Louisiana Voice

It’s literally been years, no, decades, in the making but it finally passed in a Congress that seemed so divided that nothing could, other than finger-pointing and sham investigations, ever be accomplished.

But occasionally, they get it right, even if it takes a while.

Even Foghorn Leghorn Kennedy and Clay Higgins were on board for this one. It doesn’t get any more bipartisan than to see Higgins, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise and Troy Carter vote alike on the same issue.

I am, of course, talking about House Resolution 82 that has been kicking around for years without ever being brought up for a vote despite at one time having enough co-sponsors to override a presidential veto should it have been necessary.

Passage of the bill will repeal both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The WEP, enacted in 1983, reduced Social Security benefits of workers who received government pensions not covered by Social Security. The GPO, enacted in 1977, reduced benefits for spouses, widows and widowers whose spouses received public sector pensions.

H.R. 82’s passage is of a monumental for Louisiana’s state employees who also worked in the private sector and for school teachers whose spouses likewise worked in the private sector and paid into Social Security.

State employees who also logged time in the private sector heretofore were penalized by an offset to their Social Security benefits. With the passage of H.R. 82, that will no longer be the case.

Teachers, school bus drivers and cafeteria workers were perhaps the most penalized of all. A school employee whose spouse who paid into Social Security while working in the private sector for decades, was ineligible to draw survivor benefits upon the spouse’s death. That, too, has now changed for the better.

Louisiana’s senior U.S. Sen., Bill Cassidy, said his former high school civics teacher was unjustly penalized because she spent her life as a public school teacher. “When her husband, who had worked at an Exxon refinery, passed away…her Social Security was cut to a fraction because she had worked in the public sector as a teacher,” he said, adding that she would have received better benefits in retirement “if she had never worked at all.”

Passage of the bill will increase benefits for more than 70,000 people in Louisiana and for more than 2 million Americans overall.

H.R. 82 was first introduced in 2005 and even though a number of House members signed on as co-sponsors sufficient to override any potential presidential veto, the bill inexplicably was never brought to a House floor vote, leading many observers to believe it was all just for show.

The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House, by a 327-75 vote on Nov. 12 and likewise passed the Senate on Dec. 20 by a 76-20 vote.

The Retired State Employees Association (RESA) and the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association (LRTA) have been lobbying for years for passage of H.R. 82.

LRTA Executive Director Rodney Watson specifically cited U.S. Rep. Garret Graves for helping the resolution’s passage, saying, “This epic two-year journey was championed by Congressman Garrett (sic) Graves whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude!

“I want to thank Janis Hernandez (LRTA Federal Legislative Chair) for her relentless efforts at participating and keeping the ball rolling on this project. We have shared many day and night, weekday and weekend conversations on reacting to a political volleyball that could have killed this bill at any point during the legislative process.”

Watson said that during his 10 years as executive director of LRTA, “we have moved from state resolutions, to proposed statute that gained little steam, to a full-blown bipartisan effort that will finally compensate millions of Americans who have suffered financially for years.”

He said that last-minute “shenanigans” to tack amendments onto the bill “that would have slowed the process to kill it, failed. Attaching H.R. 82 in its original form to the budget bill at the last minute was an act of genius and could have easily failed if it had not been for the bipartisan support built by the advocacy of our membership and organizations nationwide.”

Frank Jobert, legislative affairs director for the Retired State Employees Association (RSEA), was equally appreciative of the bill’s final passage after what he described as a 30-year effort.

“First of all, on behalf of RSEA and myself, congratulations to all government employees/retirees, who will finally receive the Social Security benefits they earned and deserve. Passage of H.R. 82 by Rep. Garret Graves, (R-District 6-LA) author of the “Social Security Fairness Act of 2023,” was long overdue and was a complete team effort. No one individual can take credit for the success of this bill, as it was a totally united group throughout the state of Louisiana. The bill is expected to be signed at 9:00 AM CST by President Biden on Monday, January 6, 2025 at The White House.

