14:07:16 ism M session. >> Mike: Speaking of IM, David 14:07:19 is here. >> David: I was going to kick us 14:07:23 off. (Laughing). Hello, everyone. I have to stop laughing now. I'm David 14:07:27 the director at the Freedom Center, Center for 14:07:32 Independent Living in Frederick and Carol county. 14:07:35 I want to welcome everyone. We have a very special show, a lot of 14:07:38 information, talking about the legislative session, grassroots 14:07:42 advocacy, how to be involved, things coming up, special guests with us, 14:07:47 Delegate Belcastro is with us so I don't want us to 14:07:50 talk a long time but I do need to do a couple of the sort of important 14:07:55 announcements that you need to know. These shows are recorded, 14:07:59 and in fact I believe we're already being recordedment once we official 14:08:03 recorded. Once we officially go 14:08:07 , and it looks like we've already done that, you'll be put on mute 14:08:10 . If you have questions when it's time for questions, we'll take people off 14:08:14 mute and you'll be able to unmute yourself and ask questions, or you can 14:08:18 always put questions into the chat and we will be monitoring for 14:08:23 the chat to make sure that we get everybody's questions answered. 14:08:25 I think toward the end of the session, we'll be opening it up for 14:08:30 discussion if we have time anyway, so that should help that process 14:08:34 . I do just want to say, again, the 14:08:38 Centers for Independent Living collaborate together to bring you 14:08:43 this program, special thanks to the Image Center who does all the 14:08:47 technical background stuff and Heather specifically back there who monitor 14:08:52 s those things. If when you register for 14:08:56 each show, you'll notice that there is a place where you could make a 14:09:00 generous donation. Those donations go directly to helping 14:09:04 us keep this opportunity going and this forum going. It 14:09:08 does take time and effort and 14:09:12 money to do that, so if you are so inclined and are able to contribute, 14:09:17 we greatly appreciate that. If 14:09:20 you have questions that don't get answered, if you need services, if 14:09:24 you're not sure what a Center for Independent Living 14:09:29 does, I'll just be really brief about that. Centers for Independent 14:09:32 Living serve persons with disabilities across all disability groups, across 14:09:36 all ages, and we cover the 14:09:40 entire state of Maryland between the 7 centers for independent living that 14:09:44 are here. Information and referral 14:09:49 , advocacy, are some of the core services that we do, 14:09:53 and so you are always welcome to 14:09:57 call or reach out to any of the centers for independent living. If we 14:10:01 are not the right one, we will connect you with the one that was 14:10:06 , that just happened actually earlier today, I got an email from Heather 14:10:10 from somebody that asked a question that concerns Frederick County and 14:10:12 I'll be getting back to them once this show is over. 14:10:16 So, it really is a good process. We always 14:10:21 welcome your input and your calls. There is always a place to give input 14:10:25 upcoming shows 14:10:29 and events to IM itself, and I really appreciate that, because this is your 14:10:33 show for your community -- it's our show for our community, I'll say it 14:10:37 that way, and I know because so many of you come week to week that it really 14:10:41 is something of value. So, I think I hit all the things 14:10:45 that I need to hit. If I didn't, Heather or Mike will jump in and 14:10:49 tell me. I want to introduce 14:10:53 and turn it over today to Rose Care 14:10:57 y, the Chairperson of the Maryland Statewide Independent 14:11:01 Living Council that is the 14:11:05 council that's appointed by the governor that helps to coordinate 14:11:08 independent living services and the independent living network across 14:11:13 Maryland. They are integral in developing 14:11:17 the state plan on independent living in conjunction with the 14:11:22 centers for independent living. Rose has 14:11:27 -- Rose has been with us a long time in the 14:11:31 independent living movement, and on 14:11:36 a personal note, she was one of the first people to reach out to me when 14:11:40 I was hired here at the Freedom Center to extend an offer 14:11:44 and welcome and offer anything I needed help with. She's that person. 14:11:48 She's currently serving as the Chair of the Council on 14:11:53 Independent Living and she's going to starlt 14:11:57 start us off, so I'm going to turn it over to 14:12:00 Rose. >> Rose: As Dave said I'm the 14:12:04 newly elected Chair of the State 14:12:08 Independent Living Council and I'm looking forward to the next couple of 14:12:11 years trying to get this organization moved forward because it's really 14:12:15 difficult during this 14:12:20 time, so it's nice to see some familiar faces and also some that I 14:12:24 don't know, so I'm looking forward to meeting all of you. 14:12:28 Excuse me 14:12:31 . I want to thank the legislative 14:12:33 committee for all of their hard work. They've gone through a lot of trouble 14:12:37 to identify the bills and to make this platform 14:12:42 presentable for the people with disabilities, and it was 14:12:46 done with the help of the CI 14:12:50 L members, CIL directors and volunteers and so I want to especially thank all 14:12:54 of them for their hard work, and at this time I'm going to turn it over to 14:12:59 Katie, and Lauri as co-chair 14:13:03 ie as co-chairs. Thank you 14:13:06 . >> Katie: Thanks, Rose. Yeah, 14:13:09 so we've been hard at work trying to build our first-ever public policy 14:13:13 platform. This was a big undertaking for us, so we're really excited to 14:13:17 share it with you. I want to give a shout out to all of the member 14:13:21 s of the committee, Rose Carie, Lauri 14:13:25 e, Cheryl, and then my fellow CIL comrade 14:13:30 Sarah, Mike, and Dave, so all of you -- 14:13:34 oh, and Serena, did I mention her, staff 14:13:39 at Independence Now, sorry, there you 14:13:42 are, Serena, you've all been great to work with, and Laur 14:13:47 ie, I think I can speak on our behalf that as co-chairs that we're 14:13:50 very proud to present this to you. So I am going to share my screen 14:13:54 and share with you our public policy platform 14:14:02 . So all in all, this is a public policy platform, and it just identify 14:14:06 ies what we believe is the appropriate policy for the public. 14:14:11 This guides, the CILs in advocacy 14:14:15 efforts, sometimes it's lobbying, sometimes it's educating, but it kind 14:14:18 of outlines as what we see as being the priorities. 