[Minnesota-Talk] Fwd: [NFBMN-News] President's Update: Still Moving Forward

Sun Mar 15 21:15:44 UTC 2020

President Ryan Strunk sent this message to our 
statewide list earlier today. Because of its 
importance, I am forwarding to all our other 
Minnesota lists. Sorry if you get it more than once.

David Andrews, List Owner and At-Large Chapter President

>Fellow Federationists,
>In the spirit of sharing some good news, I want 
>to make you aware of some successes we’ve 
>created here in Minnesota. Though we’re all 
>currently living through some trying times, our 
>work will continue, and this moment and history 
>will not hold us back from building a better 
>world for blind people in Minnesota.
>I also need your help. In the next few days, we 
>may need to activate very quickly on a 
>legislative issuemore on that belowand we’ll 
>need as many people to make calls as can. Thank you, in advance, for your help.
>
>Possible Action: Access to Absentee Voting
>As you may know, access to absentee voting has 
>been one of our issues on the state level for a 
>couple years. The current state process for 
>voting requires a person to go online, print out 
>the ballot, fill it out by hand, and mail it in 
>to be counted. This process requires us as blind 
>people to find someone with sight to fill out 
>our ballot, which takes away our ability to vote 
>privately and independently if we choose to vote 
>absentee. However, service members and 
>Minnesotans living abroad have the ability to go 
>online, fill out a ballot electronically, print 
>it, and send it in. We are asking for this same access.
>There is a 
><https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=HF1152&b=house&y=2020&ssn=0>bill 
>in the house which is going quite well. It has a 
>great deal of support, and it has been heard in 
>committee. The 
><https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=Senate&f=SF0562&ssn=0&y=2019>senate 
>bill, however, is stalled and awaiting a committee hearing.
>During our Day at the Capitol, some of our 
>members met with Senator Kiffmeyer, the 
>committee chair responsible for ensuring our 
>bill is heard, and they encouraged her to bring 
>the bill forward for a hearing. To this date, 
>she has not done so. Earlier this week I 
>contacted her office to inform them of the 
><https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm20/bm2001/bm200107.htm>legal 
>case for promoting this legislation. I have not heard back from her office.
>I understand things are challenging in this 
>moment, but now, more than ever, we need equal 
>ability to vote independently. The absentee 
>voting system is already in place. We just need access to it.
>If we do not hear back from senator Kiffmeyer’s 
>office very soon, I will send an email out to 
>all of you with the information you need to 
>contact her and urge a committee hearing for the 
>bill. Please keep an eye out for that email, and be ready to advocate.
>
>A National Win
>At our Washington Seminar in February, members 
>of the Minnesota delegation met directly with 
>Senator Tina Smith to discuss issues of interest 
>to blind Minnesotans. I recently received word 
>that Senator Smith has signed on to 
><https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/815?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22s-815%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1>the 
>Access Technology Affordability Act, our bill to 
>secure a refundable tax credit for the purchase 
>of assistive technology. We are pleased that she 
>has done so, and we are excited to be one step 
>closer to passing this legislation.
>Thank you to those of you who traveled to 
>Washington DC to meet with her, and to everyone 
>who wrote or made phone calls urging her to support our issue.
>
>Progress on our Parental Rights Bill
>First, a story:
>Noah, my teammate at our Day at the 
>Capitol,  and I met with Representative Her, and 
>she expressed interest in our parental rights 
>bill and in having it sent to be revised and 
>jacketedMinnesota legislative speak for making 
>the bill ready for introduction. We practically 
>skipped back upstairs, ready to add this good 
>news to the report, and found someone we didn’t 
>immediately recognize chatting with our members.
>That someone, it so happened, was Representative 
>Gomez, and she was in the midst of talking to 
>some of our members about being an author for 
>the very same bill. We later learned that Mike 
>Sahyun, one of our members in the metro area, 
>was dropping off an informational packet to her 
>office, and she just happened to be passing by 
>at the time. She stopped to talk to him, they 
>chatted about our issues, and she came straight 
>upstairs to find out what she needed to do to author our bill.
>These are the kinds of incredible experiences 
>you can have when doing this work.
>Since that time, we have received the bill back 
>from the reviser, and it has been introduced in 
>both the Minnesota house and senate. In the 
>House, the bill had ten authors on its first 
>day, while in the Senate, the bill was introduced with four authors.
>Take a moment to be proud of that.
>Given the timing of introduction, as well as the 
>current state of things, though, I want to set 
>expectations for what that means for the future 
>of our bills. The Minnesota legislature has a 
>set of deadlines that bills must overcome to 
>stay viable. For our purposes, the deadline we 
>are interested in concerns bills being acted 
>upon favorably by one committee in order to move 
>forward in the legislature. Because of the dates 
>of introduction for our billMarch 11 in the 
>House and March 12 in the Senatethe committee 
>may not have time to take them up for a hearing and vote.
>While this results in a slower process than many 
>of us would like, veterans of our legislative 
>efforts know that writing and changing laws 
>takes time. Last year, we did not have a bill 
>introduced. This year we do. It’s one more step 
>in our journey, and it’s a positive one.
>We will continue to look for opportunities to 
>advance our legislation this year, but if our 
>bill stalls during this session, we have 
>tremendous momentum going into next year. We 
>already have language we like, we have at least 
>fourteen representatives and senators interested 
>in it, and we will have the time and energy to 
>see that is introduced before our Day at the 
>Capitol, which will enable us to share the 
>finished bill with our legislators and ask them to sign on to it.
>In the meantime, for those of you who are blind 
>parents, know that we’re willing to spend the 
>time needed to get this bill signed into law, 
>and we will do whatever it takes to see your 
>rights are protected. Until such time as the law 
>is changed, we will continue to fight for your rights wherever we can.
>
>One more thing
>I have gotten to know many of you over the past 
>ten years. Some of you I have known even longer. 
>We’ve chatted about the little things, swapped 
>stories and life experiences, celebrated 
>together, worked side by side, partied after 
>banquets, shared meals after meetings, and been 
>together through the ups and downs that come 
>with fighting for our rights. I care about every 
>one of you, and I want you to be healthy and 
>safe as we navigate this current chapter in our story.
>Please know that if you need anything, even if 
>it’s just someone to talk to, you can always 
>reach out to me. My cell number is (402) 
>730-4092. In addition, here’s 
><https://theconversation.com/7-science-based-strategies-to-cope-with-coronavirus-anxiety-133207>a 
>great article I was sent about dealing with 
>anxiety in the current moment that I found particularly helpful:
>Be well and take care of each other,
>Ryan
>
>Ryan Strunk, President
><mailto:president at nfbmn.org>president at nfbmn.org
>www.nfb.org
><http://www.nfbmn.org>www.nfbmn.org
>(612) 872-9363
>Live the life you Want.

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