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The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 We Remember Linda Warren Sadly, we have to report that Linda Warren, wife of our long-time PSARA Executive Board member Mike Warren, passed away on October 23. PSARA members will remember her accompanying Mike to all the PSARA events. She was, as Mike said, “always there.” If we were fortunate enough to sit by her at PSARA sing-alongs, we remember she had a lovely voice. When she attended Smith College, she sang in their Glee Club, touring Europe with them. Later, Linda sang in the choirs of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Seattle First Baptist Church, and Temple De Hirsch. She even joined a medieval madrigal group, Pastime Singers. Linda earned a BA in psychology from Smith College, a Masters in Social Work from the UW, and worked for more than 40 years as a dedicated social worker at Harborview and Highline hospitals. Through this work, she met Mike, and eventually they married. Deepest sympathies to Mike and all the Warren family. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2025 Protecting Our Assets, Protecting Our Asses – Part 3 Jeff Johnson "If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed 10 thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” E.O. Wilson Naturalist Edward Wilson recognizes a fundamental truth. Humankind’s pen- chant for hubris, our seemingly eternal quest to one up the natural world, has created the conditions for our own demise. As we continue to spew carbon into the atmosphere, we create climate chaos and species decline. To put a point on it, this is not good. And of course, while all of us will be impacted, not all of us will be impacted equally. Those countries, communities, and individuals that did the least to cause climate disaster will be disproportionately impacted by the climate chaos as well as by the inability to recover from its effects. I remember listening to a college lecture in 1971 from an analyst from either the Pentagon or the Department of State. She laid out a scenario of future climatic shifts that would reduce the amount of arable land and potable water, causing massive human migration, species decline, and geo-political unrest. It is no longer hyperbole to recognize that we have crossed over the climate chaos threshold. While the ignorance of climate deniers and their disastrous policies make those pushing for carbon neutrality by 2050 seem reasonable, our hubris prevents us from recognizing the urgency of the moment, even as insects and birds vanish exponentially. We can’t wait for 2050 to act. We need to dramatically reduce carbon pollution and rapidly increase renew- able clean energy now. Our planet is seriously out of balance, egregiously out of equilibrium. I was struck by something I read from the Dalai Lama, that while humans “have the capacity to destroy the earth, so, too, do we have the capacity to protect it.” I believe that we can help the earth rebalance itself. But to do so we must act thoughtfully, equitably, and with a great sense of urgency and purpose. Financial Rebalancing There is an analogous concept of rebalancing in the financial world. Diversified financial portfolios are made up of a variety of assets in different risk classes, i.e., equities, bonds, real estate, hedge funds, government securities, etc. The overall goal for the long-term health of your portfolio is to establish a range of asset allocations that provide the best return for the least risk. You develop a target asset allocation range for different asset classifications and then track how your portfolio values match up to your asset allocations. If you can keep your portfolio in this preferred range over time, your portfolio will be in balance, providing the best returns for the least risk. Of course, as economic activity goes up and down and investment decisions change, asset values rise and fall on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis. As a consequence, the values of your asset classes change from the targeted allocation you chose. Some will have grown higher than the target range and others fallen below the preferred range. So now what do you do? Well, it’s not rocket science. To rebalance your port- folio, to bring it back into equilibrium, you make strategic decisions to sell off certain assets from one classification and buy assets from another classification. [Note: It doesn’t work quite the same way for private-equity type investments. Often it is more prudent to hold the private-equity type investments until their normal wind-down, but importantly to not invest more]. Financial rebalancing of portfolios is a usual and customary practice. It hap- pens all the time. Washington State Investment and Pension Funds The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) manages nearly $200 billion of state funds and public employee pension dollars. The WSIB has been a good care-taker of these funds for decades and has earned a positive national reputation as one of the best- managed state funds. The WSIB has approximately $5.5 billion invested in fossil fuel assets. This represents about 2.5 percent of its total portfolio. Given that fossil fuel assets have been significantly underperforming the broad stock market for quite some time; that the concept of financial prudence defined narrowly or more broadly, as laid out in article two of this series, war- rants selling off fossil fuel assets; that financial rebalancing is standard practice in the financial industry; and given the continued decline in the value of fossil fuel assets, there is no good reason not to rebalance our state’s Investment portfolio by selling off fossil fuel assets over the next several years and replacing them with assets that provide a