“The entire Louisiana Congressional Delegation (House and Senate): the leadership, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Steve Scalise (House Majority Leader) unanimously voted for passage of HR 82. We were also encouraged by the leadership of Speaker Pro Temp, Rep. Mike Johnson, (District 27-Pineville) who organized and coordinated the Louisiana Retirement Systems and Retiree Associations throughout Louisiana and the rest of the United States. 

 “It was a battle that began approximately 30 years ago (my first exposure to the problem was in 1994 as a member of the LASERS Board of Trustees). It seemed that every year for the last 30 years, someone from Louisiana or one of the other states would introduce legislation to repeal the WEP and/or GPO. We were led to believe that the legislation would never pass because of the cost to the Social Security System. But I was always encouraged by the fact that it was bi-partisan legislation that impacted about 15 states, some of which were large and very populated states, such as, California, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, and of course, Louisiana, etc.

“I never gave up hope that we would get some relief at some point, whether partial of full repeal. In spite of “failure” year after year, we never said NEVER. The stars were finally aligned this last session of the 118th Congress and with the help of Senate President Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the aforementioned Louisiana Senate and House delegations, and bipartisan (Democrat and Republican), we crossed the finish line with a victory. Hopefully, our Louisiana government employees and/or retirees will see relief and the added benefits to their Social Security checks in the not-too-distant future!

“Thanks again to all who participated in this democratic process, we fought the good fight and are now victorious!!”

Father Hecker is dead but the problems of the Catholic Church live on.

Lawrence Hecker, who received a life sentence just this past Dec. 18 (one week before Christmas) died in prison on Dec. 27 (two days after Christmas) after serving only 11 days after pleading guilty to sexually abusing altar boys decades ago.

Beginning with the very first court case, back in 1984 in Lafayette, Louisiana, involving sexual abuse of pre-teen altar boys by priests and continuing through the 2002 scandal in Boston through today, the church has paid out more than $5 billion (with a “B”) on some 20,000 claims against about 7000 Catholic priests – and each of those numbers continues to grow as more money is paid to more victims of more priests with each passing day.

The ugly truth is that Catholic boarding schools, with the blessings of the U.S. government, ripped thousands of Native American children from their homes from 1828 to 1970 and institutionalized them in efforts to “Americanize” them (do you get the irony of “Americanizing” Native Americans?) to the white man’s culture. It doesn’t take a math wizard to see that the U.S. government was sanctioning family separations long before the words “border crisis” were in vogue.

One such school was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Sports fans may recognize Carlisle as the alma mater of Olympic hero Jim Thorpe. He was one of the lucky ones. Over their 142-year history, more than 3100 Native American children died at the Catholic-run boarding schools.

Fast forward to today and we see Catholic dioceses all over the landscape declaring bankruptcy over the myriad sexual abuse claims. One of those is the Diocese of New Orleans where 550 victims have submitted a $1 billion (again, with a “B”) demand. Others include the Oakland Diocese which has been accused of illegally transferring $106 million in assets just before declaring bankruptcy; Buffalo, where the presiding judge has issued a decision to allow 17 new “test cases” to MOVE FORWARD, which will allow the litigation to determine liability and damages.

In reaction to that, the presiding judge in the New Orleans bankruptcy, Meredith Grabill, has indicated she will call the Buffalo judge for consultation. That can only mean she is considering allowing more of the New Orleans cases to go to trial.

One disturbing development there, however, is Grabill’s indication that she intended to “destroy” SEALED INFORMATION received by the court because the case-related information was so protected and inviolable that the court’s gag order could not be lifted under any circumstances. Never mind the fact that destruction of court records is highly unorthodox.

It might well be a stretch to do so, but it just seems that the timing was really bad for LSU to enter into a contract with Our Lady of the Lake, a Catholic-run hospital, to assume the contract for administering health care, including OB-GYN care, to LSU students.

Nor does it seem appropriate that all meetings at the LSU Student Health Center now begin with forced prayer, especially in light of the First Amendment which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

In fact, the former director of LSU’s Student Health Center, Julie Hupperich, has filed a LAWSUIT against the LSU Board of Supervisors on that point and others, according to Louisiana Illuminator, an online news service.

