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The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2025 It’s a Stew Midway Legislative Report Pam Crone Every legislative session has a distinctive flavor. The 2025 session is no different. What is the flavor of the 2025 session? It’s a stew. Brand new Governor Ferguson bringing his own style of governing and priorities. Huge budget deficit projected over the next four years. Loads of new senators and house members. Uncertainty at the federal level and potential impacts on the state, both policy-wise and fiscally. How this will all come together is a mystery at this time. As of the writing of this article, we are a little over halfway through the session. More will be revealed as the session progresses. We haven’t seen a budget deficit like the one we are facing this year since the lean years of the great recession beginning in 2008. Most of today’s legislators have never had to reckon with the prospect of massive cuts to essential public services. These days there may be more appetite for progressiverevenue, but we shall see. We still have a number of priority bills from our original 2025 legislative agenda moving, as well as some casualties of the first chamber cut-off in March. Do note that everything that passed its house of origin must go through the same process in the other house. If the bill passes both chambers, its final form must be the same before it can go to the Governor for signature. Still Alive and Kicking SJM 8002 Protecting Original Medicare and Leveling the Playing Field passed the Senate 30-19. SJM 8004 Supporting efforts to advance Universal Healthcare passed the Senate 30-19. SB 5291 Strengthening and Protecting WA Cares passed the Senate 38-11. HB 1217 Ensuring reasonable and more predictable rent increases passed the House 53-42. HB 1491 Creating affordable housing close to transit passed the House 58-39. HB 1213 Extending job protection in the Family and Medical Leave Program passed the House 55-41. SB 5041 Extending unemployment benefits to striking workers passed the Senate 28-21. SB 5284 Improving solid waste management by reducing the use of plastic wrap and containers passed the Senate 27-22. Casualties SB 5344/HB 1523 Ensuring quality affordable healthcare for nursing home workers. SB 5626/HB 1773 Providing wage replacement (unemployment benefits) to undocumented workers. SB 5541/HB 1661 Building eco- nomic security through WA Future Fund Pilot Program. SB 5768/HB 1214 Expanding the Working Families Tax Credit. SB 5439 Divesting WA State In- vestment Board funds from fossil fuels (No Coal Act) SB 5380/HB 1303 Increasing environmental justice by improving government decisions (Curb Act) The 2025 session is the first session of the two-year biennium. Bills that die in 2025 spring to life again in 2026, so there is still hope. Yet to heat up will be budget discussions around creating a balanced budget with revenue rather than making cuts to essential services. PSARA will be part of the advocacy effort around progressive revenue. The May Retiree Advocate will carry a review of the wins and losses of the 2025 legislative session. As always, stay well, active, and engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Pam Crone is a retired lobbyist and the Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2026 Moving Closer to the World of Repair: Seattle-King County African American Reparations Committee Anne Watanabe Every day brings more bad news, including attacks on communities of color. It can be overwhelming and discouraging. But we must not overlook the steady progress being made by dedicated organizations such as the Seattle-King County African American Reparations Committee (SAARC). PSARA has issued a policy statement supporting Black reparations -- the need to redress US chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism, and their long legacy of harm to Black Americans. Across the nation, federal, state, and local governments have taken steps, albeit slow steps, to achieve reparations. Several years ago, PSARA Executive Board member, civil rights leader, and former King County Councilmember Larry Gossett convened meetings that brought local elected leaders and over 30 organizations in the African American community together to create a reparations movement in the Seattle-King County area. These efforts led to the creation of the Seattle-King County African American Reparations Committee (SAARC). Larry, together with PSARA Executive Board member Claude Burfect, a long-time leader in the Black and labor communities, brought volunteers together to plan and grow SAARC. Both Larry and Claude continue to guide SAARC. SAARC eventually grew into today’s organization, which advocates for Black reparations. SAARC recently published its 2025 Housing and Labor Report. The report focuses on King County, noting that King County has the state’s highest number of Black residents, but “has one of the state’s sharpest degrees of wealth inequality, far exceeding national rates.” The report points out that housing discrimination has been a major factor in creating wealth inequity. Practices such as redlining, underinvestment by local governments and banks, and other forms of discrimination deprived Black communities of home purchases, a major source of generational wealth. A study cited in the report calculated that the financial impact of discriminatory housing practices in King County ranged from $5.4 billion to $15.8 billion from 1950 to 2019. SAARC’s report cites the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice, which reported in 2024 that 22 local jurisdictions “have approved a reparations commission or task force, and eleven states have introduced legislation to create one.” The AAMC also cautioned that “reparations, even when broadly defined and not limited to cash payments, are not supported by most of the public,” and that “those committed to health and racial justice must do a better job of connecting