better return for a lower risk. So Now Where Are We? In the first three articles of this series, “Protecting Our Assets, Protecting Our Asses,” we laid out the moral, economic, fiscal, employment, and social needs bases for rebalancing our state funds out of fossil fuels. We made the argument that it is important for our state and our public employee unions to lead the way in countering the financial industry’s $7 trillion investment in fossil fuels since the signing of the Paris Climate Accords. Rebalancing of fossil fuel assets will send a strong message to institutional investors to do likewise. We have also shown that by any measure of financial prudence our state funds and pension funds are not being well served by fossil fuel investments. Finally, we have shown that financial rebalancing is done as a matter of course in the financial industry. And that rebalancing our Washington State funds out of fossil fuels is not only a smart and financially prudent thing to do, it is a step towards rebalancing our earth – protecting both our assets and our asses. Jeff Johnson is a former President of the Washington State Labor Council and Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2025 Protecting our Assets and Protecting Our Asses -Part 2 Jeff Johnson If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed 10 thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” E.O. Wilson Naturalist Edward Wilson recognizes a fundamental truth. Humankind’s pen- chant for hubris, our seemingly eternal quest to one up the natural world, has created the conditions for our own demise. As we continue to spew carbon into the atmosphere, we create climate chaos and species decline. To put a point on it, this is not good. And of course, while all of us will be impacted, not all of us will be impacted equally. Those countries, communities, and individuals that did the least to cause climate disaster will be disproportionately impacted by the climate chaos as well as by the inability to recover from its effects. I remember listening to a college lecture in 1971 from an analyst from either the Pentagon or the Department of State. She laid out a scenario of future climatic shifts that would reduce the amount of arable land and potable water, causing massive human migration, species decline, and geo-political unrest. It is no longer hyperbole to recognize that we have crossed over the climate chaos threshold. While the ignorance of climate deniers and their disastrous policies make those pushing for carbon neutrality by 2050 seem reasonable, our hubris prevents us from recognizing the urgency of the moment, even as insects and birds vanish exponentially. We can’t wait for 2050 to act. We need to dramatically reduce carbon pollution and rapidly increase renew- able clean energy now. Our planet is seriously out of balance, egregiously out of equilibrium. I was struck by something I read from the Dalai Lama, that while humans “have the capacity to destroy the earth, so, too, do we have the capacity to protect it.” I believe that we can help the earth rebalance itself. But to do so we must act thoughtfully, equitably, and with a great sense of urgency and purpose. Financial Rebalancing There is an analogous concept of rebalancing in the financial world. Diversified financial portfolios are made up of a variety of assets in different risk classes, i.e., equities, bonds, real estate, hedge funds, government securities, etc. The overall goal for the long-term health of your portfolio is to establish a range of asset allocations that provide the best return for the least risk. You develop a target asset allocation range for different asset classifications and then track how your portfolio values match up to your asset allocations. If you can keep your portfolio in this preferred range over time, your portfolio will be in balance, providing the best returns for the least risk. Of course, as economic activity goes up and down and investment decisions change, asset values rise and fall on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis. As a consequence, the values of your asset classes change from the targeted allocation you chose. Some will have grown higher than the target range and others fallen below the preferred range. So now what do you do? Well, it’s not rocket science. To rebalance your port- folio, to bring it back into equilibrium, you make strategic decisions to sell off certain assets from one classification and buy assets from another classification. [Note: It doesn’t work quite the same way for private-equity type investments. Often it is more prudent to hold the private-equity type investments until their normal wind-down, but importantly to not invest more]. Financial rebalancing of portfolios is a usual and customary practice. It hap- pens all the time. Washington State Investment and Pension Funds The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) manages nearly $200 billion of state funds and public employee pension dollars. The WSIB has been a good care-taker of these funds for decades and has earned a positive national reputation as one of the best- managed state funds. The WSIB has approximately $5.5 billion invested in fossil fuel assets. This represents about 2.5 percent of its total portfolio. Given that fossil fuel assets have been significantly underperforming the broad stock market for quite some time; that the concept of financial prudence defined narrowly or more broadly, as laid out in article two of this series, war- rants selling off fossil fuel assets; that financial rebalancing is standard practice in the financial industry; and given the continued decline in the value of fossil fuel assets, there is no good reason not to rebalance our state’s Investment portfolio by selling off fossil fuel assets over