[NAGDU] FYI SharingFwd: RE: Next Steps: Texas TNC Bills

[Stacie Hardy - NFBHOU]

Hello all,

See the below email regarding the legislative happenings.


Stacie Hardy <shardy at nfbtx.org>
President: NFB of Texas Houston Chapter
Voice and Text: (346) 704-0190 or (832) 779-7477

"A question never asked is an answer never known"
"Live the life you want!"


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	RE: Next Steps: Texas TNC Bills
Date: 	Tue, 2 May 2017 11:18:47 -0400
From: 	Charles Crawford <ccrawford at rcn.com>
To: 	'Richard Petty' <richard.petty at earthlink.net>, 'LouAnn Williams' 
<la.lozano.williams at gmail.com>, 'Penny Reeder' <penny.reeder at gmail.com>, 
advocacy at guidedogusersinc.org, shellmac308 at gmail.com, 
jvejil924 at sbcglobal.net, oleo50 at hotmail.com, 'Karen Petty' 
<kbpetty at earthlink.net>, 'Stacie Hardy - NFBHOU' <shardy at nfbtx.org>, 
'Maria - MYR' <Maria.Town at houstontx.gov>, will.burley3 at gmail.com, 
prhunt1 at att.net, cpfinley at sbcglobal.net
CC: 	'Sarah Calhoun' <sc-tico at att.net>



Hi Richard and all,

Great!  Looks like we are as they say cooking with gas.  Your taking the 
language from the NFB website confirms the validity of it and now it is 
a matter of everyone contacting your State Senators in Austin.  It does 
look like Uber is on our side in this and that is good.  I am still 
checking a couple of other things, but this is very good!

Charlie Crawford: Chair: GDUI Advocacy and Legislative Committee.

*From:*Richard Petty [mailto:richard.petty at earthlink.net]
*Sent:* Monday, May 01, 2017 11:13 PM
*To:* 'LouAnn Williams'; 'Charles Crawford'; 'Penny Reeder'; 
advocacy at guidedogusersinc.org; shellmac308 at gmail.com; 
jvejil924 at sbcglobal.net; oleo50 at hotmail.com; Karen Petty; Stacie Hardy - 
NFBHOU; Maria - MYR; will.burley3 at gmail.com; prhunt1 at att.net; 
cpfinley at sbcglobal.net
*Cc:* 'Sarah Calhoun'
*Subject:* Next Steps: Texas TNC Bills

We think some of you couldn’t get into the conference line earlier 
tonight. There were problems with the free conference line and even 
those who did get in had to dial several times. Only six of us managed 
to dial in. If we need to have another call this week, we will arrange 
another conference line. Apologies for the inconvenience.

The group that did meet—Charlie, Karen, Cindy, LouAnn, Paul and me—came 
up with the suggestion that we continue to contact senators who are 
working on language to combine house BILL HB100 and Senate Bill SB176. 
Scroll down to the lists of sponsors and committee members. You can find 
email links on each senator’s Web page by following the links below.

·Continue to urge that nondiscrimination language be strengthened.

·Ask that the bill have remedies for discrimination. The NFB lawsuit 
settlement language is a good model. Uber already agreed to it.

https://nfb.org/groundbreaking-settlement-end-discrimination-against-blind-uber-riders-who-use-guide-dogs

This is the language to which Uber agreed. It’s extracted from the above.

·Require that drivers provide equal service to people with disabilities 
who  travel with service animals.

·Permanently remove drivers from the platform if Uber finds that the 
driver knowingly denied service to someone with a service animal because 
of their service animal. Drivers may not deny service because of 
allergies or fear of dogs.

·Permanently remove drivers who are alleged to have refused service more 
than once, regardless of their intent or knowledge, as long as the 
complaints are plausible.

·Notify new drivers and existing drivers of their obligations to serve 
people with service animals when they sign up, through the app, and via 
email reminders. Uber also includes an agreement to comply with these 
obligations in the driver contract.

·Require all drivers to read and correctly answer questions about 
service animal obligations in an interactive pop-up in the app.

·Respond to customer complaints about service animal discrimination in a 
timely manner, and notify customers about the outcome of Uber’s 
investigation into the incident, including whether the driver has been 
permanently removed from the system.

SENATOR AND COMMITTEE INFORMATION

Senate Sponsors of SB176

Charles Schwertner [R]

Paul Bettencourt [R]

Dawn Buckingham [R]

Donna Campbell [R]

Juan Hinojosa [D]

Bryan Hughes [R]

Charles Perry [R]

Larry Taylor [R]

John Whitmire   [D]

Senate Committee on Business & Commerce

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/cmte.php?c=510

Kelly Hancock (CHAIR R)

Brandon Creighton (VICE-CHAIR )

Donna Campbell

Craig Estes

Robert Nichols

Charles Schwertner

Larry Taylor

John Whitmire

Judith Zaffirini

Senate Committee on Transportation

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/cmte.php?c=640

Robert Nichols (CHAIR)

Bob Hall (VICE-CHAIR)

Brandon Creighton

Sylvia R. Garcia

Kelly Hancock

Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa

Lois Kolkhorst

Charles Perry

José Rodríguez

*From:*Richard Petty [mailto:richard.petty at earthlink.net]
*Sent:* Monday, May 01, 2017 7:09 AM
*To:* 'LouAnn Williams'; 'Charles Crawford'; 'Penny Reeder'; 
'advocacy at guidedogusersinc.org'; shellmac308 at gmail.com; 
'jvejil924 at sbcglobal.net'; 'oleo50 at hotmail.com'; Karen Petty; Stacie 
Hardy - NFBHOU (shardy at nfbtx.org); Maria - MYR (Maria.Town at houstontx.gov)
*Cc:* 'Sarah Calhoun'
*Subject:* Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee

All, we should follow activities of this committee also.

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/cmte.php?c=510