[Nfbmt] Call to action!

[James Aldrich]

From:Fredric 
SchroederTo:nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.orgSubject:[Nfbnet-master-list] 
CRPD Call to Action
Dear Fellow Federationists:

This morning I participated in a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden 
and senior members of his staff. The purpose of the meeting was to 
discuss the importance of the United Nations treaty on disability for 
people around the world. The treaty is known as the UN Convention on 
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Last December, President Obama sent the CRPD to the United States 
Senate for ratification. Ratifying a treaty requires a two-thirds 
majority vote, meaning that it takes 67 Senators voting in favor of a 
treaty for it to be ratified. Unfortunately, we fell short of the 67 
votes needed to adopt the treaty.

As you may have heard, the Senate is considering voting once again on 
the CRPD. Vice President Biden believes that we have a good chance of 
getting the two-thirds majority needed for ratification this year. Many 
of the members of the Senate who did not support the treaty last year 
said that they did not believe that it was appropriate to vote on a 
treaty during a lame duck session, which is the period following an 
election before new members of the Senate officially take office. This 
year's vote would not be during a lame duck session, so we hope a 
number of Senators will support the new effort to ratify the CRPD.

I am writing to ask for your help. Below is a list of the members of 
the U.S. Senate who have indicated that they are undecided on how they 
will vote on the disability treaty during this session. If there are 
any Senators on the list who are from your state, please take the time 
to write them and encourage them to support the CRPD disability rights treaty.

It is vital that you tell your personal story and include why the 
treaty will benefit you individually. While it is true that the CRPD 
will not require any change to existing federal law, the treaty will 
have an impact on blind people and others with disabilities from the 
U.S. who wish to study or work abroad, or for that matter, wish to 
travel or live abroad. This is where your personal story is important. 
Let your Senator or Senators know that the disability rights treaty 
matters to you and explain why. Then, get other blind people or other 
people with disabilities to write their Senators as well. The members 
of the Senate who are weighing the value of the disability treaty need 
to know that the treaty is important to blind people and to all people 
with disabilities.

Please do what you can, and please send a copy of any letters you write 
to Mr. Jesse Hartle at jhartle at nfb.org so we will have a record of the 
number of letters that have been sent in.

Thank you for your help. This is why we have been so successful in the 
past; it is all of us working together and combining our individual 
efforts to change what it means to be blind.

Sincerely yours,

Fredric K. Schroeder
First Vice President
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Undecided Senator List

Senator Alexander, Tennessee
Senator Blunt, Missouri
Senator Boozman, Arkansas
Senator Chambliss, Georgia
Senator Coats, Indiana
Senator Coburn, Oklahoma
Senator Cochran, Mississippi
Senator Corker, Tennessee
Senator Fischer, Nebraska
Senator Flake, Arizona
Senator Isakson, Georgia
Senator Johanns, Nebraska
Senator Johnson, Wisconsin
Senator Portman, Ohio


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