the next several years and replacing them with assets that provide a better return for a lower risk. So Now Where Are We? In the first three articles of this series, “Protecting Our Assets, Protecting Our Asses,” we laid out the moral, economic, fiscal, employment, and social needs bases for rebalancing our state funds out of fossil fuels. We made the argument that it is important for our state and our public employee unions to lead the way in countering the financial industry’s $7 trillion investment in fossil fuels since the signing of the Paris Climate Accords. Rebalancing of fossil fuel assets will send a strong message to institutional investors to do likewise. We have also shown that by any measure of financial prudence our state funds and pension funds are not being well served by fossil fuel investments. Finally, we have shown that financial rebalancing is done as a matter of course in the financial industry. And that rebalancing our Washington State funds out of fossil fuels is not only a smart and financially prudent thing to do, it is a step towards rebalancing our earth – protecting both our assets and our asses. Jeff Johnson is a former President of the Washington State Labor Council and the Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2025 North Olympic Peninsula 2025: Rural Resistance! Lisa Dekker Like the rest of Washington State, Clallam County and the Peninsula are reeling from the harms happening now – and those yet to come – from this corrupt regime and their flagrant refusal to follow the law. But we are not taking this lying down. Our residents and our leaders are determined to resist. Olympic National Park, just outside Port Angeles, gets thousands of visitors each year and is an economic engine for the region. It was already unable to meet basic maintenance needs, and reduced staffing will make it worse. In addition, although $80 million was al- ready allocated by Congress to replace the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge that burned down in 2023, delivery of those dollars is now uncertain. For many years Port Angeles has been a gateway for Canadian visitors via the Coho/BlackBall Ferry that connects us to Victoria, B.C., just 12 miles away. But now, the absurd tariffs and territorial threats coming from #47 have resulted in an understandable backlash of Canadians deciding not to spend their tourist dollars here. This will have grave economic consequences for our restaurants, hotels, and small businesses this summer unless the tariffs are undone. Likely the most unconscionable harms to individuals here would be the drastic cuts to Medicaid in the current Republican budget. With 20 percent of our adults and more than 37 percent of our children dependent on Medicaid in Clallam County alone, the devastation would be felt by thousands here on the Peninsula. So how are we fighting back? There have been sizeable rallies in Port Ange- les, Sequim, and Port Townsend (Jefferson County) that have many new faces and an enthusiastic response from the community. Indivisible Sequim, first begun in 2016, has had a surge of new members and has backed several rallies. One of the largest gatherings in Port Angeles, and the one with the most young people, was a raucous and upbeat march supporting the Olympic National Park and Park staffers who had been abruptly laid off. Clallam Democrats have become re-energized. With the leadership of their Chair, PSARA member Ellen Menshew, they have hosted timely forums and promoted many rallies. With a new online newsletter, Clallam Democrats Rising, plus a blog, a presence on Substack and Blue Sky, and an events calendar, the Dems are keeping members informed and involved. Our three County Commissioners even did their bit with a letter to Senators Murray and Cantwell and Congresswoman Emily Randall, reminding them of the impacts being felt here and asking that they “do all that they can to support our community.” We don’t know what’s next, but here in the northwest corner, we saw that despair became righteous anger, then hope, and now resistance. We are determined to fight back. Lisa Dekker is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach and a leader of PSARA's Clallam County organizing committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 Pierce County PSARA Committee on the Move Richard Burton Our Pierce County PSARA chapter has gotten underway! We have with tremendous support from PSARA leaders Tim Burns, Karen Richter, Pam Crone, Jessica Bonebright, and Robby Stern. PSARA Executive Board member Lynne Dodson has been chairing the group and was elected to be our delegate to the Pierce County Central Labor Council (PCCLC). Anita Latch and Kit Burns are our alternates to the PCCLC. At our meetings, we’ve had prominent participation from activists in Tacoma Indivisible, UFCW local 367, League of Women Voters of Tacoma- Pierce County, and Retired Public Employees Council (RPEC) of Washing- ton. We are excited about building and adding to these alliances. At our most recent meeting, we made decisions about programs we can put on and campaigns we can help support. These include: Leveling the Playing Field Work- shop. We plan to put on a workshop on this vital topic on March 8. Stay tuned for details. March 18 Lobby Day. We have begun making legislative appointments for Pierce County–area lawmakers for the March 18 PSARA lob- by day and will be turning out as many PSARA activist members as possible. Meetings with Congressmembers. We will be meeting with Congress- members Randall, Strickland, and Schrier – or their office staff – over the next months. We will be pressing them on PSARA’s federal concerns around Social Security and Medicare. As mentioned above, we also plan to articulate our concerns with the contract between ICE and the