AFSA Chapter 985 members, here is your weekly newsletter for 10 October from HQ.
The House may be adjourned until January, but our lobbyists and Intl. president are still busy fighting for our quality of life. President Bush is scheduled to sign the 2009 NDAA at 1035 on Tuesday morning, including a 3.9% pay raise and many other benefits for Air Force enlisted members. Once again, your membership is more than paid for by the time you get your mid-month check in January! We are also protected again from Tricare increases for retirees under 65 years of age.
Here is a note of great news that without one of our members stepping up, we wouldn’t have known about it and our lobbyists wouldn’t have had the opportunity to support it. On October 8, 2008, President Bush signed into law S. 1810 the “Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act”. Now, when a child is born with a disease, the doctors must provide information on it as well as refer the parents to a specialist that can treat the disease. In the past, parents were left to find information on rare diseases themselves if the doctor didn’t know enough about it. That is no longer the case, and while we weren’t able to determine exactly how many military parents this affected, we know it will benefit many in the future. Thank you to Tiffany Gordon, Jon Hake, and Bob Price for getting the information and getting this into law!
One last note; Oct 13-19 is Legislative Awareness week. Please use this time to talk to your friends and co-workers about the importance of voting. Also, talk to them about making a difference in the legislative process. I cannot think of a more direct and effective way to positively influence the direction of our country than to stay informed and have a voice. Let the AFSA continue to be your voice on Capitol Hill be renewing your membership before it expires. Contact me (president@afsa985.org) if you are unsure when yours expires, and I will get the information for you. Don’t ride on someone else’s coat tails when you can spend less than 7 cents a day as an NCO and a mere 5 cents a day as an AB-SrA and earn those benefits. Heck, you can probably find that much in the cushions of your couch!
Have a great week.
