As President Eisenhower's administration drew to a close in 1960, planning began for the first White House Conference on Aging, to take place in 1961.
Nelson Rockefeller, then an undersecretary in the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was planning a political career and wanted to be on good terms with George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO.
Meany, meanwhile, assigned Nelson Cruikshank, director of the AFL-CIO's Department of Social Security, to closely monitor Rockefeller.
When it came time to appoint a chair for the conference, Cruikshank suggested Robert Kean, a liberal Republican congressman from New Jersey.
If the White House Conference on Aging were to recommend national health insurance legislation, having Kean's imprimatur would be important.
[4] After Kennedy won the election, the AFL-CIO used the coalition built by Senior Citizens-for-Kennedy to push its agenda at the 1961 White House Conference on Aging.
When the Conference voted on its final report, the AMA was surprised to find a health insurance proposal part of the recommended legislative package.
[3] The success of the AFL-CIO coalition during the 1961 White House Conference on Aging led Forand to suggest that an organization be formed to push for similar legislation in the future.
Forand, who had retired from office in 1960, became the NCSC's first president and William Hutton, a public relations official with the AFL-CIO, its first executive director.
It backed a number of (admittedly abortive) legislative efforts, held rallies (including one gigantic, nationally televised event at Madison Square Garden, organized letter-writing campaigns, and attacked Medicare's opponents by bombarding them with mail and picketing their offices.
NCSC began a major education campaign among middle-aged people, working to raise awareness of how burdensome hospital bills for the elderly could be.
Title V of the act created Operation Mainstream, which funded part-time employment for under-employed people aged 55 or older.
It established a new division called the National Senior Citizens Education and Research Center (NSCERC), which continued to administer the SCSEP funds.
(NSCERC later changed its name to Senior Service America, Inc.)[10] In May 2000, the AFL-CIO executive council voted to dissolve NCSC, and reform the group as the Alliance for Retired Americans.
It fought against the Republican-endorsed Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2005,[15] and President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization-reform plan in 2004.
[20] Barbara Easterling, who had served as the first woman Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1995, was the president of the Alliance from 2009 to 2015[21] when she was succeeded by Robert Roach.
There is no provision for proportional representation within the Alliance; every member may attend the national convention and vote, and sponsoring unions may send as many delegates as they choose.
Its members educate and mobilize retirees to participate in national, state and local elections and the Alliances publishes an annual Congressional Voting Record.
Members are also active at the state and local levels, advocating on behalf of retirees on issues such as health care, housing, transportation, and consumer protection.
Since 2013, the ARA has encouraged and helped older American reach and have access to polls and petitions to vote on crucial bills concerning Medicare and Medicaid.
Bringing the petitions to the doors of those the bills will concern has made it possible for their voices to be heard on issues that affect their day-to-day lives.
The ARA has taken a much more hands-on approach in recent years to ensure that the needs of retired Americans will not be ignored but put on the top of the priority list for Congress and those creating and deciding on the laws.