[il-talk] Fw: CSAVR update Nov 4, 2011

Tue Nov 8 01:19:30 UTC 2011

CSAVR update Nov 4, 2011FYI.  Some news from Washington.  

From: Zenner, Lori 
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 11:52 AM
Subject: CSAVR update Nov 4, 2011

fyi 
From: Directors-owner at rehabnetwork.org [mailto:Directors-owner at rehabnetwork.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Wooderson
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2011 7:36 PM
To: stephen wooderson; directors at rehabnetwork.org
Cc: rmartin at rehabnetwork.org; paulseifert at rehabnetwork.org; kwest-evans at rehabnetwork.org; jconnelly at rehabnetwork.org
Subject: [Directors] Business week ending 11/4/11

Greetings from Washington, DC:

After a two week hiatus around the fall conference, we are now back on schedule with our Business Weekly updates. The staff and I would like to thank you again for your participation in and support of the CSAVR Fall Conference. Participants thought the location was beautiful, the customer service, outstanding and the food absolutely delicious. And, didn't we do a good job of delivering great weather? Most important, however, was the Agenda, which was filled with presentations of interest and benefit to all our members. I also must not forget the outstanding surprise performance by Don Uchida which delighted conference participants. It was nice to learn that we have a folk singer in our midst and our very own Rehabilitation Counselor song. While there were a few glitches and surprises here and there, overall, this meeting will be recorded in our history as one of our best! Thanks to all of you who helped make that happen!

FY 2012 Appropriations: 
As things stand right now, Congress will move all the remaning appropriations bills in so-called "minibuses" as opposed to one "omnibus" appropriations bill. However, Congress will not get all the "minibuses" passed before the existing Continuing Resolution (CR) expires so they plan to attach a one month funding extension to one of the minibus appropriation bills. The bill that funds RSA and the workforce programs, the Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill remains the most difficult bill to pass, with the House not having voted on a bill at all and the Senate having approved a measure that the House considers too inflated. The House draft bill and the Senate approved measure are billions of dollars apart, and the House draft bill contains a number of policy riders that the Senate will oppose. As a rsult, most observers believe that Congress will default to a CR to fund the agencies under the Labor-HHS-Ed bill. We will keep you posted. 

Joint Debt Committee: 
The clock is ticking louder for the Joint Debt Committee to produce a product before the November 23 deadline. Speculation is running high as the normally sieve-like nature of political secret-keeping in Washington is being upended...no one really knows the details of what the 12 members have been talking about in the closed door meetings. With less than a month before a proposal is required to be submitted for Congressional approval, a bipsartisan group of 100 members of the House wrote letter to Debt Committee membsrs stating they would be willing to support higher taxes and entitlement cuts as a solution to the debt issue. However, that proposal was rejected by Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. The Debt Commission deadlines are: 

Nov. 23: Deadline for the committee to vote on a plan with $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. 
Dec. 2: Deadline for the committee to submit report and legislative language to the president and Congress. 
Dec. 23: Deadline for both houses to vote on the committee bill. 
Jan. 15, 2012: Date that the "trigger" leading to $1.2 trillion of future spending cuts goes into effect, if the committee's legislation has not been enacted.

Jan. 2, 2013: OMB orders sequestrations for defense and non-defense categories of spending necessary to meet spending cuts required by the "trigger."

In what could be perhaps a glimpse into what might happen with the Debt Committe, defense "hawks" have already begun preparing legislation that would back Congress out of the requirement to automatically sequester defense spending if the debt Committee or Congress fail to act by the deadlines. The sequester would take half of the $1.2 trillion from defense programs and half from non-defense programs. 

Jobs Bill Dies in Senate Votes: 
In two dueling votes the Senate killed two jobs bill propoals by the President and Senate Republicans. The plan offered by the President was sunk by the cost offset of a 0.7% surtax on millionaires opposed by the Senate Republicans. The Senate Republican proposal fell short when Democrats blocked it for eliminating environmental regulations. The Senate has taken the jobs proposal made by the President earlier this year and broken it into smaller pieces. The part that was defeated Thursday would have funded $60 billion in road and bridge improvements.

Disability Compendium Release: 
On November 2 Hill staff and disabilty advocates were briefed on the annual release of the Compendium of Disability Statistics. The Compendium is produced by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC), a joint effort of the UNH Institute on Disability and Hunter College in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Center for Essential Management Services, the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, Cornell University, and the Center for Studying Disability Policy at Mathematica Policy Research. StatsRRTC is funded by a cooperative agreement from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The Compendium brings together the vast amount of data gathered by federal agencies about people with disabilities and disability services. Nearly 120 people attended the event in person and about another 140 joined via webcast. The morning part of the briefing was highlighted by presentation about the contencts of the Compedium and presentations by several federal agencies including the US Dept of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and Office of Disability Employment Policy, US Dept of Commerce Census Bureau, and the National Center for Health Statistics. 

The afternoon featured presentations from Hill Staff including Andy Imperato with Senator Harkin, Kelly Hastimgs with Senatir Enzi, and Laura Schifter with Congressman Miller. Also attending the meeting was Katherine Olson of the House Ways and Means Committee. They staffers gave updates on key legislation including WIA, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and IDEA, focusing primarily on the issue of transition youth. Another topic that was raised was Social Security disability policy and need to modernize the program. 

SSA Proposed Regulation: 
SSA proposed regulation: "Expedited Vocational Assessment Under the Sequential Evaluation Process," Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 76 Fed. Reg. 56357. This proposed rule will allow disability adjudicators to skip the 4th step in the 5-step disability evaulation process. The proposed rule can be found at: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=SSA-2010-0060-0001. The deadline for comments is November 14th.

The NET Update: 
Congratulations to our Points of Contact for The NET being recognized as Partner of the Year by the USBLN. This partnership offers a great opportunity to our job seekers,business partners and membership. The press release went nationally and recognized VR as the "silent partner" in many employment situations.  

The NET members participated in a national teleconference with the USDA-Forest Service which offered a great overview of their agency and hiring process. 33 of our states were on a call with Greyhound where we are developing a national partnership with this federal contractor. The team heard about their business and a variety of opportunities including their push to hire 500 drivers in the coming year. Many of our agencies and candidates also participated in one of the four HHS/FDA Virtual Hiring Events. 16,000 people were on four sessions focused on federal hiring, how to access jobs, and prepare a federal resume for hiring. There are 4,000 jobs available in HHS and candidates will be invited to apply the week of November 14th. You will see more information available shortly. The event host opened up by recognizing that VR agencies supported the event from across the country and Commissioner Ruttledge was a featured speaker! 

s
Stephen A. Wooderson
CEO - CSAVR
1 Research Court, Suite 450
Rockville, MD 20805
301-519-8023
202-604-7880 cell 