the dots between historic injustice and modern-day inequity.” But despite the seeming national lack of support for reparations, a study recently commissioned by SAARC indicates that over 58 percent of King County residents support reparations (compared with 30 percent nationally). Interestingly, the study found that messaging regarding a need to remedy redlining and restrictive covenants received stronger support than did messaging about economic justice. So there is much cause for hope, especially in King County, for repairing the harms of generations of racial discrimination in housing. Furthermore, SAARC’s advocacy has led to state and local government support for a study that is being administered by the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs. SAARC has identified a number of research and policy recommendations; hopefully those will be considered and incorporated into the upcoming state study. SAARC’s “immediate policy recommendations” are for: direct compensatory payments; housing reparations; and county funding for Black/African American entrepreneurs. SAARC has also identified future policy recommendations that address education inequities, health inequities, criminal justice and policing, and environmental racism and displacement. Davida Ingrahm, SAARC Executive Director, notes that SAARC is engaged in building partnerships, including intergenerational partnerships, to identify the policies and common ground that leads all of us into a world of repair. How do we live well together? She urges us to look into the future and focus on what we care about – if we can do that, it is what will happen. Larry’s hope is that Black reparations in the Seattle-King County area will provide a foundation for Black families to build generational wealth through home ownership. He would like to see Seattle become the second city in the nation (behind Evanston, Illinois) to create a robust reparations program related to housing. PSARA will support SAARC in its efforts to achieve these recommendations – so please stay tuned to our newsletter and emails, and please visit SAARC - Seattle/King County African American Reparations Committee to learn more about how we can achieve a future we want. Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2025 Somtimes it's Not Sweet in Life, but Other Times There's Good News Dina Burstein Many of you have read in this newsletter about my beloved friend Mohamed, who is incarcerated at Walla Walla State Penitentiary. Now I have amazing news to share with you about Mohamed’s legal case. Background: Mohamed is an immigrant from Somalia, now 38 years old. He was convicted in 2014 of charges related to an altercation on the street in which one personsustained minor injuries to his hand. For this, Mohamed was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He has been in prison at Walla Walla since 2015. To get a sense of what Mohamed is like, and what his life is like, you can read the columns Mohamed and I wrote for the Retiree Advocate here: www.psara.org/newsletter-archive News since our last column: Mohamed completed his AA degree! His college teacher asked permission for Mohamed to become a TA in his classes, but the prison did not allow He has fasted and prayed his way through another Ramadan in prison. And best news of all: The Seattle Clemency Project spent months investigating Mohamed’s case and has agreed to help represent him in a clemency case. Three attorneys at a Seattle private law firm, in cooperation with the Seattle Clemency Project, are now putting together a clemency case to submit to Governor Ferguson. There are other legal hurdles ahead for Mohamed, but this is a great start. Mohamed’s legal team has asked for letters of support from people in the community who know Mohamed or who have come to know him from his writings. If you have been moved by reading Mohamed’s columns, and might be interested in writing a letter of support for Mohamed, please email me at dinaburstein@gmail.com This is how Mohamed explained his perspective on living a 40-year sentence in prison: Sometimes it's not sweet in life. This is one of those things. The way I was going, drinking, life on the street, I was heading to get killed. Thank God I got a chance to re-live my life in prison. The ones still out there can’t. They’re stuck. As soon as I was in jail, I started praying again. I needed that break (the arrest) to get my life back. I was able to get my life back! Opened my eyes. Once I was pulled out of life on the street, I knew what I needed to do to live the life I wanted to live. Dina Burstein is a member of PSARA and an activist with the Jewish Coalition < 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 2026 The Fight for Medicare in 2026 Robby Stern The attack by the Trump administration and their Republican sycophants on healthcare coverage will land with tragic consequences on a very large number of people in the US. With compassion for the suffering caused by the Trumpian attacks and determination based on belief in social and economic justice, the movement for Improved Medicare for All will grow and become more and more vocal. Meanwhile, our fight to preserve and expand original public Medicare will continue, as will our educational work exposing the consequences of for-profit Medicare Advantage (MA) and the introduction of the WISeR pilot program. We know the drive for increasing profits leads to abuse and fraud by the insurance companies. Requiring frequent prior authorizations (more than 50 million in 2024), upcoding, cherry picking and lemon dropping (i.e. offloading sicker patients), and offer-ing a limited network of providers are all about profit. The growing trend of large corporations like United Health Group owning subsidiaries like Optum that employ provider networks and/or pharmacy benefit managers create multiple opportunities to extract profit from the Medicare Trust Fund. Their practices will continue until we build a strong enough movement