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President Raab and AARP Wish Social Security a Happy 80th at Roosevelt House

President Raab and AARP Wish Social Security a Happy 80th at Roosevelt House

Frances Lee, AARP volunteer; Ronald Keene, AARP volunteer; James Arnold, AARP Exec. Council Comm. Member; Beth Finkel, AARP NY State Dir; President Jennifer Raab, Hunter College; Chris Widelo, AARP NY Assistant State Dir; Adeline Chambers, AARP volunteer

Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab and dozens of volunteers and officials from the American Association of Retired Person (AARP) on August 14th celebrated the 80th anniversary of the birth of Social Security at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, the former home of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt where the idea for the social safety net was conceived.
 
The celebration included a visit to the second-floor library where President Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to join his cabinet as the Secretary of Labor after his election in 1932. During this meeting, Perkins made it clear to Roosevelt that she would take the job only if she could pursue a series of programs that would provide economic stability to the nation's most vulnerable people.
 
"That conversation inside this room led to one of the most transformative pieces of legislation ever to be enacted in the United States," said President Raab. "Eighty years later, this beautiful building remains an incubator for innovative ideas and a platform for dialogue that inform the present and shape the future."
 
To learn more about the origins of Social Security, click here to listen to Perkins describe her conversation with Roosevelt about her comprehensive vision to assist those in need.

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