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On Friday, December 16th, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a long standing advocate for individuals with disabilities, introduced S. 2124, the Emergency Preparedness and Response for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2005. Under this legislation, a Disability Coordinator would be created in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who will report directly to the Secretary.
The Coordinator would be responsible for:
The bill would also require greater accessibility in temporary housing and provide incentives to create more accessible housing during reconstruction efforts. For more on this bill, visit www.aapd.com/News/legislature/S2124.htm.
On Wednesday, November 2, 2005, U.S. Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Mike DeWine (R-OH) announced the introduction of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act of 2005 (S. 1951). This act would create an insurance program for adults who become functionally disabled while also providing a cash benefit to help obtain services and supports in the community. More specifically, the legislation creates a voluntary employer insurance program that would be financed by voluntary payroll deductions from individuals. Benefits will be available to individuals that have contributed to the program for at least five years. There are two benefit tiers: Tier 1 benefits ($50 a day) would be payable to eligible individuals who have two or more impairments in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) or the equivalent cognitive impairments and Tier 2 benefits ($100 a day) would be payable to individuals who have four or more ADLs or the equivalent cognitive impairment. If you support this legislation, be certain to contact your senators and house representatives to encourage their support.
Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) recently introduced the Improving Long-Term Care Choices Act of 2005, S. 1602, a bill that would improve access to home and community-based services. If enacted, states would be allowed to provide these services to Medicaid eligible individuals WITHOUT needing to prove an individual requires a level of care provided in a hospital, nursing home, or an ICF/MR (intermediate care facility for people with mental retardation or related conditions). The bill also would require states to set up different and more stringent eligibility requirements for hospitals, nursing homes, and ICF/MRs, than for HCBS. If this bill passes you, the consumer, will have less of a fight to stay in your own home, versus an institutional setting. Contact your senators today and ask them to support S. 1602. The ARC has created a web page dedicated to promoting this bill, to take action, visit http://capwiz.com/thearc/issues/alert/?alertid=8115311.
On July 29, 2005 Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) unveiled legislation aimed at reducing the high unemployment rate for people with severe disabilities. In October, the duo formally introduced the bill to the Senate while also introducing a new organization, the ONE PERCENT COALITION that will actively push for the passage of the bill.
With an unemployment rate of 78%, people with severe disabilities continue to face huge physical and attitudinal barriers in gaining meaningful, life-sustaining, employment. In an effort to encourage the hiring of people with severe disabilities, the Employer Work Incentive Act for Individuals with Severe Disabilities will offer eligible businesses that competitively employ people with severe disabilities special incentives. Beyond helping people with disabilities however, this act could also save taxpayers billions of dollars. If just 1% of people with severe disabilities transition from Social Security programs into competitive employment, the projected ten-year cost savings to the federal treasury would be more than $45 billion.
Medicare is an essential health care program for many Americans with disabilities; sometimes it is there only access to health care. Despite this fact however, as it stands now, people with disabilities must wait a minimum of 24-months after diagnosis to even be considered for Medicare. This wait can be devastating for those who greatly need life-sustaining care.
In an effort to end this life-threatening wait period, in June 2005 Senators Bingaman and DeWine introduced "Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2005" (S. 1217). While Congressman Green introduced a companion bill(HR 2869)in the House of Representatives. The bills would phase-out the current two-year waiting period that people with disabilities must endure after qualifying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In the interim, the bill would also create a process by which the waiting period can immediately be waived for people with life-threatening illnesses.
Call or write your senators and representative today and ask them to cosponsor S. 1217 and H.R. 2869. To contact your representatives, visit http://www.house.gov/writerep/. To contact your senators, visit http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee have recently begun writing a draft of a bill that would update the 1934 Communications Act. This bill, last revised in 1996 in the Telecommunications Act, is the federal law that makes telecommunications affordable to all Americans. Much has changed in the telecommunication industry since 1996. Rather than simply picking up the telephone, Americans are now communicating via e-mail and instant messaging. Unfortunately however, such forms of communication remain inaccessible to a large portion of Americans with disabilities. It is important that the issue of accessibility to broadband and other more advanced communication services be addressed in this new revision. In an effort to educate those that are drafting the bill, Frank Bowe, a disability advocate with Hofstra University, has met with house staff and has developed a series of papers addressing communications issues. These papers can be viewed online at http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/frank_g_bowe/telecom.html. Advocates residing in the states represented on the House and Senate Committees might wish to write to their elected represenatives and senators to express their opinions. To learn contact information for your representatives, visit http://thomas.loc.gov/ and browse the House and Senate Directories.
The Lifespan Respite Care Act authorizes competitive grants to states to make quality, affordable respite services available and accessible to family caregivers, regardless of age or disability. Such services would provide caregivers a "break" from the daily routine of caring for their loved one with special health care needs. While both the Senate and House bills are seeing strong bipartisan support, a strong campaign is needed to encourage more members to sign on as cosponsors. Special attention is needed in AK, AL, AZ, IA, NC, NE, NV, TN and UT. For more information on what the Act would make possible, visit the National Respite Coalition Lifespan Respite Task Force website at www.archrespite.org/TForce.htm. This page (at the bottom) also offers a brief message you may use to contact your representatives.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has introduced in Congress The State and Local Housing Flexibility Act of 2005 (S. 771/H.R. 1999). This legislation would end the existing Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and replace it with a new Flexible Voucher Program. According to a release issued by the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC), Inc., "the provisions of the Flexible Voucher Program would be disastrous for people with disabilities and particularly to those who rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits." The new voucher program, by opening assistance to those with incomes as high as 60-80 percent of median income, could leave people with disabilities with extremely low incomes without housing assistance.
