[Home-on-the-Range] Request for action on Senate bill 284

[Rob Tabor]

Greetings, colleagues, comrades and cohorts,

As you probably know, the 2024 session of the Kansas legislature is well underway. Additionally, you probably recall that last year Senate Ville 284, which provides for sponsorship of our Newsline service through the state universal service fund with administrative support by the Kansas talking book library program, was introduced and assigned to the Senate utilities committee. Because the bill was not acted upon in 2023, the bill will carry over for action in the same committee during this year‘s legislative session.

It is anticipated that the bill will be coming up for hearing in the committee very soon, possibly within the coming week. Therefore, we urge you to prepare written testimonies and support of the bill. We are advised by Senator Mary Ware that no large physical presence in the hearing room will be necessary, and instead, we are advised to submit, written testimony. If you prepare testimony last year, in anticipation of a scheduled hearing that did not materialize and have saved the document, your work is already done. You simply need to remember to convert it to PDF format for submission

Here are some pointers to remember as you prepar e your testimonies.

• be sure to write “written testimony only” near the top of your document so that the committee assistant will not list you as a proponent testifying in person.
• specify that you are a proponent of SB 284.
• be sure to mention that you are a Kansas resident. You may list your full address if you wish, but remember that once your testimony is submitted, it becomes a matter of public record. A good solution for assuring legislators of your Kansas residency while preserving a measure of personal privacy is to state your county of residence.

•  state concisely what Newsline means to you. For example, you may use your Newsline subscription to keep abreast of local rnews and  events , check for emergency weather alerts  for job listings.


• limit your testimony to one page. Remember, brevity is the salt of Wit.
You may use the following templatewh meets all of these guidelines.

Before the Kansas Senate Utilities committee
Re. S.B. 284
Proponent testimony of (your name), (county name)  County Kansas

Written testimony only

Mr. chairmam and committee members,

I urge you to vote yes on the above referenced bill. I use NFB Newsline regularly to (statement of purpose).

Thank you for this opportunity to testify on this very important matter.

Be sure to check this list. Serve for an alert as to the date and time of the hearing. At that time you will receive specific instructions as to how to submit your testimony. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Tom Page or myself if you need help preparing your testimony.

Best regards,
Rob Tabor, | first vice president/legislative, directlegislative Director national Federation of the blind of Kansas.
(785) 865-9959
Rob.tabor at sbcglobal.net