[nfb-talk] Legislative Adgenda For the 2008 Congress:

[Kenneth Chrane]

Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans:

Priorities for the 110th Congress, SECOND Session





            The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the voice of the 
nation's blind.  We present the collective views of blind people throughout 
society.  All of our leaders and the vast majority of our members are blind, 
but anyone can participate in our movement.  Every year approximately 75,000 
Americans become blind, and there are an estimated 1.3 million blind people 
in the United States.  The social and economic consequences of blindness 
affect not only blind people, but also our families, our friends, and our 
coworkers.



            Three legislative initiatives demand the immediate attention of 
the 110th Congress in its second session.  These urgent action items 
include:



1.  We urge Congress to ensure the safety of the blind and other pedestrians 
by passing legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Transportation, 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to adopt regulations 
establishing a minimum sound level standard for all new automobiles sold in 
the United States.  The regulations need not prescribe the method automobile 
manufacturers must use to achieve the minimum sound standard, but the 
standard should have the following characteristics:

·        In all phases of operation, including times when the vehicle is at 
a full stop, vehicles should be required to emit an omni-directional sound 
with similar spectral characteristics to those of a modern internal 
combustion engine.

·        The sound should vary in a way that is consistent with the sound of 
vehicles with combustion engines to indicate whether the vehicle is idling, 
maintaining a constant speed, accelerating, or decelerating.



2.  We urge Congress to fully fund the program of the National Library 
Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress 
to convert the analog cassette collection of Talking Books to a digital 
format and to procure of the equipment to play the digital Talking Books. 
Failure to provide this funding will result in the disruption of library 
service to all blind Americans, creating a devastating set of circumstances 
preventing the blind from equal opportunity for literacy.

Congress should fully fund the digital Talking Book project by allocating 
$19.1 million for this purpose in fiscal year 2009, as well as restoring the 
$6.6 million left out of the fiscal year 2008 request.  This appropriation 
of $25.7 million will allow the NLS to remain on course for a successful 
conversion to ensure that blind users of the Talking Book program do not 
find themselves without access to books and magazines.



3.  We urge Congress to amend Title II of the Social Security Act to mandate 
a schedule of increases in the level of earnings allowed for blind 
individuals before applying a work penalty, as follows:

·        For 2008 $21,600

·        For 2009 $26,400

·        For 2010 $30,000

·        For 2011 $34,200

·        For 2012 the amount applicable to individuals who attain Full 
Retirement Age in that year.





            For more information about these priorities, please consult the 
attached fact sheets.



            Other priorities that offer opportunities for legislative action 
in the second session of Congress include:

·        As a part of legislation reauthorizing federal higher education 
programs, adopting language establishing the Advisory Commission on 
Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students 
with Disabilities and providing for the support of model demonstration 
programs to encourage the development of systems to improve the timely 
delivery and quality of postsecondary instructional materials in specialized 
formats to students with print disabilities contained in Sections 766A and 
766B of H.R. 4137.

·        Assuring that blindness cannot be a factor to justify payment of 
less than minimum wage under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

·        Reauthorizing the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, as part 
of the Workforce Investment Act to increase consumer empowerment and enhance 
informed choice.

·        Preserving and enhancing opportunities available under the 
Randolph-Sheppard Act for blind men and women to operate vending businesses 
on federal property.

·        Ensuring that legislation amending the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) 
affirms the right of blind Americans to vote privately and independently, by 
requiring that any new verification mechanisms necessary because of such 
legislation must be accessible to the blind.



            For more information on any of these priorities, please contact 
James McCarthy or Jesse Hartle of the National Federation of the Blind, or 
visit us online at www.nfb.org.



            Blind Americans need your help to achieve our goals of economic 
security, increased opportunity, and full integration into American society 
on a basis of equality.  Enactment of these legislative proposals will 
represent important steps toward reaching these goals.  We need the help and 
support of each member of Congress.  Our success benefits not only us, but 
the whole of America as well.



ENHANCING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY:  ENSURING THE BLIND CAN CONTINUE TO TRAVEL 
SAFELY AND INDEPENDENTLY





Purpose:  To require gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles and other vehicles 
using silent power sources to emit a minimum level of sound which can alert 
blind people and other pedestrians to their presence.



