Action Alerts

Ongoing: Health Care Reform: Now It's Personal

Major Events Last Week

Direct Support Workforce

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved Senate Resolution 228 designating the week beginning September 14 as "National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week." Sponsored by Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), the resolution recognizes the invaluable supports direct support professionals (DSPs) provide and the difference this workforce makes in the lives of Americans with disabilities.

Emergency Preparedness

Last Wednesday, members of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities' (CCD) Emergency Management Task Force met with Marcie Roth and Jason McNamara of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Marcie Roth is a long time advocate for people with disabilities and recently began her new role as Senior Advisor on Disability Issues for FEMA. This meeting provided the opportunity for the task force to present issues and concerns related to disability and emergency management.

Major Events Ahead

U.S. Congress

The House and Senate are in recess through Labor Day. Most Members of Congress will be back in their home districts meeting with constituents. Health care reform is expected to be the dominant issue during the recess.

Health Care Reform

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a series of amendments to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200), despite having voted the bill out of committee on July 31st. In September, the Committee will review 55 to 60 pending health care reform amendments and compile the passed amendments into a bill to be merged with the health reform bills passed by the three Committees with jurisdiction over health reform: Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Education and Labor.

Announcements

Medicaid/Inclusion Report

United Cerebral Palsy released "2009 Annual Case for Inclusion: The 4th Annual Analysis of Medicaid for Americans with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities." The report ranks all 50 States and the District of Columbia on how well they are providing community-based supports to Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities being served by Medicaid. The findings compared to previous years (2007 - 2008) are mixed. One important finding was that there are 1,536 fewer Americans living in large (more than 16 beds) state institutions, though there remain 169 large institutions housing 36,175 Americans. The Top 10 States for inclusion were identified, in rank order, as: Vermont, Arizona, Alaska, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, California, Hawaii, Colorado, and Connecticut. Read the full report at:
http://www.ucp.org/medicaid

National Summit on Disability Policy web site

The National Council on Disability (NCD) launched the new web page for the National Summit on Disability Policy 2010. Next Year's Summit, entitled ADA 1990--2010 Retrospective and Future Policy Directions: A comprehensive dialogue to shape the national disability agenda, will be held July 25-27, 2010 in Washington, D.C. See:
http://www.neweditions.net/ncd2010/index.html

Emergency Management Report

NCD will release its latest report on effective emergency management for people with disabilities on August 12 at the International Association of Emergency Managers' 2009 National Conference on Community Preparedness. In this report, NCD offers information and advice to assist all levels of government in its work to establish evidence-based policies, programs and practices across the lifecycle of disasters. This report provides examples of effective community efforts with respect to people with disabilities, and evaluates many emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security program efforts deployed by both public and private sectors. For more information, please contact NCD's Director of External Affairs, Mark S. Quigley, at mquigley@ncd.gov or by telephone at 202-272-2008.

Voting testimonials

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) are looking for testimonials about voting in the 2008 Elections. They are particularly interested in stories of people who were able to vote privately and independently for the first time using accessible systems where they exist. If you or someone you know has a story like this please send it to vote@aapd.com as soon as possible.

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