Action Alerts

Ongoing:

• National Call in Day for Health Care Reform is coming up soon.
  Stay tuned for the alert.

Major Events Last Week

Health Care Reform

The Senate Finance Committee "Gang of Six" negotiating team (Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senators Conrad (D-ND), Bingaman (D-NM), Enzi (R-WY), and Snowe (R-ME)) held a conference call on Friday in a last-minute effort to reach a bi-partisan agreement before the Congress reconvened after its summer recess. The group's efforts have been hampered recently by Senators Enzi's and Grassley's public criticisms of health reform proposals. The Democrats and the White House are reportedly working closely with Sen. Snowe to reach an agreement.

H1N1 Flu

The White House announced that the Administration will tap an additional $2.7 billion in emergency H1N1 flu funding to buy vaccines, antiviral drugs and to make other preparations for an immunization campaign in the fall. President Obama had earlier approved $1.8 billion in emergency spending from a $5.8 billion fund which Congress established in the FY 2010 supplemental spending bill.

Major Events Ahead

U.S. Congress

The Congress returns today after a five week summer recess. Among the key policy issues the Congress hopes to complete action on in the coming months are health care reform, the fiscal year 2010 appropriations and climate change. A new senator, George LeMieux, will be sworn in on Thursday to replace Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) who is resigning.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-(CT) may have to decide soon on whether to give up his chairmanship of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to assume the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. With the death last month of Senator Kennedy, that post is now vacant. Should Dodd assume the HELP chairmanship, he will either have to give up his chairmanship of the Banking Committee or the Senate leadership may allow him to serve in both posts until health reform is completed. Should Dodd decide to retain the Banking Committee chairmanship, the next two Senators with seniority on the HELP Committee are Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

Health Care Reform

Today President Obama will meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to discuss plans for moving a bill forward. The Senate Finance Committee Gang of Six negotiating team will also meet to discuss the new proposal developed by Chairman Max Baucus over the weekend. Chairman Baucus has set a September 15 deadline for completion of the negotiations.

On Wednesday, President Obama will deliver a major prime time address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. He reportedly will outline more detail of his vision for health care reform than he has provided in the past. It is currently unclear whether he will set forth specific legislative proposals.

Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations

The Senate is expected to resume work on the eight FY 2010 appropriations bills that haven't yet been cleared by the full Senate. The bill to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) may be voted on this week. The T-HUD bill provides 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. On the transportation side, the bill provides for level funding ($92.5 million) for the New Freedom program which provides funding for projects that expand transportation options for people with disabilities. It also gives $140.7 million for the Section 5310 program which assists nonprofits serving people with disabilities and the elderly with their transportation needs. This is a $7.2 million increase over FY 2009.

The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill has not been scheduled for action yet.

Once the Senate has finished its work on the appropriations bills, the bills will need to be reconciled with the House bills that were passed in June or July. Given the constraints on spending required by the FY 2010 Budget Resolution, the differences between the bills are quite narrow. The real issue will focus on whether the Congress can pass all twelve appropriations bills before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. Failure to do so will require the enactment of a Continuing Resolution keep federal programs operating at the start of the new fiscal year.

Announcements

Housing

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published its 2009 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program. The application deadline is November 16, 2009. The NOFA can be accessed at
http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa09/grpsec811.cfm

H1N1 Flu

The National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDS) has compiled several resources and bulletins to assist state Developmental Disabilities agencies. The information can be accessed at
http://www.nasddds.org/PanFlu/index.shtml

Money Follows the Person

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) has released an issue brief examining the early successes and challenges of the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program. A 2008 survey of 29 states receiving MFP grants turned up several key findings, including that several hundred people have moved from institutional to community settings; that states are providing a broad range of services to facilitate transition; that housing issues for MFP participants are a major challenge for states; and that the severe economic downturn had not yet prompted states to scale back their efforts. The report is available at:
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7928.pdf

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