14:14:22 Now, this is a Maryland Independent Living Network Public 14:14:27 Policy Platform, so it's the Centers for Independent Living in conjunction 14:14:31 with the Maryland independent living council. And Dave provided you 14:14:35 earlier a synopsis of what people at Centers for Independent Living can 14:14:40 do for other people with disabilities, and this document also kind 14:14:44 of surmise 14:14:49 s that so people can share this with the legislators if they 14:14:52 like and know what it is that we do. So we've identified several 14:14:56 areas. Now, please keep in mind that we tried to keep this a one-pager 14:15:00 front and back waws we know that our legislators do not have time to be 14:15:04 looking through pages and pages of documents because they're very busy, 14:15:08 so we tried to keep it as kind of short and to the point as possible 14:15:13 . Not everything that we encounter during the legislative 14:15:17 session fits in this, but this is kind of some guiding principles that we're 14:15:19 using. Now, of course, we all know that 14:15:23 howtioning is a huge issue, particularly for people with 14:15:27 disabilities, particularly for people who are living on 14:15:31 very limiting incomes, so we want to increase the number of units 14:15:36 available, increase vouchers for units, improve renters rights 14:15:40 and enforcement of fair housing, provide the 14:15:44 centers for independent living who currently do housing case management 14:15:47 services with funding to do that service. We do it, and we do it 14:15:51 because we're good people, but it has become increasingly difficult for us 14:15:54 to continue to provide the high level of services that are needed to help 14:15:58 people with disabilities in our communities who are not connected to a 14:16:02 case management system. And then, of course, increasing 14:16:05 funds for home and rental accessibility modifications. We know 14:16:09 that being in your home in your community is the best place for people 14:16:13 to be, and if we're able to increase funding for that, we can keep 14:16:15 people out of institutionalized settings. 14:16:20 We also know that transportation is a huge issue. So, 14:16:27 you know we want to increase the amount of accessibility at trains and 14:16:30 bus stops. We want to address the issue of floating bus stops, which 14:16:34 have been a hot button issue lately. We want to work to increase transit 14:16:38 routes and times, particularly in rural areas 14:16:43 , and increase the reliability of public transit, making sure people can 14:16:47 get to where they need to be when they need to be there, and then are able to 14:16:51 get back home in a timely manner. We want 14:16:55 people to be able to travel from Baltimore City to 14:17:00 Southern Maryland and make it easy and seamless, so we want to be able 14:17:04 to increase the options available that cross 14:17:09 jurisdictions. Also, we know that it's not just getting 14:17:14 in a vehicle to get somewhere, but often times our sidewalks and curb cut 14:17:18 s and maintenance need a lot of help, and if you can't get your 14:17:22 wheelchair to the bus stop what's the use of having a bus stop? So we want 14:17:27 to increase the accessibility of the kind of the way to the bus stop. 14:17:29 And then increasing the number of 14:17:33 accessible taxi cabs per county to 10% 14:17:38 . Health care and long-term services and supports, you know 14:17:43 , we really believe that medical institutions shouldn't be able to 14:17:47 aggressively seek payment, so we want to work on limiting their ability to 14:17:52 do so. We want, when people go to the doctor and get a medication prescribed 14:17:56 to them, we want them to be able to get that medication if they need it, and 14:18:00 make that medication affordable. People who use private insurance 14:18:05 or don't use Medicaid or medical assistance, we want to be able 14:18:09 to see those people get increased accession to 14:18:13 durable medical equipment. We want to require that private insurer 14:18:16 insurers match Medicaid home and community-based services options. 14:18:20 Right now as it exists, if you need someone to come into your home and 14:18:24 assist you, often times the private insurance companies do not cover that 14:18:28 and you need medical assistance to be able to get that kind 14:18:32 of service, so we don't think that's right. 14:18:36 You shouldn't have to choose options like going into a nursing facility 14:18:40 just to get what you need. 14:18:45 We are opposed to the use of physician assisted suicide or so-called death 14:18:49 with dignity measures 14:18:54 we would like to require inter-agency cooperation to enforce most integrat 14:18:58 ed settings so we can ensure when people, when they're in the community 14:19:02 have access to housing, transit, health care, personal assistant services, all 14:19:06 of that to ensure that they will be successful in those settings. 14:19:10 We have a whole section on ending the institutional bias, so what we 14:19:14 know is that people with disabilities 14:19:18 often times to get the assistance that they need, have to get it 14:19:22 in a institutionalized setting, so we want to increase home and 14:19:27 community-based services, regardless of who is paying for them. We want to 14:19:32 designate facility residence as homeless 14:19:36 allowing for emergency placement which will help with housing. Ol 14:19:41 msted said people need to get support in the most integrated setting 14:19:45 s, least restrictive environments, and allow for 24/7 support in the home 14:19:49 , or we need to allow for 24/7 support in the home, and we 14:19:54 oppose any development or continuation of conjugate or segregated settings 14:19:57 . In employment, we would like to 14:20:02 see more flexibility within the employed individuals disabilities 14:20:06 Medicaid buy-in program. There is, you know, provisions in that program 14:20:10 where you can't get -- 14:20:15 oh, REM expense of case management, and also if 14:20:19 you get married and your spouse makes over a certain amount, you're kicked 14:20:23 out of eligibility for that is, so we would like to see more 14:20:26 eligibility, more flexibility within EID. 14:20:30 We would love to see the pay increase for direct care 14:20:33 professionals, particularly in the community options waiver, community 14:20:37 first choice, and community personal assistant services. 14:20:41 These, the people who provide services in these three 14:20:46 funding streams are being left behind, 14:20:49 even those who provide services for other waivers, so we would like to see 14:20:53 an increase in pay. And we'd love to see the state 14:20:57 employment of people with disabilities to 20% across all levels of government 14:21:02 . Education, we want 14:21:06 people who -- we want the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 14:21:10 funding and compliance from IDEA and 14:21:14 plans of the Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act so we want 14:21:18 to see people getting services they need in school, and we want to mandate 14:21:21 intended resource sharing between public and private schools regarding 14:21:25 individualized education plans. Right now private schools do not have to 14:21:29 comply. We do have a section on emergency 14:21:33 preparedness disaster response and COVID-19 response, and while 14:21:37 this is a small section, it's been a bulk of the work that the centers for 14:21:41 independent living have been doing over the past year. We want to ensure that 14:21:45 me Medicaid waiver is compliant with disability civil rights laws, 14:21:49 including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of 14:21:53 the rehab act and one thing that become increasing 14:21:57 ly alarming is that we have people in nursing facilities who would 14:22:01 like to get out and we don't have a fast-track system to have them seam 14:22:05 lessly transition out of the facility and into the community, and they are 14:22:09 in crisis, so we would really like to see for 14:22:13 future disasters that that is 14:22:18 changed. Voting, 14:22:22 we would like to reinstate automatic absentee ballet lists without 14:22:27 reregistering each time. So you have registered any point for an 14:22:31 absentee ballet, you can get it again and again and again without having to 14:22:35 reregister, and we want to commit to ensure voting is accessible to all 14:22:38 people with disabilities and this is a big catch-all category, but we've 14:22:42 learned a lot, particularly during the pandemic in terms of 14:22:46 voting, you know, people not being able to get the ballets in the ballet 14:22:51 drop-box because the slot was too high or people not having the tools that 14:22:55 they need to vote absentee. We want to ensure that any legislation that comes 14:22:59 out of this session is making sure that voting is more accessible 14:23:02 . And then, of course, digital 14:23:06 equity, which I'm not sure would have made it on this list were it not for 14:23:11 COVID-19. We would like to responding for 14:23:14 technology for students to participate in virtual learning, fun training 14:23:19 in use of online devices and programs, particularly in terms of digital 14:23:23 literacy. How do you get on Zoom, how do you create a Facebook account 14:23:27 to stay connected with friends and family, how do you buy groceries 14:23:31 online? These are all things that it would be really important for someone 14:23:35 to know who might not have ever been on a computer before, as well as 14:23:38 safety. How do you keep your information safe? There is obviously 14:23:42 a lot of people looking to prey upon Internet users so 14:23:45 how do we teach people to protect themselves? 