While MOAA’s signature advocacy event won’t take place until April, the planning is well underway – and that’s why we need to hear from you soon.

We are getting ready to determine our topics for this year’s Advocacy in Action (AiA) campaign, where members from across the nation will join MOAA staff to bring our message in force to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. This is your last chance to share your thoughts on potential topics you would like MOAA to prioritize within these advocacy categories:

• Compensation and Service-Earned Benefits
• Military Housing
• Health Care for Currently Serving and Retirees
• Health Care and Benefits for Veterans
• Service Families
• Survivors
• Guard and Reserve

[HAVE YOUR SAY BY DEC. 15: 2024 Advocacy in Action Topics]

MOAA’s Government Relations Committee will assess input from our members, then present recommended topics to the MOAA Board of Directors for approval at the January board meeting.

Why Early Action Matters

MOAA opened the survey back in October, and we are sending this message a month later to capitalize on state-level leaders from our councils and chapters – they will do the planning and scheduling for their teams in preparation for the April event on the Hill.

Whether you are one of these leaders, new to your council or chapter, or new to the AiA process entirely, it is not to early to generate interest within your network. Not everyone can come to D.C., but there will be ample opportunities to reinforce our messages via calls to action through our Legislative Action Center, which now has 21,400 members and growing.

MOAA’s advocacy mission would not be possible without support from the councils and chapters, and the many members who stay engaged. The core of our advocacy mission is to protect service-earned benefits which, from time-to-time, are put at risk.

Efforts to fund other programs often result in concepts designed to reduce service-earned benefits, either totally or partially, to generate the funds. For example, the Congressional Budget Office in December 2022 shared ways to reduce the deficit and realign funding for emerging requirements; many of those proposals would weaken programs like retirement funding, the retiree cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and health care programs.

[RELATED: MOAA's COLA Watch]

It’s no secret MOAA has a strong defense and offense when it comes to service-earned benefits – we have our councils and chapters to thank for this. But we cannot rest on our laurels as the political and fiscal challenges continue to spread – we need as many individuals as possible to sign up for the Legislative Action Center and engage with lawmakers via letters, calls, or in-person visits.

April will be here before we know it, and the work between now and then will hit a fever pitch after the board approves the topics in January. Help MOAA set this important advocacy agenda today.