[NFBF-L] Legislative update - important information inside - including notes on our next Legislative Committee meeting - date to be determined...

Wed Oct 25 21:46:40 UTC 2023

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to be able to get this email out to you all and to have the
opportunity to provide you with some important information.

So that you can plan your schedules, I wanted to let you know that we will
not have a Legislative Committee meeting tomorrow evening, this would have
been our normal meeting date. Our next meeting would actually fall on
Thanksgiving night, so I doubt that we would be gathering then, but perhaps
we can find a different date in November to come together and catch up on
what's happening in Washington and in Tallahassee.

For now, let me bring you up to speed on some important items such as the
status of our legislative priorities and on the 2024 Washington Seminar.

Our Affiliate Board will be meeting soon to discuss Florida's involvement in
the upcoming Washington Seminar, which will be held during the last week of
January. The first day of the important annual event will take place on
Monday, January 29th. We will then set out to meet with staff for our 28
House members and 2 Senators over several days beginning on Tuesday, January
30th. In the past, Florida has sent around a dozen Affiliate members on this
trip, but I highly suspect  that we will not be able to expend the money it
takes to send that many people this coming year. If I had to guess, (prior
to the Board actually meeting), we are probably looking at sending around 8
delegates, (on the Affiliates dime). The cost of Seminar is quite
substantial. We have in the past paid airline and hotel expenses, as well as
a modest daily per diem. The cost of hotel rooms, (almost always rooms
shared by two or more delegates), was unusually low in 2023, but has gone up
significantly for 2024.

Yes, I absolutely believe that the funds spent on Washington Seminar have
been, (and will continue to be), well worth it, but I also understand that
we have to be  extremely responsible with our Affiliates limited financial
resources.

The names of the 2024 Washington Seminar delegates from Florida have not yet
been determined. Multiple factors come into play when trying to determine
who would best represent the National Federation of the Blind of Florida,
including, (but not limited to), clear evidence of interest in the
legislative process during 2023 and a demonstration of willingness to
advocate for our legislative priorities.

An understanding of math will tell you that, unfortunately, Florida cannot
send a delegate from each of our 28 Congressional districts, nor can we even
send a member of each of our 12 active chapters. The process of choosing
delegates is a difficult one, but your Board of Directors will work hard to
make sure that the members sent to Washington for this high pressure and
often exhausting event will be the best ones possible.

Now let's close out todays long email with a review of our legislative
priorities. We covered these during our NFB of Florida legislative workshop
held on Sunday, October 8th. Although other workshops were competing for the
attention of our Convention attendees, we still had an incredible 35
interested folks with us for most of the nearly two hour session. President
Mark Riccobono was one of the workshop attendees, and we were honored to
have him with us.

During the workshop we reviewed the following important legislative
initiatives:

The Access Technology Affordability Act

(HR-3702) and ( S-1467).

House co-sponsorship = 37

Fla. Representative co-sponsorships = 8

Bilirakis - R-12

Cherfilus-McCormick - D - 20

Dunn - R - 2

Lee - R - 15

Posey - R - 8

Rutherford - R - 5

Salazar - R - 27

Waltz - R - 6

Medical Device Non Visual Accessibility Act

HR-1328

House co-sponsorship = 49

Fla. Representative co-sponsorships = 3

Castor - D - 14

Cherfilus-McCormick - D - 20

Rutherford - R - 5

Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act

HR-5813 and S-2984

House co-sponsorship = 2

Fla. Representative co-sponsorships = 0

Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act

HR - 1263 - S-533

House co-sponsorship = 24

Fla. Representative co-sponsorships = 1

Cherfilus-McCormick - D - 20

No Florida Senators have provided support for the above bills.

The Blind Americans Return to Work Act has not yet been introduced into the
House or Senate but we are working hard to identify a lead sponsor for the
bill.

As of the time of this email, the US House of Representatives has finally
elected a new Speaker. While the House was without a Speaker, the
legislative process in the House was nearly at a complete stand-still.  We
can now confidently continue our work to gather support for the above listed
initiatives from members who have not yet signed on as co-sponsors.

I encourage you to reach out to me or co-legislative director, Camille Tate,
to discuss how you can seek support from your House member and from our two
Senators. I will be meeting with district staff for Congressman Bean, (R -
Dist. 04), in the next couple of weeks. This visit to Rep. Bean's
Jacksonville office will be an important step in building a relationship
with local staff members.

I will also be researching the names of Washington DC based appointment
schedulers in order to make our Washington Seminar preparation activities
more effective and efficient.

I know that this email was extremely long, but I hope that you were able to
get some good information from it. Thanks so much for taking the time to
read through all of the information.

Looking forward to having you with us on our next Legislative Committee
call.

Very respectfully,

Russ Davis, Legislative Director,

National Federation of the Blind of Florida

Ph. 904-993-8433

Email: russell at radiorusty.com <mailto:russell at radiorusty.com> 

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