[Missouri-l] ACB and the Treasury Department Suit

[Denny Huff, (MCB - A Great Place To Be)]

From: leadership-bounces at acb.org [mailto:leadership-bounces at acb.org] On
Behalf Of Mitch Pomerantz
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 1:09 PM
To: leadership at acb.org; acb-l at acb.org
Subject: [Leadership] ACB and the Treasury Department Suit

 

Colleagues:

 

I have followed the discussion on these lists for the past several days
regarding ACB's action, or inaction, relative to our successful suit against
the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  Clearly, a short refresher as to our
position in this matter and the judge's charge to the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing is in order here.

 

Firstly, it was always our position not to specify a particular
accessibility solution to the Treasury.  Some have posted that given what
other nations have done, it's a "no brainer" to do what every other country
has done.  In fact, and as the variety of suggested changes mentioned on
this thread have demonstrated, there are several options being used around
the world, and little unanimity of thought as to which of those options
would be best, even among our own members.  That is absolutely why ACB did
not want to propose a unilateral "best" choice.

 

As a consequence, it was understood and expected that the Treasury
Department would, by necessity, need to conduct a survey of blind and
visually impaired persons to attempt to obtain some sort of notion as to
which of several options was prefered by the greatest number of folks.  Many
of you participated in that survey during the 2008 ACB Convention and other
surveys were conducted at the NFB Convention, the Carroll Center and other
venues.  Now the report based on those surveys has come out, albeit several
months later than originally proposed.  ACB has some criticisms of that
report, particularly in regard to the current and projected numbers of blind
and visually impaired persons who would benefit from accessibility changes
to U.S. currency.  I and others have speculated that this undercount is due
to a bias in favor of an electronic solution to the problem, but speculation
is all it is for now.  We will be forwarding our concerns through our
attorney, Jeffrey Lovitky at the appropriate time.

 

I must ask, perhaps rhetorically perhaps not, would it have been better to
"dictate" an accessibility option?  Would it have been better to tell the
Treasury Department what it should incorporate in future currency?  My
personal belief is that had we done that, two things would have happened:
most importantly, the case would likely have been thrown out of court, and a
significant number of ACB members would have vocally and justifiably
criticized the leaders and staff for dictating such an option.

 

Secondly, in his final ruling, the Judge directed the Treasury Department's
Bureau of Engraving and Printing in its next distribution of new currency to
incorporate accessibility features.  As I indicated in my 2008 President's
Report and subsequently in several other speeches to affiliates, we know
that this means that we will not see changes in our currency for from three
to five years, which is the standard cycle for designing, manufacturing and
distributing new currency.  Hence, and despite some comments here to the
contrary, there is, indeed, a deadline; one which was stipulated by the
Federal District Judge.

 

I hope that this has clarified where matters stand and ACB's position.  I
believe that a lot of misinformation about both issues has been
disseminated.  While I thoroughly understand the endemic mistrust of our
government, it troubles me when a few choose to extend that mistrust to
ACB's handling of what is still a tremendous, landmark victory which will
result in accessible United States currency.  It won't happen tomorrow or
next week, but it will happen and I believe a bit of forebearance and
patience is in order.  And, should ACB believe that the Treasury Department
is dragging its feet on implementing the Judge's ruling, please be assured
that we will strongly and unequivocally communicate this belief through our
outstanding attorney, Jeffrey Lovitky.

 

 

Sincerely,

Mitch Pomerantz

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