[NFBMT] NFB Newsline

[president at nfbofmt.org]

Hello Fellow Federationists,

I am very sad to report that NFB Newsline will be unavailable for Montanans
after October 31, 2019 due to lack of funding.  Notices will be e-mailed to
Montana's 363  subscribers very soon, and more details will be published on
NFB Newsline itself through October 2019.

Previously, Montana's NFB Newsline was funded by Vocational Rehabilitation
and Blind Services (VRBS).  In fact, NFB Newsline was part of the 2015
Montana state plan for vocational rehabilitation, although it was dropped
from the current state plan.  Vocational rehabilitation funding may be used
for NFB Newsline under the Rehabilitation Act's Services to Groups option.
As we know, VRBS experienced increased demand for vocational rehabilitation
services, and the agency did not have enough resources to keep up with
demand.  The increased demand resulted from much larger numbers of Montanans
applying for vocational rehabilitation services, and the bulk of these are
those with the most significant disabilities.  In addition, Montana cut its
budgets statewide.  For a few years, the Montana Telecommunications Access
Program (MTAP), which assures that Montanans with disabilities can access
telephones, picked up the tab for NFB Newsline.  However, the Governor's
Committee that has budget authority over MTAP decided that NFB Newsline
would no longer be funded with telecommunications funding.  Committee
members were frustrated with state government decisions to transfer state
telecommunications revenue to state programs other than MTAP, and the
majority of Committee members decided NFB Newsline would no longer be funded
with telecommunications money.  Next, the National Federation of the Blind
of Montana asked Sheila Hogan, Director of the Montana Department of Public
Health and Human Services, to authorize VRBS to again pay for NFB Newsline.
Hogan chose not to fund NFB Newsline saying federal rules prohibits her
Department from funding NFB Newsline due to the Order of Selection, the wait
list for vocational rehabilitation services.  The National Federation of the
Blind if Montana challenges this interpretation of federal rules as we know
NFB Newsline is part of the Rehabilitation Act as amended and that Services
to Groups are not subject to the Order of Selection.  Nonetheless, we have
been unsuccessful in challenging Hogan's interpretation of federal rules,
and state government funding of NFB Newsline ended June 30, 2019.  NFB
Newsline has been operating without funding from that time.  The National
Federation of the Blind of Montana tried to find other funding sources, but
we have not yet been able to find any alternatives.  Thus, Montanans will
lose NFB Newsline at the end of October this year.

Please know that the National Federation of the Blind of Montana will never
give up on making sure NFB Newsline is available in Montana.  Our long term
plan is to ask for funding in the 2021 Legislature.  For the immediate, we
will keep pushing state government to do the right thing.  We will also try
to find other sources of funding.  To date, we have not taken our NFB
Newsline troubles to the media and the public, but we are about to do so in
the hope that Montana will realize just how important NFB Newsline is to its
subscribers.  Despite living in times of easy access to information, most of
those mainstream options are not accessible to or usable by Montanans with
print disabilities.  Without NFB Newsline, many face isolation and
segregation from our communities.  The cost of NFB Newsline, which is
considerably less than $40,000 per year, is small insofar as government
programs go.  Please do not be fooled by false claims that Montana cannot
afford NFB Newsline.  State government can easily fund NFB Newsline, but its
leaders obviously do not value the civil rights of Montanans with print
disabilities well enough to fund the service.  NFB Newsline is not a luxury.
Rather, the service keeps its subscribers engaged in our communities.
Besides assuring equal access to six Montana newspapers, Montanans rely on
NFB Newsline for critical information such as emergency weather alerts and
job searches as well as other information services within NFB Newsline.  

If you would like to lend a hand to continue NFB Newsline in Montana, there
are several options.  Many of us enjoy relationships with community leaders,
media workers, and state government officials.  Please reach out to your
connections and ask them to help find funding for NFB Newsline.  And stay
tuned for more details on how you can get involved in saving NFB Newsline in
Montana.

The loss of Montana's NFB Newsline will be one of the topics we will discuss
at our upcoming Convention.  The Convention will be held in Missoula at the
Fairbridge Inn on October 11 and 12.  Please go to our web page for more
details on the Convention.

I wish the news was positive, but please know we will not relent on our
advocacy to fund NFB Newsline.

Best!


Jim Marks
President, National Federation of the Blind of Montana
president at nfbofmt.org
(406) 438-1421
www.nfbofmt.org