Hupperich alleges that non-medical personnel were able to access medical and mental health records of students which she said is a violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPAA), a privacy law that protects patients’ health information from disclosure to unauthorized recipients.

Even more revealing of OLOL’s motives behind the takeover, Hupperich said: the recovery of funds OLOL has donated to LSU in the past. She says in her petition that LSU Vice President of Finance and Administration Kimberly Lewis confided in her that OLOL was interested in “recouping” its multi-million-dollar contribution to the university through operation of the health center. Sounds like a little quid pro quo there to me.

She also alleges that health center employees are required to adhere to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and Catholic Social Teachings” in order to keep their jobs, which she claims also violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against a state-sponsored religion.

Agreeing to those policies limits health center employees in their ability to “provide complete birth control, gynecological, suicide prevention, mental health and sexual transition counseling and services,” Hupperich says in her lawsuit. 

The health center is only allowed to prescribe birth control to students in certain non-emergency cases, Hupperich alleges, and mental health providers must limit their counseling on suicide to advising that suicide is a “mortal sin,” she said. 

The pledge also requires providers to agree that life begins at conception and that “abortion is never permitted,” Louisiana Illuminator quotes the lawsuit as alleging.

The Louisiana Illuminator also said on Aug. 31, 2022, that when the partnership between LSU and OLOL was approved, Lewis assured the LSU Board of Supervisors that there would be NO CHANGES in the availability of gynecological and reproductive healthcare and that those responsibilities would not be turned over to OLOL “Because of the Lake’s relationship as a Catholic organization,” she said at the time, “we know that there are some differences, and we don’t want our students to not have access to all services they currently have.”

That distinction was even put in writing in the cooperative agreement between LSU and OLOL.

Now, two-and-one-half-years into the agreement, OLOL and the Catholic Church have apparently lain waste to any agreement not to disturb the status quo insofar as health care at LSU is concerned.

Instead, at a time when logic would dictate that its leaders should devote their time and energy to addressing a growing crisis that literally threatens to consume the church. It seems to be counter-productive to instead focus on such things as forced adherence to a religious belief as a condition of employment, denying critical health care and the clawback of funds donated to the university. The latter smacks of quid pro quo and would seem to render the term donation meaningless. It completely guts the very spirit of charitable giving – and most certainly sends the signal that any future giving will likewise have strings attached.

Sometimes the best-laid plans go KA-BOOM! in your face.

A few years ago, Louisiana legislator Valerie Hodges pushed through a bill giving state aid to faith-based schools, the intent being that only Christian schools would qualify. Later, when an Islamic school in New Orleans applied for the state aid, her head nearly exploded.

Now, it’s happened again and if it becomes a trend, the collective heads of evangelicals everywhere will likewise will morph into living landmines. They might even resort to desperate measures, like slashing the budgets of public libraries in the apparent hopes of eventually starving them out of existence (see story below).

You see, even as schools in Oklahoma are distributing Bibles to students to be used in the state’s mandated education curriculum, one school district in Texas has reacted quite differently to the ridiculously idiotic concept that public libraries should be closely monitored with the intent of banning objectionable books.

The CANYON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT decided, albeit temporarily, to comply with House Bill (HB) 900, aka the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources (READERS) Act.

Accordingly, according to an email from school district Superintendent Darryl Flusche, the “standard for library content prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content…Therefore, HB900 doesn’t allow numerous books, including the full text of the Bible, to be available in the school library.”

Flusche subsequently CRATERED to public pressure and the Bible was reinstated. But its brief ban certainly focused the bright light of hypocrisy and double standards on the hysteria that has accompanied Republicans’ sudden outrage over book content. It also – or should have – reminded us of the book burnings (along with attacks on the media, women’s rights, civil rights, and even freedom of speech) that invariably mark the beginnings of any tyrannical rule.

And make no mistake, there are more than enough LURID STORIES AND VERSES in the Bible to make a hardened sailor blush. They include adultry, incest, bestiality, and graphic violence to women and children.

