Action Alerts

Ongoing: The National Call in Day for Long Term Services and Supports to be Included in Health Care Reform is this Wednesday, May 13^th. Action Alert to be issued shortly. Stay tuned...

In the News

Disability Policy Collaboration

The Arc and UCP's Paul Marchand will appear on ABC World News and Nightline tomorrow evening. He was interviewed regarding the abuse of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in state institutions, in particular the Texas case where employees of the Corpus Christi state school orchestrated and filmed fights between residents. Six employees face criminal charges over the mistreatment, which involved at least 16 state school residents. Check programming on your local ABC affiliate web for airing time. See:
http://abc.go.com/site/localstations.html

Major Events Last Week

Obama Administration
The Senate has confirmed the nominations of Russlynn Ali to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Gabriella Gomez to be Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs, and Carmel Martin to be Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development in the Department of Education. In addition, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Tony Miller as Deputy Secretary of Education and Secretary Duncan named Stacey Jordan as the Department's Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. See more at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-4-29-09/

FY 2010 Administration Budget Request

President Obama released the details of his Administration's Fiscal Year 2010 budget request on May 7. Of the $3.56 trillion to be spent, $1.2 trillion is reserved for non emergency domestic spending. This amount is about $10 billion more than the FY 2010 Budget Resolution adopted by the Congress. Administration officials noted that additional changes to the budget request could be made later this year depending on the state of the economy, deficit projections and possible rescissions (cuts to programs made by the Administration if not rejected by the Congress). Under the proposed budget, most disability discretionary programs would be frozen or slightly increased. Of particular concern is the Administration's priority to increase early childhood programs. Yet the IDEA Early Intervention and Preschool programs remain frozen at current levels. An edition of National Policy Matters for Chapters of The Arc and Affiliates of UCP will be released soon that will detail the Administration's FY 2010 budget request for key disability programs. Detailed budget estimates for each department have been posted to the White House web site at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Appendix/

Senator Specter's Party Switch

In addition to increasing the Senate Democratic majority to 59, Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) switch to the Democratic Party also set in motion changes in Republican representation on key committees. Senator Specter maintained all of his committee assignments but gave up his seniority rights until the next Congress. He vacated his Ranking Republican spot on the Judiciary Committee which was assumed by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Senator Sessions is much more conservative than Specter. As the Supreme Court vacancy is expected to dominate the Judiciary Committee agenda in the coming months, this change is likely to significantly alter the Republican approach to this nomination. Senator Specter was also the Ranking Member on the Appropriations Subcommittee for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Specter worked closely together in a bipartisan manner on human services spending. Specter will now be replaced by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH). Again, Gregg is seen as more conservative than Specter, which may change the Subcommittee dynamic on FY 2010 spending.

Card Check Bill

In announcing his party switch, Senator Specter reiterated his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (better known as the "Card Check" bill) which would give unions the upper hand with workers. The future of this bill is still much in doubt with some sort of compromise likely to be needed in the Senate for the measure to move forward.

Seclusion and Restraint

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) released a report entitled "Unsafe in the Schoolhouse: Abuse of Children with Disabilities." The report documents 143 cases of aversive interventions on students with disabilities. Over one half of these interventions occurred on children between 6 and 10 years old. Almost every disability category of students was affected. COPAA called for swift Congressional action to protect children from abusive interventions that it claims are neither educational nor effective. The complete report can be found on COPAA's website at:
http://www.copaa.org/news/unsafe.html

Major Events Ahead

Health Care Reform

President Obama meets today with representatives of hospitals, physicians, insurers, drug companies and others who will play key roles in the upcoming health care reform debate. The groups are expected to send notice that they will voluntarily agree to lower their costs in the future in order to provide more impetus for reforming health care. This move could save billions of dollars that could be applied to health care reform initiatives.

On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), will be releasing its proposals for benefits coverage in health care reform. On Thursday, Finance Committee members will meet in closed Executive Session to review the proposals and make decisions on what should be included in the Committee's health reform legislation.

On Tuesday the Senate Finance Committee will hold a Roundtable Discussion on "Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform." Nationally renowned health care academics, economists, and other health policy experts will participate. This is the third and last of such roundtables which are intended to set the stage for health care reform. The Roundtable can be accessed at:
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm

Health Care

On Wednesday the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing titled, "Delivery Reform: The Roles of Primary and Specialty Care in Innovative New Delivery Models." See:
http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_05_14/2009_05_14.html

Housing

On Thursday, May 21^st the House Committee on Financial Services' Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity will hold a hearing on the "Section 8 Voucher Reform Act." See:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hrh052109.shtml

Announcements

Education Award

On April 28, in a Rose Garden ceremony with President Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and Education Secretary Duncan, high school special education teacher Anthony Mullen was named the 2009 National Teacher of the Year. Mullen teaches at The ARCH School (an alternative education branch of Greenwich High School) in Greenwich, Connecticut. Moreover, he mentors fellow teachers, and leads a program to provide academic support to students who have been expelled. The National Teacher of the Year program - a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers sponsored by the ING Foundation - designates an outstanding representative from among the 56 State Teachers of the Year (representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, a number of outlying territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity). For more information, see:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/30/celebrating-our-teachers/

Report on Accessible Meetings

The Department of Justice has issued a new publication titled "Accessible Information Exchange: Meeting on a Level Playing Field". This publication focuses on planning and conducting meetings and events that are accessible to people with physical and sensory disabilities. This publication is available on-line at:
http://www.ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm

Please note that you can view previous issues of the Capitol Insider, at UCP.org anytime by choosing "Capitol Insider" under "Public Policy."

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