Action Alerts

Ongoing: None.

Major Events Last Week

Obama Administration

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) named Henry Claypool to the position of Director of the agency's Office on Disability. Mr. Claypool has over 25 years of disability policy experience at the federal, state, and local levels. During the Clinton Administration he served as senior advisor to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at HHS.

President Obama announced his intent to nominate Christine M. Griffin for Deputy Director of Office of Personnel Management. Ms. Griffin has been a member of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since January 2006 and currently serves as its Acting Vice Chair. Griffin has been vocal in her support of increasing diversity in the federal workforce, most notably through her launch of the LEAD Initiative - Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities - to address the significant under-employment of individuals with severe disabilities in the federal government.

The White House hosted a meeting and briefing with senior White House officials related to disability matters. Topics included disability policy, the economic recovery plan, the Office of Public Liaison, the budget, health care reform, federal personnel and hiring of people with disabilities, and other key issues. Stephen Bennett, President and CEO of United Cerebral Palsy, and Peter Berns, Executive Director of The Arc of the United States, attended the briefing. The DPC's Marty Ford also attended as Chairperson of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities.

Government Accountability Office

DPC staff joined representatives of other advocacy organizations in a meeting with officials of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding GAO's interest in looking at disability policy across the federal government. Specifically, GAO staff is interested in steps that GAO could take to further the nation's understanding, debate and action toward modernizing federal disability programs. Their near-term objectives are to (1) identify any existing alternative frameworks and promising proposals to further align disability definitions, goals, and policies and (2) explore the viability and implications of these frameworks and proposals. At this time, they are focused on the population of working-age individuals with disabilities and the goal of improving their employment outcomes.

Employment

Lead staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held several listening sessions on key issues regarding the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). At least one of the CCD Employment Co-chairs attended each session to make sure that the people with disabilities were included in the conversation. At this point the Senate staff is focusing on the generic workforce development system and has not yet begun discussions on reauthorization of title IV the Vocational Rehabilitation Act.

Direct Support Workforce

The DPC attended a two day meeting with representatives of several stakeholder groups to discuss the long term services and supports workforce. People representing the intellectual and developmental disabilities community, the mental health community, the aging community, the unions and academia were discussing where there might be common ground to work together to improve wages and benefits for this workforce. While there was no consensus on specific legislation to support, the group did agree to work together to develop some common understanding of job titles and pursue more training opportunities through the Workforce Investment Act and other projects.

Card Check

There continued to be internal discussion in the Senate about the future of S. 560, the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 (commonly called the card check bill). The card check measure would provide a means for unions and workers supporting unionization to circumvent private secret ballot elections and require federal arbitration under certain circumstancesIt seems clear that the bill as written is short of the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. While the House could easily pass the bill, the House leadership is waiting to see what the Senate does on the issue before scheduling a vote.

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Major Events Ahead

Obama Administration

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the confirmation of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the final Obama Cabinet official to be put in office.

U.S. Congress

The Congress returns to session this week. It will remain in session for five weeks until a week long Memorial Day recess. Much work is expected to be done in committees as priority bills begin to move forward. Top priority issues include health care, global warming, the FY 2010 Budget Resolution, another emergency war supplemental appropriations bill and the continued Senate confirmation of Obama Administration nominees.

FY 2010 Budget Resolution

Some Congressional leaders are hinting at a slowing down in resolving the differences between the House and Senate versions of the FY 2010 Budget Resolution. There are at least two major reasons for a delay. First, new estimates have the Obama Administration releasing its complete version of its FY 2010 Budget Request during the first week in May. Appropriations committees are not likely to start work on their FY 2010 appropriations bills until they have a chance to review the Administration's budget. Second, the very controversial decision to include reconciliation instructions in the Budget Resolution to possibly expedite health care reform in the Senate remains hotly debated. Some believe the longer the delay on the Budget Resolution, the more time Congress can work to see if an authentic bipartisan health care reform initiative can be agreed upon.

House and Senate conferees will ultimately decide to resolve their differences on discretionary spending. Both versions would spend less than the amount sought by the Obama Administration. As currently written, the House version would boost non-emergency discretionary spending by 7.5 percent while the Senate would increase similar programs by 6.7 percent.

