SITUATION:  Supporting Social Security was a key issue for the founders of OWL, and it is still important today.  Social Security needs to be updated to:

• increase benefits,
• clean up the many inequities in the program, and
• put the system on a firm financial footing by increasing FICA for workers with incomes exceeding $400,000.

SITUATION:  HR 5723 addresses these issues and is currently in several committees, including Ways and Means and needs to be moved forward.

ACTION:  Call or write speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in California or D.C. and tell her to immediately bring HR 5723 to a vote.  Let her know you are a member of OWL and think this is the best opportunity to bring this bill to a vote!

San Francisco: 90 7^th Street, Suite 2-800,  San Francisco, CA 94103, Phone: 415-556-4862

Washington DC: 1236 Longworth H.O.B, Washington, DC 20515, Phone: 202-225-4965

Click HERE to email Nancy Pelosi
.

SITUATION: City College of San Francisco is preparing to lay off 50 full-time and hundreds of part-time faculty, which will lead to:

• Cuts in classes
• Reduced enrollment
• Reduced state funding, and
• A new round of cuts

SITUATION: This deadly cycle must stop. City College must be restored as a community asset serving tens of thousands of people here. 

ACTION: Sign the petition against City College layoffs and class cuts:

click HERE to sign the petition

ACTION: Pass this on to your friends.

SITUATION: California Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) penal code currently does not include training on how to effectively interact with persons with Alzheimer’s Disease, or dementia.

SITUATION: Assembly Member Kevin Mullin has introduced AB 2583, which will amend current protocol to include this missing—crucial–training.

SITUATION: AB 2583 is currently before the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee for consideration on March 21^st, and, without enough support, may not make it out of committee for a vote by the full Assembly.

ACTION: Contact Public Safety Committee Chair Byron Jones Sawyer:
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0059
Tel: (916) 319-2059
Click HERE to email Byron Jones Sawyer

ACTION: Contact Public Safety Committee Vice-Chair Tom Lackey:
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA  94249-0036
Tel: (916) 319-2036
Click HERE to email Tom Lackey

ACTION: Share this message with friends and family statewide.

Expanding Social Security is essential to keeping millions of Americans out of poverty—including hundreds of thousands of Californians.

SITUATION: U.S. Representative John Larson, (D-CT), has introduced the Social Security 2100 Act: A Sacred Trust, which will increase benefits and lower taxes of SS recipients, while ensuring that Social Security remains solvent for the rest of this century.

SITUATION: California State Senator Nancy Skinner has introduced State Joint Resolution 11, which requests California Representatives in Congress to call for a vote supporting the Social Security 2100 Act, which is crucial because:

• A message from California—the most populous state in the nation—will be heard loud and clear, and other states will follow
• California is home to a major percentage of U.S. citizens age 65 years and over

“Junk fees” are predatory. They hurt consumers.
They hit the most vulnerable hardest. And they lead to spiraling debt.

SITUATION: Credit card companies, banks, ticket vendors and other entities are charging customers myriad hidden fees related to their purchases. In 2019 alone, banks and credit card companies charged Americans almost $30 billion in late fees and overdraft charges.

SITUATION: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), headed by Rohit Chopra, is now accepting comments about the billions of dollars in junk fees that Americans pay on credit cards, bank accounts, and loans.

ACTION: Submit a public comment to CFPB if you have ever been charged unexpected fees by banks, credit card companies or other corporations. You can also help by leaving comments on Twitter or Facebook. See below for links to CFPB comments, Twitter and Facebook.

Your feedback will inform their use of rulemaking,
guidance, and enforcement tools to combat junk fees.

ACTION: Encourage friends and family to add their voices to this fight.

Click HERE to leave comments for the CFPB.
Click HERE to leave comments on Twitter.
Click HERE to leave comments on Facebook.

SITUATION: MEDICARE is increasingly moving seniors and disabled people into Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs), which are private, for-profit corporations.  The President and Congress have been silent.  Even the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency in the Department of Health and Human Services administering Medicare, has not objected. 

SITUATION: We need to know the facts behind this movement and STOP it if it does not serve those Medicare is supposed to help.

ACTION:  Contact Speaker Pelosi and insist she call a halt to this process and hold fully open and transparent hearings on this important issue:

90 7th Street, Suite 2-800
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: (415) 556-4862
https://www.speaker.gov/contact

NOTE: California Alliance for Retired Americans is holding a Valentine’s Day campaign to generate a storm of letters, emails, Facebook posts and tweets to Speaker Pelosi, demanding she stop DCEs, and hold Congressional hearings on this dangerous plan. Click here and scroll down to find out more about this campaign. OWL needs you to be a part of that campaign, but DO contact Senator Pelosi about holding open hearings, even if you miss the Feb. 14 date!

