[MD-Sligo] Team Number 2 Meetings Notes - Capitol Hill Meetings today

[Jeff Baer]

Submitted to Ronza, Debbie, and Sharon, plus provided to other team members per their request. Also sent to official NFB mailbox.


Official Notes and Report from Team Number 2, Maryland (Virtual Team) Washington Seminar Jan. 27, 2026.  All meetings by Zoom because of a winter storm that hindered in-person meetings.


Jeff's Summary of the day:

This was an extremely strong and knowledgeable team with a rotating cast throughout the day. All meetings went smoothly. The team leaders called on multiple speakers to contribute, which worked well.

 In my opinion, there were not any surprises nor any big news in terms of us receiving support for our initiatives. Everyone we spoke to was broadly supportive of all of our priorities. Unfortunately, no one committed today to become a new co-sponsor when we spoke with them.

There was not any negative feedback received at all. See below for more details.  Putting ratings on the conversations was hard. The group discussed and voted on which rankings felt best.

Full group schedule and meeting notes:


10:00AM – Preparation meeting led by Debbie Brown was successful. Throughout the day, Leah Mattern was the lead Zoom host with Jeff Baer as her back-up (and as notetaker)


11:00 AM moved to 11:30 AM - Representative Olszewski – 2nd District.

Rating = Yes on both bills

Details:

( Legislative Aide Will Thorn came in place of aide Isabel Sanchez)  The meeting went well. Will had received the fact sheets and package of info from NFB.  Debbie Brown was the team leader and presenter. Chris Nusbaum spoke about The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.(IDEA). Sharon Maneki then spoke about the Access Technology Affordability Act.  Aloma Bouma spoke about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act.

Will from the Congressperson's office expressed support for all of our initiatives. He will get back to us within a week to tell us if Rep. Olszewski can co-sponsor some of our bills.

Will was also going to reach out to Rep. Kweisi Mfume's office to learn more re: co-sponsoring.




Was supposed to be at 1:00PM – Rep. Ivey – 4th District

(Maisie Ruddy)  needed to reschedule for another day.   Perhaps on 2/3/26. Ronza is working on finalizing it.


1:30 PM - Rep. Dulaney (Met with Legislative Aide Matt Amitay ) Matt had received the information packet from NFB. Leah led the session.   Rating =  Undecided on both bills (but generally supportive of both)

Details:


 Chris Nussbaum spoke about The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.(IDEA). Started by focusing on The American Printing House for the Blind (APH). Then, Sharon Maneki spoke about the Access Technology Affordability Act. Matt sounded very optimistic that they might be interested in co-sponsoring that bill. Aloma Bouma then spoke about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. Matt was interested in this one as well. Jeff thinks we should continue to push on this office for support.



2:00PM - Rep. Elfreth    3rd District

(Sam Patterson legislative aide)

Rating = Undecided on Both (but supportive)

Details:



Sam showed up promptly at 2 pm and Leah led the meeting. She started off by talking about the educational initiatives with a special mention of the Randolph-Sheppard program.  Chris Nussbaum then spoke about the APH section of our legislative priorities. He handed the floor over to Morgan Estes who spoke personally about her experiences as a student and the importance of IEP's and the IDEA legislation in general.  Sam said Congressman Elfreth is a co-sponsor and is a big supporter of this effort and the focus on repairing the Department of Education. Jeff was not certain that Elfreth is indeed a co-sponsor, and if not, perhaps that is an opening (or just some confusion on Sam's part).

Leah then asked Sharon M. to speak about the Access Technology Affordability Act, which Sharon did after first identifying herself and most of the Central Maryland Chapter as constituents of the congressperson.  Sam was not aware of this bill and said he would bring it up with the congressperson.  Aloma Bouma then spoke about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. Sam said that he was aware of this piece of legislation but did not comment further on it.  Chris told his personal story about the overpayment issues that many blind people face.




2:30PM – Rep. Hoyer  5th District

(Ms. Quinn Hirsh)

Rating = Yes on Both

Details:

 The meeting started on time and was led by Debbie. We started by thanking Congressman Hoyer via Quinn for his presentation to NFB the prior evening and she thanked us on his behalf for the award that he received.  Debbie started by discussing the educational legislative priorities that we are working on. Debbie mentioned that on the call were Caitlin Brown and Lori Rudloph from the Teachers of Tomorrow program.   Debbie highlighted The Randolph-Sheppard Program and President Riccobono's letter on that topic in the packet. She also touched on The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The Older Individuals Who are Blind Program and The American Printing House for the Blind. Quinn said kind words about NFB and its members advocacy over the years.  She said she was very familiar with all of the NFB's educational goals and said she was certain that Rep. Hoyer would be supporting them.


Then Sharon spoke about the Access Technology Affordability Act. Quinn had no questions and said John (in Hoyer's office) had been briefed on this bill.


Then Aloma spoke about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act.  Quinn said she thought this Act makes sense and that the overpayment issue is "staggering" (her words, not ours). She is going to speak with the Congressperson on his possible support and get back to us.


3:30PM – Senator Van Hollen (Hanna Vohra)


Rating = Yes on Both


Details:

- Debbie started the meeting when Hanna joined us right on schedule. Debbie had Lina Howard speak about the Rehabilitation Act. Debbie then highlighted The Randolph-Sheppard Program and the NFB's President's letter on that topic.

The Older American who are Blind was the next topic.  Morgan then spoke about the APH.  Hanna said she "imagined the senator would be supportive" of all of the programs we highlighted.  Hanna seemed to want us to prioritize amongst our asks and identify what were the top things we wanted to achieve or protect.

Sharon then spoke about our thanks for the Senator's support of our elimination of  "sub-minimum wage" goals and our museum that is in the planning stage. Sharon then spoke about the Access Technology Affordability Act, Hanna said she thought the senator would be in favor of supporting our Technology Affordability goals and would speak with him and get back to NFB.  Aloma then spoke about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. Hanna showed strong support for the Blind Americans Return to Work Act and indicated she could envision that the Senator would jump onto that. Hanna will be reaching out to Congressman Mfume's office to get the needed details.



4:30PM - Rep. Mfume (Faith Morgan) – 7th District already co-sponsor/ leader on Return to Work!


Ratings:  = Yes on both. Co-lead on Return to Work Bill and yes on the on the other bill.

Details:


Debbie began by thanking the congressman for his leadership on issues that matter to NFB, then discussed the Randolph-Sheppard Program with President Riccobono's letter on that topic, then the education-related priorities at NFB.  Morgan then spoke about APH and explained about Braille Displays and their importance, as well as tactile graphics.  Faith thought the congressman would be supportive of all these programs. Faith encouraged us to work on building support among the Republican members of the committees that would need to move forward bills in committees.


Notes respectfully submitted,
-Jeff Baer
Sligo Creek Chapter, NFBMD


Here is the Zoom link – remember, it’s the same as our usual affiliate number for Zoom.




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