14:23:49 Of course, high speed, low-cost 14:23:52 Internet, we want to support people that are low income in obtaining that. 14:23:56 And increasing high-speed Internet statewide because we still have a lot 14:23:59 of rural areas lagging behind in that, so we want to see that changed. 14:24:04 And then something that has become very 14:24:08 clear to the centers as we continue to work within nursing facilities is 14:24:12 that we would like to see an increase in access to private independent 14:24:16 communications in nursing facilities, both through the use of telephone, but 14:24:19 also Internet. Not everyone has access to that. 14:24:23 So, I felt like I just did a whole lot of talking in a very short amount 14:24:29 of time. I am going to -- 14:24:33 I can put this document in the chat in case you would like to see it, and it 14:24:37 also has Laurie 14:24:42 Elinoff and my email address. Feel free to share this as talking 14:24:44 points when you go to talk to legislators this session, and if you 14:24:48 have any questions, we'll take those at the end. 14:24:53 So now I would like to turn it over to Delegate 14:24:57 Belcastro and she's going to talk to us about engaging in 14:25:01 this legislative session. >> Lisa Belcastro 14:25:05 : Thank you so much, thank you, Katie, for inviting me and thank you 14:25:08 to all of you for the opportunity to talk with you today. I used to be -- 14:25:11 in the summer I was joining you guys weekly, and then you might not know 14:25:15 this about me, but I'm a full-time special education teacher when I'm not 14:25:20 -- when I'm not serving in the legislature so at 2:00 on a Monday 14:25:24 afternoon, happens to be right in the middle of Ms. Perez's 14:25:28 5th period class so I haven't been able to attend since school started 14:25:31 and it's good to be back and look forward to joining more frequently 14:25:35 once the summers pick up again. So this session, obviously, is 14:25:43 fully virtual, very different. This is my first year in the 14:25:43 legislature, so this is my normal, this is what I understand. You know, 14:25:48 I haven't been in the legislature under normal circumstances coming in during 14:25:52 a pandemic during COVID, but I wanted to talk to you guys about how things 14:25:55 have been working this session and the best ways that you can engage. Katie, 14:25:59 thank you for sharing all of those policy recommendation 14:26:02 s that you and the Committee have worked so hard on, and you know 14:26:06 hopefully what I talk about today will help you advocate for the initiatives 14:26:10 that you have identified are important for you this 14:26:13 legislative session. The biggest thing I want to 14:26:17 mention, and this is a big deal and something that we need to advocate for 14:26:21 that sticks even outside of the pandemic, is how everything is 14:26:25 livestreamed. You can watch everything from home. Every voting session, 14:26:29 every subcommittee meeting is live streamed and that's not -- 14:26:33 that wasn't true in the past. So you can watch that bill 14:26:37 from when it's introduced or when it has its hearing, and you can really 14:26:41 watch it go through that entire process. 14:26:44 The way that you can easily -- this is the easiest way to access it, 14:26:49 because I will say one thing we need to be better at is on YouTube how we 14:26:53 organize the streams, it can be a little difficult to fiebd them. So 14:26:56 here is a tip for you and it's the easiest way to find them. If you go 14:27:00 to the Maryland General Assembly website in the top right-hand corner 14:27:04 , and this took me a while to figure out even for myself when I wanted to 14:27:07 livestream things. There is a little icon that says YouTube, if you just 14:27:11 click on that, it will come up with all the different -- it will have the 14:27:16 House and Senate and you click on whichever the 14:27:18 chamber the bill is in that you want to see or the hearing of the committee 14:27:22 that you want to hear, and then you click on the House or Senate and it 14:27:25 will list the different Committees and it will take you right to the YouTube 14:27:29 page. I was for the longest time trying to type it into the search bar 14:27:32 in YouTube and I never ended up where I wanted to end up, so that's the 14:27:35 easiest way and that took me a couple of weeks to figure out. 14:27:39 Next is the My MGA website. There is love and hate 14:27:43 with the My MGA website right now. This is how we're submitting testimony 14:27:46 this year. This is how you are signing up to be a witness on any of 14:27:52 the bills that you want to testify on, and I say love/hate 14:27:56 because some of those in the aging community, some of those in the 14:28:00 disability community have had difficulties navigating the My MGA 14:28:04 website. There have been some fixes since the beginning 14:28:08 . I understand that screen readers are working better on the 14:28:12 website now, but to 14:28:17 access My MGA, again, you go to the General 14:28:20 Assembly website and in the top right-hand corner, it's going to have 14:28:25 a couple different icons for social media, the YouTube, and they be 14:28:29 then you see a little icon that says My MGA and you click on that 14:28:32 and it's pretty simple to sign up. You'll just type in your email, your 14:28:36 name, and then you'll have an account pretty quickly. And what's really 14:28:40 cool about My MGA, and I even use it, this is how I track my bill 14:28:44 s. You can select the bills you want to track and every night you get an 14:28:46 email about how your bill is doing and how it's progressing through the 14:28:51 legislature, so you're getting that reind 14:28:54 reminder with that email each day about the bills you're interested in 14:28:57 and how they're moving. I found it quite useful myself. 