WHEREAS, Congress, in 1974, established Supplementary Security Income (SSI) to provide a bare subsistence for aged, blind, and disabled persons having little or no income; and
WHEREAS, many states supplement federal SSI benefits, many states provide optional supplements to SSI benefits; and
WHEREAS, providing a supplement to SSI for the blind has the following desirable results:
- It can alleviate extraordinary hardship (for example, it can enable a blind homeowner with a meager income to stay in his or her home),
- It can pay for readers, secretarial services, and transportation needed by blind persons who are preparing for employment, and or, systematically seeking gainful employment; and
WHEREAS, only 500 blind Marylanders would be eligible for this proposed supplement; therefore, the fiscal impact upon the state of providing this supplement would be minimal; and
WHEREAS, this organization has long worked with the General Assembly and the Governor in an ongoing effort to establish a supplement to SSI for the blind, now, therefore.
BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the National Federation of the Blind, in convention assembled in the City of Ocean City, Maryland this 2nd day of November 1985; that we vigorously
reaffirm our long-standing commitment to establishing a supplement to SSI for the blind; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution shall be sent to all gubernatorial candidates and to all members of the Maryland General Assembly.