Congress must remove the ratification deadline of the Equal Rights Amendment to get it across the finish line and added to the Constitution. 

SITUATION: This country has waited too long for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to become a part of the Constitution. More than 100 years after (some) women gained the right to vote, women and nonbinary people are still not guaranteed equality under the law.

SITUATION: First passed by Congress in 1972, in January 2020, the final state voted to ratify the ERA. Then, on March 17, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to remove the ratification timeline attached to the ERA.

ACTION: Now the Senate must act to remove its ratification timeline so it can pass once and for all.  S.J. Resolution 1 is the companion bill in the Senate that would remove the timeline. We need 60 votes to pass the resolution.

ACTION: Contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor S.J. Resolution 1 and ensure that the ERA is a part of our Constitution.

SITUATION: The Trump administration launched a plan to move up to 30 million seniors and disabled people into Direct Contracting Entities without their knowledge or consent.  These DCEs are private, for-profit corporations which would be able to pocket up to 40% of what they charge Medicare, compared to 2% by Traditional Medicare providers.

SITUATION: The Biden administration is continuing this process!

 THIS IS EGREGIOUS FOR MANY REASONS! Here are just a few:

• DCEs would generate profits by denying care and charging more.
• They would have no Congressional oversight.
• This is part of a movement to completely privatize Medicare by 2030.

ACTIONS:

CONTACT Speaker Pelosi at and insist she call for a halt to this process and hold hearings:

90 7th Street, Suite 2-800
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: (415) 556-4862
https://www.speaker.gov/contact

CONTACT your own Representative and tell her/him to insist Pelosi hold hearings while forcing a pause in this process which is already underway:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

CONTACT Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and thank him for pausing the process and sounding the alarm:

HHS Headquarters
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C.  20201
Phone: (877) 696-6775
xavier.becerra@hhs.gov

IMPORTANT:

Urge your friends across the country to
contact their own Representatives, and tell them to
STOP THE ATTACK ON MEDICARE!

SITUATION: In 2020, the Trump Administration launched a new policy “experiment” designed to privatize traditional Medicare. Under this model, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could move more than 30 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries into mostly commercial, for-profit plans called Direct Contracting Entities (DCE) without the enrollees’ understanding or consent.

In ways similar to commercial Medicare Advantage plans, DCEs have the potential to interfere with care decisions and waste taxpayer money when compared with the efficiency of traditional Medicare.

The Biden Administration is moving the DCE program forward, threatening the future of Medicare as we know it.

ACTIONS: 

DON’T PRIVATIZE MEDICARE, SUPERSIZE IT!

1. Call your member of Congress, Democrat or Republican: House Capital Switchboard 202-225-3121 and tell them to sign Representative Jayapal’s letter to Secretary Becerra. He has the power to end Direct Contracting Entities and protect Medicare for everyone!

2. Call the Secretary yourself: Comment line is (202) 205-5445. Put an end to Direct Contracting Entities and stop the privatization of Traditional Medicare.

3. Sign the petition to HHS Secretary Becerra:  https://pnhp.salsalabs.org/DCEpetitionSeptember2021/index.html

4. Please pass this on to your family and friends. 

EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW

SITUATION: The California Racial Justice for All Act prohibits the State from seeking or obtaining a criminal conviction, or from imposing a sentence, based on race, ethnicity or national origin (AB2542). This landmark Act made it possible for a person charged or convicted of a crime to challenge racial and other specified bias in their case, but it did not apply to judgments or actions before January 1, 2021.  

AB256, as Amended would remove this limitation and allow those impacted by unfair convictions and sentences prior to January 1, 2021 to seek redress.

ACTION:  Everyone deserves equal justice under the law. Tell the California Senate to pass AB256 when it reconvenes in 2022.

ACTION: Please encourage California friends and colleagues to support this important upcoming legislation.

SITUATION:  People with disabilities and seniors need shelters and seating while waiting for public transportation. At this time, only 34% of current bus stops have seating, and these are distributed inequitably, with the northern half of the city twice as likely to have shelters as the southern half, particularly Bayview/Hunters Point.

ACTION:  Contact the SFMTA Board of Directors and tell them that:
1) Bus shelters and seats should be distributed equitably throughout San Francisco,
2) Bus shelters with seats are especially needed to accommodate seniors and people with disabilities.

CONTACT: 
Office of the SFMTA Board of Directors
Phone: 415.646.4470
Email: MTABoard@SFMTA.com