[NFB_of_Georgia] Fwd: [Nfbnet-members-list] Legislative Alert – 2/21/202020

[Dorothy Griffin]

Greetings NFBGA Members, below you will find the legislative report after
Washington Seminar from John Pare from NFB National.  As you can see once
you read it that Georgia is nowhere on the list of Senators or
Representatives.  I implore all NFB Georgia members to contact our U.S.
Senators and your personal U.S. Representative to co-sponsor the
legislation listed below.

Let us flood their phones and emails!  .

If we want to see change in the state of Georgia we all have to do our part
to make that change happen.  NFB  Georgian's want to work and until we push
for change we may not get it.  Again I implore all chapter and division
presidents to share this information with all your membership, members
please ask your friends and family to do the same.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pare, John via NFBNet-Members-List <nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 3:43 PM
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] Legislative Alert – 2/21/202020
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org <nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>


Dear Federation Family:



This year’s Washington Seminar was a great success. We had over 500
attendees from 49 states. Representative Bobby Scott, chair of the House
Committee on Education and Labor, spoke at the Great Gathering-In. Chairman
Scott is the sponsor of the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act.
Senators Ben Cardin and Bob Casey, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and
Representative Mike Thompson all spoke at our Congressional reception.
Representative Mike Thompson is the chair of the Tax Policy Subcommittee,
and he is the sponsor of the Access Technology Affordability Act.



We also had a substantial increase in the number of cosponsors for each of
our bills. In the House, the Access Technology Affordability Act went from
forty-nine to sixty-three cosponsors. And in the Senate, it went from
fifteen to seventeen cosponsors. The GAIN Act went from four to thirteen
cosponsors. Finally, AIM HIGH went from four to twelve cosponsors in the
House.



We need to keep building on the momentum generated by Washington Seminar.
Similar to what we did in the fall, we are going to focus on our
legislation one bill per week for the next several weeks. We will begin
next week by focusing on the Access Technology Affordability Act (H.R. 2086
and S. 815).



This legislation removes an employment barrier commonly experienced by
blind Americans who cannot afford the high cost of access technology by
creating a refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,000 to offset the cost
of these technologies.



Please call your representative and two senators and urge them to cosponsor
the Access Technology Affordability Act if they have not already done so.
For those of you who attended Washington Seminar, you should follow up with
the staff person you met with. A complete list of current cosponsors is
included at the end of this email.



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. 815 for Senate calls/H.R.
2086 for House calls], the Access Technology Affordability Act. This
legislation removes an employment barrier commonly experienced by blind
Americans who cannot afford the high cost of access technology by creating
a refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,000 to offset the cost of these
technologies. 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.



It is best to email the specific staff person who handles tax policy for
that member of Congress. You can typically get the name and email address
of that person by calling the office in question. You can also email Jesa
here at the NFB and she will get this information for you. Her email is
jmedders at nfb.org.

Your calls and emails do make a difference!



The goal is to get to 100 cosponsors in the House and 25 in the Senate
within the next few weeks. I am certain that if we all work together we can
reach this goal.



If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 410-659-9314,
extension 2218 or email me at jpare at nfb.org.



Warm regards,



John G. Paré Jr.

Executive Director for Advocacy and Policy

200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

(410) 659-9314, extension 2218 | Jpare at nfb.org





*Access Technology Affordability Act (S. 815)*



1.       Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD]

2.       Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]

3.       Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [D-PA]

4.       Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME]

5.       Sen. Burr, Richard [R-NC]

6.       Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]

7.       Sen. Hassan, Margaret Wood [D-NH]

8.       Sen. Jones, Doug [D-AL]

9.       Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]



10.   Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD]



11.   Sen. Udall, Tom [D-NM]



12.   Sen. Fischer, Deb [R-NE]



13.   Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL]



14.   Sen. Capito, Shelley Moore [R-WV]



15.   Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]



16.   Sen. Rosen, Jacky [D-NV]



17.   Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK]







*Access Technology Affordability Act (H.R. 2086)*



1.       Rep. Kelly, Mike [R-PA-16]*



2.       Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR-3]



