Action Alerts

Ongoing: None.

Major Events Last Week

U. S. Congress

The House of Representatives began a six week summer recess after the House Energy and Commerce Committee reported out their version of a health reform bill. During the lengthy recess, all Members of the House are expected to concentrate on informing their constituents about health and long term care issues.

Health Care Reform

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) reached an agreement, after extensive negotiations with fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats on the Committee's health reform bill. Changes were made to lower costs and to modify the bill's employer mandate. Many of the changes angered liberal Democratic members. After a marathon mark-up session where scores of amendments were considered, the Committee passed the bill by a vote of 31-28. Five Democrats joined all Committee Republicans in voting against the legislation.

Staff of the Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor Committees will spend August reconciling their respective bills in preparation for a House vote in September.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) announced that his bi-partisan negotiating team would not reach an agreement before the Senate leaves for its August recess. Sens. Max Baucus, Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) are negotiating with Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations

The Senate Appropriations Committee, by a vote of 29-1, approved the Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (L-HHS-ED). The bill would appropriate $163.1 billion for discretionary programs within the three departments. This total is $300 million less than the House bill which was passed by the full House on July 24. The full Senate will vote on the bill when it returns to work after Labor Day. A future edition of National Policy Matters for chapters of The Arc and affiliates of UCP will compare the House and Senate versions of the L-HHS-ED bills.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its FY 2010 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) and Related Agencies bill. The Committee provided a $15 million increase for the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program. Section 811 is the only federal program that produces affordable and accessible housing units for persons with disabilities who have extremely low incomes. The Senate T-HUD bill also includes $1.2 billion for high-speed-rail grants, close to the $1 billion sought by President Obama in his fiscal year 2010 budget request but significantly less than the $4 billion included in the House Bill. Transit programs would receive $11.1 billion, compared with $10.5 billion in the House measure.

Social Security

On July 28, the House of Representatives passed the WIPA and PABSS Reauthorization Act of 2009, H.R. 3325, which was introduced by House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Tanner (D-TN) and Income Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McDermott (D-WA). The bill amends the Social Security Act to extend through Fiscal Year 2010 the authorization of appropriations for the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) and the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS) programs. The WIPA and PABSS programs were established by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act to assist Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security disability program beneficiaries with information about existing work incentives, benefits planning, and decisions about work and providing advocacy that beneficiaries may need to secure, regain, or maintain gainful employment.

Education/Seclusion and Restraint

Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to chief state school officers on July 31 urging them to develop, review, and/or revise (if appropriate) as well as publicize their state policies and guidelines to ensure students are protected from unnecessary and inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint. Secretary Duncan highlighted his home state of Illinois' use of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) and regulations which limit the use of seclusion and restrain in most circumstances. He also noted that school districts can use one-time funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to implement school wide PBIS. This issue is becoming a major priority for the disability community.

Emergency Preparedness

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing last Monday titled, "Post Katrina: What it Takes to Cut the Bureaucracy." The hearing focused on the potential limitations of the Stafford Act. The Stafford Act defines and determines the protocol for federal emergency and disaster planning, intervention and assistance to states. Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), testified on the status of the Agency's operations and planning. He included in his testimony a request that communities must continue to focus disaster planning on all segments of our population, regardless of income, age or disability. See:
http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetail.aspx?NewsID=960

Major Events Ahead

U.S. Congress

The Senate will be in session this week, to be followed by a summer recess which will end after Labor Day. The Senate will vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor and continue work on FY 2010 appropriations bills.

Education

DPC staff will participate in a Department of Education Stakeholders meeting on Tuesday. Key issues to be discussed include the next funding stage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and a system of metrics where the public can track how the ARRA funds are being spent by states and local school systems.

Announcements

Public Input on Emerging Disability Issues

The National Council on Disability (NCD) is gathering public input for a study of emerging issues and trends affecting the lives of people with disabilities. Information gathered will be used in the development of NCD's next annual progress report to the President and Congress, entitled National Disability Policy: A Progress Report, which is required by Section 401(b) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The deadline for input is September 15, 2009. For more information see:
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2009/NationalCouncilonDisability.doc

The Arc NCE Summer Training

DPC staff will participate in the Summer Training conducted by The Arc's National Conference of Executives being held in Nashville this week.

DPC Contract

The CEOs of The Arc and United Cerebral Palsy recently signed an 18 month extension of the DPC contract. The new contract runs through December 31, 2010.

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