[Jobs] Legislative Alert - Urgent Action Needed to Protect Talking Books Program

Fri Jun 8 09:48:15 CDT 2007

I just spoke to Ian in the office of Deborah Wasserman Schultz.  According 
to Ian (and this is by no means my opinion) her committee is responsible for 
a lot of security issues in and around Washington DC.  Why a bill of this 
nature is not a part of Health and Human Services is beyond me but I don't 
run the government.  He said that they were only able to allocate the 7.5 
million instead of the 19 million for the next fiscal year so it does not 
include the future of the program.  The entire bill still has to be passed 
by the Senate.  Sometimes I wish that the Federal government would give me a 
copy of the budget with a red crayon, there's a lot of pork in there that I 
could get rid of in an eye blink.  I guess we have to pound our Senators, 
and I'll try my own two dysfunctional Senators but that is where it stands 
right now.  By the way, Ian said that he has talked to a lot of people from 
our community.  Judith Bron
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
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Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 12:41 AM
Subject: [Jobs] Legislative Alert - Urgent Action Needed to Protect Talking 
Books Program


> From: Hartle, Jesse
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 4:55 PM
> Subject: Legislative Alert - Urgent Action Needed to Protect Talking Books 
> Program
>
>
> Fellow Federationists:
>
> Urgent action is needed to respond to the House's Legislative Branch 
> Subcommittee's proposed appropriations bill relating to the fiscal year 
> 2008 budget
> request of the Library of Congress.  As you all know the National Library 
> Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has been working on 
> a
> plan to convert the Talking Books program to a digital format.  The cost 
> of this needed transition from analog cassette to digital technology is 
> $76.4
> million over a four-year period ($19.1 million for each of the next four 
> years).  The House Legislative Branch Subcommittee has only included $7.5 
> million
> for this project in the bill, which passed the subcommittee yesterday. 
> The subcommittee also voted against an amendment raised by Congressman Ray 
> LaHood
> of Illinois that sought to include full funding for the NLS upgrade.  Not 
> only is this amount just a third of what was requested by the Library of 
> Congress,
> but the subcommittee further gave the Librarian of Congress the power to 
> transfer all or part of the funds from the Books for the Blind program to 
> other
> upgrades for the Library.  Essentially, if the Librarian of Congress 
> chooses to transfer funds from the $7.5 million allotted for the digital 
> conversion
> program, the Talking Books program will be killed due to a lack of 
> equipment to repair broken tape players and the simple fact that all 
> aspects of cassette
> technology will become obsolete in the next four years.
>
> The Legislative Branch Appropriations bill will now be presented to the 
> full Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, July 12.  It is imperative 
> that we
> flood the offices of Committee members and the office of Subcommittee 
> Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz before July 12th to urge them to include 
> the full
> funding for the digital upgrade and to protect these funds from being 
> shifted within the Library of Congress to meet other needs.  The Talking 
> Books program
> is the largest and most essential available source of information for 
> blind people as a whole, and we need to protect this information source 
> with our
