[NFBWV-Talk] Legislative Alert

[Smyth, Charlene R]

Below is a two-part message with information from John Pare and me:

Dear Federation Family:

As President Ricco Bono mentioned in the Presidential Release, the United States House and Senate are now back in session and there is no better time to rally support for our legislative priorities. Congress will be in session until the two week break at the beginning of October. That gives us exactly three weeks to build serious cosponsor support for our three legislative priorities. Since we have three weeks and three pieces of legislation, we're going to focus on one issue per week. I will include bill summaries for the relevant bills in each legislative alert email. This week's top legislative priority is the Access Technology Affordability Act.

Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA)
House - H.R. 2086 - Sponsored by Mike Thompson (D-CA-5) - 28 cosponsors
Senate - S. 815 - Sponsored by John Boozman (R-AR) - 14 cosponsors
This legislation removes an employment barrier commonly experienced by blind Americans who cannot afford the high cost of access technology by creating a refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,000 to offset the cost of these technologies.

These cosponsor counts are impressive, but we need to keep the pressure up to ensure that ATAA moves from the committees to the floor and is ultimately passed into law. Please call your representative and two senators and urge them to cosponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act if they have not already done so.

When you call or email, you might say something like the following:

"Hello, my name is [your name] and I am a constituent of [your senator/representative]. I live in [city, state]. I am calling to urge [your senator/representative] to cosponsor [S. 815 for Senate calls/H.R. 2086 for House calls], the Access Technology Affordability Act. This legislation removes an employment barrier commonly experienced by blind Americans who cannot afford the high cost of access technology by creating a refundable tax credit in the amount of $2,000 to offset the cost of these technologies. I urge [your senator/representative] to cosponsor the bill.


Below are the phone numbers and E-mail addresses for contacting our members of congress.  I have not included Senator Capito's information in this as she has already signed on as a sponsor.


Congresswoman Carol Miller

Third District

Republican

PHONE:  202-225-3452
STAFFERS
Billman, Lauren
E-MAIL:  Lauren.Billman at mail.house.gov<mailto:Lauren.Billman at mail.house.gov>
Incerto, Jacquelyn
E-MAIL:  Jacquelyn.Incerto at mail.house.gov<mailto:Jacquelyn.Incerto at mail.house.gov>
Pedrotti, Max
E-MAIL:  Max.Pedrotti at mail.house.gov


Congressman Alex Mooney

Second District

Republican

PHONE:  202-225-2711

Legislative Assistant John Caddock
E-MAIL:  John.Caddock at mail.house.gov<mailto:John.Caddock at mail.house.gov>


Congressman David McKinley

First District

Republican

PHONE:  202-225-4172
Chris Buki
E-MAIL:  Chris.buki at mail.house.gov<mailto:Chris.buki at mail.house.gov>
Katie Brown
Executive Assistant
E-MAIL:  Kaetlyn.brown at mail.house.gov<mailto:Kaetlyn.brown at mail.house.gov>


Senator Joe Manchin III

Democrat

PHONE:  202-224-3954

TJ Lucas

Legislative Aide

E-MAIL:  Thomas_lucas at manchin.senate.gov<mailto:Thomas_lucas at manchin.senate.gov>





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