[Ohio-Talk] We need your Help Now. Access Technology Affordability Act

[Eric Duffy]

Here is the substantive part of a message from John Pare.

Dear Federation Family:
 
This year’s Washington Seminar was a great success. We had over 500 attendees from 49 states. Representative Bobby Scott, chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, spoke at the Great Gathering-In. Chairman Scott is the sponsor of the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act. Senators Ben Cardin and Bob Casey, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Representative Mike Thompson all spoke at our Congressional reception. Representative Mike Thompson is the chair of the Tax Policy Subcommittee, and he is the sponsor of the Access Technology Affordability Act.
 
We also had a substantial increase in the number of cosponsors for each of our bills. In the House, the Access Technology Affordability Act went from forty-nine to sixty-three cosponsors. And in the Senate, it went from fifteen to seventeen cosponsors. The GAIN Act went from four to thirteen cosponsors. Finally, AIM HIGH went from four to twelve cosponsors in the House.
 
We need to keep building on the momentum generated by Washington Seminar. Similar to what we did in the fall, we are going to focus on our legislation one bill per week for the next several weeks. We will begin next week by focusing on the Access Technology Affordability Act (H.R. 2086 and S. 815).
 
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.
 
Please call your representative and two senators and urge them to cosponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act if they have not already done so. For those of you who attended Washington Seminar, you should follow up with the staff person you met with. A complete list of current cosponsors is included at the end of this email.
 
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.
 
Thanks."
 
You can contact your member of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard and asking for the office in question. The number is 202-224-3121.
 
It is best to email the specific staff person who handles tax policy for that member of Congress. You can typically get the name and email address of that person by calling the office in question. You can also email Jesa here at the NFB and she will get this information for you. Her email is jmedders at nfb.org <mailto:jmedders at nfb.org>. 
Your calls and emails do make a difference! 
 
The goal is to get to 100 cosponsors in the House and 25 in the Senate within the next few weeks. I am certain that if we all work together we can reach this goal.
 
If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 410-659-9314, extension 2218 or email me at jpare at nfb.org <mailto:jpare at nfb.org>. 
 
Warm regards,
 
John G. Paré Jr. 



Ohio has to cosponsors on H.R. 2086. They are Tim Ryan and Steve Stivers. The small state of New Jersey  has more cosponsors than we do. Let’s not let that stand. We can do this . Let’s make Ohio’s star shine brightest of them all. Let’s do all that we can to get the whole Ohio Congressional delegation to support this legislation.. Neither Senator is on board right now. I am going to work hard on this next week. Who is will help me?

If you are willing to call, send an Email, or both, let  all of us on this list know. Tell us what you are prepared to do. If you don’t make a commitment to anyone else, it will be easier to let this important work slip. But let’s commit to each other that we will get this done.

I commit to sending emails, making phone calls, and to helping you in any way I can. Who is next to step up and be counted?

Eric