[NFBNJ] Important Action Is Needed Please Share

[joe ruffalo]

Greetings to all!
The Federation family Blind Merchants Division is in need of your 
assistance.
Please read through the entire message, ,letters in the body, share and act 
upon the following.
Received from Nicky Gacos, National Association of Blind Merchants, a proud 
division of the National Federation of the Blind.

We care. We share. We grow. We make a difference
Joe Ruffalo, President
National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey
973 743 0075
nfbnj1 at verizon.net
www.nfbnj.org
Your old car keys can be keys to literacy for the blind.
Donate your unwanted vehicle to us by clicking
www.carshelpingtheblind.org
or call 855 659 9314

***
Dear Randolph-Sheppard Stakeholder: As we have told you over the last few 
weeks, momentum is growing for commercialization of our interstate rest 
areas. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The 
President’s proposed budget for FY 2018 communicated support for the idea. 
The infrastructure bill that will presumably be introduced next year is 
expected to include the option of commercialization of the rest areas 
through public private partnerships. Almost 400 blind entrepreneurs could 
lose their businesses. The threat is real.



We need your help in preventing this from happening. We need for you to 
contact your members of Congress today to tell them you oppose 
commercialization of the interstate rest areas. We’ve made it easy for you. 
Go to the link below:



https://nfb.constituentvoice.net/nfbaction



and send a letter to your two U.S. Senators and House member. The website 
will automatically find your members for you. It is as simple as 1-2-3-4.



1.  Review the letter on the website that has been drafted for you to send;

2.  Fill in all of the blanks with your contact information;

3.  Click on “Preview Letters”;

4.  Click on “Send All Letters”



It couldn’t be any easier.



But don’t stop there:



1.  Get all of your friends and family members to send letters;

2.  Poste the link on your Facebook Page or Twitter account and encourage 
followers to help out the cause;

3.  Contact your member of Congress’ local office and ask for a meeting when 
they are home in a few weeks for the summer recess. We will be sharing 
talking points for such meetings or you can go to our website at 
www.blindmerchants.org to review them.Talking points will be up soon.



We need every U.S. Senator and member of Congress to receive as many letters 
as possible and we need them from as many different addresses as possible. 
If every blind entrepreneur sends a letter and gets 4 other people to do the 
same, we will generate over 10,000 letters. We can beat that.




Nicky Gacos, President

NABM




Don’t sit on the sidelines. Get involved

On Aug 3, 2017, at 9:13 PM, Edward Birmingham <ebirm18 at wowway.com> wrote:


Attached are the letters from DOT Committee opposing Rest Area 
Commercialization



From: Nicholas Gacos [mailto:nickycolorado at netscape.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2017 7:03 PM
To: Edward Birmingham; Eric Dell
Subject: Fwd: Rest Area Commercialization Update





Sent from my iPhone


Begin forwarded message:

From: David Fialkov <dfialkov at natso.com>
Date: July 26, 2017 at 9:18:35 AM EDT
To: "Khalil G. Saliba" <khalil at salibastrategies.com>,  Catriona Macdonald 
<cmacdonald at linchpinstrategies.com>,  Nicky Gacos 
<nickycolorado at netscape.net>,  Terry Smith of Tennessee 
<terrysmith at epbfi.com>, Rob Green <GreenR at nccr.net>,  Bernie Toon 
<bernie.toon at thefirstgroupdc.com>, "Kantor, Douglas" <dkantor at steptoe.com>, 
"Paige Anderson (panderson at nacsonline.com)" <panderson at nacsonline.com>, 
Sherri Stone <sstone at pmaa.org>,  Rob Underwood <runderwood at pmaa.org>, 
"Klein, Ken" <kklein at oaaa.org>,  Brett Bolton <Brett.Bolton at nlc.org>, Daniel 
Furth <dfurth at tanktruck.org>,  Laura Abshire <labshire at restaurant.org>, 
"Beeman, Guy M. (MPC)" <gmbeeman at marathonpetroleum.com>,  "Nirenberg, 
Darryl" <dnirenberg at steptoe.com>, "Frend, Jessica" <jfrend at steptoe.com>
Cc: Lisa Mullings <lmullings at natso.com>, Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman 
<twlazlowski at natso.com>
Subject: Rest Area Commercialization Update

Good morning,



It's been a while since we're communicated so I wanted to check in and 
update you on some recent developments.



In the last few weeks, we've gotten some good support from key members of 
Congress.  Specifically, Sen. Barasso, Chairman of EPW, signed a letter 
(attached) to Elaine Chao expressing his opposition to rest area 
commercialization.  This is a pretty big deal for us, given that the 
Administration had already announced its support for commercialization in 
its budget proposal.  If any of you or your members have a relationship w/ 
the Barasso office, please shoot them a note expressing your gratitude. 
(Should go to Dan_Kunsman at barrasso.senate.gov in his personal office and 
Jan_Brunner at epw.senate.gov on the Committee.)



Second, Claudia Tenney has sent a letter to FHWA as well. As some of you 
know, the state of NY is violating the commercialization ban at a couple of 
their Interstate rest areas by convenience items via self-checkout kiosks, 
arguing that such kiosks fall within the "vending machine" exception to the 
prohibition.  One of these rest areas is in Rep. Tenney's district.  Her 
letter -- which I have attached -- opposes the negative impact the rest area 
is having on local businesses in her district.  If any of you or your 
members have a relationship w/ Rep. Tenney's office, or a presence in the 
district (NY-22), please send them a note expressing your gratitude. Should 
be sent to Nick.Stewart at mail.house.gov.



Finally, I have attached an updated version of the Spreadsheet indicating 
what meetings we've had and what the results of those meetings have been to 
date.  Please let me know if you have any additions or additional intel that 
you think should be reflected in this document. NATSO has a handful of 
members in town for meetings this week, as I know the vending machine folks 
do as well.



Thanks for everything. Please let me know if you'd like to discuss any of 
this further.



Dave






-- 

David H. Fialkov

Vice President, Government Relations

Legislative and Regulatory Counsel

NATSO, Representing America's Travel Centers and Truckstops

dfialkov at natso.com

(703) 739 - 8501

<ATT00007.pdf>
<CT to FHWA re Commercialization (1) (2).pdf>
<Commercialization Spreadsheet.xlsx>