[NYABS] Fwd: Time Sensitive! NABS Urgently Needs Your Help to Pass the Access Technology Affordability Act

[NYABS Division]

Hi All,

Hoping you are all doing well! We need your help to gain further
co-sponsors for the Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA)
(S.815/H.R. 2086). The National Association of Blind Students (NABS)
has created a taskforce of blind students who are contacting all the
State Student divisions to ask we contact our United States
Representative & 2 Senators.  From New York State, neither Senator yet
has co-sponsored S.815 and we only have 3 Representatives on H.R. 2086
who are: Reps. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY-3), Jose Serrano (D-NY-15), &
Joseph Morelle (D-NY-25).  The following message was received from Amy
Albin with the request and a templet for us to use when contacting our
U.S. Representatives & Senators.  This is a time sensititive advocacy
initiative because the Congress returns to D.C. on Monday June 1 and
if we can get the number of Co-sponsors in the House to the triple
digits meaning 100 or more it is our reasoning that the Congressional
representatives will take it more serious especially through the
committee process.

So please reach out to Jesa Medders   at jmedders at nfb.org requesting
the Tax staff member for your House of Representatives member.  The
appropriate staff members for our United States Senators are the
following:

Senator Schumer's tax staffer: anna_taylor at schumer.senate.gov
 Senator Gillibrand's tax staffer: keith_castaldo at gillibrand.senate.gov

If you're uncertain who your Representative in the House is you can
find that information by visiting the following link:

https://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep

Thank you for all your advocacy related to ensuring we as students
will have the necessary assistive technology to be successful and be
able to afford it with the Access Technology Affordability Act!

Justin Young
President, New York Association of Blind Students

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amy Albin <amyralbin at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2020 15:00:08 -0400
Subject: Time Sensitive! NABS Urgently Needs Your Help to Pass the
Access Technology Affordability Act
To: jty727 at gmail.com
Cc: president at nfbny.org, "trishak.nfb" <trishak.nfb at gmail.com>,
nabs.president at gmail.com

Dear Justin,

I hope that you are doing well during this COVID-19 pandemic. NABS
needs your help to pass important legislation to make access
technology more affordable for blind people, including students.

We need students in your state to contact both Senators and their
individual Representative. This means that each student would contact
three offices. We need as many students as possible to make these
contacts because we need more legislators to sign onto the bill before
they all return to DC on June 1. This means that we need to contact
them right away so that they can learn about the bill, make decisions,
and have their name added to it before June 1.

If anyone is already cosponsoring the bill, we want to thank them
instead of asking for cosponsorship.


To find out who the staff contact for ATAA is for the people who
represent you, please e-mail Jesa Medders   at jmedders at nfb.org or
simply find the general e-mail address for your representatives. To do
this and to make your follow-up phone calls, call the Capitol
Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your representative and their
e-mail address. To find out who represents you:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
The senators are the same statewide for everyone, but House
representatives may be different.
To see who is already cosponsoring the bill, these 2 links
S. 815 Cosponsors:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/815/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22s815%22%5D%7D&s=4&r=1&overview=closed#tabs
H. R. 2086 Cosponsors:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2086/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr2086%22%5D%7D&s=6&r=1&overview=closed#tabs


Below my signature is a draft email that you all can use to ask your
Senators and Representative to cosponsor the bill.

Could you please send such an email right away, as well as help me get
in touch with all other blind students inyour state?

Thank you in advance!

Amy Albin
amyralbin at gmail.com
973-223-8044

Subject: Draft Email to Legislative Staff Members

To: staff contact
Cc: Kaloc, Jeff JKaloc at nfb.org, Trisha Kulkarni trishak.nfb at gmail.com,
Kathryn Webster nabs.president at gmail.com, Justin Young jty727 at gmail.com)
Subject: Please Cosponsor S. 815/H.R. 2086

Dear ###,

I am one of your constituents from City, State. I write to
respectfully request that my Senator/Congressman/Congresswoman
co-sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA) (S. 815/H.R.
2086).

<give some background on yourself in order to establish rapport>

The cost of critically needed access technology is out of reach for
most blind Americans. By providing a refundable tax credit for
qualifying purchases, Congress will stimulate individual procurement
of this technology and promote affordability of these tools. The
COVID-19 pandemic has forced many Americans to become much more
dependent upon technology, which has exacerbated the challenges that
blind students, job seekers, and employees were already facing.

This bill already has bicameral bipartisan support. S. 815 currently
has 22 cosponsors, and H.R. 2086 currently has 91 cosponsors. I wish
to see my Senator/Congresswoman/Congressman sign on as a cosponsor.

Will Senator/Congresswoman/Congressman #### please cosponsor this bill?

I have copied Jeff Kaloc jkaloc at nfb.org with the National Federation
of the Blind national office. He is available to answer any detailed
questions you might have.

Thank you in advance,

Your Name
Your Address (where you vote)
Your Contact Info