[Ohio-talk] FW: Rest Area Commercialization Update

Fri Aug 4 13:11:39 UTC 2017

Good Morning,

Below is a letter from Nicky Gacos, President of the National Association of Blind Merchants, a Division of the NFB.  Please take the time to read this letter and use the link to make your voices heard about this threat to blind people and the Business Enterprise Program.  This is a real threat, both here in Ohio and nationwide, and it is important that as many letters go out as possible to let Congress know what a negative impact this would have on the blind community.  It is very easy to do, just follow the link and the directions listed below.  It will only take a couple of minutes. Also, please forward this to all of your family and friends, as well as post it on your social media pages.

Thank you for your help with this.

Annette Lutz

President

Ohio Association of Blind Merchants

From: Smith,Terry C [mailto:tsmith at nfb.org] 
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2017 12:58 AM
To: Edward Birmingham
Cc: Bradley Basta; Adam Bevell; Mark Dolzadelli; Dan Facchini; Gerald Fisher; giovannifrancese1976 at gmail.com; gmlinc at live.com; Julius Locklear; Bob Matuszak; Lewanda Miranda; Angela Rachal; Jose manny sifuentes; michael talley; Melba Taylor; Zach Thomas; schoenlyj at gmail.com; Joy Lynn Nelson; Annette Lutz; Patricia Homan; Roger Hall; Gary Grassman; Robert Essenberg; Gladys Crespo; Michael Colbrunn; Cathie Buckner; Willie Black; mlsvending at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Rest Area Commercialization Update

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> 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 <http://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

Sent from my iPhone

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>