[il-talk] HR 620 Moves to US Senate; State Budget Address Recap + ADAPT condemns the passing of the HR 620 bill in the House / 17 ADAPTers Arrested

Thu Feb 15 22:00:50 UTC 2018

FYI. 

Dear Access Living friends and allies,

We have two important updates for you, federal and state.

CONGRESS

At the federal level, the U.S. House just passed HR 620. That's the ADA bill we have been telling you about that would damage disability rights, and give inaccessible businesses more leeway for breaking the law. An intense battle between disability advocates, business lobbyists, and Congressional staff culminated in a fierce debate this morning on the House floor. Unfortunately, the bill passed 225-192, and will next be relayed to the U.S. Senate, where many Senators are already signaling that they will be totally opposed.

We would like to THANK the following US Reps for voting against the bill, and in favor of disability rights: Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi, Jan Schakowsky, Bobby L. Rush, Robin Kelly, Brad Schneider, Daniel Lipinski, Mike Quigley, Danny K. Davis, Cheri Bustos, and Republican Peter Roskam.

The following Illinois Congressmen voted in favor of the bill and AGAINST disability rights: Democrat Bill Foster, and Republicans John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Darin LaHood, Mike Bost, Rodney Davis, and Randy Hultgren. Consider this when you go to the polls in November.

We were sorry to learn that Congressman Gutierrez could not file a vote due to a family emergency.

We at Access Living remain adamantly opposed to this bill as it moves to the Senate, because it will damage disability rights. Bill supporters claimed that the bill would help people with disabilities, ignoring the thousands of educational opportunities offered to businesses over the last 28 years on how to become ADA compliant. The US Department of Justice has expended significant effort over many years to assist business groups with compliance. States have processes for punishing attorneys who abuse the system. And yet once again, disability rights were placed at the back of the line. Stay tuned. We will not stand for this. To see all the votes for every member of Congress, go to this link. We will keep you posted on next action steps.

GOVERNOR'S BUDGET ADDRESS

As many of you know, yesterday, Governor Rauner delivered the annual budget speech and released his budget proposal for this next year. Prior to the speech, a summary was released; you can see it at this attachment FY19 Gov Budget Exec Summary.pdf. Our overall view of this budget proposal is that it is basically a proposal, and will likely not mirror the final budget that the Illinois legislature needs to pass by the end of May.

While certain items important to us were preserved in this proposal (such as funding for independent living centers and vocational rehabilitation), the State is also proposing cuts of 5 to 8% to the following program areas:  The Autism Program, Infant Mortality, Addiction Prevention, Supportive Housing Services, the Arc of Illinois, Best Buddies, Children's Place, Chicago Area Project, Immigrant Integration Services, Epilepsy Services, West Side Health Authority Crisis Intervention. Given that countless programs have been operating on a shoestring across the state for years, further cuts will be a big problem.

The proposal also floats a $150 million cut to Medicaid through reducing payments to Medicaid providers by about 4%. In a state where reimbursements are already low compared to the national norm, this is deeply concerning. As many of you know, Medicaid managed care is also rolling out across the state, and the shift of payments through managed care as opposed to state agencies is causing some complexity for budget analysis by disability advocates.

The outlook for workers who provide disability services is complex. While the Governor proposes to raise the wages of Direct Support Providers (DSPs) by 50 cents an hour, there is no sign of a wage increase for Home Services Program (HSP) workers. There is also a proposal to shift the cost of health coverage for HSP workers onto the union. And, it looks like there is a proposal to roll back a wage increase for homemakers in the Community Care Program.

We are very fortunate to work with a range of disability advocates who are looking at this budget proposal from a variety of angles. The State did reiterate its commitment to maintaining work on the Olmstead consent decrees. In the meantime, our commitment is to stay focused on expanding home and community based services, but we will need to continue to work hard to ensure that our community members who are stuck in institutional settings are provided with real choices about home/community opportunities.

Overall, our response as of right now is mixed. As with previous years we will have a lot of work to do to keep improving the system so that people with disabilities are included in all our communities, and not penalized through bureaucratic decisions that are not informed by the disability perspective.

Amber Smock

Director of Advocacy, Access Living

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From: The ADAPT Community [mailto:BDarling at cdrnys.org <mailto:BDarling at cdrnys.org> ] 
Sent: 15 February, 2018 2:16 PM
To: Rahnee Patrick <rpatrick at accessliving.org <mailto:rpatrick at accessliving.org> >
Subject: ADAPT condemns the passing of the HR 620 bill in the House / 17 ADAPTers Arrested

Today, 59 million Americans with disabilities witnessed the U.S House of Representatives torpedo their civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. HR620 was passed, and civil rights of disabled and older Americans went down in defeat.

Over 27 years after passage of the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability the business-backed House of “the people” chose “profits over people.” The House decided that the burden of getting justice for discrimination against people with disabilities lies with the victim. Where is the justice in that? Even though more than 500 disability organizations sent letters to Congress opposing the bill, the Representatives who voted for the bill decided that the people with disabilities are second class citizens whose rights do not matter. What they have not yet realized is that those rights are tied into their votes needed to stay in office – or not!!

The disability community is outraged and angry. We are extremely disappointed in the 12 Democrats who supported the 213 Republicans in stripping disabled people of their rights today and voted in lock step with lobbyists who are the real beneficiaries of HR620. Even worse, these members of Congress cast their votes as ADAPT protesters were being removed from the chamber and placed under arrest. ADAPT will not stand for this injustice and will follow-up with protests. These members of the House have lost the Disability Vote.

ADAPT is thankful to all the representatives, Democrats and Republicans, who voted against HR620 in an effort to preserve ADA and the rights of people with disabilities.  ADAPT especially salutes Representative Sensenbrenner (R) from Wisconsin, who is the lead sponsor of the Disability Integration Act (HR2427/S910), for his vote against HR620.

ADAPT has worked for decades to secure and advance the civil rights guaranteed to disabled Americans under the ADA and will continue to fight against these injustices. Information about ADAPT’s history, currently prioritized issues, and its activities can be found at www.adapt.org <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsubscribe.cdrnys.org%2F%2Flt.php%3Fid%3DeB1SDgdFBVYHTAVRUQ&data=02%7C01%7Crpatrick%40accessliving.org%7Cefff3fc85ab04cac99c108d574b0b21d%7C836a1ce092ba45a58e0154ac42dd1e1d%7C0%7C0%7C636543224644793268&sdata=B06atm9nlHBydTZKBEb53pbAuc0zIae0OBX%2FytirCMY%3D&reserved=0> , the NationalADAPT Facebook page and on the @NationalADAPT Twitter under the hashtags #ADAPTandRESIST and #HandsOffMyADA.

###

ARREST UPDATE

There are 17 ADAPTers currently in police custody, and they have been charged with Disruption of Congress. For many of these folks, this was the second arrest THIS WEEK in defending the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The ADAPT Community honors their hard work and sacrifice.  These ADAPTers have a March court date.  Donations to defray the cost of their travel, legal fees and fines can be made through http://adapt.org/donate/ <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fadapt.org%2Fdonate%2F&data=02%7C01%7Crpatrick%40accessliving.org%7Cefff3fc85ab04cac99c108d574b0b21d%7C836a1ce092ba45a58e0154ac42dd1e1d%7C0%7C0%7C636543224644793268&sdata=AKaaiqHJuLyGKZVIvMc6hZw9aNQ5qbkFSBpwJvQ7Jbw%3D&reserved=0>  Thank you for supporting our ADAPTers!

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