to stop them. The WISeR pilot program began on January 1, 2026 in Washington. That’s bad news. It expands the use of prior authorization in Original Medicare, adding 17 procedures. It also introduces the use of private, for-profit corporations to determine whether these 17 procedures will be covered by Medicare. These corporations are required to use AI to make the determination and will be paid a larger reimbursement for denials. The good news is that our education and advocacy work has been very effective, and our members have made a big difference. Most recently, Sen. Patty Murray introduced S. 3480, a bill prohibiting the Secretary of Health and Human Services from implementing the WISeR pilot program in Medicare. There are 18 Senators co-sponsoring the legislation including Sen. Cantwell. Sen. Murray’s bill is companion legislation to Rep. DelBene’s legislation in the House. HR 5940 also bars the Secretary of Health and Human Services from implementing WISeR. Introduced in November, HR 5940 has 38 co-sponsors, including all the Democratic representatives in Washington, except for Rep. Glusenkamp Perez. We will try to get her support in 2026. It is unlikely these bills will pass in 2026, but they are a good organizing tool. Our work in 2026 will include building momentum to end WISeR before the scheduled six-year termination date. PSARA is a member of the national Reclaim Medicare Coalescence, which includes a number of organizations that have a significant presence in Washington, DC, and wide national outreach. The coalescence has adopted as a goal the introduction of the Level the Play-ing Field legislation, hopefully in 2026. Members of the coalescence also play a major role in researching and exposing the abuses of the Medicare Advantage corporations, and they advocate for regulations and legislation to put an end to these abuses. We are all working to terminate WISeR, and many of the organizations in the Reclaim Medicare Coalescence support Rep. Jayapal’s Improved Medicare for All legislation (HR30069). Here are some things our members can do to help in the coming year: Help us find venues where we can educate and advocate about leveling the playing field, about achieving Improved Medicare for All, and ending the abuses and fraud of Medicare Advantage. If you or someone you know has a personal story of problems related to the healthcare being provided by a Medicare Advantage plan or if you are on Original Medicare and have a personal story related to the use of prior authorization in the WISeR program, please email organizer@psara.org to let us know. Personal stories are powerful. We will not use your name unless you give us permission. When you receive emails urging you to contact elected officials, please continue to respond with action. For example, we will be working to have legislation introduced in Congress to level the playing field related to benefits between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. We are educating and advocating for the legislation to set an affordable cap on out-of-pocket costs in Original Medicare, making it unnecessary to purchase Medigap insurance. It will also include hearing, dental, and vision coverage. When the legislation is introduced, we will need assistance in getting co-sponsors from the Washington Congressional delegation. In the state legislature we will be educating and advocating for the passage of SJM 8002, which puts the state legislature on record calling for Congress to stop the fleecing of the Medicare Trust Fund by Medicare Advantage and level the play-ing field between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. We want Medicare beneficiaries to have a real financial choice between the public plan and the private for-profit plans. We will also support efforts to restore the cuts to Medicaid. Will Parry, the former inspirational leader of PSARA, would frequently sing the song "Carry It On," made famous by Joan Baez. In 2026, we will resist attacks on Medicare and Medicaid and demonstrate there is a better way. We will carry it on. Robby Stern is President of the PSARA Education Fund and a member of PSARA's Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 I Vaahnt to…Organize Your Workers! Mike Andrew You may remember Bela Lugosi in his iconic title role in Dracula. Or you may remember him as the evil Russian commissar inNinotchka. Or in his roles as the villain in a series of B grade hor- ror films. If you’re a Tim Burton fan, you may think of him as theloopy character played by Martin Landau in Ed Wood. The real-life Bela Lugosi was born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary, on October 20, 1882. As an actor, hetook the stage name “Lugosi” in honor of his birth- place. As part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungary entered World War I in 1914, and Lugosi, like other young men, volunteered forthe Hungarian army. Like other young men, he experienced the horror of war – at one point being an article praising the Soviet Union to the socialist magazine New Masses. Before long, Lugosi’s political activities caught the attention of J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI and CIA both opened files on theactor. The House Un-Amer- ican Activities Committee (HUAC) appointed the so-called “Dracula council” to keep tabs on Lugosi.INS even looked into deporting him, despite the fact that he had held American citizenship since 1931. Lugosi was not the only horror star to be targeted for their political activism. Fellow Hungarian refugee Peter Lorre, star of M, andVincent Price, who had appeared in the Invisible Man Returns, received scrutiny for participating in the anti-HUAC radiobroadcast “Hollywood Strikes Back.” The two spoke buried alive under the corpses of his fellow soldiers. And, like many other young men, he came out of the war as a firm supporter of socialism. The war led to the collapse of most` of the old European empires. The Bol- sheviks established the world’s first