14:29:01 Let's see. What else did I want to mention about My MGA 14:29:03 . For the people in our office, 14:29:07 we've had more than a handful of people that have had issues with My MGA 14:29:11 , just in terms of being able to find it and navigate it, so my 14:29:15 suggestion to you and what we've done 14:29:19 in our office is we've individually helped people sign up for My MGA and 14:29:23 helped upload testimony. We want to make sure that, you know, 14:29:27 while I do believe that the legislature has acted in good faith 14:29:31 and they've worked as hard as they could to make 14:29:34 this virtual session as accessible as possible, but obviously there is 14:29:38 always room for improvement. But what we've 14:29:42 decided in our office is look, we're here, this has happened, so we need to 14:29:46 just help people move forward to get their testimony in so what we're doing 14:29:50 in our office, is like I said, we're uploading testimony for people 14:29:54 if they need it, signing people up for accounts if they need it, and I don't 14:29:57 see why any other legislator would have a problem with that. So if you are 14:30:01 struggling to navigate it, reach out to your legislator and if 14:30:04 they're not responding to you, reach out to us and we'll help take care of 14:30:06 you. Another thing, this is kind of a 14:30:10 kept secret that I'm learning a lot of people don't know about, and I wish 14:30:14 more of my constituents were taking me up on this offer. It's virtual 14:30:19 constituent office hours, so a lot of legislators are diagnose virtual 14:30:25 constituent office hours. I'm 14:30:29 trying to put out on social media, but 14:30:33 we don't have the typical office hours to come in and talk to us about your 14:30:36 bill, but it's still important to have that face time, it's still important 14:30:41 to engage with your constituents and so every Monday morning we host virtual 14:30:45 constituent office hours and that's an opportunity, and I just pop the Zoom 14:30:49 open, and it's an opportunity, you know, for that hour I'm just sitting 14:30:53 there and anyone can come in and talk to me just as if I was sitting in my 14:30:57 office chair and you knock on the door and want to come talk to me about your 14:30:59 bills. So reach out, if you're not 14:31:03 finding it on social media or seeing when the virtual constituent office 14:31:07 hours are for your legislator, just send them an email. 14:31:11 You know, iems always happy 14:31:15 welcome you to my virtual constituent office hours at 8:00 a.m. 14:31:19 every single Monday. >> Ch 14:31:23 ioke: Hi, I'm new -- I've been on here before, but 14:31:27 are you familiar with Alliance Incorporated? 14:31:31 >> Lisa Belcastro: Not 14:31:35 familiar. >> Have you been to Mosaic 14:31:39 ? >> Lisa Belcastro: I 14:31:43 don't believe so. >> I'm with them. They help with 14:31:48 getting people with disabilities jobs. >> Lisa Belcastro: 14:31:52 Yes. They used to be in tundro 14:31:56 f but by Shepard -- >> Lisa: Okay, hey, I would love 14:32:00 to talk to you more about that, and if you would like, can you join me at 14:32:04 8:00 any Monday throughout session for my virtual constituent office hours, 14:32:08 I'd love to see you there. >> So you work with the -- with 14:32:13 the legislative branch, what program are you with? 14:32:17 >> Lisa Belcastro: The distinct honor of represent 14:32:21 ing District 11 in the House of Delegates so that's my involvement 14:32:25 with the legislature 14:32:28 . >> You remind me with a woman I 14:32:32 used to work with named Sam if you look her up on Facebook. 14:32:35 >> Katie: We have a really packed agenda, and I would really encourage 14:32:39 to you reach out to Delegate Belcastro during office hours 14:32:44 and maybe you guys can catch up that 14:32:46 way. >> Because I take MTA. 14:32:49 >> Katie: Okay. Great. Wonderful. 14:32:52 >> Because due this to pandemic. -- 14:32:56 >> Lisa Belcastro: So honest loo, join 14:33:00 ly, join me for 14:33:04 virtual office hours. >> Can you send 14:33:08 me your information? >> Yes, I will put it in the chat 14:33:12 as soon as I'm done talking, I promise. Overall, this is the most accessible 14:33:14 session ever, and I think it's important that while it's never 14:33:17 perfect, right, there is always going to be things that we can do to make it 14:33:21 better, but we should continue to work and push the legislature to make it 14:33:24 better. I know myself and my colleagues have been pushing on a 14:33:28 number of things, and we were really happy that they took us on the screen 14:33:32 reader part of the website, and there is still more that we can be doing 14:33:35 . As we start to move, hopefully, 14:33:39 move back into whatever normal will be after this pandemic, I think it's 14:33:43 important that we continue to advocate to make sure some of these things that 14:33:48 we've brought in in this digital setting, this digital world stick. 14:33:52 It's a good thing that you can watch from home all the different bill 14:33:56 hearings and watch it travel from the hearing to sub-committee to the voting 14:34:01 session. Can you watch even down to delegation meetings are livestream 14:34:05 ed now. Anything. If something is being voted on or something is being 14:34:09 heard, it's livestreamed, and so it's important that that sticks, and I 14:34:11 think that that's important for the disability community as well. 14:34:15 So I will wrap up there, and if there are any questions I would be 14:34:18 more than happy to take them. Again, thank you for allowing me to speak 14:34:22 today. It's good to be here. 14:34:25 >> Katie: Thank you, Delegate 14:34:29 Belcastro, we're one of our biggest fans and we always appreciate 14:34:33 your support and willingness to engage with us. It's always refreshing. I 14:34:36 really appreciate it. I'm going to quickly go over some 14:34:39 of the things that we've been working on, and now please keep in mind that 14:34:43 we are a small but mighty team, and we have not been able to focus 14:34:48 on nearly half of everything related 14:34:52 to disability in this session. We've focused on a few things that we have 14:34:56 found particularly important, so I'm going to share with you what that is, 14:35:00 and then I will share with you a link in case you would like to follow 14:35:05 up on it later. Again, this is a work in 14:35:10 progress, a major work in progress. So we've 14:35:14 been working, and for those of you who can see my screen, we have 14:35:19 a key here, it's a color code, and we've had big 14:35:23 controversies over it, but it helps to keep me organized. 14:35:26 Anything in green we submitted testimony on, and when I say we, it's 14:35:31 typically some of the centers for independent living and not the 14:35:34 statewide independent living council because that would be considered 14:35:39 lobbying, so if it's green we submitted testimony. If it's blue we 14:35:42 sign on to existing testimony, and if it's red, there is no action taken. 14:35:46 And it could be because we got off to a late start. Laugh laf 14:35:50 (Laughing). So, the first bill would be 14:35:55 Senate Bill 348, House Bill 14:35:58 652 and this requires that there be additional reporting done by 14:36:03 residential service agencies to ensure that people who are working as 14:36:07 personal care attendants are appropriately classified 14:36:12 as not a contractor. Sometimes agencies will classify 14:36:15 what should be employees as contractors so they don't have to pay 14:36:20 things like benefits or taxes, and that's -- that makes it so 14:36:25 the workforce has reduced quantity and quality of 14:36:28 people. So, we are -- we wrote in support 14:36:32 of this bill. 14:36:36 There is a huge housing justice package which we signed 14:36:39 on with a committee, and I'm not going to go through all of these in detail, 14:36:44 but it does lots of great things. It establishes 14:36:48 an eviction diverse program, it provides right to council 14:36:53 , there is limits on filing sur 14:36:57 file sir charge and prohibitive lease provision, all of that we 14:37:01 signed on to. There might have even been a few more bills that have come 14:37:04 through that I probably even have to update this list with, because it's 14:37:08 several different -- it's huge, it's a big package of a bunch of different 14:37:13 bills. Delegate 14:37:17 Delegate Belcastro, yours made your list 14:37:21 but we were too late to respond. The Maryland suicide 14:37:25 committee, we thought was a really good idea and Delegate 14:37:30 Belcastro found that people at shelt erts 14:37:34 shelters, before people would 14:37:39 decide to attempt suicide they would drop animals off at shelters, 14:37:42 so wouldn't that be a place to provide some extra attention to if you were in 14:37:46 the business of preventing suicide, and you want to you know, make sure that 14:37:50 people could identify signs and have available things for like hey 14:37:54 , are you feeling depressed, call this number. So I thought that was a good 14:37:58 idea. And that has already been heard in House and Senate, 14:38:03 so and I think we're just waiting at this point. 