GEO Group, pertaining to the Northwest Immigrant Detention Center. Social Security Works. A number of members from our new chapter have participated in the strategy meetings about efforts to defend and strengthen both Medicare and Social Security. Tacoma Bill of Rights. UFCW local 367 is likely going to be pushing a municipal initiative in Tacoma, calling for a Workers' Bill of Rights in Tacoma. We hope to help support this effort, which will of course start with signature-gathering. Fighting Senior Center Closures. The City of Tacoma has announced plans to close two senior centers. A campaign to stop the closures at Lighthouse Senior Center and Beacon Activity Center has been launched and PSARA activists will be supporting their efforts. Sadly, Lighthouse, though still open, has no programming. Northwest Immigrant Detention Center. La Resistencia is a wonderful group that has been fighting the ongoing human rights abuses at the Northwest Immigrant Detention Center in Tacoma. The group put on a powerful event in early December– “Melting ICE” – featuring a spectacular and thought-provoking exhibit. The contract between ICE and the GEO group (the private corpo- ration that runs the detention center)is going to expire this September. We will be urging that it not be renewed in meetings with Pierce County Congress- members. Our meetings are held on the second Thursday of the month. New members are always welcome. Richard Burton is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2025 Wrapping It Up: Final 2024 Election Results Pam Crone The final tally wasn’t in when we summarized the 2024 Washington State election results in the December Advocate. Some races were too close to call, and seats of retirees were yet to be filled. We can now report on the final results and the composition of the 2025 Legislature. New faces and big Democratic majorities highlight the new session. Washington State Senate The Democrats flipped a seat in the 18th Legislative District. Senator-elect Adrian Cortes replaces Ann Rivers and gives the Senate Democrats a 30-19 majority. Cortes beat Brad Benton, son of former Senator Don Benton. As noted in December, Sen. Jamie Peder- sen, 43rd Leg. District, is the Senate’s new majority leader. Additional new senators are Deb Krishnadasan succeeding Emily Randall in the 26th Legislative District, and former Rep. Tina Orwall appointed to fill the seat formerly held by Karen Keiser in the 33rd. Washington State House Democrats in the House also picked up a seat giving them a 59-39 majority. Adison Richards beat former Representative Jesse Young to take one of the House seats in the 26th Leg. District. Richards replaces Republican Spencer Hutchins, who did not run for re-election. 2025 Session Calendar Session begins Jan. 13 and runs for 105 days. Policy Committee Cut-off in the first house is February 21 Bills must be out of their house of origin March 12 Policy Committee Cut-off in the second house is April 2 Bills must be out of the second house April 16 Session ends April 27 PSARA Dates of Note Legislators began pre-filing their bills Dec. 1. These bills will be formally introduced in the House and Senate on January 13. See our website at psara.org for the link to pre-filed bills. The Government Relations Committee is finalizing PSARA’s 2025 legislative agenda, to be unveiled at the Legislative Conference on January 7. Featured speakers will be former House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senator Bob Hasegawa. Thanks to all our members who have completed and submitted the legislative survey. Please mark your calendars for our in-person Lobby Day in Olympia on March 18. Stay tuned for action. Pam Crone is a retired lobbyist and Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee (GRC). < Back to Table of Contents

Bill Gates Knows Best: Philanthropy Is Power Bill Gates has been getting a lot of press recently about his “green initiatives” PSARA member Michael Righi discusses why these initiatives are far from good environmental solutions. Read

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 Behind the Scenes of the WA Coal Act Mary Lou Dickerson and Barbara Carey The Washington Coal Act, SB 5439, is now in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and is unlikely to progress towards passage this year. The Act re- quires our state’s public pension board, the WSIB, to divest from coal and stop making new investments in coal as well. We should not be surprised or disappointed. Significant bills very often take a few years to pass, and this bill has already gathered unexpectedly broad and enthusiastic support during this difficult session. It generated thousands of supportive emailsto senators and developed a coalition of 10 active organizations backing it. We have made huge progress. Bills have a two-year life span. We will take that time to continue to build support and understanding of the need to divest fromthis deadly, dirty, energy source that contributes to climate change throughout the world, including right here in Washington. We will use the interim to raise important issues and question some of the WSIB's claims to legislators. We are enormously thankful to Senator Noel Frame (D-36), who sponsored the Washington Coal Act with six co-sponsors during thecurrent legislative session. The Board provided input to Senator Frame after the bill was introduced, claiming that the WSIB had only $119 million invested incoal and had reduced its exposure to coal from 0.33 percent in 2012 to 0.07percent in 2024. The chair of the Ways and Means Committee’s legislative assistant sent an email to some of the bill proponents saying Sen. Robinson would not be scheduling ahearing for the bill because the WSIB is reducing its coal investments and will probably continue to do