[Massachusetts-NFB] Legislative Action Item: Ask your Representative to Cosponsor the Blind Americans Return to Work Act!

[Kyra Sweeney]

Hi everyone,



As we heard  during the national convention, the Blind Americans Return to
Work Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives! The bill
number is H.R. 8878. The bill was introduced by Congressman Pete Sessions
of Texas and has Congressman Kweisi Mfume of Maryland as the lead cosponsor.



*Explanation of the Bill:*



*T**his **l**egislation **i**s **needed in order to allow blind Americans
to reach our full earning potential. Currently, *Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) benefits paid to blind beneficiaries are eliminated if the
beneficiary exceeds a monthly earnings limit. This earnings limit, often
called the “earnings cliff,” is in effect a penalty imposed on blind
Americans when they work. For example, the earnings limit in 2024 for a
blind person is $2,590 per month. If a blind person earns more than that
threshold, even by just one dollar, they are engaged in substantial gainful
activity (SGA). Under the current law, any individual engaged in SGA is not
entitled to any Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. *This
means that if a blind person earns just one dollar over the earnings limit,
all benefits are lost* . Many blind Americans have turned down raises,
promotions, and additional work hours in order to avoid losing all SSDI
benefits.



The *Blind Americans Return to Work Act *will eliminate the earnings cliff
by instituting a pilot program establishing a gradual two-for-one phase-out
of SSDI benefits with earnings over the SGA limit. In other words, for
every two dollars a blind worker earns above the SGA threshold, their
benefits amount will be reduced by one dollar. With this phase-out model,
blind workers will always be better off striving to earn as much as
possible, which will facilitate the transition of those workers out of the
SSDI system as benefits are gradually reduced.



What we need to do:



It is essential that we reach out to our representatives to build cosponsor
support for this legislation before the session ends later this year.



When you call or email your representative, you might say the following:

"Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME], and I am a constituent of [REPRESENTATIVE
NAME]. I live in [CITY, STATE]. I would like to urge [REPRESENTATIVE NAME]
to cosponsor the Blind Americans Return to Work Act, H.R. 8878. This
legislation will eliminate the SSDI earnings cliff by instituting a
two-for-one phase out of benefits for any income earned above the
substantial gainful activity threshold for blind Americans. This will
create a true work incentive for all blind Americans currently on SSDI.
Thanks."



Feel free to include a personal example in your message if you have
experience with trying to navigate the earnings cliff.



Please contact your representative either by phone or by email this week!
This only takes a few minutes. I have attached a document with the contact
information for each of the representatives in MA and instructions to find
your representative. If you need help figuring out who your representative
is, please email me privately.



If you contact your representative via email, please copy me at
kyra.sweeney94 at gmail.comm, as well as the NFB Governmental Affairs
Specialist, Jesse Shirek, at jshirek at nfb.org.



It would be great if we could get cosponsors from MA to support this bill!
Your calls and emails will make a difference. Thank you for helping to move
this priority forward.



Best,



Kyra Sweeney

Legislative Director, National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20240827/4bad771c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: United States Representatives from Massachusetts.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 16266 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20240827/4bad771c/attachment.docx>