[Jayhawk-Chapter] Kansas legislative update

[Rob Tabor]

Greetings Federation family, friends, and allies,

I regret to inform you that senate bill 276 is now dead and will have to be re-introduced from scratch next year with the start of a new legislature. The legislature surprise me yesterday by declaring a temporary adjournment until March 1. I have posted some inquiries in the attempt to get an explanation for this adjournment that took place one day before the turnaround deadline. It could have been done in anticipation of inclement weather.

Though we are all disappointed, I would advise everyone not to become disheartened with this surprise turn of events. I subscribed to the view that there is no such thing as a moral victory. That said, I believe we have made some positive gains from this year‘s endeavor to get the bill in active into the state body of law. First, we have begun some positive relationships with several members of the Kansas senate, all of whom will be in office until the end of 2024. This will indeed be helpful and getting the bill introduced as early as possible shortly after the new legislature convenience in January 2023. Secondly, we have all been able to hone our skills this year and becoming more effective systems change advocates.

My next piece of advice is to save your testimonies you submitted to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee so you can save time by not having to re-create your testimonies from scratch next year. As a safety precaution, it would be good to have a back up copy of the document file in case of a computer failure. This can be placed on a flash drive, external hard drive, CD ROM, or, better sale, a cloud-based storage site such as dropbox, iCloud, Microsoft one drive, or Google Drive.

Finally, look for opportunities to start or strength aFinally, look for opportunities to start or strengthen relationships with your legislators. I wo I would encourage you to sign up for your senator or representatives newsletter if they issue one on a regular basis. Other opportunities such as Townhall‘s, teleconferences, and other public forums can create some excellent opportunities to reach out to your legislators.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who took the time to appear before the Senate committee and to write letters to your senators urging support for our blind parents Wrightsville. It is now time for us it is now time for us to regroup and to Marshall our energies to commence the process next year. Remember, we are the national Federation of the blind and we refused to take no for an answer

Meanwhile, be well and try to stay warm.

Best regards,
Robert Tabor | first vice president/legislative Director national Federation of the blind of Kansas

Meanwhile, be well and try to stay warm.

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