Background:  Until recently independent travel for the blind has been a 
relatively simple matter, once a blind person has been trained in travel 
techniques and has learned to use a white cane or to travel with a guide 
dog.  Blind people listen to the sounds of automobile engines to determine 
the direction, speed, and pattern of traffic.  Sounds from traffic tell 
blind pedestrians how many vehicles are near them and how fast they are 
moving; whether the vehicles are accelerating or decelerating; and whether 
the vehicles are traveling toward, away from, or parallel to them.  With all 
of this information, blind people can accurately determine when it is safe 
to proceed into an intersection or across a driveway or parking lot.  The 
information obtained from listening to traffic sounds allows blind people to 
travel with complete confidence and without assistance.  Over the past few 
years, however, vehicles that are completely silent in certain modes of 
operation have come on the market, and more such vehicles are expected to be 
produced in the near future.  These vehicles are designed to produce lower 
emissions in order to protect the environment from harmful pollutants, but 
the vehicles do not need to be silent in order to achieve the intended 
positive environmental effects.  Currently the most popular of these 
vehicles are gasoline-electric hybrids (which alternate between running on a 
gasoline engine and on battery power), although a few electric automobiles 
are already on America's roads and new all-electric models are planned.  The 
blind of America do not oppose the proliferation of vehicles intended to 
reduce damage to the environment, but these vehicles must meet a minimum 
sound standard for safety.



Need for Congressional Action:  The silence of gasoline-electric hybrid cars 
poses an immediate and growing threat to the safety of blind and other 
pedestrians and jeopardizes the ability of blind people to travel 
independently.  In order to address this threat, these vehicles must emit a 
sound detectable by the human ear.  Not only will such a sound allow the 
blind to continue to travel in safety, but it will also protect cyclists, 
runners, other pedestrians, and small children, all of whom rely on the 
sounds of traffic to varying degrees.



            The National Federation of the Blind has been concerned about 
the proliferation of silent vehicles for several years.  Thus far, however, 
our concerns have not been heeded.  Automobile manufacturers view the 
silence of their vehicles as a marketing advantage, and federal regulators 
have indicated that, in the absence of statistics on injuries or deaths 
caused by hybrid vehicles, nothing can be done.  No one disputes that 
pedestrians cannot hear these vehicles (even their manufacturers concede 
this fact), and we believe it is preferable that the problem be addressed 
before the inevitable avalanche of tragedies involving blind people, 
cyclists, and children shocks the nation.

Proposed Legislation:  Legislation requiring the U.S. Department of 
Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to establish 
and promulgate a national standard for a minimum sound to be emitted by all 
new automobiles sold in the United States, based on appropriate scientific 
research and consultation with blind Americans and other affected groups, is 
urgently needed.  This national minimum sound standard should have the 
following characteristics:



  a.. In all phases of operation, including times when the vehicle is at a 
full stop, vehicles should be required to emit an omni-directional sound 
with similar spectral characteristics to those of a modern internal 
combustion engine.


  a.. The sound should vary in a way that is consistent with the sound of 
vehicles with combustion engines to indicate whether the vehicle is idling, 
maintaining a constant speed, accelerating, or decelerating.


            The standard need not prescribe the apparatus, technology, or 
method to be used by vehicle manufacturers to achieve the required minimum 
sound level.  This approach will encourage manufacturers to use innovative 
and cost-effective techniques to achieve the minimum sound standard.



            The addition of components that will emit a minimum sound 
discernible to blind people and other pedestrians will not adversely affect 
the environmental benefits of gasoline-electric hybrids and other 
automobiles running on alternate power sources, nor need the sound be loud 
enough to contribute to noise pollution.  Automobiles that operate in 
complete silence, however, endanger the safety of everyone; silent operation 
should be seen as a design flaw similar to the lack of seat belts or air 
bags.



Requested Action:  Please support blind Americans by sponsoring or 
cosponsoring legislation authorizing the U.S. Department of Transportation 
to establish and promulgate regulations specifying a minimum sound standard 
for all new automobiles sold in the United States.





















Contact Information:

James McCarthy

Government Programs Specialist

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Phone:  (410) 659-9314, extension 2240

Email:  jmccarthy at nfb.org



PRESERVING TALKING BOOKS

FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED





Purpose:  To prevent devastating disruption in the distribution of books and 
magazines by the Talking Book program of the Library of Congress.