> greatest effort.  Included below is a list of the members on the 
> Appropriations Committee and their office numbers.  Please contact their 
> offices, and
> let them know how important the Talking Books program is to the blind.  I 
> will update you with further information on this initiative, but your 
> calls should
> start immediately.
>
> Thanks in advance for all of your hard work.
>
> Jesse Hartle
>
> Government Program Specialist
>
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>
> 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
>
> (410) 659-9314, ext. 2233
>
> jhartle at nfb.org
>
> House Committee on Appropriations
>
> Full Committee - June 7, 2007
>
> FL D, Schultz, Rep Debbie Wasserman, 202-225-7931
>
> (alphabetical by state)
>
> AL D, Cramer, Rep Robert E. Bud, Jr., 202-225-4801
>
> AL R, Aderholt, Rep Robert B., 202-225-4876
>
> AR D, Berry, Rep Marion, 202-225-4076
>
> AZ D, Pastor, Rep Ed, 202-225-4065
>
> CA D, Farr, Rep Sam, 202-225-2861
>
> CA D, Honda, Rep Mike, 202-225-2631
>
> CA D, Lee, Rep Barbara, 202-225-2661
>
> CA D, Roybal-Allard, Rep Lucille, 202-225-1766
>
> CA D, Schiff, Rep Adam, 202-225-4176
>
> CA R, Calvert, Rep Ken, 202-225-1986
>
> CA R, Lewis, Rep Jerry, 202-225-5861
>
> CT D, DeLauro, Rep Rosa L., 202-225-3661
>
> FL D, Boyd, Rep F. Allen, 202-225-5235
>
> FL R, Crenshaw, Rep Ander, 202-225-2501
>
> FL R, Weldon, Rep Dave, 202-225-3671
>
> FL R, Young, Rep C. W. Bill, 202-225-5961
>
> GA D, Bishop, Rep Sanford D., Jr., 202-225-3631
>
> GA R, Kingston, Rep Jack, 202-225-5831
>
> IA R, Latham, Rep Tom, 202-225-5476
>
> ID R, Simpson, Rep Mike, 202-225-5531
>
> IL D, Jackson, Rep Jesse L., Jr., 202-225-0773
>
> IL R, Kirk, Rep Mark Steven, 202-225-4835
>
> IL R, LaHood, Rep Ray, 202-225-6201
>
> IN D, Visclosky, Rep Peter J., 202-225-2461
>
> KS R, Tiahrt, Rep Todd, 202-225-6216
>
> KY D, Chandler, Rep Ben, 202-225-4706
>
> KY R, Rogers, Rep Hal, 202-225-4601
>
> LA R, Alexander, Rep Rodney, 202-225-8490
>
> MA D, Olver, Rep John W., 202-225-5335
>
> MD D, Ruppersberger, Rep C. A. Dutch, 202-225-3061
>
> MI D, Kilpatrick, Rep Carolyn Cheeks, 202-225-2261
>
> MI R, Knollenberg, Rep Joe, 202-225-5802
>
> MN D, McCollum, Rep Betty, 202-225-6631
>
> MO R, Emerson, Rep Jo Ann, 202-225-4404
>
> MS R, Wicker, Rep Roger F., 202-225-4306
>
> MT R, Rehberg, Rep Dennis, 202-225-3211
>
> NC D, Price, Rep David E., 202-225-1784
>
> NJ D, Rothman, Rep Steve, 202-225-5061
>
> NJ R, Frelinghuysen, Rep Rodney P., 202-225-5034
>
> NM D, Udall, Rep Tom, 202-225-6190
>
> NY D, Hinchey, Rep Maurice D., 202-225-6335
>
> NY D, Israel, Rep Steve, 202-225-3335
>
> NY D, Lowey, Rep Nita M., 202-225-6506
>
> NY D, Serrano, Rep Jose E., 202-225-4361
>
> NY R, Walsh, Rep James T., 202-225-3701
>
> OH D, Kaptur, Rep Marcy, 202-225-4146
>
> OH D, Ryan, Rep Tim, 202-225-5261
>
> OH R, Hobson, Rep David L., 202-225-4324
>
> OH R, Regula, Rep Ralph, 202-225-3876
>
> PA D, Fattah, Rep Chaka, 202-225-4001
>
> PA D, Murtha, Rep John P., 202-225-2065
>
> PA R, Peter son, Rep John E., 202-225-5121
>
> RI D, Kennedy, Rep Patrick J., 202-225-4911
>
> TN R, Wamp, Rep Zach, 202-225-3271
>
> TX D, Edwards, Rep Chet, 202-225-6105
>
> TX D, Rodriguez, Rep Ciro D., 202-225-4511
>
> TX R, Carter, Rep John R., 202-225-3864
>
> TX R, Culberson, Rep John, 202-225-2571
>
> TX R, Granger, Rep Kay, 202-225-5071
>
> VA D, Moran, Rep Jim, 202-225-4376
>
> VA R, Goode, Rep Virgil H., Jr., 202-225-4711
>
> VA R, Wolf, Rep Frank R., 202-225-5136
>
> WA D, Dicks, Rep Norm, 202-225-5916
>
> WI D, Obey, Rep David R., Chair, 202-225-3365
>
> WV D, Mollohan, Rep Alan B., 202-225-4172
>
>
>


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