14:38:07 >> Lisa Belcastro: So it's 14:38:10 starting to get some movement. I thought it might be dead, but it's 14:38:14 starting to get some movement. So I actually feel somewhat hopeful as of 14:38:18 this week, so we'll see how things progress. Thank you for your support 14:38:20 . >> Katie: Yes, we'll keep our 14:38:24 fingers crossed. A big bill that we spent some time on is the medical 14:38:28 debt protection, and it does a lot of different things 14:38:32 but bottom line is that it really protects people if they've gone 23450 14:38:37 into the hospital and have huge hospital bills from having their 14:38:41 home, placing a lean on their home or their car or 14:38:46 bank garnishment 14:38:50 of wages and filing law suit, and so it really protects people 14:38:53 . And a lot of people with disabilities also have, you know, 14:38:56 different kinds of health needs that require sometimes hospitalization and 14:39:00 it can be a very expensive very quickly, 14:39:05 so we have provided written 14:39:10 testimony in the House and we will be providing written 14:39:14 -- maybe if Mike is chosen, spoken testimony in the Finance in the 14:39:18 Senate. Of course, voting was one of the 14:39:23 big hot-button issues, so we were too late for both of 14:39:27 these Elections by Mail as well as Accommodation for Voters in Need 14:39:32 of Assistance, but we would probably be supportive of both of those 14:39:37 . 14:39:43 And I put in testimony for both 14:39:47 the bill in the House and 14:39:51 the bill in the Senate and it makes sure that right now when you use 14:39:55 an accessible ballet marking 14:39:57 machine, the ballet that comes out of that is different than the machine 14:40:01 that other people use, and so this would require that the ballets look 14:40:05 the same, because otherwise you could potentially identify 14:40:10 whose vote was for what. If only two people in the entire precinct 14:40:15 use the accessible ballet marking machine, then you would know how those 14:40:19 two people voted because their ballets would look different. 14:40:23 H 14:40:28 B155, SB98, it prevents discrimination 14:40:38 in private schools 14:40:42 , public schools, we were too late on that one so I didn't 14:40:46 spend a whole lot of time with it. 14:40:50 Affirmative housing, this is something in the Obama administration was put 14:40:54 into play and it was dialed back during the Trump Administration so this is 14:40:58 the state saying that we want to 14:41:03 affirm further fair housing, so 14:41:05 they're trying to get that back on the books. 14:41:09 There was a digital equity bill ensuring people with disabilities get 14:41:13 access to high speed Internet. We were too late for that. Next week we'll be 14:41:16 better because we'll have the public policy platform all done. Then there 14:41:21 was the funding of the transit safety and investment act, 14:41:27 and obviously transit is, you know, a 14:41:29 funding priority 14:41:33 for the disability community and it's been difficult to ensure that funding 14:41:38 is there and meets the needs of the people needing the service. 14:41:42 More election, so another one 14:41:46 with allowing individuals who need extra assistance to be given priority 14:41:50 when they get to the polling place. Development of the 14:41:54 direct care workforce innovation program, again, you know 14:41:59 , personal care attendants, the direct support 14:42:03 workforce are the backbone of many people's independence and their 14:42:07 ability to get up and get moving out of bed, get into the community, and 14:42:11 sometimes it requires personal care attendants so we want to make sure 14:42:15 that personal care attendants are high-quality, well-paid, 14:42:19 well-trained staff that can meet the needs of people with disabilities. 14:42:23 And then the rest -- oh, okay. So then we also have 14:42:28 the accessible rooms for people with disabilities, so 14:42:32 there was a bill put into place that said hotels would have to have a 14:42:36 certain number of rooms whose beds met this certain 14:42:40 accessibility requirements so people with wheelchairs or people who use 14:42:44 lifts could use the hotel bed, and this bill is asking for an 14:42:48 extension of that deadline. We will be writing an opposition to this, 14:42:52 obviously, on the ADA is 30 years old and we just 14:42:57 need to get it together, you know, United States of America, including 14:43:02 lodging establishments. There is a 14:43:12 bill out for curbside voting which I thought was really cool. Don't have 14:43:12 to leave my car you come out and bring my ballet and I vote somehow 14:43:13 , I don't know, but again this could 14:43:21 increase accessibility for people with disabilities might have a hard time 14:43:25 leaving the car. >> Lisa B, lurk castro 14:43:30 : Ash Wednesday, if you can get your 14:43:34 ashes, why not do it. >> What vaccination stuff do you 14:43:37 have on here? >> Katie: We don't have any 14:43:41 vaccination-specific bills at this time. 14:43:46 >> Chiode: Not yet? >> Katie: Depends what comes 14:43:50 out of session. 14:43:51 >> Oh, really. 14:43:55 >> Katie: So we have, one of the things I thought was astonishing is 14:43:59 there are polling places not accessible by public transportation and I was 14:44:01 just really surprised by this because I would think that would be a basic 14:44:05 thing, so this ensures that early voting 14:44:10 centers must not be more than 500 feet from public transportation, station 14:44:14 , or stop. There is a -- 14:44:18 there was a hearing on House Bill 69 14:44:23 about single-use plastics and now for people in the disability community, 14:44:27 often many of us rely on single-use plastics when we go out to eat, straw 14:44:31 s are one of the greatest accessibility tools of all 14:44:36 times, and sometimes not everyone can use an alternate plastic 14:44:40 or alternative of plastic straw, and so this pertains 14:44:45 to food, single-use beverage, as well as 14:44:49 which I'll be kind of sad about because I used to when I go to hotel 14:44:54 s, collect the little samples that they make little 14:44:57 packages to give out to people, but they would be prohibiting those little 14:45:02 packages, like the little cute shampoos and soaps 14:45:06 to reduce plastics. And lastly was 14:45:10 the student education grant program to establish it, and this was 14:45:16 provide grants to eligible students to attend 14:45:20 non-public schools, and had we been on top of this, we 14:45:24 probably wouldn't have been very supportive because private schools 14:45:29 don't have to honor the rights of students with disabilities in terms 14:45:33 of IDEA, so it -- I just -- we didn't 14:45:37 feel that we should be giving -- the state should be giving money to them 14:45:39 if they're not having to comply with IDEA. 14:45:44 So (state should not be). That's all we have for now. If 14:45:48 anyone has a bill that comes across their