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New OWL Board
Meeting in January

OWL's new board is already hard at work making sure our voice will be heard during the upcoming critical policy debates.Go here to learn more about our new leadership.
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A New Resource from Social Security




Social Security has developed a new webpage for advocates, social service agencies, and other third parties, that contains a wealth of information on the expanded online services that are now available by using the my Social Security portal.

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Senate Budget Committee Wants to Hear from Public

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray has announced the start of MyBudget, a new online platform for members of the public to share stories, ideas, and priorities.

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Coming of Age in Aging America

Watch a four-minute video from PBS about what it means for us all to grow up, live and age in a society where half the citizens are over the age of 50? Never in human history has this been our reality. And it's not just Americans. Europe, China, Japan - we are an aging globe. It's new and it's not temporary - this is a permanent historic transformation.

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Fiv
e Things HHS Wants Seniors  to Know About the Affordable Care  Act (ACA)
 
Test your knowledge about how the ACA affects seniors' health care. Read the HHS summary here.  For OWL's analysis of the bill, click here.


 

 

  

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Gaining Support in Senate  

snowy capitol
The bill, introduced last week by co-sponsors Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID),
has already garnered at least 54 co-sponsors and is
scheduled for a vote next week.   
 
First signed into law in 1994, the bill has twice been reauthorized with bipartisan support. But new provisions added by the Senate in the last Congress -- expanded protections for gays and lesbians, Native Americans, and  undocumented immigrants -- sparked outrage among House Republications. The House approved its own version without the new language and the bills were never reconciled.
 
While the bill is expected to win Senate approval, Senators still need to hear from their constituents.

 

It will also be extremely important to contact House representatives, since its future in that body is less certain.   

 

You can find out who your representative is by clicking here  and you can call the Capitol Hill switchboard to be connected to their office: (202) 224-3121. 

  
The text of the Senate bill is here.

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Few Workers Would be Affected if Social Security Cap Lifted


A new issue brief from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that raising or eliminating the cap on the Social Security payroll tax would affect only a tiny fraction of workers.

 

"Raising the Social Security Payroll Tax Cap: How Many Workers Would Pay More?" finds that just the wealthiest 1 in 20 workers - the top 5.2 percent - would pay the tax on  annual income above $113,700 if the  cap was eliminated.

 

Only one 1 in 75 -- the top 1.3 percent -- workers would be affected if the cap was raised to income over $250,000.    

   

On January 1, the cap rose from $110,100 to $113,700. That means someone whose annual income is twice the cap pays the tax on only half of their income. Someone earning $1.1 million a year pays the tax on about a tenth of their income.

 

There are also significant differences by gender and ethnicity. If the cap was eliminated, only one in 40 women would pay.  Only one in 200 would pay more if the tax were extended to income over $250,000. Only about 1 in 50 black and Latino workers would be affected if the cap were completely removed, and less than one in 200 would be affected if the cap were raised.

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OWL in the News

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that OWL was one of nine groups signing a letter that urges Congress to protect the nonprofit postage discount.

The discount, which saved nonprofits about $1.3 billion in 2011, was removed from a postal reform act that died in the last session of Congress.

Since it is expected to come up again, the organizations want to start early to save the discount. 

The full article is here.
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New Way to Measure Seniors' Income Needs
 A new tool that measures the income requirements of seniors found that those living at the federal poverty level, or who are totally dependent on Social Security, need housing and health care supports to cover their expenses.

 The National Elder Economic Security Standard Index was produced by the Gerontology Institute at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, in collaboration with Wider Opportunities for Women. It is designed to measure the income that older adults require to maintain their independence in the community and meet their daily costs of living. 

The report found that housing costs are the greatest expense for most elder households, representing as much as half of the total expenses.  Researchers also found that based on nationwide averages, older adults in good health face face combined monthly health care costs of $381 per month to protect against high medical and prescription drug costs.

 


 

"Logic will get you from A to B.  

Imagination will take you everywhere."  

 

- Albert Einstein

 

 
OWL -- The Voice of Midlife and Older Women
 
The only national grassroots organization that focuses solely on issues affecting the nation's 74 million midlife and older women

www.owl-national.org

1625 K St, NW, Suite 1275
Washington, D.C.  20006

 202-567-2606