[NABS-L] Legislative Advocacy Committee Call Sunday, February 17, at 8 PM ET

[Justin Salisbury]

Good evening, NABS members and leaders!

I hope that you all are enjoying the end of winter! For those who attended Washington Seminar, and, for those who worked on our legislative priorities from home in the districts, congratulations on some great progress to start the year!

This is a friendly reminder that the legislative advocacy committee is having our monthly conference call on Sunday, February 17, at 8pm eastern. The call-in number is 712-770-5197, and the access code is 265669.

Whether or not you can make it to the call, I want to be sure that I ask/remind everyone about the present need to ask our Members of Congress to cosponsor legislation that will phase out the payment of subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. I have contacted the Hawaii offices, and I hope every office can hear from lots of students. When we go out and get a college degree, we do it because we want to get real jobs with real paychecks, not to end up in a sweatshop earning seven cents an hour. 

As President Riccobono announced at the Great Gathering-In, we have a new bill which needs your immediate attention. The Transformation to Competitive Employment Act was introduced in the Senate by Senator Casey of Pennsylvania and Senator Van Hollen of Maryland, and was assigned bill number S. 260. In the House, Chairman Bobby Scott of Virginia and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington introduced companion legislation, H.R. 873. These bills would phase out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act over a six-year period, at which point the provision would officially be sunset. 
 
All of this means that we have the opportunity to give these bills a strong start by immediately building cosponsor support for both S. 260 and H.R. 873. Therefore, please call or email your senators and ask them to cosponsor S. 260 and call or email your representative and has him or her to cosponsor H.R. 873. 
 
When you call or email, you might say something like the following:
 
"Hello, my name is [your name] and I am a constituent of [your senator/representative]. I live in [city, state]. I am calling to urge [your senator/representative] to cosponsor [S. 260 for Senate calls/H.R. 873 for House calls], the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act. This bill would phase out subminimum wages for people with disabilities over a six-year period, at which point Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the provision that allows this practice, would be sunset. I urge [your senator/representative] to cosponsor the bill. Thanks."
 
You can contact your member of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard and asking for the office in question. The number is 202-224-3121. If you email your representative or senators, please copy Gabe Cazares at gcazares at nfb.org.

Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions!

Aloha,

Justin

Justin M. Hideaki Salisbury, MA, NOMC, NCRTB, NCUEB 
Board Member | National Association of Blind Students
   A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind
(808) 797-8606
president at alumni.ecu.edu | www.nabslink.org