Background:  In 1931 Congress passed the Pratt-Smoot Act, which authorized 
the distribution of books to blind and physically handicapped people in the 
United States through what is now known as the National Library Service for 
the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress (NLS). 
Talking Books began to be produced in 1934 and were originally recorded on 
phonograph records; cassette books were produced beginning in 1971.  Today 
recorded books and the equipment to play them are distributed through a 
network of cooperating libraries throughout the country.  Books on all 
subjects and representing all literary genres, as well as a selection of 
popular magazines, are available to NLS patrons.  From its inception the 
Talking Books program has used the most cost-effective technology that is 
accessible by its users and protects the rights of copyright holders.  The 
program is universally praised for the quality of the Talking Books and for 
its efficient distribution to patrons across the country.  The Talking Book 
service is the single most effective and popular program serving blind 
Americans, for whom it is often the only source of reading material.



            Currently the service uses analog cassette tapes recorded at 
half speed to prevent copyright infringement, but cassette technology is now 
obsolete.  Realizing that the days of the cassette tape were numbered, NLS 
developed a plan to transition from analog to digital technology.  A digital 
Talking Book player was designed that can be used by patrons of all ages, 
abilities, and physical limitations, and digital flash cartridges have been 
developed to store the books.  Just as NLS is about to put the digital 
transition plan into effect, however, Congress has withdrawn critically 
needed funds from the project, placing the Talking Book program in peril. 
Without the restoration of full funding to the program, NLS will not be able 
to deliver digital Talking Books and players to its patrons in accordance 
with the schedule originally planned.  The last analog cassette machine to 
play the specially formatted tapes was manufactured over a year ago, leaving 
NLS with only a very limited supply of new and refurbished players to serve 
its patrons who are still using the cassettes.  Parts for these players are 
no longer available, and the machines are maintained primarily by 
volunteers.  As these cassette machines reach the end of their useful life, 
and with the distribution of digital books and equipment slowed by the lack 
of funding, many NLS patrons will see their library service come to an 
abrupt halt.



Need for Congressional Action:  The National Library Service for the Blind 
and Physically Handicapped determined that it would take $76,400,000 to 
complete the conversion from analog cassettes to a digital format.  Their 
goal was to obtain this funding over four fiscal years, $19.1 million per 
year, in order to ensure that the conversion project was completed before 
analog cassettes became completely obsolete and unavailable.  In its fiscal 
year 2008 budget request, the Library of Congress asked for the first of 
these $19.1 million installments to begin the digital conversion.  Because 
of budget concerns, the Legislative Branch subcommittees in both the House 
and the Senate did not provide the needed funds to keep this project on the 
four-year conversion schedule established by the NLS.  Both House and Senate 
included only $12.5 million for this project, leaving $6.6 million unfunded.



            Congress should fully fund the digital Talking Book project by 
allocating $19.1 million for this purpose in fiscal year 2009, as well as 
restoring the $6.6 million left out of the fiscal year 2008 request.  This 
appropriation of $25.7 million will allow the NLS to remain on course for a 
successful conversion to ensure that blind users of the Talking Book program 
do not find themselves without access to books and magazines.



Requested Action:  Please support blind Americans by voting for an 
appropriation of $25.7 million in fiscal year 2009 for the Library of 
Congress Talking Book program.



















































Contact Information:
Jesse Hartle

Government Programs Specialist

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2233

Email: jhartle at nfb.org



INCREASING THE EARNINGS LIMIT: A COMMON SENSE WORK INCENTIVE FOR BLIND 
SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFICIARIES





Legislation:  H.R. 3834, the Blind Persons Earnings Fairness Act of 2007 
introduced by Congressman John Lewis.



Purpose:  To amend Title II of the Social Security Act by mandating five 
annual increases in the level of earnings allowed for blind individuals 
before applying a work penalty.



Background:  By increasing the Social Security earnings limit in 1996, 
Congress gave seniors a powerful incentive to work.  Advocates stressed that 
seniors would continue to work, earn, and pay taxes because they could do so 
with no fear of losing income from Social Security.



            The need for a higher earnings limit for the blind is much more 
compelling because of an all-or-nothing penalty for exceeding the limit. 
Nevertheless, the earnings limit for blind individuals has not been 
increased beyond the annual rate of wage growth, though historically this 
limit was tied to the applicable limit for seniors.  In 2008 the earnings 
limit applicable to seniors in the year they reach Full Retirement Age (FRA) 
is $36,120.  This limit is adjusted annually.  For blind individuals gross 
earnings exceeding $1,570 monthly ($18,840 annually) cause complete loss of 
benefits until attainment of FRA.



Existing Law:  Like "retirement age," "blindness" is specifically defined in 
the Social Security Act and can be readily determined.  By contrast, 
evaluating "disability" is far more subjective.  Although blindness is 
specifically defined, not all blind people receive monthly benefits.  Only 
those not working or whose work earnings are below an annually adjusted 
statutory earnings limit are eligible.  Personal wealth derived from all 
sources other than work is subject to no penalty at all.  However, income in 
excess of the earnings limit generated from work results in a complete loss 
of cash benefits for blind beneficiaries.  Recognizing the negative impact 
of the earnings limit on seniors, Congress changed the law in 1996 and later 
entirely eliminated their earnings limit.  The situation confronting blind 
people today is identical to that seniors faced before 1996.



Examples:  For the blind who find employment, earnings almost never replace 
lost benefits once taxes and work expenses are paid.  Therefore few 
beneficiaries can truly afford to attempt significant work, and those who do 
often sacrifice income and the security of a monthly check.  The following 
examples illustrate the penalty for working.

  a.. A single blind person with no dependents having annual cash benefits 
of approximately $12,000 or $1,000 per month (an average benefit), with no 
other income, receives this amount tax-free.  Gross pay to replace benefits 
must be approximately $20,500, taking into account taxes and work expenses 
(including transportation and purchase of work-appropriate clothing).  This 
is $1,660 above the amount blind people are allowed.  Annual earnings less 
than $20,500 clearly result in a net loss of income.  While some blind 
people nevertheless choose to work, many do not because they cannot afford 
the lost income.
  b.. For a blind beneficiary with dependents, the situation is more 
desperate.  With two dependents the family's total benefit averages $17,870 
tax-free annually, and earnings greater than $18,840 (the annual earnings 
limit for blind recipients) will terminate benefits.  Using conservative 
assumptions, including combined state and federal taxes of twenty-five 
percent of gross pay and childcare for two children at $500 per month, 
replacing $17,870 in benefits would require over $32,000 in gross pay.  When 
dependents are involved, the choice whether or not to work is profoundly 
restricted, and the amount necessary to replace combined family benefits 
vastly exceeds the blind person's earnings limit.


Need for Legislation:  Steadily increasing the earnings limit for blind 
people over five years, thereby linking it to the limit applicable in the 
year of FRA, will allow blind people to work without facing an overwhelming 
financial penalty for their effort.  This would provide more than 100,000 
blind beneficiaries with an effective work incentive.  In 2008 a blind 
individual's earnings cannot exceed a rigid monthly limit of $1,570. 
Earnings over this threshold lead to immediate withdrawal of the total sum 
paid to a primary beneficiary and all dependents following completion of a 
trial work period.  The economic risk occurring to a blind head of household 
negates any possible economic benefit.



            An increase in the earnings limit would be cost-beneficial. 
With an estimated 74 percent unemployment rate, an overwhelming majority of 
working-age blind people are already beneficiaries.  With this meaningful 
work incentive proposal, many would also become taxpayers.  The chance to 
work, earn, and pay taxes is a constructive and valid goal for senior 
citizens and blind Americans alike.



Requested Action:  Congress should enact annual increases in the statutory 
earnings limit for blind individuals over five years, ultimately linking it 
to that applicable to individuals in the year they attain full retirement 
age as follows:



  a.. For 2008 $21,600
  b.. For 2009 $26,400
  c.. For 2010 $30,000
  d.. For 2011 $34,200
  e.. For 2012 the amount applicable to individuals who attain Full 
Retirement Age in that year.


            Please support blind Americans by cosponsoring the Blind Persons 
Earnings Fairness Act of 2007, H.R. 3834.



            Senators, please support companion legislation when introduced.





Contact Information:

James McCarthy

Government Programs Specialist

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Phone:  (410) 659-9314, extension 2240

Email:  jmccarthy at nfb.org