Pressroom

SOCIAL SECURITY MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: Christopher Turman, 202-256-8858, christopherturman@hotmail.com, National Council of Women's Organizations

Leanne Abdnor, 720-318-8876 abdnor@womenforsschoice.org, Women for a Social Security Choice

LEADING WOMEN EXPERTS DEBATE SOCIAL SECURITY JULY 14TH

Proponents of Personal Accounts Face Off Against Opponents of Privatization

USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page to Moderate

WHAT: Women’s Debate on Social Security Reform

WHERE: U.S. Capitol, HC-5 (House Side)

WHEN: July 14, 2005 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

WHO: Representatives of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) and Women for a Social Security Choice (WSSC)

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For the first time, women supporters & opponents of personal retirement accounts meet face-to-face on Capitol Hill to debate the future of Social Security, the nation’s 70-year old social insurance program.

The two most prominent organizations engaged in Social Security public education activities will debate the costs & benefits to women of proposals to maintain the existing system or to transform it with personal retirement accounts. Women for a Social Security Choice supports creating Social Security Personal Retirement Accounts; NCWO opposes privatization.

Pro-Individual Accounts

Leanne Abdnor, Executive Director, Women for a Social Security Choice and former member of the President’s Social Security Commission (2001)

Alison Acosta Fraser, Director, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation

A leading female Member of Congress supporting individual accounts

Anti-Privatization

Heidi Hartmann, Ph.D., President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and Co-Chair, NCWO Women and Social Security Task Force

Kim Gandy, President, National Organization for Women (NOW) and Co-Chair, NCWO Women and Social Security Task Force

A leading female Member of Congress opposed to privatization

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National Council of Women’s Organizations is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of more than 200 women’s organizations across the nation collectively representing over ten million women. www.womensorganizations.org.

Women for a Social Security Choice is a nonprofit, bi-partisan organization committed to educating the public about the critical need to fix the looming problems ahead in Social Security and supports the creation of voluntary Social Security Personal Retirement Accounts. www.womenforsschoice.org.