3.       Rep. Gaetz, Matt [R-FL-1]



4.       Rep. Murphy, Stephanie N. [D-FL-7]



5.       Rep. Stewart, Chris [R-UT-2]



6.       Rep. Cooper, Jim [D-TN-5]



7.       Rep. Tlaib, Rashida [D-MI-13]



8.       Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1]



9.       Rep. Huizenga, Bill [R-MI-2]



10.   Rep. Visclosky, Peter J. [D-IN-1]



11.   Rep. Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA-50]



12.   Rep. Upton, Fred [R-MI-6]



13.   Rep. Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [D-NJ-9]



14.   Rep. Moolenaar, John R. [R-MI-4]



15.   Rep. Calvert, Ken [R-CA-42]



16.   Rep. Ruppersberger, C. A. Dutch [D-MD-2]



17.   Rep. Sarbanes, John P. [D-MD-3]



18.   Rep. Kildee, Daniel T. [D-MI-5]



19.   Rep. Pressley, Ayanna [D-MA-7]



20.   Rep. Lynch, Stephen F. [D-MA-8]



21.   Rep. Larson, John B. [D-CT-1]



22.   Rep. Serrano, Jose E. [D-NY-15]



23.   Rep. Gabbard, Tulsi [D-HI-2]



24.   Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2]



25.   Rep. Carson, Andre [D-IN-7]



26.   Rep. Davis, Rodney [R-IL-13]



27.   Rep. Cummings, Elijah E. [D-MD-7]



28.   Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL-9]



29.   Rep. DeGette, Diana [D-CO-1]



30.   Rep. Shalala, Donna E. [D-FL-27]



31.   Rep. Raskin, Jamie [D-MD-8]



32.   Rep. Suozzi, Thomas R. [D-NY-3]



33.   Rep. Garcia, Jesus G. "Chuy" [D-IL-4]



34.   Rep. Eshoo, Anna G. [D-CA-18]



35.   Rep. Crow, Jason [D-CO-6]



36.   Rep. Morelle, Joseph D. [D-NY-25]



37.   Rep. Stevens, Haley M. [D-MI-11]



38.   Rep. Aguilar, Pete [D-CA-31]



39.   Rep. Luria, Elaine G. [D-VA-2]



40.   Rep. LaHood, Darin [R-IL-18]



41.   Rep. Ryan, Tim [D-OH-13]



42.   Rep. Kirkpatrick, Ann [D-AZ-2]



43.   Rep. Foster, Bill [D-IL-11]



44.   Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2]



45.   Rep. Lipinski, Daniel [D-IL-3]



46.   Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]



47.   Rep. Schneider, Bradley Scott [D-IL-10]



48.   Rep. Trone, David J. [D-MD-6]



49.   Rep. Panetta, Jimmy [D-CA-20]



50.   Rep. Blunt Rochester, Lisa [D-DE-At Large]



51.   Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]



52.   Rep. Soto, Darren [D-FL-9]



53.   Rep. Smith, Christopher H. [R-NJ-4]



54.   Rep. Sires, Albio [D-NJ-8]



55.   Rep. Waters, Maxine [D-CA-43]



56.   Rep. Stivers, Steve [R-OH-15]



57.   Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1]



58.   Rep. Gohmert, Louie [R-TX-1]



59.   Rep. Rogers, Mike D. [R-AL-3]



60.   Rep. Kelly, Robin L. [D-IL-2]



61.   Rep. Gallego, Ruben [D-AZ-7]



62.   Rep. Spano, Ross [R-FL-15]



63.   Rep. DelBene, Suzan K. [D-WA-1]


_______________________________________________
NFBNet-Members-List mailing list
NFBNet-Members-List at nfbnet.org
List archives:  <
http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbnet-members-list_nfbnet.org>
To unsubscribe from NFBNet-Members-List:
goto
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbnet-members-list_nfbnet.org/dgriffin%40nfbga.org


-- 
Dorothy Griffin - President
National Federation of the Blind of Georgia
dgriffin at nfbga.org
770-374-4832

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.