[vendtalk] FW: Resolution

[Kevan Worley]

RESOLUTION 2009-08

Regarding Maintaining Highway Rest Area Vending Facilities

 

WHEREAS, Barbara Kennelly, a congresswoman from Connecticut, included an
amendment in the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 permitting
states to allow the operation of vending machines at rest areas on
interstate highways by and for the benefit of blind vendors under the
Randolph-Sheppard vending facility program; and

 

WHEREAS, during the more than twenty-five years since the Kennelly
Amendment, highway rest area vending has been a key growth area under the
Randolph-Sheppard Act, creating entrepreneurial opportunities for some 530
blind men and women, which is approximately 20 percent of the total number
of opportunities presently available; and

 

WHEREAS, these rest areas, not only provide a respectable income for the
blind managers, but also provide substantial support to state Business
Enterprise Programs from set-aside funds and from unassigned machine income;
and

 

WHEREAS, when Congress amended the Surface Transportation Law in 2005, it
reduced opportunities for blind entrepreneurs in the Randolph-Sheppard
Program by creating the Interstate Oasis Program, which allowed states to
designate commercial facilities near interstate highways as Oasis if they
met guidelines including offering food, access to phones, and parking for
over-the-road trucks; and

 

WHEREAS, blind entrepreneurs are disadvantaged because they are unable to
participate in the Oasis Program and because they lose income if they manage
a location in close proximity to an Oasis area; and

 

WHEREAS, in these difficult economic times states will be tempted to
displace blind vendors from their rest areas in order to capture additional
revenue for themselves; and

 

WHEREAS, the one hundred eleventh Congress is beginning the process of
reauthorizing surface transportation legislation because provisions in the
last bill are due to expire: Now, therefore,

 

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this seventh day of July, 2009, in the city of Detroit, Michigan,
that this organization call upon Congress to make no changes that would in
any way diminish opportunities blind vendors have to manage vending machines
on the interstate highway system; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if Congress believes there is a benefit to
greater commercialization of rest areas and of areas in close proximity to
the interstate highway system, this organization call upon Congress to
facilitate partnering between blind vendors and state licensing agencies
with other business entities for the purpose of enhancing the prosperity of
blind vendors operating on the interstate highway system.

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At Your Service,

Kevan Worley

CEO,Worley Enterprises

(866) 543-6808

 

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