshould be lots of fun. Even if you\u2019re not much of a conference goer,
\nmaybe you could attend to take in the beautiful fall foliage there
\nin the mountains. The Great Smoky Mountains put on quite a show
\nin the fall! And let me give a shoutout to the Tennessee federation for
\nhelping set up the conference; I couldn\u2019t have done it without their
\nsupport.<\/p>\n
One last babble. I\u2019ve been attending various federation conferences
\nand chapter meetings across our region. It\u2019s been a lot of fun, not to
\nmention informative, to meet with y\u2019all. That\u2019s the joy of being your
\nRegional Vice President\u2013meeting and collaborating with the
\nmembers of the best region in NARFE.<\/p>\n
You really are the best!
\nRobert \u201cLittle Bobby\u201d Allen, NARFE Region X Vice President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NARFE, Region X Area Vice President July 2025 update. Crazy weather, no changes in federal workforce benefit provisions, and the upcoming Region X Conference in October 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"kp-content-permissions":[],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/99\/2025\/05\/robert3_1899-scaled-e1752957215568.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1799,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/1799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"kp-content-permissions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kp-content-permissions?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}