[Nfbv-announce] Legislative Action Needed: #FixWIA Wednesday and Twitter Chat Thursday

[Jennifer Kennedy]

Good morning all,

Below you will find a bulletin from Rose Sloan at the National Center
with our next big legislative alert that  needs your help this week.
Wednesday's actions are to be directed to the Senate and Rose has
provided language you can use on Twitter to do it.

Tim Kaine's Twitter handle: @senKaineOffice
Mark Warner's Twitter handle: @MarkWarner

Thank you for your help. If you have any questions, please feel free
to contact me at msjenniferkennedy at gmail.com

Best,
Jennifer Kennedy
Legislative Director
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

>From Rose Sloan:
Fellow Federationists:

This Wednesday, Feb. 26, we will host another #FixWIA Wednesday. A few
weeks ago, we had our best campaign yet-we, with the help of TASH and
APSE, generated over 600 tweets with the hashtag #FixWIA!
Unfortunately, our Senators still do not understand our concerns with
WIA.

As you know, we are concerned with two aspects of the Senate's version
of the reauthorization of Workforce Investment Act (WIA). First,
Section 511 of Title V brings the payment of subminimum wages to
people with disabilities into the Rehabilitation Act for the first
time. Second, Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) will be
transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of
Labor. No research shows that this move will improve services for
people with disabilities, and we fear that services will be less
effective. If you would like more information about our concerns with
WIA, please see our blog post at:
https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/fix-wia.

Participating in #FixWIA Wednesday is simple! All you have to do is
generate a few tweets expressing your concerns with WIA by tagging
your senators and using the hashtag #FixWIA. You can find your
Senators' handles here: http://govsm.com/w/Senate. Feel free to
customize the below tweets with your Senators' handles.

@SenatorDurbin, will you #FixWIA? Please #Strike511 and keep RSA in
the @usedgov. Americans with Disabilities are counting on you.

@SenatorBarb Section 14(c) is discriminatory. Don't ease it, end it.
#Strike511. #fixwia.

@SenJohnsonSD, Quality education and rehabilitation lead to
competitive integrated employment. Keep RSA in @usedgov. #fixwia.

@SenJohnBarrasso, Shaking up the #rehabact without data & research
could adversely affect millions of PWDs. #fixwia. Keep RSA in
@usedgov.

@SenFeinstein, Sec. 511 puts subminimum wages of Sec 14(c) of the FLSA
into the #rehabact. Please #fixwia. #Strike511.

@StabenowPress, do you support equal pay for people with disabilities?
#FixWIA. #Strike511.

Last time, the Association of People Supporting Employment First
(APSE) activated their membership to help us reach 600 tweets. They
have the same concerns with WIA that we do. In fact, APSE and the NFB
will be hosting a Twitter Chat on Thursday Feb. 27 from 1-2 PM Eastern
about subminimum wages and President Obama's recent Executive Order. I
encourage anyone who can to please participate in the chat by tweeting
questions and concerns about subminimum wages. The hashtag for this
event is #EmploymentFirst.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our previous #FixWIA
campaigns. I know the more #FixWIA Wednesdays we do, the more tweets
we will be able to generate. The more tweets we generate, the more our
Senators will become aware of our concerns. Once Senators understand
our concerns, change will happen. Let your concerns be heard! Through
our efforts, we can ensure that fewer people with disabilities are
subjected to detrimental subminimum wage sheltered employment.

If you have any questions about #FixWIA Wednesday or the twitter chat,
feel free to reach out to me at rsloan at nfb.org<mailto:rsloan at nfb.org>
or by calling 410-659-9314 extension 2441.

Thanks everyone,

Rose


Rose Sloan
Government Affairs Specialist

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
200 East Wells Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Phone: (410)-659-9314 ext. 2441
E-mail: rsloan at nfb.org<mailto:rsloan at nfb.org>
Twitter: @RoseSloan8

"Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities"
http://www.nfb.org/fair-wages

The National Federation of the Blind needs your support to ensure
blind children get an equal education; to connect blind veterans with
the training and services they need; and to help seniors who are
losing vision continue to live independent and fulfilling lives. To
make a donation, please go to www.nfb.org<http://www.nfb.org/>.





-- 
Jennifer M. Kennedy, MA, NOMC
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia, Richmond Chapter President
Website: www.nfbv.org
Email: msjenniferkennedy at nfb.org
Phone: 330-465-6245