so. Unfortunately, the method used by the WSIB to classify coal holdings only takes into account companies whose primary sourceof revenue is thermal coal, according to the MSCI Global Industry Standards Classification (GCIS). This method eliminates giantconglomerates whose huge coal operations may, nevertheless, be dwarfed by their other trading businesses. In contrast, the Global Coal Exit List (GCEL), used in the proposed WA Coal Act, is internationally recognized and used byinvestors, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and asset management companies around the world to get a clear viewof major coal operations worldwide. Investors representing almost $20 trillion in assets use the GCEL to evaluate theirinvestments. The GCEL turns up $2.6 billion in WSIB coal investments. That’s 24 times more than the WSIB counts in its coal holdings! The GCIS used by the WSIB makes it almost impossible to track substantial coal investments, while the GCEL provides a clear,annually updated status of major coal operations. The WSIB representative also posed the argument to Senator Frame, in an email opposing the WA Coal Act, that some WSIB coal investments “fall in the category of ‘brown-to-green’ investments, whereby companies are actively transitioning fromgreenhouse gas-in- tensive energy production or consumption to renewable energy sources.” WSIB’s example of such an investment, NTPC Ltd, is the largest power company in India – mainly coal-fired plants! That’s a bitshocking. NTPC’s generating capacity of 71 gigawatts is equivalent to 92 Centralia coal plants. While it claims to be adding 60 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2032, it is currently its coal production by the equivalent of 11 Centralia coal plants – not including its many subsidiaries. That certainly doesn't sound like a brown to green investment. The Washington Legislature passed the Clean Energy Transition Act in 2019, which bans the use of coal for energy inWashington after 2025. How is it that a state agency completely stonewalls against the intentions of the Legislature byrefusing to even acknowledge that there are ways it could better align with climate policies and simultaneously up theirgame in complying with their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their beneficiaries? This is not politics, this is prudence. Pensions are tasked with acting in the long-term best interest of beneficiaries, not makingshort-term gambles. Coal is dying out in the US and is being replaced by much less expensive renewables. Coal is not a good long-term investment. The long-term outlook for US coal is a steady downward trend. According to the Institute for Energy and Economic FinancialAnalysis (IEEFA), it’s possible that all the remaining US coal capacity could be shuttered by 2040. Britain, where the first coal plant was built in 1882, has already closed its last coal plant. Coal produces more green-housegases than any other energy form – not to mention toxic emissions that researchers estimate have caused 460,000 prematuredeaths in the US between 1999 and 2020. Fiduciary duty is a hallmark of the WA Coal Act. The WSIB is good at making investments with healthy returns. California andOregon have both passed coal divestment bills. CalPERS’ returns increased nearly $600 million in 2022 according to Wilshire, CalPERS’ consultant. Moving $2.6 billion from coal over 3-5 years into other investments is not a large ask for WSIB’s $200 billion portfolio. Many thanks to all the PSARA members who wrote to their senators about this significant issue. We ask you to continue toadvocate with us as we move forward toward passage. Mary Lou Dickerson is a former Washington State Representative, PSARA member, and Third Act Washington Policy Lead. Barbara Carey is a Divest Washington co-leader, PSARA member, and Washington State PERS3 Retiree. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 How WISeR Will Enable Companies to Profit from Pain – A Retired Physician’s Story Jaisri Lingappa, MD PhD As a retired and otherwise healthy physician, I recently endured weeks of intense pain this summer due to a herniated disk, which developed out of the blue without an obvious cause. This pain was beyond anything I had previously experienced – I am generally quite stoic, but these episodes reduced me to tears in the middle of the night. Disk herniation is a common spine condition that causes intense back pain and sciatica. The herniated (bulging) disk impinges on a spinal nerve causing inflammation that in turn increases pressure on the nerve leading to worse pain and inflammation in a vicious cycle. Epidural steroid injections are simple outpatient procedures that are performed in a few minutes without general anesthesia but must be done by a specialist using fluoroscopy (real- time X-ray imaging) to guide the injection to the site of the herniation. By delivering anti-inflammatory steroids to the exact site of the herniation, the epidural injection reduces the inflammation, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of pain and providing short term relief, often to a dramatic extent. In the long term, the patient’s immune system can trim the bulging disc, leading to a full recovery, but it is difficult for that healing process to begin when a patient is struggling with the vicious cycle of painful inflammation worsened by daily activity or impaired sleep. Thus, epidural steroid injection is a straightforward and minimally invasive procedure that can play a critical role in management of a common form of back pain. Pain specialists spend years learning when and how to use this important tool. Shockingly, “epidural steroid injection for pain management” is one of the 17 procedures that will soon require prior authorization for patients in Original (Traditional) Medicare in Washington State, thanks to a new program called WISeR(1) about to be instituted by Dr. Oz, the new Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS). My herniated disk prevented me from sleeping for more than 90 minutes at a time without severe pain for much of this past summer. Because my Washington State town lacks practitioners who offer epidural injection, I tried other approaches for pain relief, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, oral steroids, and intra- muscular steroid injections. But after seven weeks of repeated setbacks and severe sleep deprivation, I searched outside our area for the procedure. Because I am on Original Medicare, I was able to choose the best physician for this purpose regardless of location or network affiliation. A highly regarded pain specialist an hour away was able to schedule the initial visit in two weeks and the procedure, which included a diagnostic and therapeutic component, a week later. Within days after the procedure, I was sleeping pain-free for the first time in 10 weeks, and a couple days later I resumed my previous level of exercise. A month out from the procedure, I continue to be pain-free and my spine appears to be well on its way to healing. Under the new WISeR program, Washington State residents on Original Medicare will need prior authorization (PA) to obtain epidural steroid injections for pain management in the future, along with 16 other procedures - a list that could grow over time. Authorization will be decided by companies that use AI to make decisions and will gain profit through denying authorizations. This approach will be modeled on the current use of PA by Medicare Advantage (MA). MA, which is offered by for-profit insurers as an alternative to Original Medicare, has gained attention for the use of PA as a mechanism for enhancing corporate profits(2,3). “Data submitted by MA insurers show that 81.7% of prior authorization denials were overturned in 2023” upon appeal according to a recent article from Healthcare Uncovered (4). The success of most appeals shows that prior authorization denials are often medically inappropriate – in which case why is CMMS replicating MA programs already proven to be problematic (5) and imposing them on Original Medicare? I cannot begin to imagine how much worse it would have made my life to endure weeks or even months of additional excruciating pain and sleep deprivation while awaiting prior authorization and perhaps even an appeal. Is this what our country has come to? Will seniors now be forced to endure pain and illness, while knowing that relief used to be easily available if their physician deemed it necessary? Important procedures will soon be out of reach because our government allows corporations to reap huge profits by denying necessary healthcare. Citations: 1. WISeR Model RFA. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. P. 20. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/wiser-model-rfa.pdf 2. Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds. Reed Abelson, The New York Times, April 28, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/ health/medicare-advantage-plans- report.html 3. Insurers Pledge to Ease Controversial Prior Approvals for Medical Care. Reed Abelson, The New York Times, June 20, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/ health/health-insurance-prior-authori- zation.html 4. CMS is Trying to Expand Prior Authorization in Traditional Medicare Even Though All Data Points Say That’s a Bad Idea. Rachel Madley, Healthcare Uncovered, July 7, 2025. https://healthcareuncovered.substack . com/p/cms-is-trying-to-expand-prior- authorization 5. About the Current Prior Authorization System. AMA Website FixPrior- Auth. https://fixpriorauth.org/issue Jaisri Lingappa is a retired physician and professor of global health, and a member of PSARA's Level the Playing Field task force. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and Mass Deportation Anne Watanabe What comes to mind when you hear “alien enemies?” Hostile green creatures, Klingons threatening the Starship Enterprise, or – French people? Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act in 1798 during a US “quasi war” with France (naval hostilities that were never officially declared as war). Enacted during a time of fierce anti-French sentiment and fear of espionage and sabotage, the Act granted sweeping power to the president to detain and deport non-natives. This law, together with three other acts, formed the Alien and Sedition Acts. Even amidst 18th Century anti- French hysteria, the laws were controversial. Three of the four acts were quickly repealed or allowed to sunset. But the Alien Enemies Act remains in effect to this day. Why should we care? Because today anti-immigrant sentiment runs high, and incoming Presi- dent Trump campaigned on promises to use the Act to detain undocumented immigrants and carry out mass deportations. The Act states: “Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, re- strained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.” The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times. During the War of 1812, President Madison used it to require British nationals to report extensive information about themselves to the government. During World War I, President Wilson used the Act (newly amended to include women as well as men as “alien enemies”) to register hundreds of thousands of German nationals, and to place several thousand in internment camps – in some cases up to two years after fighting had ended. During WWII, President Roosevelt used the Act to detain and/or deport thou- sands of German, Italian, and Japanese nationals (Executive Order 9066 and military orders were used to incarcerate Japanese American