socialist state onthe ruins of the Russian Empire. The Kaiser fled Germany, and the new German government, with the help of right-wing militias,barely put down a communist-led insurrection. The Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up into its constituent parts. In Hungary, local communists attempted to replicate theRussian revolution, setting up the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. Lugosi, by then already an activist in the Hungarian actor’sunion, supported the revolution. The Hungarian Soviet was short- lived. Britain and France encouraged Romania to invade Hungary and occupy a large part ofits territory. Admiral Miklós Horthy, a leftover from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, set up a military dictatorship in the remainder of Hungary. Lugosi fled the country. He ended up in New York where he acted in Hungarian stage plays before being cast in the English language play The Red Poppy. In 1927, he was cast in the role that made him famous: Count Dracula. Lugosi’s charismatic stage performance and his persistent lobbying of Universal Studios got him the role in the 1931 film version. After his star-making film role in Dracula, Lugosi became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Another founding member was Frankenstein star and frequent Lugosi costar Boris Karloff. The two actors worked to sign up the casts of their films, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Raven, and The Invisible Ray. Theirefforts paid off when SAG signed its first contract with the Hollywood studios in 1937. Lugosi’s solidarity extended beyond his fellow actors. During World War II, Bela Lugosi headed the Hungarian American Council for Democracy, an anti-fascist organization. In 1945 he signed a petition protesting the deportation proceedings against ILWU leader Harry Bridges. Lugosi also contributed out alongside Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and other stars. Lorre was also investigated because of his long-standing friendship with Marxist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Price was unable to find work for a year due to his outspokenness, and under pressure from the FBI had to sign a secret oath that he was not a communist. Socialist Themes in Lugosi’s Horror Films No one would say Lugosi made great films, but many of his movies contain memorable political and social themes. The 1932 film White Zombie, in which Lugosi played voodoo master Murder Legendre, dramatizes the exploitation of Black Haitians. Legendre uses his zombie slaves to work his sugar mill and increase his wealth. He offers his zombie workers to a plantation owner saying “They are not worried about long hours.” When one of the zombies falls into the mill and is crushed, work continues as usual. Nothing is allowed to delay the productionof profits. This scene is in- tended as a critique of the forced labor system that was actually introduced in Haiti during what was then a US military occupation. Another 1932 horror film, Island of the Lost Souls, an adaptation of the Island of Doctor Moreau, contains similar anti-colonial themes. Lugosi has the small, but important role of the Sayer of the Law, the mouthpiece of Dr. Moreau’slaws for the Beast Men. At the climax of the film, the Beast Men attack Moreau, after the Doctor has ordered one ofthem to commit murder. The purpose of the oppressor’s laws are revealed to be total control over the masses, and he is free to break his own laws whenconvenient. Moreau defends him- self with a whip, the tool of the slaver. This climax was so shocking that the film was banned in many countries. Tellingly, in Australia it was forbidden from being shown to Aboriginal audiences, lest they get any ideas of how to deal withtheir colonial overlords. The 1934 film The Black Cat was a highpoint in Lugosi’s filmography. The film was the first to team him with Boris Karloff and both actors give stunning performances. The plot follows Werdegast (Lugosi) and Poelzig (Karloff), both veterans of the Eastern front during World War I. Poelzig betrayed Werdegast and the other soldiers to the enemy and left them for dead. Lugosi as Werdegast gives a powerful anti-war monologue saying, “Did we not both die here in Marmorus 15 years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead?” Many of Lugosi's films are available on popular streaming services. They're worth a look. Mike Andrew is the Executive Director of PSARA and Editor of the Advocate < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2026 Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act Steve Kofahl On September 10, 2025, Bernie Sanders introduced this legislation,S. 2763, along with 29 original Senate Democrat co-sponsors. Another added his name a few days later. It was referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where Oregon Senator Ron Wyden serves as Ranking Member. Wyden, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, and Senator Patty Murray are original co-sponsors. Finance Committee member Maria Cantwell has not yet signed-on. So, who are these billionaires and wannabes? We can start with Elon Musk, whose net worth approaches $1 trillion. His so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has wreaked havoc at the Social Security Administration (SSA) beginning last year. DOGE involvement was enthusiastically welcomed by SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, whose own net worth has been estimated at $254 million to $1 billion. Bisignano, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ($500-$700 million), Labor Secretary Lori Chave-DeRemer ($150 million), and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ($15-30 million) constitute the Social Security Trustees, charged with over-sight of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds and annual reporting on their status. Two public Trustee positions, to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and required to be from different