[NFBMI-Talk] FW: [NFB-Legislative-Directors] NFB Spring advocacy plan

[donnabutterfly50 at gmail.com]

From: NFB-Legislative-Directors <nfb-legislative-directors-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Shirek, Jesse via NFB-Legislative-Directors
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2026 5:10 PM
To: NFB Legislative Directors List <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Shirek, Jesse <jshirek at nfb.org>
Subject: [NFB-Legislative-Directors] NFB Spring advocacy plan

 

Dear Legislative Directors and Affiliate Presidents,
It's hard to believe we are already in the second quarter of 2026 and midterm elections are rapidly approaching. We need to ramp up our work on getting our priorities into a package to get them passed in the 119th Congress. I am excited to share an overview of our upcoming spring advocacy push and to ask for your assistance in preparing our members for a successful coordinated and timely effort.

As you may read in the news, Congress is considering a second reconciliation package. Because reconciliation can move through Congress without being subject to a filibuster in the Senate it, meaning that it could get through the Senate with 51 votes, versus the 60 votes required for the filibuster rule. This Presents an important opportunity to advance key priorities of the organized blind movement. At this time, we believe there are opportunities to pursue inclusion of the Access Technology Affordability Act and the Blind Americans Return to Work Act.

Our first advocacy alert is scheduled to go out on April 13. For this alert, we will be using a slightly different strategy. Members who have a U.S. representative who has already cosponsored the Access Technology Affordability Act will be asked to contact that office and urge their representative to speak directly with Chairman Jason Smith of the House Ways and Means Committee in support of including ATAA in a major vehicle. We are aiming to drive that message in advance of April 20.

We will then send a second legislative advocacy alert asking our members to push cosponsorship of the Blind Americans Return to Work Act, in the US house of representatives. At this time this legislation is only in the house, but that could change at any moment. Also, for this second legislative alert we may opt to select a different priority or reorder the priorities if an opportunity presents that will be more strategically effective at accomplishing our goals. 

Finally, on Monday, April 27, we will send a third advocacy alert encouraging members of Congress to cosponsor the resolution establishing the National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement, again this is our tentative plan for the third legislative alert, but this may change depending upon opportunities.

We are sharing this plan with you now so that you can help prepare your members for these efforts and reinforce the importance of timely action as each alert is released. As always, your leadership is essential in helping us transform advocacy opportunities into significant results.

Thank you for your contributions and continued leadership.

Best regards,

Jesse Shirek
Director of Advocacy
National Federation of the Blind
Sent from my iPhone

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