US citizens). Despite lacking connection or loyalty to a former homeland (even German Jews who had fled Germany were included) noncitizens were treated as “alien enemies” based on national origin. If President Trump attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act to achieve mass deportations, he will of course face vigorous challenges. The Act refers to a “declared war” and has only been invoked during wartime. With its lack of procedural safeguards concerning detention or deportation, the 1798 Act runs counter to established principles of due process and equal protection, and it conflicts with modern immigration law. And yet… The Act also refers to an attempted or threatened “invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation or government. The President has described undocumented immigration as an “invasion,” perhaps laying the ground- work to use the Act during peacetime. The state of Texas did this in its clash with the Biden Administration, arguing that unlawful immigration constitutes an “invasion” allowing the state to use extraordinary measures. Several judges declined to decide whether an “invasion” had occurred, viewing this as a “political question” for the executive branch, not the judicial branch, under the doctrine established by the US Supreme Court in Baker v. Carr (1962). The potential thus exists for the judiciary to stand down when a president creates a pretext for using the Alien Enemies Act. For a deeper dive into this issue, the Brennan Center for Justice has an excellent legal analysis on its website: The Alien Enemies Act | Bren- nan Center for Justice. The sweeping powers granted by the Act may appeal to politicians who wish to detain and remove immigrants while bypassing hearings or other legal protections. If people can be treated as foreign enemies based on national origin, then due process, habeas corpus and other protections under domestic and international laws may be denied in the name of national security. In 2023, Senator Mazie Hirano and Rep. Ilhan Omar reintroduced their “Neighbors Not Enemies” Act (SB 1747/ HR 3610) to repeal the Alien Enemies Act (as of this writing, three Washington representatives have signed on). Politicians will still have other deportation tools at their disposal, but repeal of the Alien Enemies Act will protect immigrants from the abusive power of an 18th Century law -- so that we remain a nation of neighbors, not enemies. Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Commit- tee and a member of PSARA's Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2026 Building Community Power Jay Stansell (Reprinted by permission of the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice) While we have all become accustomed to the workshop labels "Know Your Rights" and "KYR," what we really need to teach each other is our collective "Community Power." Though mechanics of KYR remain key, when we invoke those rights today we will likely face illegal ICE response. Knowing our rights is no longer enough. We now teach and celebrate the Community Power that gives strength to our rights. Community Power strengthens each of us and invites others into our work, so that not one, but many, allies and at-risk Community Members come out to nonviolently face, expose and slow ICE enforcement; so that not one but many activists come out to video-record ICE, send text alerts to neighborhood watch groups; so that we speak to agents in large numbers but one voice: "We don't answer questions! Don't open your doors, ICE is present! You are not welcome in this space, in this community! We want you out of here!" And Community Power expands and grows the resistance. Each one of you has someone for whom you are a role model and an example of how to respond to the darkness around us all. Each of you has many more people who look to you for advice, knowledge and information about the challenges we face. We can bring these family, friends, and colleagues into the movement, and keep building our communities of care, compassion and resistance. The propaganda from ICE and the government wants us to believe that ICE is at war with the "worst of the worst" in our communities, that their numbers are so massive and armored that resistance is futile, when we, the people who live in these communities, know that they are attacking day-care workers, health care aides, roofers, landscapers, and the families that we see, respect and value every day. We train each other in Community Power, because there is strength, beauty and poetry in Community. We are many -- and growing more each day -- and the cruel and uncaring people in power right now are far fewer in comparison, and far less powerful than they believe. Thank you all for the work that you each do. It is a privilege to be among you in the effort to rebuild a better world. I'll close with some words from long-time activist Cleve Jones who spoke at San Franciso's No Kings rally on October 18, which perfectly capture how I view community: The pronouns I use the most are the ones probably understood the least by those in the White House today. They are WE, US and OURS. We are in this together. And it is up to us to be the leaders we need to save our country and our democracy. [...] What will you do to imagine and launch and sustain the massive campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience and non-cooperation that history informs us is now required? Look to your hearts and find the abiding strength that dwells there. Look to the sky and all the magnificent beauty that surrounds us still. Look to those who stand proudly at your shoulders. Look to your ancestors and claim your future. We are the people. Now is the time. This is the moment. Jay Stansell is a retired immigration attorney who has led Know Your Rights trainings with the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 Protecting our Assets and Protecting Our Asses Jeff Johnson "We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks, and dead ideas. