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Florida Council of Chapters |
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Legislative Activities VDBC Summary Support Your Council President's Visit to Capitol Hill By John Feldmann, LtCol USAF (Ret), Legislative Affairs Chairman On Wednesday, April 2, 2008, CAPT William Monk (USN Ret.), Council President, will lead a Florida contingent to Capital Hill to persuade our two Florida senators and most Florida representatives to get aboard and support MOAA's key legislative issues. Their mission is to persuade them to cosponsor MOAA's key legislative issues, and provide a packet containing literature regarding other major legislative concerns. This year's key issues are (1) to increase the DoD budget to 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product; (2) to avoid TRICARE fee increases; and (3) to enact recommendations of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission. The event is the annual MOAA gathering called Storming the Hill that brings 52 presidents of councils and chapters to Washington D.C. Each president represents their state and will be accompanied by members of MOAA's board of directors and staff. Florida will be represented by three teams. See suggested letter below for Florida's team members.. Chapter and club presidents can play a major role by contacting your senators and particular representative to let them know that your chapter or club approves of the Florida teams' objectives. This is especially important because this advance notice will let your senators, representative and their schedulers know that the teams represent you and your members, their state or district constituents. The following letter is provided for your use. It can be marked, copied, pasted into your word processor, and personalized as needed. ---------------------------------------- The Honorable Mel Martinez (or Bill Nelson)---The Honorable (Representative's Name) United States Senate---U.S. House of Representatives Washington DC 20510---Washington DC 20515 Dear Senator Martinez (or Nelson), or Dear Representative ( name) As your constituent and member of the_______________Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, MOAA, I am writing to inform you of an important visit to your office by Florida MOAA members who represent my chapter and who will discuss issues described below. This visit will take place on Wednesday, April 2, 2008, during MOAA's annual "Storming the Hill" event. One of three Florida teams comprised of 1) LTG Jerome Hilmes, USA(Ret) - MOAA Board and RADM Daniel Lestage, USN(Ret) - MOAA Board, 2) CAPT William W. Monk, USN(Ret) - President, Florida Council of Chapters, Mrs. Violet Smith - Auxiliary Advisory Committee and Mrs.Paula Sumrall - Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Committee, or 3) CAPT William Knehans, USN(Ret) - MOAA Board, Maj Joseph A. Deboskey, ANG - ACDU, Guard/Reserve Advisory Committee, and Mrs. Rosemarie Nemeth - Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Committee, has requested an appointment with you to discuss: (1) increasing the DoD budget to 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (the peacetime average over the past 20 years); (2) to avoid TRICARE fee increases (already paid by years of service); and 3) to enact recommendations of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC). As you know, the DoD budget has been steadily shrinking over the past decade as a percent of GDP. It is now true that equipment is obsolete, maintenance is failing to keep up, the services are reducing manpower, research and development, and taking other measures that will result in a �hollowed out� force again, if not corrected. Highlights of the VDBC recommendations include: (1) Repeal the SBP/DIC offset, (2) Increase VA compensation immediately up to 25 percent for �Quality of Life� loss, (3) Realign the disability retirement system, (4) establish a new VA rating criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disability, (5) allow full concurrent receipt of both retired and VA disability payments, and (6) establish an oversight group to monitor progress of these actions. As your constituent, I fully endorse the Florida teams' objectives and hope you will be available to meet with one of the teams during their visit to the Hill. Respectfully, (Be sure to include your name, address and telephone number, and chapter position-if any)
:Legislators to be contacted for STORMING THE HILL 04/02/2008 are: Senators: Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson Representatives: Gus Bilirakis, F. Allen Boyd, Corrine Brown, Ginnie Brown-Waite, Vern Buchanan, Kathy Castor, Ander Crenshaw, Mario Diaz-Balart, Ron Klein, Connie Mack IV, Kendrick Meek, John Mica, Jeff Miller, Adam Putnam, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cliff Stearns, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Dave Weldon, and C. W. �Bill� Young Addresses and Email contacts for each of them is at: https://capwiz.com/moaa/dbq/officials/. Both telephone contact information and a cross reference to representatives for your chapter is in a table below. Please send a letter and Email copy to both senators and each of the representatives from the districts listed for your chapter. How to contact U.S. Senators and Representatives from Florida U.S. Congressional Districts Associated with Council Chapters Governor Jeb Bush How to contact U.S. Senators and Representatives from Florida Postal Address for a Senator:
Salutation for a Senator:
Postal Address for a Representative:
Salutation for a Representative:
Phone Numbers and E-Mail Addresses of U.S. Senators and Representatives from Florida. (Note that all voice and fax numbers are prefixed with 1-202.)
An alternate method for contacting a legislator with a 'www' prefix is to open MOAA's web page https://capwiz.com/moaa/home/ . When the 'Contact Your Legislator' page appears, enter the zip code of your legislator and click on 'Search'. When your legislator's picture screen appears, click on 'e-mail'. On the next screen fill in sender's information, prepare message in the message format area and click 'Send Message'. U.S. Congressional Districts Associated with Council Chapters
In addition to information provided here by the Florida Council, you may be interested in MOAA's comprehensive weekly legislative updates and monthly legislative spotlight. Click here to go to that site. |
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