AUCD’s Community Inclusion Team supports the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) Network in partnership with the Administration for Community Living.
AUCD’s Maternal and Child Health Engagement supports the Autism CARES Programs, including LEND and DBP Programs.
AUCD’s Public Health Team works to create health promotion and public health efforts that include people with disabilities.
AUCD Emerging Leaders are a part of a community that includes trainees, early career professionals, self-advocates, and family members from AUCD member Centers and Programs.
AUCD's Disability Policy News (DPN) is a weekly newsletter highlighting federal policy issues affecting people with disabilities and their families. DPN features updates in plain language and action steps that people can take to educate policymakers. DPN is published every Friday.
In this edition:
The current continuing resolution (CR) expires at the end of January, which makes passing a new CR or full-year funding bill a time-sensitive priority in Congress.
Last Saturday, another citizen was shot and killed by federal immigration agents during a protest in Minnesota. After this incident—and following others like it—many Senate Democrats have announced that they would not advance appropriations legislation unless the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding was stripped. Many were calling for the DHS bill to be renegotiated and pulled from the larger appropriations package so that the other five appropriations bills could pass. Republican Members were largely opposed to this proposal.
This week, the Senate voted against moving forward with the six-bill package that included DHS funding. Eight Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting against the package, some in pursuit of further spending cuts and others in support of DHS funding changes. The Republicans were Senators Ted Budd (NC), Ron Johnson (WI), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY), Rick Scott (FL), and Ashley Moody (FL).
On January 29, it was announced that Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to a deal (with the President’s endorsement) to separate the DHS bill from the rest of the funding bills. The new continuing resolution (short-term funding bill) will temporarily fund DHS at its current levels for a few weeks.
Because any changes to the six-bill package (including stripping DHS funding) need to go back to the House for their review—and the House is in recess this week—it is not possible for Congress to pass the appropriations package by the January 30 deadline. This will trigger a partial government shutdown over the weekend. On Monday, the House will take up the Senate’s newly updated appropriations bills and vote on them.
At the end of last year, Congress passed a continuing resolution (also called a CR), which is a funding bill that makes sure the government has enough money for a few more months. This CR will fund the government until the end of January, so Congress needs to figure out how they will fund the government after that. This process is called "appropriations." Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use.
Last week, another person was shot and killed by immigration police during a protest in Minnesota. This has happened a few times and has made people all around the country very upset. Immigration police are part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Many Senate Democrats said that because immigration police have hurt people and messed up, they should have less money and more rules. They want to change a funding bill that would give more money to the Department of Homeland Security. This would be a big change because the House already passed that bill and sent it to the Senate.
There are six total bills that the House passed to fund the government. This week, the Senate voted on the six-bill package, but there weren't enough Senators who voted for it to pass. Some Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it. Some wanted changes to the DHS bill, and others wanted more funding cuts for other programs.
On January 29, there was an announcement that Senate Democrats and Republicans made a deal. They decided to separate the DHS bill from the other five funding bills. The President agreed with this. The new DHS bill will be a CR that will last for a few weeks. Because this is a change to the House-passed bill, it has to go back to the House to be passed again before the President can sign it. However, the House is in recess this week (also called a state work period), which is a time when Members of Congress leave Washington, D.C. and go to their home states to have meetings and events. They will come back from recess on Monday to vote on the new bill. This means that the government will have a "partial shutdown" this weekend. Only some of the government will shut down, not the whole thing.
View past issues of Disability Policy News to learn more about AUCD's policy priorities and how you can engage in policy actions.