Economic Stimulus

On Tuesday the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing on "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: The Role of State and Local Governments." See:
http://oversight.house.gov/

On Wednesday, April 29^th the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing titled, "Recovery Act: 10-Week Progress Report for Transportation and Infrastructure Programs." See:
http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetail.aspx?NewsID=881

Health Care

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), will hold a series of three public "Roundtable Discussions" with health care experts. The week after, all roundtable committee members will come together for a closed walk-through to discuss issues covered in the roundtables and begin drafting legislative language. The first roundtable, which will cover "Reforming America's Health Care Delivery System," will be held on Tuesday, April 21 at 10:00 am Eastern Standard Time. Subsequent roundtables will be held on coverage and financing. The session can be viewed at
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced plans to begin work on global warming before his committee begins marking up health care reform legislation. The plan is to bring health care reform measures to the House and Senate floors in July, prior to the lengthy summer recess.

On Wednesday the House Committee on Education and Labor's Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee will hold a hearing titled, "Ways to Reduce the Cost of Health Insurance for Employers, Employees and their Families." See:
http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2009/04/ways-to-reduce-the-cost-of-hea.shtml

On Wednesday the House Committee on Ways and Means will hold a hearing on "Health Reform in the 21st Century: Insurance Market Reforms." See:
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=672

Employment

On Monday the House of Representatives is expected to approve H.Res. 247 expressing support for the designation of March 22, 2009 as "National Rehabilitation Counselors Appreciation Day."

Best Buddies

On Monday, the House of Representatives is expected to approve the Best Buddies Empowerment for People with Intellectual Disabilities Act of 2009 (H.R. 1824) sponsored by Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The bill authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to Best Buddies to carry out activities to promote the expansion of the Best Buddies program, including activities to increase the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in social relationships and other aspects of community life, including education and employment. The bill authorizes $10 million in funding.

Emergency Preparedness

On Thursday the House committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing titled, "An Independent FEMA." See:
http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetail.aspx?NewsID=880

United Cerebral Palsy Conference

Paul Marchand and Erika Hagensen of the DPC will present federal policy and economic stimulus updates at the UCP national conference in San Francisco. Erika will also present on aging with disability in the United States. For information on UCP's 2009 Conference, see:
http://www.ucp.org/conference

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Announcements

Disability Policy Seminar

The 2009 Seminar is one week away. Over 500 participants from more the 35 states, Canada, Norway, and China have registered. Though pre-registration is now closed, participants may still attend by registering on site. For a state by state list of the registrants, see:
http://www.aucd.org/docs/policy/disability_policy_seminar_2009/registration_by_state.pdf

Next Week's Capitol Insider

Due to the DPC staff's participation at the Disability Policy Seminar next week, we will not be issuing the Capitol Insider for the week of April 27.

Employment Conference

The Business Leadership Network (BLN) will be holding its 2009 annual conference, "Connecting the Dots: Business Solutions." This conference is for business, community leaders and BLN affiliates that have an interest in hiring, retaining and marketing to people with disabilities. This event will be held September 15-18, 2009 at the National Harbor near Washington, DC. Pre-registration deadline is April 30, 2009. See:
http://www.newworkforceconference.org/registration.html

Employment Teleconference

On Tuesday April 21, 2009 the Social Security Administration is hosting a teleconference at 1:00 pm EST for employment networks and others who assist people with disabilities in finding employment. Specifically the teleconference will provide information about the funding the SSA has to hire a significant number of employees throughout the country, the types of jobs and the special hiring authority (Schedule A) that can be used to make it easier for the government to hire people with disabilities. To register for the call visit:
www.cessi.net/ttw

Accessibility Town Hall Meeting

The Access Board, an independent Federal agency, will hold a town hall meeting in Boston on May 28th. These meetings enable members of the public and interested parties to learn more about the Board and share issues or questions concerning access to the built environment, transportation, communication, and information technology. For more information, contact Kathy Johnson at johnson@access-board.gov or 202.272.0041.

Accessibility is a required part of stimulus-funded projects. To drive that point home, the Access Board in its March/April newsletter provided useful guidance on what is required by the Architectural Barriers Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more information go to:
http://www.access-board.gov/news/access currents/Mar-Apr09.htm

Resources on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced the availability of several new products that can guide in the identification, prevention and management of FASDs. These products include a curriculum development guide for use with medical and allied health students and practitioners, and two reports from the National Task Force on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect with recommendations on promoting and improving effective prevention strategies to reduce alcohol use and alcohol-exposed pregnancies, and on improving and expanding efforts regarding early identification, diagnostic services, and quality research on interventions for individuals with FASDs and their families. For more information about these products, see:
www.cdc.gov/fasd.

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Read previous Capitol Insider issues now.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at acosta@thedpc.org.

Sincerely,

Annie Acosta
Director of Communications and Grassroots
Disability Policy Collaboration