Dear NACDD leaders:
I’m back after a wonderful trip to Santa Fe to meet with DD Executive Directors from all over the country at the annual meeting. It was such an honor to get to know so many wonderful advocates for persons with developmental disabilities!
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about what’s going on at NACDD in DC. Here are a couple of items that NACDD followed this week:
NACDD listed as supporter of Disability Integration Act.
The NACDD public policy committee voted last month to support the Disability Integration Act of 2017. This week NACDD was formally
listed as an endorsing organization. For more information about the legislation click
here: http://www.disabilityintegrationact.org/summary/
CCD Coalition testimony on wellness.
On Thursday, Jennifer Mathis, Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, testified on behalf of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) before Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. (NACDD
is part of the CCD coalition.) The topic of “wellness” was broad so Jennifer was able to include a little bit on state service systems reallocating resources from costly institutional care to support people living, working, and receiving services in their
own homes and communities. She also covered how employer sponsored wellness programs should be administered in a way that does not undermine the workplace protections that Congress provided to employees with disabilities and their spouses in the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (GINA).
You can watch and read Jennifer’s testimony here:
https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/examining-how-healthy-choices-can-improve-health-outcomes-and-reduce-costs
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) OpEd opposing ADA Education and Reform Act
The Washington Post published an excellent OpEd from Sen. Duckworth where she explains her opposition to the ADA Education and Reform Act (H.R. 620). NACDD opposes this legislation because it would create significant obstacles for people
with disabilities to enforce their rights under Title III of the ADA to access public accommodations and would impede their ability to engage in daily activities and participate in mainstream society.
You can read Sen. Duckworth’s OpEd here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-is-on-the-offensive-against-americans-with-disabilities/2017/10/17/f508069c-b359-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.cab2fd4415ae
Bipartisan healthcare reform introduced by Alexander-Murray
The Alexander-Murray bill (text) introduced this week shows bipartisan agreement on continuing
cost sharing reduction subsidies (CSRs) through 2019 which insurance companies are paid to provide comprehensive coverage to low income policy holders. You can read the section by section
here. Both senators emphasized during their floor speeches that it is important to remember the
legislation only effected persons in the individual marketplace, so there was no mention of changes to Medicaid. Most read this as a short term solution to stabilize the individual insurance marketplace through targeted fixes. You can read a full list of the
12 Democrats and 12 Republican original
cosponsors and some politics around this issue here. You can read a general overview of key points of the legislation
here.
Budget update
The Senate adopted a fiscal 2018 budget resolution (H Con Res 71) by a vote of 51-49 at around 9:30 p.m. Thursday night after a vote-a-rama
that started mid-afternoon. The House could take up the legislation and adopt it when it returns next week, triggering the next stage in the reconciliation process when the House Ways and Means Committee would draft a tax overhaul with the goal of passing
it and sending it to the Senate. The main changes made in the Senate were eliminating the mandatory cuts in programs and instead adding $1.5T to the deficit. Even with the immediate threat of the House mandatory cuts seemingly averted, most expect with a deficit
that large we’ll see arguments later that Medicaid and programs we care about will be targeted by future legislation.
Erin Prangley
Director, Public Policy
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006
202.506.5813 Ext. 104 (Phone)
202.506.5846 (Fax)