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” Arundhati Roy, “The pandemic is a portal,” Financial Times, April 3, 2020 Novelist Arundhati Roy likens the Covid pandemic to a portal which allows us the opportunity to make the same mistakes again and again or to envision a new world where we listen to and fight for our better angels. I believe her poignant imagery and prose brilliantly describe the choice we have facing climate change. Scientists have discovered five past catastrophic events in our history where the diversity of life has plummeted - five periods of species extinction. Given the current rate of species decline and cataclysmic climate disasters, some are arguing that we are entering the Sixth Extinction. The question is, are we just doomed? Or can we mitigate climate change? I believe that if we act thoughtfully, focus on the common good, and act with sufficient urgency, we can go through the climate portal fighting for an equitable, just, and sustainable economy and world. “Protecting Our Assets and Protecting Our Asses” is the first in a series of articles makingthe case for divesting from fossil fuel assets and investing in Green New Deal solutions. The Challenge In January 2016, fresh from being part of the US labor delegation to the Paris Climate Accords, I testified before the Washington State House Environmental Committee, saying that “climate change is an existential crisis.” Speaking as president of the Washington State Labor Council,AFL-CIO, I received raised eyebrows by a number of committee members and a few knowing nods from others. Eight years later, the horrifying devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton in the Southeast and the multiple forest fires around Los Angeles should have convinced even the most skeptical among us that human-caused climate change poses an existential threat to life as we know it. Never, in our lifetimes, has the planet issued such a clear and resounding clarion call to do something. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that we are being told to leave fossil fuels in the ground; to make massive investments in non-fossil fuel renewable energy sources; to electrify our transportation infrastructure; to practice large scale regenerative agriculture; to invest in systemic energy retrofits to public and private buildings; and to figure out a global plan to address the accelerating climate refugee crisis. Unprecedented crises require unprecedented changes. We should invest in Green New Deal projects as if there were literally no tomorrow. Because if we don’t, our tomorrows will be pretty bleak. The Benefit Washington State Initiative 1631 was an attempt to go through the climate portal in an equitable, just, and sustainable way. Had 1631 passed, about $1.5 to $2.0 billion of clean energy projects a year would have been decided by a majority vote of environmental justice, labor, tribal, and environmental community leaders. These projects would have created tens of thousands of jobs with high labor standards – project labor agreements, prevailing wages, apprenticeship utilization standards, and local hire provisions. The initiative would also have created a “Just Transition” fund providing wage replacement, health care and pension benefits, and retraining benefits to displaced workers, keeping both workers and communities whole during the transition period. And of course, carbon emissions would have dramatically fallen, and there would have been no dubious carbon offsets to deal with. What Else Initiative 1631 was defeated by over $30 million contributed by the fossil fuel industry to sway the vote, and by not enough people recognizing the threat that climate change poses to our jobs, income, lives, and property. What has become increasingly clear is that climate change is a job killer, a budget killer, and a species killer. Every additional dollar invested in fossil fuels contributes to arable land becoming increasingly scarce; shrinking fresh water reserves; a further loss of jobs, lives, and property; and tens of millions of climate refugees fleeing for their lives. There is a moral imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since every dollar in- vested in fossil fuels accelerates climate disaster. There is an economic and budgetary imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since every dollar spent cleaning up climate disasters is a dollar not spent on education, health care, addressing poverty and inequality, affordable housing, or public safety. This, of course, translates into thousands of lost jobs and a declining quality of life for most of us. There is a fiscal imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since fossil fuels are consistently underperforming other assets. Sometime in the future, fossil fuel assets will become stranded assets. Financial prudence should, if nothing else, dictate replacing underperforming fossil fuel assets with climate-affirming assets with a promise of higher returns. I have hope that in Washington State we are prescient and bold enough to go through the climate portal by investing in the clean energy economy as if there were no tomorrow. We should dramatically reduce our public and private consumption of fossil fuels and divest our state funds and public and private union pension funds from fossil fuels as well. There is still time left to make good choices. How about we save our assets and our asses at the same time. Jeff Johnson is a former President of the Washington State Labor Council and the Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents