[NFBMO] FW: Jefferson City Report

[Daniel Garcia]

Dear NFB of Missouri Members:

Below my signature is a message I sent out to my chapter reporting on our recent NFB of Missouri legislative seminar. Though the audience of the message is the Kansas City Chapter, it contains information that you may find useful.

Best Regards

Daniel Garcia, President, Kansas City Chapter
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
dangarcia3 at hotmail.com
(816) 621-0902
www.nfb.org
www.nfbmo.org
Live the life you want.



From: Daniel Garcia
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 8:22 PM
To: Daniel Garcia <dangarcia3 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Jefferson City Report

Dear Kansas City Chapter Members & Friends:

On February 17, and 18 the NFB of Missouri had its annual legislative seminar which we call Jefferson City Seminar. We talked to our legislators about issues affecting blind Missourians and we are making some progress. The following members from our chapter attended: Sarita Cann, Sarah Coccovizzo, Brent Ford, Daniel Garcia, Carla Keirns, Jeff Wright, and Shelia Wright, who is also our affiliate president.

Rita Lynch, president of the Jefferson City Chapter says that HB 1270 was unanimously reported out of the house Consent & Procedures Committee today. This means that if there is no objections within the next 10 days, the bill will be sent to the senate without the need for a floor vote.

The language of HB 1540 which allows parents to record IEP meetings was introduced as an amendment to HB 1317, a bill dealing with gifted students. HB 1317 was passed by the house yesterday by a vote of 149 to 4; it now makes its way to the senate.

Representative Yolanda Young, who represents Jackson County in the Missouri house, introduced a bill to provide for accessible voting machines in all elections. This is bill number 2403 and the NFB of Missouri is carefully reading the language to determine if this is a bill we can support. Yolanda Young was elected to fill a vacancy when representative Branden Ellington was elected to the Kansas City city council.

The legislative efforts of the NFB did not go unnoticed by the media.


Dacia Cole of our Columbia Chapter reports:

Here is a link to an interview done by KOMU TV. Both Gary [Wunder] and I were interviewed. There is video clips as well as a text article.

http://www.komu.com/news/blind-missourians-presenting-2020-agenda-to-lawmakers



Gene Coulter who is the Columbia Chapter president reports:
We had a radio interview on KBIA Radio yesterday. One positive result of my interview is the Boone County Clerk committed publicly to have the accessible machines available at every election. This was not surprise given our conversations with her but it but   it was still nice to hear.
Here is the link to the article and inaudio.
https://www.kbia.org/post/missouris-national-federation-blind-lobbying-change#stream/0
If the link is bad their website is KBIA.org and the story is in the news section.
Gene



Melissa Kane of our Jefferson City Chapter sent out a URL to the Jefferson City Tribune which carried a story about our legislative efforts:



https://www.newstribune.com/news/local/story/2020/feb/17/national-federation-of-the-blind-lobbying-in-missouri-for-disability-support/817035/



If you have not yet had a chance to attend our Jefferson City Seminar or if it has been a while since you came to help us, please consider attending the 2021 Jefferson City Seminar. Whether or not you came, you can help by letting your state representative and state senator know how you feel about the various issues we support.



I want to thank all the chapter members who attended and I want to thank Ruby Polk and Brent Ford for securing the appointments with our legislators.



Best Regards

Daniel Garcia, President, Kansas City Chapter
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
dangarcia3 at hotmail.com
(816) 621-0902
www.nfb.org
www.nfbmo.org
Live the life you want.