desk that they think needs to be 14:45:51 included, please let us know because as I said we're definitely small but 14:45:57 mighty and we're trying to do this once a week, we meet for one hour and try 14:46:00 to cobble together everything that's going on. We don't have a dedicated 14:46:05 lobbyist, we don't have an organization that does this for us, 14:46:09 so I will put the link 14:46:12 here. 14:46:14 >> HEATHER COMSTOCK: Katie, Cheryl has a question there in the 14:46:19 chat about House Bill 493, a Voting Rights Bill 14:46:22 . >> Katie: Then she said 14:46:27 nevermind you got it. >> Beth: Heather 14:46:32 ? This is Beth. Hi. You say you don't have 14:46:36 a lobbyist. I have in my opinion, this is my 14:46:40 opinion and I'm not a professional, is that 14:46:45 when you have people testifying, submitting 14:46:49 testimony, I think it's more effective for this kind of 14:46:54 work than a lobbyist. So I wouldn't be concerned that you don't have 14:46:58 a lobbyist. I think as you say, your group of people 14:47:02 are far more effective than a professional lobbyist 14:47:06 setting up there and talking who doesn't really know what the people 14:47:10 are feeling and thinking. >> Lisa Belcas 14:47:14 tro: I just want to echo what Beth said. Beth, thank you for saying 14:47:18 that. I think as we -- I don't want to say younger people. I think there are 14:47:22 -- there is a large block of people in the legislature that absolutely 14:47:28 appreciate the testimony of everyday people in Maryland over 14:47:33 that of a lobbyist. Because you know when a paid lobbyist -- at least 14:47:37 me, you know, I know when a paid lobbyist comes up to submit 14:47:41 testimony. They were paid to be there, right. Like they're paid for 14:47:45 represent a specific interest, and I would much rather have the opinion of 14:47:49 those who are boots on the ground, which is every one of 14:47:53 you who we know are lobbying on behalf of people because 14:47:57 they just care, right. You guys are -- so, yeah, it matters to me when 14:48:02 you guys show up and testify on behalf 14:48:06 of a bill and I'd say that is true for a lot of people. Don't underestimate 14:48:10 the work that you're doing because it is really important 14:48:13 and I've seen Mike a couple times on my committee and I always get a good 14:48:17 smile when I see him there. >> Beth: If you ever look at 14:48:21 the legislators as you're testifying, you'll see that they drop everything, 14:48:25 they drop their pen, and they look right at the people, and they're 14:48:29 really interested, and they ask questions of the people. They're 14:48:34 really interested in the people's stories. 14:48:35 >> Katie: Yes. Thank you. 14:48:40 Thank you for that. Some day we hope to have someone 14:48:43 that can organize all of these great people to get them there, and I guess 14:48:46 that's also what I mean, like we don't even have that. We don't even have 14:48:50 someone to organize people, it's just us, but yes, thank you, thank you. 14:48:54 So, I was going to turn it over, and we're running low on time, 14:48:58 but Sarah, did you want to brief 14:49:01 ly talk about how a bill becomes a law? 14:49:05 >> Sarah: I think you should make me absolutely last. I thought there 14:49:09 was something Mike had to share. 14:49:12 >> Katie: Yep. So, Mike, you 14:49:15 were going to talk about the website and I have a video share too that is 14:49:19 short. >> Mike: Oh, okay well but 14:49:23 Delegate Belcastro did such a good job I thought I 14:49:28 got off the hook. Show the video. The MGA website can be a little 14:49:30 intimidating. I didn't have any trouble with it until I got to the 14:49:34 place where I wanted to upload some testimony and it wouldn't tell 14:49:38 me whether in fact I had been successful at that. I understand that 14:49:43 they're working on that little glitch, but otherwise it's a columnar 14:49:47 thing for those of you that might be blind and use screen readers, it 14:49:51 means you have to hold down the control and the al 14:49:55 t key with the left arrow and up and down arrows as you move through the 14:49:59 table to get to the bill you're looking for, but sure let's run this 14:50:03 little video and come back and see if anybody has any questions 14:50:08 . You probably have to turn off your audio. We always get into trouble 14:50:11 with this because it will start showing the video but wouldn't 14:50:14 automatically give you audio. Spb someone who wants to actively 14:50:19 participate in the Maryland legislative process, My MGA is for you. 14:50:23 When you have a My MGA account -- >> (Speaking off mic) 14:50:28 . >> What is My MGA 14:50:32 ? >> An automated system. 14:50:36 Also, with an account you with sign up to be a witness at a bill hearing 14:50:41 and provide testimony. But before you can do anything, you have to create an 14:50:45 account, and it won't take more than a minute. Here 14:50:52 is -- 14:50:57 >> Katie: I guess I'm really 14:51:01 testing the bandwidth. >> Click the My MGA icon 14:51:06 at the top of the My MGA website. Click 14:51:10 to create a My MGA Tracking account or click 14:51:15 to register. Enter the requested information in the fields. 14:51:29 Click the Register button. Go to your email program and 14:51:33 open the confirmation email s. follow 14:51:36 the directions to complete the registration. Your browser will open 14:51:41 and you will see the account registration complete window. Follow 14:51:45 the directions to sign in. Enter your email and pass 14:51:49 word and click sign in. 14:51:57 Your account is all set. Each time you log into your 14:52:01 My MGA account, the landing page is the bill tracking list 14:52:05 s page. This is where you'll set up lists of bills to 14:52:10 track. We'll show you how to do that in another video. For now, we want to 14:52:12 show you a couple of other things about your account. 14:52:16 Should you need to change your password, select Change Password from 14:52:20 the menu 14:52:26 . Select Edit Account to change your account information 14:52:31 . If 14:52:35 you ever want to cancel or unsubscribe your account, select 14:52:38 Cancel Account from the menu. This will immediately delete your account 14:52:43 and a new one will need to be created if you wish to 14:52:47 track bills in the future. Refer to the FAQ document as 14:52:51 another source of help with My MGA. Use a 14:52:56 sign-out button to log out of your account. We hope you have learned how 14:53:00 to create your My MGA account. If you have any questions or comments 14:53:04 , go to the footer at the bottom of the page and select Contact 14:53:09 Us. Click to send feedback to send an email to web master at 14:53:13 MGA.dls.state.md 14:53:18 .US. Thank you for visiting the Maryland Scren 14:53:22 General Assembly website. >> Mike: The only thing I would 14:53:26 say is if you think you want to submit testimony or if you think you want to 14:53:31 submit -- or if you think you want to testify, you should 14:53:35 go to the each committee, they each have their 14:53:39 own website and you should go there and see what 14:53:43 their rules are because they're somewhat opaque to me. Some 14:53:47 committees have you sign in on a Thursday before a Tuesday. Some of 14:53:51 them won't let you sign in before 10:00 or 9:00 in the morning. Other 14:53:56 s I've been in a couple of lotteries now where basically they say, hey 14:54:00 thanks for asking if you can testify, and we're going to put your name in a 14:54:04 hat and we'll let you know if your name gets drawn. I don't know whether or 14:54:08 how that happens, but just be aware that each 14:54:12 committee is going to have a d 14:54:17 different process so you want to look at the committee and see what the 14:54:20 rules are and when and how you can submit testimony. 