political parties, remain vacant. It would be good to add two Trustees who better represent Americans of more modest means. The purpose of S. 2763 is to permanently appropriate funding for the administrative expenses of the SSA, and for other purposes. It would exempt SSA from DOGE jurisdiction, and from the application of four Trump Executive Orders (E.O.). E.O. 14158 established DOGE, E.O. 14210 concerns DOGE and Reductions in Force of the Federal workforce, E.O. 14219 addresses deregulation, and E.O. 14222 concerns cost efficiency related to Federal grants and contracts. The bill would prohibit political appointees and special government employees, except those in a position to research, analyze, or improve delivery of benefits to program recipients, from accessing any beneficiary data system. It allows civil actions for negligent disclosure or access, up to $5,000 for each act (or actual damages if greater), and punitive damages for gross negligence. Enforcement actions are allowed for five years after a plaintiff discovers a violation. Any Federal employee investigated by the SSA Office of Inspector General for a violation, and found guilty, would be subject to dismissal from Federal service, and criminal penalties up to $10,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment. The Comptroller of the US. would be tasked with monthly and detailed annual reporting to the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees. SSA authority to except positions from competitive service (those with civil service job protections), and to transfer positions, is limited. The SSA Commissioner may transfer no more than 1% of employees to excepted positions per Presidential term, with employee consent required. Only deceased individuals, based on clear and convincing evidence, may be added to the SSA Death Master file. The SSA Commissioner is required to maintain, at minimum, the same number of SSA offices that existed on January 1, 2025. Except in case of short-term emergency or office relocation, he must not reduce levels of service. Meaningful and efficient access to live operator assistance must be maintained, with significant improvements within 12 months to telephone wait times and call back times, and average service times as compared to calendar year 2024. The Commissioner could open new offices, but must make recommendations to Congress regarding changes in office locations, consolidations, or closures. He can increase staffing, but cannot reduce it below the calendar year 2024 level. Hiring freezes or prohibitions, reduction-in-force orders, or similar policies are prohibited. The Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Transformation, and Analytics Review and Oversight offices are re-established and incorporated in the Social Security Act. The Social Security Act is amended, effective October 1, 2025, to appropriate 1.2% of the sum of benefit payments required to be made for program administration. This spending authority is removed from budget caps, the Congressional Budget Resolution, and other allocations. It is not counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts or deficit/surplus for purposes of the annual Budget, the Balance Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, the statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, or the Congressional Budget Resolution Act of 1974. Efforts to increase awareness of eligibility for disabled children to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and to reduce backlogs of disability claims/appeals/reviews are funded at $2 billion for Fiscal Years 2026-2035. The allocation would also increase the menu of available online services, including an online SSI application. Effective with overpayment determinations made 3/25/24 or later, monthly benefits can be reduced by no more than 10% for recovery, except when a beneficiary requests a higher rate. The Commissioner may make payments to states’ protection and advocacy systems to protect legal rights of disabled individuals pursuant to the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. For five years beginning 10/1/25, SSA is to award at least 10 grants/year to community-based organizations to assist individuals with disabilities during claim and appeals processes. Up to $15 million is allocated annually. The Social Security Independence and Program Improvement Act of 1994, Public Law 103-296, took SSA out of HHS and made it an independent agency. It was supposed to insulate SSA from political budget cycles. It was exciting at the time, as we at the American Federation of Government Employees who had pressed for it for years, and many in Congress who had worked on it, believed that an independent SSA would no longer have to compete with other agencies and programs for administrative funding. Office of Management and Budget disagreed with that interpretation. If we can get this legislation passed, SSA will finally be able to provide the services and timely payments that workers have paid for and deserve. Steve Kofahl is a retired president of AFGE 3937, representing Social Security workers, a member of PSARA's Execu-tive Board, and Co-Chair of PSARA's Social Security task force. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents September 2025 Workgroup on Data Centers Convened This Year Anne Shields Data centers provide the infrastructure, computing resources, and efficient cooling systems needed to train and run complex AI models. In February, Governor Ferguson issued an executive order commissioning a workgroup to recommend policies on data centers in Washington State. The workgroup will report on their findings about how data centers impact our state's economy, tax revenue, energy use, tribal resources, and the environment. The next workgroup meeting is scheduled for late September. You can follow workgroup membership, meetings, and materials on this webpage: https://dor.wa.gov/about/data-center-workgroup PSARA members on Third Act WA’s Power Up Team are partnering with the all-volunteer Washington Clean Energy Coalition to monitor workgroup proceedings and develop recommendations. The preliminary recommendations to the workgroup will include: WA emissions goals upheld. Data centers operating in Washington State should be powered by renewable energy. Data centers should not com- promise goals in reducing emissions specified in the Climate Commitment Act and the Clean Energy Transformation Act. No cost increases for WA customers. Data centers should not increase the cost of electricity for residential or commercial customers in our state. No financial support through our taxes. Local and state tax increases should not contribute to the construction and operation of data centers. No adverse impacts on nearby WA communities and habitats. Data centers should not affect the availability of clean water in nearby communities, as happened elsewhere, or harm fish and wildlife by releasing heated water into the environment. Public information available on costs and benefits. Builders and operators should be required to provide timely and transparent data on the costs and benefits of data centers. The public needs sufficient information to understand how these facilities will meet their obligations before construction begins. Electric service capacity and resiliency intact. Data centers should not reduce grid capacity or resiliency during extreme weather events or natural disasters. If you’d like to get involved in the coalition’s work on data centers or other utilities and electrification projects, contact Chris Goelz or Anne Shields on the PSARA Climate and Climate Justice Committee to learn about ways you can contribute to these efforts. Anne Shields is a member of Third Act and an active member of PSARA's Climate and Environmental Justice Committee < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2026 Why Responsible Investing Matters for Retirees—and Our Future Laila Salib For retirees, few things matter more than stability: secure pensions, reliable Social Security and Medicare, and an economy healthy enough to support future generations. These goals are directly connected to how our public funds are invested—and they can be undermined by investments in harmful industries. The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) currently invests in dozens of companies whose practices pose risks to environmental health, workers’ rights, human rights, and long-term public well-being. Investments in the “war economy” also strengthen corporations that lobby Congress for ever-larger Pentagon budgets. The result is a vicious cycle: war spending grows, social programs shrink, and retirees pay the price. Large weapons manufacturers illustrate the problem clearly. Beyond producing instruments of war, these companies have caused significant environmental harm. In the early 2000s, Northrop Grumman alone was linked to more than 20 EPA Superfund sites. Weapons production is resource-intensive, carbon-heavy, and often exempt from environmental standards applied to other industries. The resulting toxic waste, groundwater contamination, and long-term health risks raise public healthcare costs and strain Medicare and other social supports. Labor practices are another concern. Despite receiving billions in public contracts, major weapons manufacturers have histories of union-busting, outsourcing, and wage suppression. A 2020 Government Accountability Office report found that more than 700 defense contractors were cited for willful or repeated safety, health, or fair-labor violations between 2015 and 2019. Weak labor standards erode the economic foundation that Social Security and Medicare depend upon. These corporations also wield enormous political influence. Weapons manufacturers rank among the most powerful lobbying forces in Congress, helping sustain rising military budgets even as lawmakers claim there is “not enough money” for Social Security, Medicare, affordable housing, or elder care. Every dollar unnecessarily spent on weapons is a dollar not invested in the well-being of seniors, families, and communities at home. International conflicts may feel distant, but investment decisions connect us directly to their consequences. For more than two years, Palestinians have endured devastating civilian harm and displacement. Over the past two years alone, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 169,000 injured in Gaza. The human costs of investments in companies tied to serious human-rights violations and complicit in genocide are real—and these reverberate here at home. Technologies developed and tested in military contexts abroad, such as mass surveillance and predictive policing tools, are increasingly used by US agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. For example, ICE contracts with Palantir, a company whose software is used with impunity by the Israeli military against civilians. What is deployed overseas does not stay overseas. The effects on our communities are devastating. Washington for Peace and Justice (WA4PJ), alongside Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), is asking pension holders to join the “Cut Ties with Genocide” coalition. Advocates can learn more or sign on at cut-ties.org . WA4PJ and JVP are also supporting anticipated legislation by Representative Farivar that would require WSIB to adopt a responsible investment frame-work—one that weighs environmental damage, labor practices, and social risk alongside financial returns. This approach does not sacrifice performance; research consistently shows that responsible investing can reduce long-term risk and improve stability in funds. As Jeff Johnson noted in last month’s PSARA newsletter, “when a respected fund like WSIB shifts away from harmful investments, it sends a powerful signal to other institutional investors." You can learn more and organizations can sign on at futures-wa.org . Retirees understand better than most that long-term thinking matters. Supporting responsible investment standards is a practical, fiscally sound step toward protecting pensions, strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and leaving a healthier, more stable world for generations to come. For these reasons, supporting this future bill is not only an ethical choice—it is a smart investment in our collective future. Laila Saliba is Treasurer of the PSARA Education Fund and an activist with Washington for Peace and Justice, in coalition with Jewish Voice for Peace. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents November 2025 Stunning New Report From PNHP No Real Choices: How Medicare Advantage Fails Seniors of Color In a stunning new report, PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) reveals that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans fail to deliver on their promises of equity for seniors of color. According to the report, seniors of color continue to face all the disparities in health care that characterize the US health care system. the disparities MA plans still impose on seniors of color. The Medicare Advantage ('MA') program, through which health insurance corporations contract with the federal government to deliver Medicare benefits, offers enrollees few upfront costs, an out-of-pocket maximum, extra benefits, and a simple enrollment process. However, these advertised benefits show themselves to be hollow when carefully studied, revealing a program that compromises access, equity, and quality of care. Evidence from an exhaustive literature review and new research reveals that MA enrollees often encounter steep barriers to the physicians and hospitals people with complex conditions need for medically necessary care. Contrary to claims from the insurance industry that MA is a solution to inequity, racial and ethnic minorities enrolled in MA continue to face many of the longstanding disparities that are common in American healthcare. The financial model of MA does little to mitigate existing inequities – and often exacerbates them by disproportionately offering communities of color inferior insurance products. At the same time, MA places a heavier burden on federal spending than Traditional Medicare (TM), which raises doubts about whether the program truly provides worthwhile returns for the people it is meant to serve. Summary of PNHP Report How Medicare Advantage Fails Seniors of Color < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 Make Crypto Great Again Michael Righi Who bought the 2024 election? We all know about Elon Musk. But there was another huge source of election cash – cryptocurrency (it’s not really currency) firms and their wealthy owners. Crypto Political Action Committees (PACs) spent $265 million on the elec- tion, the most of any “industry.” What did they get for their money? FairShake, a crypto PAC, helped defeat critic Katie Porter in the California Democratic primary. FairShake, along with AIPAC, helped defeat progressives Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman in their primaries. Crypto money’s biggest win was taking down Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, the Democratic leader on the Senate Banking Committee. They also helped Trump, who, back in the day, derided crypto as “thin air,” But recognizing a good scam, Trump and family are now all in. Besides Musk, Trump is surrounding himself with crypto parasites, from J.D. Vance to Paul Atkins (SEC appointee) and Howard Lutnick (Commerce). And who knew we needed an AI and Crypto Czar (David Sacks)? Rug Pulls and Wash Trading If it’s not currency, what is it? Currency, or money, is a social construct we have developed to buy and sell things and services. This may sound weird, but money is based on trust – trust that the bank where you deposited your pay will make payments when you write a check (old school) or use a card or a digital payment system. Or trust that the government will accept payment in the currency it prints and make depositors whole if a bank goes belly-up. In addition, the central bank will rescue the financial system as a whole if private banks or finance institutions threaten a collapse or depression. That’s what happened in 2008. Neo- liberal deregulation allowed bankers to create and speculate (“innovate,” they call it) on a whole slew of risky financial derivatives. These crashed in value, and the private banks were bailed out by central banks buying their bad assets. Financial fraud was revealed, but no one went to jail. Banks and bankers were bailed out, and homeowners were not. So in 2008, a private group created Bitcoin, a digital currency that was supposed to bypass the corrupt top-down financial institutions and allow users to make payments directly to each other. Did that work? Well, not really. Extremely complicated computer verification of transactions makes it impossible to use crypto to buy a cup of coffee or your groceries. It is not money. But hundreds and thousands of companies now issue cryptocurrency and crypto tokens. So what are they? They are “investments” of a very peculiar kind. They are not shares of stock in a company that produces or owns some thing. They are just pieces of digital code that are being traded back and forth in what is a gambling economy. Crypto shills said it would go up in value forever. Influencers pushed it. This became a perfect opportunity for fraudsters to create a token, get inter- net posters to push it, then pull the rug out by selling at the top, leaving small investors to take the loss. Or buy and sell tokens back and forth from one account to another, driving up values, then getting out. Casino Capitalism Covid meant too many folks were isolated in front of their computer screens, trying to make the big score. This culminated in the Super Bowl ads of 2022, with Matt Damon and Kim Kardashian helping to push crypto to $3 trillion. Then, the inevitable crash came in May of that year and wiped out $2 trillion of that value. Of course, the “whales” were not wiped out; smaller investors were. From 2015 to 2022, 75 percent of crypto investors lost money. Speculative investments enrich only the already wealthy. We do have to recognize what crypto actually is good for. Because crypto holdings are pseudo-anonymous, trans- actions are hidden. So it is useful to opioid traffickers, tax avoiders, money launderers, ransomware hackers, gun runners, and anyone trying to avoid international sanctions. We have plenty of reasons to want to limit crypto and its scammers and criminals. But crypto businesses want more, and the incoming administration is poised to give it to them. They want “light-touch” regulation that would mainstream them. They do not want to be prosecuted for fraud, as many of them should be. They want crypto to be designated as a special asset, not a security with all the investor protections that implies. With very light legitimizing regulation, they could draw in millions from our pension funds and other traditional investment funds. That would mean their booms and crashes and fraud would have a more significant impact on the traditional financial system, the one we use. Yes, we need to reform that system with stricter regulation and new initiatives like postal accounts and public banks. But we also have to protect it from fraudsters and casino capitalists. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate Editorial Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 Organizing for Immigrant Human Rights Cindy Domingo Every day for the last month we have been assaulted by the Trump administration’s coup and the dismantling of our government that upholds our US democracy. However, nothing is more heart breaking than the media coverage of handcuffed and shackled immigrants, many of them children, being loaded onto planes for deportation. US citizens are being questioned and asked for birth certificates and pass- ports because they spoke Spanish in public or looked like they were Mexican or Latino. Weare again hearing about parents being deported leaving their children behind. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sit outside nonprofits that serve predominantly Latinos merely to intimidate clients, striking fear in employees that one day they won’t see particular beloved people because they were deported. On the legal front, Trump has cut legal aid funding that assists immigrants in their asylum requests. They fled countries where they faced economic hardships and violence. Funding has even been cut for lawyers of children unaccompanied by parents when they crossed the US southern border, leaving them vulnerable to human and sex trafficking. Trump ran on a platform blaming the ills of our society on undocumented immigrants of color. Unemployment, the housing crisis, lack of money for social services, gang and gun violence, and drug addiction are all a result of our southern border not being secure. According to Trump, President Biden and Vice President Harris allowing thousands of “bad” immigrants into our country. Congress followed suit in late January when they passed the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man. That act, passed with bipartisan support, including Washington State Congresswomen Marie Gluesencamp Perez and Kim Schrier. It is a broad sweeping law that allows for the detainment of non-citizens for almost any crime, including shoplifting. Non-citizens can include DACA students and people on special visas, like the Temporary Status Program. Trump has also canceled funding for refugee resettlement programs that are impact- ing Ukrainian, Sudanese, and other peoples fleeing war torn countries. In Washington State, this is having a devastating impact even though we have one of the best refugee resettlement programs, initiated by Republican Governor Dan Evans in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Washington State's legal aid programs have already been cut due to Trump and Elon Musk’s cuts to federal funding, and ICE has stepped up the numbers of deportees flown out of King County International Airport. However, Trump’s mass deportation of immigrants and refugees has not gone without a response by the immigrant rights communities, labor movement, legal community, and others. But it will take a mass movement, a broad united front, to both protect immigrants and refugees and project a vision of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Standing for Democracy (see February issue of The Retiree Advocate) aims to build that united front by calling for a conference in April/May to bring together all those who want to stop the mass deportations, and to support immigrants and refugees who are the target of Trump’s inhumane immigration policies. Building for this conference has already begun enabling groups who work in their own silos to work together. Participants for planning include Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), Casa Latina, Washington Immigrant Rights Network (WAISN), One America, LELO/A Legacy for Equality Leadership and Organizing, Pride At Work, PSARA, Washington State Labor Council, King County Labor Council, AFT Washington, UFCW 3000, SEIU Local 6, Unite Here Local 8, APALA Seattle, Communities for Colleges, the Offices of King County Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda, Jorge Baron, and Rod Dembowski, the Office of Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Community to Community, and other community organizations. If you are interested in planning this conference and ongoing work with Standing for Democracy, please contact Cindy Domingo at cindydomingo@gmail.com or Moon Vazquez at jmoom57@earthlink.net Committee meetings have been scheduled for program, site/logistics, and outreach. Cindy Domingo is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach and a veteran activist with LELO/A Legacy for Equality Leadership and Organizing and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance). < Back to Table of Contents