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.
After both chambers of Congress passed two different partisan budget resolutions, Congressional Republicans are eager to move forward in the budget reconciliation process. There have been key issues that the House and Senate disagree on, including making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, cutting $880 billion from programs that the House Energy and Commerce Committee oversees, and more.
While House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) has said that his committee could cut $880 billion by targeting non-Medicaid programs, including repealing some Biden-era energy policies, some Senators have publicly distanced themselves from the House’s plan because of the potential cuts to Medicaid.
Now, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is saying that he wants a “generic” bill that simply instructs committees to either cut spending or raise the deficit. The Senate may vote as early as next week to approve their budget resolution.
As the House and Senate continue to debate over cuts to Medicaid, it is vital that people let their Members of Congress know how detrimental any cuts to Medicaid would be. These cuts might be in the form of work requirements, per capita caps, decreasing the federal match, and beyond—they would all have negative consequences for people with disabilities. The Trump tax package from his first term gave massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations that are set to expire this year. Congressional Republicans want to cut into Medicaid and other important programs in order to extend those tax breaks for the richest Americans and corporations.
Many Republicans are deflecting from this politically uncomfortable issue by saying they are simply searching for waste, fraud, and abuse, or they want “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients to report on their work or volunteer activity, in a proposal referred to as work requirements.
Members of Congress need to know that a) Medicaid is a lean and cost-efficient program—any focus on waste, fraud, and abuse is a distraction and will not bear out actual cost-savings, and b) work requirements do not work—they cost millions of dollars in expensive administrative tracking systems and are built around the false premise that people with disabilities don’t work and don’t want to work. The reality is that Medicaid actually helps people get work and just because someone appears to be “able-bodied” does not mean that they are not disabled or in need of support.
Congress is in the middle of a long process of passing bills that that affect how the government spends money, which is called reconciliation. The Senate and House of Representatives have different ideas of how they want to do this and how they want to spend money. The people who want to pass these bills want to make the government spend less money, so they are working on how to do that. The Senate and House have both passed their own budget resolutions, which are agreements on how to cut funding in government programs. Now, they need to come together to agree on a plan. Some lawmakers are talking about taking money away from Medicaid. AUCD and other organizations will work to protect Medicaid.
|
View past issues of Disability Policy News to learn more about AUCD's policy priorities and how you can engage in policy actions.