14:54:24 >> Katie: Great. So there is definitely -- I posted the link for 14:54:28 that in the chat, so if you need that. And if you need further information, 14:54:33 feel free to reach out to any of us because we can help you with that. 14:54:37 Next, I'm going to move on to Laurie, 14:54:41 my esteemed co-chair of the 14:54:46 MCIL legislative 14:54:49 sub-committee. You're on mute, Laurie. 14:54:54 >> Laurie: Hi, everyone. I just want to throw 14:54:58 a shout out to Katie because she has 14:55:02 done a yom 14:55:12 an's job to for all of us, had a lot of support but done an 14:55:12 incredible job and thank you so much, Katie. 14:55:12 Our public policy platform is posted on the MC 14:55:16 I l. website and other websites in this room and feel free to look at 14:55:20 that as well, and if anyone has any other 14:55:24 things about legislation that they would like to bring up right now 14:55:29 ? Any other bills or anything that's on your mind with regard to the 14:55:35 session? You make my job 14:55:39 easy. >> Katie: 14:55:42 We wanted to provide the opportunity for anyone here who might know of any 14:55:47 legislation or if legislators had chosen to join us 14:55:50 that wanted to bring up anything pertaining to disability, so this was 14:55:54 our opportunity for that. >> Cheryl: This is Cheryl. 14:55:59 I don't know the bill number, but it's one of 14:56:03 Delegate Ruth's bills 14:56:08 that would limit the amount of time that prisoners can be in solitary 14:56:12 confinement, which the state uses a different term for that and I'm kruing 14:56:17 drawing a blank on it. I know that she was working 14:56:21 pretty closely with DRM on that bill 14:56:25 . >> Katie: Thanks. I'll add it 14:56:29 to my list. >> Laurie: Thank you. Thank you 14:56:33 very much. Any other bills out there with disability issues 14:56:38 ? Anything on your mind 14:56:43 ? >> Chio 14:56:47 ke: Hello? Yes, I'm Chiok 14:56:51 e, yeah. Just wondered you guys help people 14:56:55 for mobility also, MGA ability? >> Katie 14:56:58 : What county are you in? >> Baltimore. 14:57:02 >> Katie: The folks at the Image Center if you're 14:57:06 having trouble with mobility and want to talk to someone the folks 14:57:11 at the Image Center 14:57:15 . >> Mike: I think he notes Amanda 14:57:19 Taylor. >> And crystal. 14:57:24 >> Crystal too. >> Mike: She's not here today 14:57:28 . She didn't ask for permission to the to be here so I don't know. 14:57:31 >> Okay I know they have to cut down on this because of this 14:57:35 pandemic. >> Mike: So, yeah I had one 14:57:39 sort of COVID-related advocacy issue to bring up before we finish, 14:57:44 but go on through your agenda if you want. 14:57:47 >> Katie: I was just going to -- 14:57:52 quickly Sarah was going to talk about how a bill becomes a law. Sarah 14:57:56 ? 14:58:00 >> Mike: I'll go quickly with my 14:58:04 COVID advocacy issue. I'm very concerned that in the way we've rolled 14:58:08 out COVID in the State of Maryland, we've left out significant group 14:58:12 s of people with disabilities, and they're 14:58:16 not anywhere on the list. I don't care if you go to 1A, 14:58:20 or 2B, or phase 2, or phase 3, but they're not there, 14:58:24 and it's just specifically people who either need personal 14:58:29 assistant services or people who have a nursing home level of care 14:58:33 who live in the community. They don't live in conjugate setting 14:58:37 s, and they don't live 14:58:42 in -- they're not under Medicaid, so they're not DD, so they're not getting 14:58:46 specialized access, necessarily to vaccines that 14:58:50 way. We've got to find a way to get the state to understand 14:58:54 that we understand at that this is an oversight, but the oversight needs to 14:58:58 be corrected. We have got to get access to vaccines 14:59:02 for the thousands of people who are living in the community because they 14:59:06 can't social distance, they need personal assistant services, but at 14:59:10 this point they're not prioritized except by age, so 14:59:14 any thoughts you folks have on that, any advocacy 14:59:19 , please feel free to reach out 14:59:24 . Cheryl Grossman is working with the Image 14:59:27 Center on some of the advocacy issues on this, so please feel free to reach 14:59:32 out to her and that's sgrossman 14:59:37 @image id.o 14:59:41 rg, if someone wants to throw that in the chat box, but it's critical 14:59:45 because right now you think our people are being prioritized, but they don't 14:59:49 exist on the list. >> 14:59:53 Cheryl: Thank you, Mike. I just want to also have my phone number out there 14:59:57 because it's much easier to reach me that way. It's 314- 15:00:02 863-3211. Thanks 15:00:06 . >> 15:00:10 Katie: All right. Thank you, Mike. Sarah? How a bill becomes a law. 15:00:15 >> Sarah: Okay, so you want me to go ahead with this then. So I 15:00:19 know how quickly this becomes boring and/or overwhelming so I will 15:00:23 try to go quickly, but it's always nice to refresh yourself on how a bill 15:00:27 becomes a law as we enter the, or 15:00:31 now we're what almost midway through I suppose of the legislative session, 15:00:34 so I'm late teaching everybody this this year,. 15:00:39 So but so bills are introduced by 15:00:43 by senators or Delegates on either side of the legislature, 15:00:47 and then they get introduced on the floor of that house, so on the 15:00:51 House or Senate side, every bill gets read before the 15:00:56 entire group in their floor sessions, 15:00:59 and then it gets assigned to the appropriate committee. So you hear 15:01:02 people talk about all of these committees, right. And if you haven't 15:01:06 been involved in the legislature, that can be confusing, but there are 6 or 7 15:01:10 committees on the Senate side and 6 or 7 on the House side and some sound 15:01:14 similar, some sound completely different, but they get assigned to a 15:01:18 corresponding committee for closer review as well as that's 15:01:21 where hearings take place and testimony takes place. 15:01:26 So, you have the bill introduced 15:01:30 introduced on the floor, gets assigned to a committee, they have the -- then 15:01:34 it gets read a second time, it's a little weird and kind of unnecessary 15:01:38 to know, but then it gets read a second time and heard in the 15:01:42 Committee of the other house, so you sort of have to move through one side 15:01:46 and then through the other side. So it goes to a committee, has a hearing, if 15:01:50 it's passed, it goes back to that floor for action and they either 15:01:54 pass or don't pass. The bill at that 15:01:59 point, then it crosses -- and they call it crossing the street, so then 15:02:02 it goes to the other side and has the same thing take place again, so then 15:02:06 it gets read on their floor, gets assigned to a committee, has a 15:02:11 hearing, and with testimony that's where the public is involved and then 15:02:15 goes back to the full House or Senate for a vote 15:02:19 on the bill. And if any changes can happen at 15:02:23 any time, so it can get very confusing and complicated because they 15:02:27 can change things in committee, they can do amendments, they can do 15:02:30 amendments on the floor of each of the full side of the House or Senate and 15:02:34 then send it on. Sometimes legislators get really smart and they introduce, 15:02:38 they have like a colleague from the other side of the street that 15:02:42 introduces the exact same bill, so you can have the exact same bill on the 15:02:45 House side and the Senate side that start at the same time, which is 15:02:49 really helpful at getting things through more quickly, as you can 15:02:53 imagine, right. As long as they stay the same. Sometimes amendments are 15:02:57 made on one side and not the other and it gets sort of 15:03:00 fuzzy again and has to cross over to the other side for hearings. 