[Home-on-the-range] Legislative priorities and letter-writing campaign

[Anna avramenko]

Good morning dear federationists!

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

As many of you know, this summer I am interning for the National
Office in Baltimore. A few weeks ago we had government affairs week,
and I had an excellent opportunity to go to Capitol Hill to meet with
the members of Congress from Kansas regarding the following
legislative priorities:
•	TIME bill
•	SMART Act (formerly TEACH Act) and
•	Marrakesh treaty.
I met with Joe from Congressman Yoder’s office, Lauren from Senator
Roberts’ office, Emily and Evan from Senator Moran’s office, and Adam
from Congresswoman Jenkins’ office. The meetings went well. However,
we will only be able to accomplish our goal of obtaining more
cosponsors if we join together in a collaborate effort and follow up.
I’ve been advised by our government affairs team to encourage you to
write e-mails to the congressmen with whom I visited to express your
concerns and to ask them for their support. Below, please find an
example e-mail that may be helpful to use a template when writing your
Members of Congress. Also, at the bottom of the e-mail, I have
included their e-mail addresses. If any of you have other ideas of how
to promote the bills, please let me know and we’ll collaborate
together.

Dear [staffer’s name]:

My name is …, and I am a constituent from Kansas. I am writing to you
regarding the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment
(TIME) Act. Americans with disabilities are being paid subminimum
wages. This practice is unfair and immoral, and I am writing to ask
Congress [man/woman] [name of member of Congress] to support the TIME
Act by becoming a cosponsor.

Anya Avramenko visited with you in June regarding this bill.  As a
constituent, I am writing to let you know that I also support HR 188.
[Sentence or two about why you support the TIME Act]

Respectfully,

[your name]
National Federation of the Blind of Kansas

Once again, this is merely a template.  Feel free to write your own
letters.  It would be very helpful if you could cc Rose Sloan,
Government Affairs Specialist (rsloan at nfb.org), on your emails because
she leads the TIME effort at our National Office. We would be very
grateful for your help.

Thanks in advance!

Anya

Senator Roberts (R-KS); lauren_stockwell at roberts.senate.gov

Senator Moran (R-KS); brian_perkins at moran.senate.gov

Congresswoman Jenkins (R-KS); eric.schmutz at mail.house.gov

Congressman Yoder (R-KS); joe.eannello at mail.house.gov