Governmental Affairs Report
By Jeff Thom
The hot Sacramento summer is looming, and the heat not only hits the streets of Sacramento, but also invades the Capitol building itself. Let’s take a peek at some of the very hot topics that most impact people who are blind or have low vision.
Our bill, AB1865 (Lackey) to strengthen protections against owners of dogs that attack service animals, is swiftly moving through the process. It has already passed the Assembly and has passed its first Senate committee. We expect little, if any, opposition in the Legislature, but we must convince the Governor that he should not repeat his veto of almost the same bill we ran two years ago, as we have taken out provisions to which he objected. We will eventually be calling for letters to the Governor, and your help is absolutely crucial.
As usual, the SSI debate is always a hot item, and CCB, as part of the Californians for SSI Coalition, is actively involved. AB3200, which is not likely to pass, would raise benefits for all up to the federal poverty level, and perhaps most importantly for blind recipients, re-institute the annual state cost-of-living adjustment to benefits. With this Governor, the expense of such a bill is not likely to be favorably acted upon, although the budget committees currently have a small increase in the budget, so stay tuned! Moreover, the next Governor should be far more favorably disposed towards SSI increases. However, on a positive note, momentum is building, and we should know long before this magazine is produced, whether the state will opt to end the prohibition against CalFresh (food stamps) for SSI recipients. This is the most cost-effective way that the state can provide benefits to SSI recipients, as the cost of the program is almost exclusively federal.
An important bill for persons who are blind or have low vision, and which we are co-sponsoring along with Disability Rights California, is SB1396, Galgiani, which would establish a state Office of Accessible Technology in order to ensure that state websites and other platforms are accessible. By the time you read this, we will know whether it made it through the Senate and thus would then be heard this summer in the Assembly.
The advocacy work that CCB undertakes deals with many subjects, but few are of more importance to us than braille. AB3223 would change the definition of braille in the Education Code from Standard English Braille to the currently used Unified English Braille. Because of the CCB’s involvement, we are ensuring that the bill protects the use of Nemeth Code in the teaching of braille mathematics, and this has led the way to other amendments to protect specialized music and foreign language systems. Many thanks to the Contra Costa Chapter for advocating with the author, Assembly Member Grayson on this bill. It is our work on bills such as AB3223 that show how important it is that CCB remain an active force in the halls of the state Capitol.
CCB is also active on the voting rights legislation front. We are working for the passage of AB1013 (Low), which would require all counties, not just those with vote-by-mail elections, to allow voters with disabilities to vote using their computers. It would enable many of us who want to vote absentee to do so in a private and independent manner. AB1013 has already passed the Assembly and has passed its first Senate committee.
We are still working on the library services funding issue for both the Braille Institute Library and the Braille and Talking Book Library. Through your efforts on Capitol Day and our Governmental Affairs advocacy efforts, the issue is beginning to gain traction. Whether we can do anything this year remains unknown, although at least our federal funding was not cut. However, we will continue to face efforts to eliminate this federal funding and we must prepare to have California step up and bear at least a portion of this funding burden.