15:03:04 Then once -- so if a bill has moved through the House side, through 15:03:08 the Committee, passed the Committee, gone to the full House 15:03:13 , passed the Full House, goes to the Senate, goes to 15:03:17 Full committee, then the full floor of the Senate and then it 15:03:20 goes back to the House for another review to make sure it's all good, and 15:03:24 then it goes to the governor to be signed or vetoed, if that happens. 15:03:28 So do any of you remember, so it can be quite a process, and 15:03:33 it's why we have so many bills and then so few actual law 15:03:37 s that get made each year, right, because it takes so long for that 15:03:39 process to happen. Do any of you remember the 15:03:45 Saturday morning "i'm just a bill sitting 15:03:50 on Capitol Hill" the video they used to play 15:03:54 Saturday morning cartoons, those in our 40s and 50s remember those very 15:03:57 well. >> Yes, indeed, my mom, I'm just 15:04:02 a bill sitting on Capitol Hill 15:04:03 . >> Sarah: It had a good 15:04:07 explanation, and we still use the video at youth leadership forum because I 15:04:10 still think it's the best one that explains what happens and if you're a 15:04:13 visual person it helps because it's walking through in a visual way, but 15:04:18 it also has the catchy tune so if you're an audio learner it helps 15:04:21 in that respect as well, but I'm happy to answer questions. I went to school 15:04:26 for a long time for policy work and did an internship, but I still have 15:04:30 to where he mind myself of these processes each year and how 15:04:34 things happen, so I'm happy to answer questions, 15:04:37 or if you fell asleep, I'm sorry, and I'll be back next Monday with 15:04:42 something more exciting than that. >> Laur 15:04:46 ie: I've got a question. If a bill is 15:04:50 introduced and it's the same bill 15:04:54 introduced in the House and in the Senate? 15:04:59 So they each get -- it gets decided by committee in 15:05:02 each. >> Sarah: Yes, right. 15:05:06 >> Laurie: So it will start out 15:05:09 the same and then get different. >> Sarah: It can happen that 15:05:13 way, but it depends. That's another thing is that it always depends. So 15:05:16 two colleagues might work together one on the House side and one on the 15:05:19 Senate side and write the exact same bill because they want to work on 2 15:05:23 it together and they know it gas faster 15:05:27 to do that. But if an amendments happens on one side and not on the 15:05:31 other, then the bill has to cross over and go go through the same thing. If 15:05:35 they get the same amendments they often try to work on, but 15:05:39 it isn't always completely under their control right, always more than just a 15:05:42 couple people at the legislature, so if they get exactly the same it can move 15:05:46 through and doesn't have to cross over and it will remain 15:05:51 identical. Then goes to a conference committee that reviews things at the 15:05:53 very end and puts them on to the floor. 15:05:57 >> Laurie: If I as a constituent very concerned about 15:06:01 a piece of legislation, is it important for me when that bill is in 15:06:05 committee, is it important to me to contact committee members to let 15:06:09 them know, you know, how this bill 15:06:12 will affect our people? >> Sarah: Yeah, you still want 15:06:16 to -- for you it's still two bills, right. It still has to get through 15:06:20 both sides regardless of whether it's introduced identical opter. 15:06:24 Absolutely, it's still important on both sides to make sure that 15:06:28 you're communicating with your 15:06:30 legislators, definitely. >> And I can make the contact 15:06:34 with a phone call, email, and you know most likely, I might not -- I won't 15:06:39 get the legitimating legislate 15:06:43 or per se, but I can pass the information on to the staffer. 15:06:48 >> Sarah: And staffers take notes when people call in 15:06:53 favor or not in favor. Yep. >> Katie: Great. So I 15:06:57 think we about have run out of time. Speaking of next week, what 15:07:06 do we have dpg on next week, Sarah? Mike 15:07:06 ? >> Sarah: It's your session, 15:07:07 Katie. >> Katie: Oh, that's right! 15:07:11 Erin from ARI put it together. I'm sorry! We are going to be featuring 15:07:16 the disability Empower Her network which is a new 15:07:21 venture of two former CIL employees, not our CIL 15:07:25 but a CIL, and I think it's going to be really cool to 15:07:29 hear what they've got going on to empower young women and dpirls with 15:07:33 girls with disabilities as 15:07:37 they grow up and navigate life as a female with a 15:07:41 disability, so next week join us for that because I think it will be 15:07:43 interesting. Any community announcements 15:07:46 quickly? >> This is Cheryl. I just wanted 15:07:50 to update on one of our sessions from before, the 15:07:54 fuel service presentation, so I attempted to use it and it was 15:07:59 great except for one thing, if you use a discover 15:08:03 card as your credit card it does not recognize that card here in the U.S., 15:08:07 so folks should be prepared to either use cash or a visa or American Express 15:08:12 . >> Katie: Great. Thank you for 15:08:16 that feedback. All right. Anyone else? 15:08:20 >> Abiola: I've got one. Of course, we know for all 15:08:24 CILs that house something always a big ask. Independence Now is hosting our 15:08:28 next monthly housing seminar on -- on this 15:08:33 Thursday the 25th, and please enkurminging your 15:08:37 consumers to come and learn some 15:08:41 of the basics that are needed for persons with disabilities, what is 15:08:45 information is needed to provide in order to qualify 15:08:50 for some of these affordable housing programs. 15:08:55 >> Katie: Awesome. Thank you. 15:08:57 Anyone else? >> In case you need it really 15:09:02 quick. Abiola posted the song, so in case you got the jingle in 15:09:04 your head. >> I still have the jingle in my 15:09:06 head. >> Sarah: How a bill becomes a 15:09:10 law. Yeah. You can click and listen to it when we're finished just in case 15:09:13 you needed that. >> Can you stop unmuting me, 15:09:18 please. >> I've -- I'm sorry, this is 15:09:22 Bong so I never heard of that song, but in any case that's fine, but I 15:09:26 did want to go back and I just wanted to let everybody know on 15:09:30 this call that going back to what Katie had said earlier when she was 15:09:34 talking about the newly formed 15:09:38 policy group and one of the issues was transportation, and one of those 15:09:43 issues was also in regards to floating bus stops 15:09:47 or island-style bus stops and if there is anyone on this call, and I think 15:09:52 Heather can put my information in the chat for me, please, 15:09:56 but if there is anyone on this 15:09:58 call that is interested in voicing their concerns or opinions or just 15:10:02 hearing more about the floating bus stops, please feel free to contact me. 15:10:06 We just have -- I just hosted a meeting, my second meeting 15:10:10 about it last week and I will not be hosting another meeting for about 15:10:14 another two months, but definitely give me your information so I can 15:10:18 include you in the next one. >> Katie: 15:10:22 All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we have run out of 15:10:26 time, but thank you so much for joining us and thank you 15:10:32 to the Maryland Statewide Independent