<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Take Action Now!</div><div><br></div><div>Below is a message from our Governmental Affairs office at the National Center in Baltimore. Please contact Senators Wyden and Merkley to voice your dissatisfaction with the Re-authorization of the Workforce Investment Act. This will go for a vote this Wednesday, so we must act fast. </div><div><br></div><div>Senator Wyden 202-224-3753</div><div>Senator Merkley 202-224-5244</div><div><br></div><div>The following message will give enough information to articulate the issues. <br><br>Carla McQuillan<div>President, NFB of Oregon</div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> David Andrews <<a href="mailto:dandrews@visi.com">dandrews@visi.com</a>><br><b>Date:</b> July 28, 2013, 3:28:15 PM PDT<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Nfbnet-members-list] Call to Action on Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>From: "Lewis, Anil" <<a href="mailto:ALewis@nfb.org">ALewis@nfb.org</a></span><br><span>Date: July 27, 2013, 5:22:31 PM EDT</span><br><span>Federation:</span><br><span></span><br><span>This is a call to action for you to make phone calls, send e-mails, and post to social media to save rehabilitation services for people with disabilities on Monday, July 29 and Tuesday, July 30. Senate Bill S. 1356 has been introduced to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). This bill includes two major policy changes in the language of the Rehabilitation Act that threaten to send us backwards in our struggle to acquire the proper education, training, and opportunity to obtain competitive, integrated employment.</span><br><span></span><br><span>(1) The bill has proposed language in Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act that requires vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies to include training and employment at wages below the federal minimum wage as a VR service.</span><br><span></span><br><span>(1) The bill proposes to transfer the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor, severing the essential link between the provision of quality education and rehabilitation services for people with disabilities.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee is scheduled to discuss and vote on this bill on Wednesday, July 31, and we need to act to ensure that these two tremendously flawed proposals are removed. Our initial action is simple, but it will require all of us to take action. We need all of our members, family members, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances that reside in states where their Senator serves on the HELP committee to make calls, send e-mails, post tweets, and Facebook messages to communicate the following two straightforward requests to their Senator:</span><br><span></span><br><span>I am a voting constituent in the state and I am respectfully requesting that the WIA reauthorization be amended to:</span><br><span></span><br><span>(1) Remove Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act.</span><br><span>(2) Remove the language transferring RSA to the Department of Labor.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>