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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.<br><br>
David Andrews, List Owner and At-Large Chapter President<br><br>
<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Fellow Federationists,<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b><a name="_Hlk35169770"></a>Possible Action: Access to Absentee
Voting<br>
</b>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.<br>
There is a
<a href="https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=HF1152&b=house&y=2020&ssn=0">
bill in the house</a> which is going quite well. It has a great deal of
support, and it has been heard in committee. The
<a href="https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=Senate&f=SF0562&ssn=0&y=2019">
senate bill</a>, however, is stalled and awaiting a committee
hearing.<br>
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
<a href="https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm20/bm2001/bm200107.htm">
legal case for promoting this legislation</a>. I have not heard back from
her office. <br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
A National Win<br>
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
<a href="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</a>, 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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b><a name="_Hlk35169797"></a>Progress on our Parental Rights Bill<br>
</b>First, a story:<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
These are the kinds of incredible experiences you can have when doing
this work.<br>
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.<br>
Take a moment to be proud of that.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>One more thing<br>
</b>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.<br>
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
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-science-based-strategies-to-cope-with-coronavirus-anxiety-133207">
a great article</a> I was sent about dealing with anxiety in the current
moment that I found particularly helpful: <br>
Be well and take care of each other,<br>
Ryan<br>
<br>
Ryan Strunk, President<br>
<a href="mailto:president@nfbmn.org">president@nfbmn.org</a><br>
<a href="http://www.nfb.org/" eudora="autourl">www.nfb.org</a><br>
<a href="http://www.nfbmn.org">www.nfbmn.org</a><br>
(612) 872-9363<br>
Live the life you Want.</blockquote><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br />
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