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July 20, 2004

Senator Lamar Alexander

United States Senate

800 Market Street, Suite 112

Knoxville, Tennessee 37902

Dear Senator Alexander:

We are requesting your continued assistance with our efforts to obtain equitable pension adjustments for the retirees of the Department of Energy contractor-managed facilities in Oak Ridge. We are most appreciative of your efforts and those of your staff in the past, and are counting on your support as we move forward with our requests. We certainly do thank you for your past efforts in obtaining the minimum pension adjustments for those 10 percent of pensioners with such great need.

We have recently had discussions with the prime contractors of DOE facilities in Oak Ridge and with managers of DOE-ORO concerning our present concerns and the lack of any redress of the general problem of DOE’s not providing adjustments that are needed for the broad population of 11,500 retirees.

Our principal objectives are to maintain pension benefits that are fair and equitable, and to safeguard the Pension Trust Fund from which these benefits are derived. Several adjustments have been made in retiree pensions during the last two decades. However, these adjustments have resulted in recovery of less than 50 percent of inflationary losses, and no retirees during the seven years after April 1998 have ever received a pension adjustment. More than sufficient funds are available in the Pension Trust Fund to accommodate a reasonable adjustment at this time.

Our specific proposal for 2004 is an increase in pension benefits to restore an average of 75 percent of the pension value that retirees have lost due to inflation since retirement. This would add about $25 million per year to the pensions of retirees living in East Tennessee and have a significant economic impact of $56 million per year in the area (Enclosure 1). Details of this proposal and the future goals of CORRE are provided in the CORRE 2004 Position Paper (Enclosure 2) and summary graphs of CORRE Positions (Enclosure 3).

I enclose also a copy of "Petition for Pension Increases for DOE Contractor Retirees" (Enclosure 4), which has been signed by approximately 5,864 retirees, spouses of retirees, family and friends in support of CORRE goals.

If you have questions, please contact any of the following members of CORRE’s Legislative Committee:

Pete Lotts and other members of the committee will be contacting your staff to discuss details of the CORRE proposal. In addition, we would like to have the opportunity to meet with you to explain the equity of this need first hand.

We would appreciate your continued help with this important matter involving the welfare of so many people in this region.

Sincerely,

David E. Reichle

President, CORRE

Enclosures (4)

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