Alliance Releases New Retiree Voting Record Report

The Alliance published its 2021 Congressional Voting Record, which scored each U.S. Senator and Representative on critical retirement security issues, on Thursday.

Ten Senate and House floor votes are considered in the annual report, including votes on bills and amendments to provide stimulus payments during the pandemic; protect voting rights; lower prescription drug prices; raise the federal minimum wage; and protect older workers from discrimination.

“Almost every member of Congress claims that they care about seniors,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “The annual voting record shows which House and Senate members truly had older Americans’ best interests at heart.”

Forty-two members of the U.S. Senate and 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives earned perfect 100 percent scores. Fifty senators earned scores of 20% or below, including Mitch McConnell (KY, 10%); Ted Cruz (TX, 0%); Ron Johnson (WI, 0%); and Rand Paul (KY, 0%). One hundred sixty-seven House members earned a score of 0%.

Among the senators earning a score of 90% or above were Chuck Schumer (NY, 100%); Maggie Hassan (NH, 90%); Mark Kelly (AZ, 100%), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV, 100%) and Raphael Warnock (GA, 100%).

“What happens in Washington, DC affects retirees and their families all across the country every day. Votes in Congress can improve retirement security or make a healthy and secure retirement that much harder to achieve,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance.

"Seniors vote at a higher rate than any other age group and are an even bigger proportion of the electorate during midterm elections,” Fiesta added. "The Alliance voting record is a valuable tool for older voters as they consider who to vote for in the 2022 elections.”

Both the national 2021 Congressional Voting Record and a version for each state delegation are available on the Alliance’s website.

Invitation: Zooming into 2022 Training Event

With the 2022 midterm elections fast approaching and so much on the line for seniors, the Alliance wants our activists to be able to meet voters where they are – including online or in virtual meetings!

That’s why we’re excited to invite you to a special training we’re calling “Zooming Into 2022” on February 24. The training is a free, one hour online workshop on using the Zoom tool to reach voters and connect with other

activists, candidates and elected officials.

We’ll cover the basics plus tips and tricks for experienced Zoom users at the event, which will take place on Thursday, February 24 at 4 PM Eastern time. Please click here to RSVP.

An email with a link to join the session will be sent 24 hours before the meeting to those who sign up. Please email any questions to Maureen Dunn, Director of Field Mobilization for the Alliance, at [email protected].

For Older People with Memory Issues, ‘Clutter’ May be the Culprit

The traditional view of memory loss suggests that as adults grow older, they form memories that hold less information than the memories of younger people. However, new research from the journal Trends in Cognitive Science has uncovered an alternative reason behind older adults’ memory loss.

Researchers found that healthy older adults process and store too much information, most likely because of greater difficulty suppressing irrelevant information. Rather than retaining less information than they once could, seniors may actually be forming

too many associations between memories.

“It’s not that older adults don’t have enough space to store information,” explained Tarek Amer, one of the authors of the study. “There’s just too much information that’s interfering with whatever they’re trying to remember.”

Although people of all ages experience this type of ‘reduced cognitive control’, the researchers argue that it affects older people more frequently and contributes to the “cluttered” nature of older adults’ memories. However, further research is still needed to understand why reduced cognitive control results in cluttering.

And while it contributes to memory issues, memory cluttering isn’t entirely negative. Although extra information can make it difficult to retrieve a specific detail, excessive knowledge can help individuals in certain situations be creative, make decisions and learn new information.

“The research is a reminder for all of us that older adults still have the capability to learn,” said Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “This helps to alleviate many of the anxieties felt by seniors when they can’t recall something.”

Kaiser Health News: Why Millions on Medicaid Are at Risk of Losing Coverage in the Months Ahead

By Rachana Pradhan, with KHN senior Colorado correspondent Markian Hawryluk and Midwest correspondent Bram Sable-Smith contributing

The Biden administration and state officials are bracing for a great unwinding: millions of people losing their Medicaid benefits when the pandemic health emergency ends. Some might sign up for different insurance. Many others are bound to get lost in the transition.

State Medicaid agencies for months have been preparing for the end of a federal mandate that anyone enrolled in Medicaid cannot lose coverage during the pandemic.

Before the public health crisis, states regularly reviewed whether people still qualified for the safety-net program, based on their income or perhaps their age or disability status. While those routines have been suspended for the past two years, enrollment climbed to record highs. As of July, 76.7 million people, or nearly 1 in 4 Americans, were enrolled, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

When the public health emergency ends, state Medicaid officials face a huge job of reevaluating each person’s eligibility and connecting with people whose jobs, income, and housing might have been upended in the pandemic. People could lose their coverage if they earn too much or don’t provide the information their state needs to verify their income or residency.