But woe unto the unfortunate librarian who stocks To Kill a Mockingbird in the library shelves.

The controversy surrounding the Livingston Parish Library, initiated by the unsolicited influence of a morals monitor named Michael Lunsford and his Citizens for a New Louisiana, has taken a much darker and more subtle and sinister turn at the hands of the library’s Board of Control.

And if you think events occurring in Livingston Parish don’t concern you, think again. Lunsford and his outfit have placed every parish and school library in the state in its crosshairs and it’ only a matter of time before similar tactics are employed where you live.

What am I talking about? Budget cuts. Not just routine belt-tightening, but the choking kind of cuts designed to eventually strangle our ability to enjoy the services of our local libraries.

Without elaborating, here are some of the cuts proposed by the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control:

• A 92 percent cut in advertising? All advertising accomplishes is the encouragement of people to read, to become more educated and enlightened. To slash this line item is to unconditionally endorse Donald Trump’s asinine “I love the poorly educated” pronouncement.
• Likewise, a 93 percent cut in marketing and promotions tells us that the library board would like Livingston Parish to revert to the backwater reputation it has worked so hard to overcome.
• Why would the board suggest a 62.5 percent cut in emergency repairs? This mentality smacks of the state’s abysmal performance in keeping physical plants on our college and university campuses inhabitable and functional.
• Summer reading cut by 83 percent? Well, let’s just drop all pretense and shoot for the state’s lowest literacy rate.
• In keeping with that goal, let’s just eliminate all funding for the digital library, adult literacy and the literary club. Oh, they did, didn’t they?

While we’re at it, let’ take a look up the local food chain. While members of the library board serve without pay, their appointing authority, the members of the Livingston Parish Council, do not. The maximum pay allowable under state law is $800 per month. Members of the Livingston Parish Council are paid…you guessed it, $800 per month.

With nine council members, that comes to $7,200 per month, or $86,400 per year. Why don’t we just lop a few dollars off their salary, say, to $100 per month. That would represent to a yearly savings of $75,600.

The Livingston Parish School Board is a bit more secretive in that there is no information online that reveals what they make. In fact, when you google it, you get this: “There isn’t much information about how much members of the Livingston Parish School Board get paid…”

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume they get at least $500 per month. With nine members, that’s $4,500 per month or $54,000 per year. So, let’s reduce their pay to $100 per month as well, bringing that down to $10,800 for a minimum savings of $43,200. That’s an overall savings of $115,800 for the two agencies.

I mean, if we’re gonna talk austerity, let’s make it an across-the-board proposition. After all, the members of the parish council and school board are supposed to be performing a public service, not using their positions as a second job.

What makes all this even worse is that there is not an original thought in this entire process. The furor over libraries in general is the result of some self-anointed protector of one person’s concept of decency and respectability. Not only is he probably ignorant of Chaucer, but he’d likely be outraged at the farting scene in Blazing Saddles. I have to assume that Michael Lundsford does not subscribe to television streaming services so as not to be exposed to such degenerate entertainment fare.

No one ever gave libraries a thought until some Republican morals policeman decided to make it an issue and then just like those who echoed Trump’s “witch hunt,” “fake news,” “stop the steal,” and various other catch phrases, mindless hordes just followed the noise, never stopping to think for themselves.

And folks, if they can come for the libraries, the books, the teachers and for control of decisions about women’s bodies, it’s only a matter of time before they come for our social security, our Medicare, our rights as workers (child labor, elimination of benefits, etc.), and our very freedom of speech – all of which will ultimately result in an ever-widening income disparity

And I’m not saying all this as a “never Trumper.” It’s already gone way beyond Trump. Just look around you and the other “leaders.” The Landrys, the Scalises, the Johnsons, the Musks, and the list grows each day. These are the people controlling our lives and they’ll be here long after Trump is gone unless we unite to defend women’s rights, civil rights, LGBQT rights, and the rights of every marginalized individual.

And the ultimate irony is that they’re doing all this in the name of freedom and Christianity – because those dog whistles resonate with us.