2011 Virginia Legislative Day
Seven MS Activists from Hampton Roads gathered with advocacy volunteers from across Virginia on January 23-24 for the 2011 Virginia Legislative Day! Led by the four Virginia chapters of the National MS Society (Blue Ridge, Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, and National Capital), the Virginia Citizen Action Network (VA CAN), which is a collaboration of people who want to do something about MS now, represented the more than 10,000 people living with MS throughout the state.
Activists arrived in Richmond for an intensive day of issues training on Sunday. And then on Monday, they headed to the Capitol to share their powerful stories with legislators and to urge them to support legislation relevant to people living with MS and their families. Specific pieces of legislation included:
- Expanding the public procurement provision to include person with disability-owned businesses (HB 1671)
- Increasing the maximum amount of credit that may be allowed from the Livable Home Tax Credit from $2,000 to $5,000 and makes real estate developers eligible to receive the credit (HB 1950)
- Studying the impacts of cost sharing, coinsurance, and specialty tier pricing for prescription medications (HJ 579)
- Requiring electric utility companies to postpone termination of service to a residential customer if the customer notifies the utility that termination of eclectic service endangers the health of the customer or member of the customer’s household (SB 741)
- Directing the State Corporation Commission to establish limitations on the authority of electric utilities to terminate electric service to the residence of a customer who has a serious medical condition or resides with a family member with a serious medical condition (SB 1165)
- In addition, MS Activists advocated for crucial budget restorations to Medicaid (environmental modifications and assistive technology, payments for home and community-based services, and respite care), as well as restoration of funding to long-term employment support services, extended employment services, personal care services after employment, and Centers for Independent Living.
Furthermore, we held our second Virtual Advocacy Day so that the entire community could be involved in the MOVEMENT to access better support services for those with MS. We thank all of you who made the pledge to:
- Email your representatives the same week as advocacy day to reinforce our message
- Change your Facebook status during advocacy day to let everyone know what we were doing in Richmond
- Update your personal blogs with information about our priority issues
- Follow our Twitter account (vaMScan) for live updates
If you would like to learn more about how you can be more involved in advocacy or become an MS Activist, contact the Chapter or us at advocacyVA@nmss.org.
Below are photos of the volunteers and staff at the Capitol.
2011 MS Legislative Day
2010 MS Legislative Day
