Action Alerts

Ongoing: None.

Major Events Last Week

Economic Recovery

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed the conference agreement on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA; H.R. 1) by a vote of 246-183. The Senate followed suit by a vote of 60-38. The final bill contains $787 billion in tax cuts and domestic spending. The House and Senate Conferees reduced the bill's spending by about $100 billion to secure the votes necessary for passage. Only 3 Republicans (all Senators) voted for the measure. Seven House Democrats voted in opposition to the bill. The Recovery package contains almost 1,100 pages. A summary of the major disability-related provisions can be accessed at:
http://www.thearc.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1489.

Medicaid

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) reintroduced the Empowered at Home Act (S. 434) on February 13^th. This bill would amend the Medicaid program to improve the home and community-based services option to encourage more states to provide the services to eligible people

Direct Support Professionals

Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) recently introduced H.R. 868, the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act of 2009. The bill would provide funds to states to increase the wages paid to targeted direct support professionals who are providing services to individuals with disabilities. Rep. Capps is expected to send a letter to her colleagues urging them to co-sponsor this importation bill. In the 110^th Congress, 131 Members co-sponsored the same bill. The DPC will be preparing an action alert to urge Members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill.

Learn more at

Victimization

The House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill (H.R. 911) intended to set a federal floor for standards and regulations to protect teens enrolled in residential treatment programs from abuse. This bill, which will now be sent to the full House for consideration, gained momentum after a committee-commissioned Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found thousands of documented cases of abuse and even death in these "boot camps", wilderness training programs and psychiatric treatment facilities. In the 110^th Congress, the House passed a similar bill by a large margin, but the Senate never took up the measure.

Technology

Despite President Obama signing a delay in the Digital TV conversion into law, many people will experience a disruption in their service as of today. Under the delay signed by the President, TV stations can still opt to turn off analog feeds, and roughly one third of stations in the US will do so. Nearly 20 TV markets across the country have opted to transition all stations this week -- this will leave many individuals without any access to over-the-air emergency information. The Federal Communications Commission may try to intervene in an effort to protect the estimated 6.5 million households still left in the dark. Although the signed stimulus package contains $650 million for converter box coupons, this support won't be available for some time. For a list of stations planning to terminate analog service on or before 2-17-09, see:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-221A5.pdf

Major Events Today

Economic Recovery

Today President Obama travels to Denver, Colorado to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Enactment of this bill is seen as a major victory for the President.

Social Security

The Social Security Administration published six Social Security Rulings (SSR) addressing childhood disability in today's Federal Register. The six SSRs address how to assess functional equivalence to the medical eligibility criteria in the following domains:

• Acquiring and Using Information;
• Caring for Yourself;
• Interacting and Relating with Others;
• Moving About and Manipulating Objects; and
• Health and Physical Well-Being.

In addition, one SSR addresses the "Whole Child" approach. These rulings will be effective on March 19. The childhood disability SSRs consolidate information from SSA's regulations, training materials, and question-and-answer documents. In publishing the SSRs, SSA notes that "although SSRs do not have the same force and effect as statutes or regulations, they are binding on all components of the Social Security Administration." The published rulings can be found at:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a090217c.html.
(Scroll down to Social Security Administration.)

Major Events Ahead

U.S. Congress

The Congress is not in session due to a week-long President's Day district work period.

Social Security

Two more SSRs are scheduled for publication in tomorrow's Federal Register. They include the functional equivalence domain of "Attending and Completing Tasks" and "Documenting a Child's Impairment-Related Limitations". These SSRs are expected to be effective on March 20. These SSRs can be viewed today on the public inspection site of the Federal Register:
http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx.
(Scroll down to Social Security Administration.) They should be available tomorrow in the main Federal Register.

Social Security and Medicare

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare will hold a discussion tomorrow entitled, "Commissions, Cuts, and Crisis Calls: Economic and Policy Experts Detail Why Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Social Security and Medicare Just Won't Work."

Announcements

Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy

Kareem Dale, a former member of Obama's campaign in charge of coordinating the vote of Americans with disabilities, has been named the special assistant to the president for disabilities policy. Vice President Joe Biden made the announcement to a small group of Special Olympics athletes, volunteers and coordinators last week. The Vice President was in Boise to attend a portion of the Special Olympics World Winter Games with a presidential delegation including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. "This is a civil rights movement," Biden said. "There's a need to have changes in policy." Chester Finn, a member of the Board of Directors of The Arc and President of SABE, participated in the event with the Vice President. Click here to see the White House press release on Kareem Dale's appointment.

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