In June, in an effort to educate our legislators, TAC will release Priced Out in 2003-2004, a study that documents how people with disabilities are those most in need of federal housing assistance. People with disabilities are among the poorest populations in America and are three times more likely to have extremely low incomes than non-disabled households. Average rents often exceed an entire month's income for people on SSI. To learn more about this report, visit TAC online at www.tacinc.org.
The Inclusive Home Design Act of 2005 (HR 1441) was introduced in the House of Representatives on March 17, 2005. This bill will require all newly constructed, federally assisted, single-family houses and town houses to meet minimum standards of visitability for persons with disabilities. To make a home visitable, requires three slight modifications: at least one no-step entrance; wider doors and hallways (to accommodate wheelchair users; and at least a half- bathroom on the first floor big enough to accommodate a person in a wheelchair and allow that person to close the door. Experts in architecture and design estimate the total average cost per dwelling is $98 (on a concrete slab) and $573 (for a dwelling with a basement or crawl space). To learn more about this bill, visit Thomas - Legislative Information on the Internet and search for bill number HR 1441.
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) announced that he introduced the Medicaid Community-Based Attendant Services and Supports Act of 2005 (MICASSA). The legislation, co-sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), would increase access to community-based services and supports to Americans with disabilities and older Americans. It would prevent many people from unnecessarily having to live in institutions such as nursing homes.
"This vital legislation will open the door to full participation by people with disabilities in our neighborhoods, workplaces, our economy, and our American Dream." Harkin said. Specifically, MICASSA gives individuals who are currently eligible for nursing home services and institutional facilities equal access to community-based attendant services and supports. The legislation also provides additional funding to states to help them reform their long term care systems and increase the provision of home and community based services.
The following Senators co-sponsored the Harkin-Specter legislation: Edward Kennedy (D-MA),John Kerry (D-MA), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Mark Dayton (D-MN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Charles Schumer (D-NY),Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and Christopher Dodd (D-CT). If you do not see your Senator on this list, contact them and ask them to become cosponsors. For contact information, visit the U.S. Senate website at www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
On January 26, 2005 Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Edward Kennedy re-introduced their bipartisan legislation to help children with disabilities and their families. According to Kennedy, "The Family Opportunity Act may be the most important legislation we pass this Congress. It will close the health care gap for the nation's most vulnerable children, and enable families of disabled children to be equal partners in the American dream." As it stands now, many parents of disabled children, must leave good-paying jobs to ensure that their income levels do not disqualify their children for Medicaid, a program that covers many essential services that are often not covered by private health insurance plans. As Grassley stated, parents often must "choose between near-poverty and their children's health care." The Family Opportunity Act would change that by allowing states to create options for families with disabled children to buy into Medicaid while continuing to work. Both Senators are hopeful that the bill will receive final approval in the 2005 session.
When passed in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was intended "to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities." With its passage, Americans with disabilities would finally shed themselves of the barriers that had, for so many years, prevented access to full participation, inclusion, and equality of opportunity in their communities.
Like many good intentions however, it has fallen short. Over the last several years, the Supreme Court, with a number of rulings, has severely narrowed the scope of opportunities and protections as intended by those involved in the creation and passage of the ADA.
It is this action by the Supreme Court, the National Council on Disability contends, that has reduced the status of Americans with disabilities "to that of second-class citizens." A status that the ADA promised to remedy. In an effort to restore the ADA's original intentions, the NCD has proposed the ADA Restoration Act of 2004, which recommends Amendments to the ADA of 1990.
The proposed amendments follow:
Subsection (a) revises references in the ADA to discrimination "against an individual with a disability" to refer instead to discrimination "on the basis of disability." Thereby rejecting the notion of a rigidly restrictive protected class.
Subsection (b) revises certain congressional findings in the ADA:
Subsection (c) revises some of the definitions used in the ADA. Specifically, it will amend the definition of the term "disability" to clarify that it shall not be construed narrowly and legalistically by drawing fine technical distinctions based on relative differences in degrees of impairment, but will instead focus on how the person is perceived and treated.
Subsection (d) clarifies that the ADA's "direct-threat" defense applies to customers, clients, passersby, and other people who may be put at risk by workplace activities, not to the worker with a disability.
Subsection (e) restores the carefully crafted standard of undue hardship as the sole criterion for determining the reasonableness of an otherwise effective accommodation.
Subsection (f) clarifies that ADA employment rights of individuals with disabilities, including the opportunity to be reassigned to a vacant position as a reasonable accommodation, are not to take a backseat to rights of other employees under a seniority system or collective bargaining agreement.
Subsection (g) adds new subsections to the Remedies provision of Title II of the ADA, restoring the possibility of recovering punitive and non-punitive damages. Also under this subsection, refusal of accommodation under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act constitutes engaging in unlawful intentional discrimination.
Subsection (h) provides that the provisions of the Act are to be liberally construed to advance its remedial purposes.
Subsection (i) corrects the ruling of the Supreme Court in Buckhannon Board and Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, which rejected the catalyst theory in determining eligibility of ADA plaintiffs to attorney's fees, by reinstating the catalyst theory.
To learn more about this proposed legislation, read the NCD report Righting the ADA online at www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2004/righting_ada.htm.
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