Advocacy

By Sheila Burke

Guest post by Byron Kamp, AARP Tennessee Executive Council Member

Every year and every legislative session is critical to achieving the AARP mission – to champion positive social change in order to enhance the quality of life for all as we age. This year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly, however, was one of the best ever.

The IMPROVE Act, a policy proposed by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, has passed the state legislature. This bill, which became law on July 1, 2017, will have a significant impact on the entire state. The main premise behind the IMPROVE Act is to generate funding for transportation infrastructure projects, many of which are critical to the viability of rural communities across the state.

Contact your elected officials through Facebook Town Hall.

I’m Kraig Smith, the new state president for AARP Tennessee. I’m excited to be appointed to this role and looking forward to support people 50+ and their families.

The 2017 session of the Tennessee General Assembly is underway and your AARP staff and volunteers are busy advocating for policies that support people 50+ and their families. To give you an idea of what we’re up to, here’s a handy summary of the issues that have our full attention this session. View and download the 2017 AARP TN Legislative Agenda

"It is truly an honor to represent our more than 650,000 AARP members in Tennessee and act as the principal volunteer spokesperson," said Kraig Smith, the newly appointed state president for AARP Tennessee.

AARP is calling on Congress to reject the so-called “age rating” proposal for health insurance. It’s an unfair tax that would increase health care costs for older Americans — and would line the pockets of big insurance companies. AARP is fighting to stop this age tax and prevent insurance companies from unfairly hiking health care costs.

AARP today launched a comprehensive campaign to protect Medicare in the face of proposals by some in Congress that would hurt hardworking Tennesseans who have paid into the program their entire working lives.