[Nfbmo] FW: Time Act

Tue Sep 20 19:14:53 UTC 2016

In today's presidents notebook, President Riccobono asked us to call our Congressman about the TIME Act. Below is some information that may help in summoning arguments that we have not previously used. They should carry weight with both Republicans and Democrats. Thank you for reading this.

REPUBLICAN:
Advancing Americans with Disabilities (P. 38-39)

Under the last two Republican presidents, landmark civil rights legislation affirmed the inherent rights of persons with disabilities. Republicans want to support those rights by guaranteeing access to education and the tools necessary to compete in the mainstream of society. This is not just a moral obligation to our fellow Americans with disabilities. It is our duty to our country’s future to tap this vast pool of talented individuals who want to work and contribute to the common good. For that reason, Republican leadership led to enactment of the ABLE Act (Achieving a Better Life Experience) and the Steve Gleason Act. The former, for the first time, lets people with disabilities maintain access to services while saving to develop assets. The latter, bearing the name of the former NFL player with ALS, provides access to speech-generating devices. In addition, our Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will make it easier for students with disabilities to pursue competitive employment.

Persons with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to be self-employed as the general population. To encourage their entrepreneurship, it makes sense to include them in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) certification program, which opens up federal contracting for emerging businesses. Any restructuring of the tax code should consider ways in which companies can benefit from the talent and energy of their disabled employees.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has opened up unprecedented opportunities for many students. Congressional Republicans will lead in its reauthorization, as well as renewal of the Higher Education Act, which can offer students with disabilities increased access to the general curriculum. Our TIME Act (Transition to Integrated and Meaningful Employment) will modernize the Fair Labor Standards Act to encourage competitive employment for persons with disabilities. We affirm our support for its goal of minimizing the separation of children with disabilities from their peers. We endorse efforts like Employment First that replace dependency with jobs in the mainstream of the American workforce.

We oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, including newborns, the elderly, and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society. We urge the Drug Enforcement Administration to restore its ban on the use of controlled substances for physician-assisted suicide.

DEMOCRATIC:

Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class (P. 3)

Democrats believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage. No one who works full time should have to raise a family in poverty. We believe that Americans should earn at least $15 an hour and have the right to form or join a union and will work in every way we can—in Congress and the federal government, in states and with the private sector—to reach this goal. We should raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour  over time and index it, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy so every worker can earn at least $15 an hour. We applaud the approaches taken by states like New York and California. We also support creating one fair wage for all workers by ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and people with disabilities.

Create Good-Paying Jobs (P. 9)

Democrats believe we must harness the promise of technological innovation to promote community participation and enhance opportunities to achieve greater economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities. We will encourage technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and small business creation throughout the country and in all types of innovation sectors.

Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Opportunities (P. 19)

No one should face discrimination based on disability status. Democrats are committed to realizing the full promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We will protect and expand the right of Americans with disabilities to get the accommodations and support they need to live in integrated community settings. We will improve access to meaningful and gainful employment for people with disabilities. We will provide tax relief to help the millions of families caring for aging relatives or family members with chronic illnesses or disabilities. And we will continue to fight for ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy (P. 24-25)

We must restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. We will bring our democracy into the 21st century by expanding early voting and vote-by-mail, implementing universal automatic voter registration and same day voter registration, ending partisan and racial gerrymandering, and making Election Day a national holiday. We will restore voting rights for those who have served their sentences. And we will continue to fight against discriminatory voter identification laws, which disproportionately burden young voters, diverse communities, people of color, low income families, people with disabilities, the elderly, and women.

We support fully funding the Help America Vote Act and will work to fulfill the promise of election reform, including fighting to end long lines at voting booths and ensuring that all registration materials, voting materials, polling places, and voting machines are truly accessible to seniors, Americans with disabilities, and citizens with limited English proficiency. We will support local, county, and state governments in their efforts to upgrade old voting equipment and machines with modern systems, including voter-verified paper ballots, to ensure that all voters are able to exercise this sacred right in the quickest, most convenient, secure and accurate manner possible.

Provide Quality and Affordable Education (P. 32-33)

Democrats believe all students should be taught to high academic standards. Schools should have adequate resources to provide programs and support to help meet the needs of every child. We will hold schools, districts, communities, and states accountable for raising achievement levels for all students—particularly low-income students, students of color, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities.

We must fulfill our national commitment to provide a meaningful education to students with disabilities, and work towards full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act so that students with disabilities can receive the extra resources and services they need. With an appropriate educational foundation, children with disabilities can thrive and become adults with greater opportunities and more meaningful life experiences.

We are also deeply committed to ensuring that we strike a better balance on testing so that it informs, but does not drive, instruction. To that end, we encourage states to develop a multiple measures approach to assessment, and we believe that standardized tests must be reliable and valid. We oppose high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities and English Language Learners as failing; the use of standardized test scores as basis for refusing to fund schools or to close schools; and the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations, a practice which has been repeatedly rejected by researchers. We support enabling parents to opt their children out of standardized tests without penalty for either the student or their school

From: Gary Wunder [mailto:gwunder at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 1:46 PM
To: Diggs, Parnell
Subject: Time Act

I want to think out loud with you about strategy. I made the calls this morning, and my responses were politely recorded. Of course I already know how the senators and representatives from Missouri feel about the TIME Act. Most have politely said no. They have been contacted by the workshops and have been convinced that either the workshops will close or those who are least productive will be put on the streets. What they want, ask for, and sometimes even beg for in an attempt to support us is data and the assurance that this won't happen. They want blind people who they feel can be productive in a manufacturing environment to be paid at least the minimum wage, but they want to know that the severely disabled people, whether with physical disabilities or cognitive disabilities, won't be thrown out on the street. They almost want us to have a transition plan.

I suspect that we would never have freed the slaves if the short-term transition that they would have to go through had been considered. When plantation owners realize they no longer had to take care of their property and that all they had to do was go for the lowest bid, many black people found themselves worse off in the short term than they did when they were owned by plantation owners.

I think what I am trying to say is that I see the unfairness in what the Congress is asking of us, but I don't know how to proceed with our Missouri representatives and senators. I don't have data to give them, and I don't have anything like the emotional arguments that the sheltered shops make. I'm looking for your advice. I want a way to go beyond making the phone calls and annual visits. I want to be involved in some kind of strategy that truly makes a difference.

Always your friend,

Gary

Gary Wunder, President

National Federation of the Blind of Missouri