[blindlaw] Congratulations! Legislative Objective Regarding Nelson-Collins Achieved

[Frye, Dan]

List Subscribers:
I have received the following information regarding the status of the
Nelson-Collins amendment that threatened VR funding from a supportive
legislative consultant who regularly works with and for the NFB and
other allied organizations. Please forgive any duplicate circulation of
this material. Her message follows:

From: Catriona Macdonald [mailto:Cmacdonald at linchpinstrategies.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 7:21 AM
Subject: STIMULUS UPDATE

There's great news... and worrying news.

Let's start with the great news - thanks to the hard work of the VR
community and its allies, the cuts to the VR state grants that were
proposed to be included in the Nelson-Collins Amendment were dropped.
That means that on Monday, when the Nelson-Collins amendment is
introduced, debated and voted on, and most likely passed, the $500
million increase to VR will remain intact.  Absent something very
unexpected, that $500 million increase will then be in the House and
Senate-passed legislation.  That is fabulous news!  Thank you to all of
you who made phone calls, emailed your Senators, forwarded alert emails,
sent out alerts to your own organization's membership, and encouraged
your friends to call and email.

So what comes next?

When the Senate passes its economic recovery legislation, it will
probably be in the neighborhood of $800 billion.  The House's bill is
about $800 billion, too.  But within those totals, there are hundreds of
billions of dollars of differences between the two pieces of legislation
that will have to be reconciled.  One bill fixes the Alternative Minimum
Tax problem for this year. The other doesn't.  One bill gives a $15,000
tax credit to new home buyers.  The other doesn't.  One bill gives a tax
credit to people who buy American-built cars.  The other doesn't.  The
tax policy differences, combined, add up to close to $100 billion.
(There are many other funding differences, too - those are just
examples!)  There will be a lot of pressure to maintain all the tax cuts
in both bills.  There will also be a lot of pressure to keep the overall
package around $800 billion.
The only way to do both is - you guessed it - reduce funding for other
programs funded in the stimulus legislation.

Technically, under the rules, any item that is the same in both the
Senate and House-passed legislation (like the $500 million for VR) isn't
supposed to be able to be changed in conference.  In reality, the rules
often go out the window when you're conferencing high profile, critical
legislation like this.  There's still a possibility of an
across-the-board cut that would reduce all non-tax related programs by 5
or 10% in order to fund the tax cuts.  Or individual programs could be
put back on the chopping block.

So if you haven't contacted your Senators and Representatives, it's not
too late.  Decisions will be made this week about how to put the final
stimulus legislation together.  Since the phone lines are tied up, it
may be easier to email your Senators and Representatives from their
websites than to call.
Or phone the district office; the phone number will be on the website.
You can find their websites at:
www.Senate.gov
www.House.gov

The message we want to send, via phone or email, is:  "Please make sure
the $500 million for state VR grants is preserved in the final economic
recovery legislation."

Thank you again for all you do to advocate for people with disabilities.



Catriona Macdonald
President
Linchpin Strategies, LLC

***********************
Daniel B. Frye, J.D.
Associate Editor
The Braille Monitor
National Federation of the Blind
Office of the President
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Telephone: (410) 659-9314 Ext. 2208
Mobile: (410) 241-7006
Fax: (410) 685-5653
Email: DFrye at nfb.org
Web Address: www.nfb.org
"Voice of the Nation's Blind"



_______________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of T. Joseph Carter
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 6:23 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] NationalFederationof
theBlindRejectsNelson-CollinsAmendment

Probably the fastest way to reach people is via email.  I received no
less than five emails about the Nelson-Collins amendment in the span of
about nine hours.  But then, I am on the right lists and check my email
frequently.

To that extent, what can be easily done is already being done.  What
more could be done is a complex problem, I think.  I am not surprised it
has been on the back burner waiting for someone with the energy and
drive to step forward and make it happen.  You might have successfully
volunteered yourself to be that person.  *grin*

My point in discussing this particular amendment is that is that there
wasn't time to discuss it.  We had pretty much one day to take whatever
action was to be taken.  And we did, based on what time we had.  There's
not much that can be done when a near supermajority starts trying to
cram legislation down our throats with hundreds of pages and dozens of
amendments unless you are right there and watching it constantly.  You
don't have time to get the word out, and the people you want to get the
word out to probably haven't got time to respond.  It's unfortunate, but
this is what we've got.

Joseph

On Sun, Feb 08, 2009 at 11:50:03PM -0800, ckrugman at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> I'm not sure that I understand this logic in that the issue here is 
> methods in which members can effectively be mobilized to take action 
> to support the NFB philosophy when advocating for legislation. When 
> chapter meetings are held once a month and state bulletins and 
> publications such as the Monitor are published once a month this does 
> not provide for timely action on the part of members. The 
> Nelson-Collins Amendment is not really the issue here it was the means

> that the broader issue came to light as there was a need for immediate

> action to be taken by members and an inadequate method of members to 
> take such action. While many questions have always been raised 
> regarding the quality of VR services limiting funds for such services 
> will not improve them on any account. Perhaps the NFB needs to spend 
> some time and money on modernizing the way it relates to members and 
> how effective existing methods of communication are in mobilizing its 
> members. Is the current method of distributing legislative information

> through audio tapes played at chapter meetings the most effective 
> method? I for one would prefer to receive legislative email alerts as 
> is done with most other advocacy organizations as it is much more 
> expedient with regard to use of time at chapter meetings and the fact 
> that it is available in an accessible format for immediate action by 
> members. This does not preclude the use of information published in 
> Braille but it would result in a greater degree of member
participation and involvement.
> Chuck

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