[Colorado-Talk] Washington Seminar Wrap-up

[Dan Burke]

Good morning all –

On behalf of President Beecham and my fellow legislative co-chair
Curtis Chong, I want to thank all of you for your efforts during our
Washington Seminar appointments this week. Many of you turned out at
nearly every meeting to help carry the message of the NFB and of our
legislative priorities. If I try to name you all I’ll leave someone
off the list, so let’s leave it at this: We know who you are, and
appreciate you!

I apologize to those who turned out for Senator Bennet’s meeting on
Tuesday, only to realize that that meeting had been moved to
Wednesday. That was my error. We changed the time, but we also were
supposed to change the day.

But without a doubt, our meeting with Senator Bennet was the high
point of the week’s work. That’s because the Senator showed up in
person for 15 minutes, engaged with us, asked thoughtful questions and
gave us encouragement that he may support more of our efforts. (He is
currently a cosponsor of ATAA in the Senate.) That means a lot more
than an aide expressing interest in our issues, for obvious reasons.

We don’t expect to meet every member every year. That wouldn’t be
realistic. Rep. Neguse was in Boulder yesterday when we were meeting
with his staff. He was there for the re-opening of the Table Mesa King
Soopers. But Maryann and Paul were there too, and hopefully they at
least got a chance to shake his hand and remind him about the NFB.
Maryann’s efforts like this in the past led directly to getting that
Congressman on a couple of our bills as cosponsor during the first
months of his first term in office.

And without a doubt, the fact that we’ve been able to meet with Sen.
Bennet three or four times at least in the nine years I’ve been in
Colorado is also thanks to Kevan and Scott connecting with him over
the years back in Colorado.

And that is where this is going. We all need to work more on trying to
connect with our members back home. Whether it’s a town hall, a
ribbon-cutting or a fundraiser, shaking hands and saying your name and
“NFB”  is what will help us turn legislation such as the Medical
Devices Nonvisual Accessibility Act into the law of the land. "They"
don't get it done, "we" do.

Curtis and I plan to regroup with President Beecham about strategies
to meet more of our members “back in the district.” If you have a
chance to do so and meet a member, make sure you pass that on to
Curtis and me so we can file that away and mention you at a later
meeting, or even better invite you. But we’ll be sharing more about
this topic as we move forward.

Thanks for all you’ve done this week, and let’s keep the effort going!

Dan



-- 
Dan Burke

National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Legislative Co-chair

President, NFB of Denver

"Blindness is not what holds you back.  You can live the life you want!"

My Cell:  406.546.8546
Twitter:  @DallDonal