Action Alert # 11 -- Urgent--Assistive Technology Act


History:

On June 23, the House Appropriations Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee marked up the FY 2004 spending bill. The amount included in the bill for the Assistive Technology Act projects is $11.13 million. This is an amount calculated by the Department indicating how much money is necessary to fund the Tech Act under the provisions of current law. In other words, this amount would fund the projects not yet under the sunset provision. With only this much money and no waiver of the sunset, the following states will be eliminated from the program:

Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In the House, the full appropriations committee will mark up this bill on Wednesday, June 25. Also on Wednesday, at 9:30 AM, the Senate Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Committee will mark up their version of the FY 2004 spending bill.

Actions Needed:

1. Call your Representatives in the House and let them know that the current version of the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations bill cuts funding for the Assistive Technology Act by more than 50%, dropping from $26.8 million to $11.1 million. Let them know that this eliminates 31 states from the program.
2. Explain to them what services will be lost if these programs go away.
3. Let them know that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce is reauthorizing the law this year, so it is critical to keep the programs alive in every state and territory until that reauthorization can proceed.
4. Urge them to do whatever they can in full committee markup next Wednesday to restore the funding to the $26.8 million level for the Assistive Technology Act and to add a provision waiving the sunset, just as was done in the bill last year.
Call your Senators and urge them to contact Mr. Specter (R-PA), the Chairman of the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Committee and Mr. Harkin (D-IA), ranking Democrat on the Committee. Tell them to request $26.8 million for the Assistive Technology Act and a provision to waive the sunset–exactly as was done last year. Let them know about the situation in the House and that you are counting on the Senate to make this happen. Tell them about the 31 states that will lose funding if this does not occur.

Some contact information is listed below. You can find numbers and email addresses of all Senators at www.senate.gov or by calling (202) 224-3121. Time is short. Make your voices heard now for our future generations.

Senator Peter Fitzgerald
555 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Email: http://fitzgerald.senate.gov/contact/contact_email.htm

Chicago Office
230 S. Dearborn #3900
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 886-3506

Central Illinois Office
520 S. Eighth Street
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 492-5089

Senator Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2152
TTY (202) 224-8180
Fax (202) 228-0400
Email: dick@durbin.senate.gov

Chicago Office
Kluczynski Building 38th Floor
230 South Dearborn
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-4952
Fax (312) 353-0150

Springfield Office
525 South Eighth St.
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 492-4062
Fax (217) 492-4382


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