The United States House and Senate are now back in session and there is no better time to rally support for our legislative priorities. Congress will be in session until the two week break at the beginning of October. That gives us exactly three weeks to build serious cosponsor support for our three legislative priorities. Since we have three weeks and three pieces of legislation, we're going to focus on one issue per week. This week's top legislative priority is the Access Technology Affordability Act.

* Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA)
* House - H.R. 2086 - Sponsored by Mike Thompson (D-CA-5) - 28 cosponsors
* Senate - S. 815 - Sponsored by John Boozman (R-AR) - 14 cosponsors

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. These cosponsor counts are impressive, but we need to keep the pressure up to ensure that ATAA moves from the committees to the floor and is ultimately passed into law. Please call your representative and two senators and urge them to cosponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act if they have not already done so.

* Indiana House Supporters of Access Technology Affordability Act H.R. 2086
* Rep. Carson, Andre [D-IN-7]
* Rep. Visclosky, Peter J. [D-IN-1]
* Indiana Senate Supporters of Access Technology Affordability Act S. 815, None!

When you call or email, you might say something like the following:
"Hello, my name is, 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 you to cosponsor the bill.

Contact your member of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. If you email your representative or senators, please copy John Pare at jpare@nfb.org because your calls and emails do make a difference.