April 3, 2012

The Honorable <FIRST NAME> <LAST NAME>
U.S. Senate
<ADDRESS> Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator <LAST NAME>:

On behalf of the more than one million members of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), <NUMBER> of which are your constituents, we would like to invite you to review three petitions that have been submitted by seniors residing in your state.

As you know, the economic conditions today are harsh, and many seniors have been unable to keep up. Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) were instituted in 1975 to protect against inflation, but a recent study by TSCL has shown that seniors have lost 32 percent of their buying power since 2000. TSCL supports legislation that would address this issue, like the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act (S. 1876). The attached Social Security Fairness Petition lists the names of your constituents urging your support of this critical issue.

In the pages attached, you will also find the Social Security Notch Victim Constituent Petition. A number of our members are Notch babies, or individuals who receive lower Social Security benefits because they were born between the years 1917 and 1926. TSCL believes that this inequity was created by the Social Security Act Amendments enacted in 1977. We strongly support the Notch Fairness Act (S. 118) which would provide modest compensation to those who are unfairly affected.

The final petition we have included is the Petition to Congress Protesting Illegal Alien Amnesty. The pending U.S. – Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement, along with other “guest worker” legislation, could allow illegal immigrants to gain access to Social Security benefits. To protect the Social Security trust fund, TSCL and its members support the STAR Act (S. 181), and legislation that would prevent Social Security credits from being earned by those without legal status, like S. 95.

TSCL’s members are active and informed, and the petitions attached represent some of the issues that matter the most to them. Each of the bills mentioned above would go a long way in protecting and defending the earned benefits of senior citizens. If you are already a co-sponsor of these bills, please accept our gratitude, and if not, we hope that you will consider supporting them in the future.

Should you have any questions or concerns, or if we can be of assistance to you or your staff, please do not hesitate to contact TSCL’s Legislative Analyst, Jessie Gibbons, via email (jgibbons@tsclhq.org) or telephone (703-548-7451).

Sincerely,

Larry Hyland
Chairman

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