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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY 'Advo-Cats' go to bat for elderly During the 1997 and 1999 legislative sessions, I went to the capitol in Salem as an "Advo-Cat" (with accent on the Cat). That name was proposed back in 1997 by Jacqueline Zimmer for a newly formed group of senior citizens, people mostly in their 70s, who were to come to Salem to lobby their representatives and senators for legislation affecting Oregon's elderly. Some of the members at the meeting were to visit every month. Others who lived near Salem were to go to the capitol once or twice a week, as needed. When that name "Advo-Cats" was first presented to the group, some said that it didn't seem to fit a bunch of elderly people. Jacqueline Zimmer, the director of the Oregon Association of Area Agencies on Aging, replied that the very fact that it was outlandish would help people -- particularly the legislators and their staffs -- remember the senior lobbyists. We reluctantly agreed to be known by that name. We were to go to Salem to supplement Jacqueline's lobbying efforts. During the session, she is a full-time lobbyist, putting in long hours every day and even into the evening. Her career in politics began when she was a legislative staff assistant for an elected official. She also served a term as a member of the Salem City Council. Over the years, she picked up a lot of knowledge of how laws are born, and stillborn. There are two kinds of lobbyists. One type represents commercial organizations ranging from banks to beverages, trucks to airlines, tobacco products to food companies and many more. They pass out money during the election campaigns, and then they try to get bills passed for their special interests. They probably never remind a legislator of how much they have contributed, but the legislators know who has buttered their bread. All things being equal, their contributions make a difference, although Oregon legislators are noted for their independence. The other kind of lobbyists represent human-service needs and other nonprofit organizations. They can't point out campaign contributions to the legislator because their causes have no money to give away. Jacqueline and similar lobbyists have only one thing to give away -- advice based on long experience in the halls of the capitol. Such help is a godsend, particularly to legislators who have gotten elected but know little about putting laws together and getting them passed. At the first meeting of the Advo-Cats each legislative session, Jacqueline points out which of the proposed bills already in the hopper could affect the elderly, and assigns visits to the legislators involved in preparation of the bills. Once that has been explained, the group breaks up so members can visit their own representatives and senators for the rest of the day. Each visits only his or her own lawmakers. They try to get acquainted with each legislator's staff, which usually consists of two or three people. The rest of the time during the session, the Advo-Cats keep in close touch with their legislators and staff. Some of us have computers and send e-mail when input is needed on a particular bill. Others spend time on the telephone or write letters. The toughest time of the session is toward the end when the state's budget for the next two years is being written. This is not a big issue for most of the lobbyists representing corporations, but it is live-or-die time when a budget line item for one of your big issues comes up. The juggling of the figures goes on for days, as a little is trimmed here and a little there. For example, when the long hours of poring over the budget began, there was a line item in the senior services budget to provide funding for spousal assistance in severe cases. This means that when one person in a couple comes down with an illness that requires confinement to bed, the other spouse can receive a minimum amount of money to stay home and provide care. During the last moments of the session, money for that was dropped from the budget, which was a tough thing for families, even though it was a small amount of money lost. So we win some and we lose some, and people continue to grow older, and more frail in the last decade of their lives. It is important to remember that the services the Advo-Cats are promoting affect only about 10 percent of those over 65, but many of them are the poorest of the poor. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA