1) November 2^nd Call to Congress Day - Save the Date and Spread the Word:  The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction - the congressional "supercommittee" - is tasked with crafting legislation to cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget.  Its deadline is fast approaching, and your earned federal retirement and health benefits may be at risk.

Please call 1-866-220-0044 on November 2^nd and make sure your members of Congress know that federal retirees and active employees who protect America's heartbeat won't sit still while they are singled out for unfair cuts.

Step 1:      Call the Capitol using NARFE's toll free number 1-866-220-0044 (if busy, the commercial number, 202-224-3121, may work better).  Ask the operator to connect you to your representative's and/or senators' office.  You can also find the direct number for your representative and senators by finding their personal site on the House web site, http://sitebuilder.myregisteredsite.com/sitebuilder/www.house.gov, and the Senate web site, http://sitebuilder.myregisteredsite.com/sitebuilder/www.senate.gov.

Step 2:      Tell the staff person who answers the telephone next where you live so they know you are a constituent, then say:

• "I am a retired/active federal employee and member of NARFE." [Tell the staff person a little about your work.]
• "[Senator or Representative X] represents thousands of federal workers and retirees and their survivors, and any recommendations the supercommittee makes shouldn't unfairly single us out to bear the burden of fixing a budget problem we didn't create."
• "Federal workers, retirees, and survivors didn't cause the budget crisis - and making extreme cuts to pay, earned health and retirement benefits, or making changes to cost-of-living adjustments, would unfairly single out those who protected our nation, including many now on a fixed income."

Whether you speak to a staff person or leave a recorded message, request that your lawmaker respond in writing to your phone call.  For that reason, be sure to leave your mailing address.  Contact only your own representative and two senators.  Lawmakers will disregard your message if you are not a voting constituent.

2) Recommendations to Supercommittee, Menu for Hits to Civil Service:  The recommendations to the Supercommittee made by committee chairs and ranking members with jurisdiction were summarized in the last Hotline.  Copies of these four letters of recommendations are posted for NARFE members on our web site.  Log in as a NARFE member and point your browser to http://www.narfe.org/departments/legislation/articles.cfm?ID=2613.

3) COLA of 3.6% (CSRS) or 2.6% (FERS):  Current law provides a cost of living adjustment (COLA) in Social Security, military retirement and federal civil service.  After two years without any COLA, persons in all three federally administered retirement programs will receive a COLA beginning in January 2012.  Retirees in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) will receive a 3.6 percent COLA.  Retirees, 62 and over, covered by the newer Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) will receive a 2.6 percent COLA. The COLA for persons covered by FECA is calculated on a calendar year.  With 3 months remaining, September's index (223.688) is 3.9 percent higher than the December 2010 index (215.262).  NARFE's web site, http://www.narfe.org/, has more details near the top of the home page.  The schedule for future CPI releases is available on the BLS web site, http://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/cpi.htm  

Obtaining the Hotline:  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 website, http://www.narfe.org/%22%20%5Co%20%22http:/www.narfe.org/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and sent to over 68,000 GEMS e-mail addresses.  Each delivery channel is a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.