[New-hampshire-students] GSILGranite State Independent Living Advocacy Alert - Please Read and Contact Representatives

[Andrew Harmon]

Hello all
I received this yesterday and would have sent it out then except I
wanted to dig into the issue mentioned below; I got so disgusted with
the way in which HB 1560 will make our government as we know and
love/loathe it turn on it head that I had to leave it alone until I
could safely digest it.  Unfortunately, this means that you have 1
less day to act - I apologize for this, but it is really necessary
that you contact your senator or representative and tell them that we
don't want certain legislators to have the ability to order around the
entirety of Congress when it comes to health care.

I know it is a sensitive issue, but please read ahead and visit
www.gencourt.state.nh.us
and read the text of the legislation for yourselves if you feel that I
am just preaching about a certain viewpoint here.

I am putting the alert that talks more in depth below:

In This Issue
•	HB1560 Hearing on Thursday.
•	Save WIPA and PABSS programs!
•	Attitudes – The Real Disability
•	New Radio Station for Concord Area!

Granite State Independent Living
Advocacy Program

21 Chenell Drive
 Concord, NH 03301

Office: (603) 228-9680 or (800) 826-3700

V/TTY: (888) 396-3459

Visit our website at: www.gsil.org

E-mail: advocacy at gsil.org
Testify Against HB1560!
Bill Could Eliminate Federal Health Care Protections in NH!

HB1560 proposes that NH join several other states in an Interstate
Health Compact allowing these states to jointly opt out of all federal
health rules, now and in the future. This would include everything
from the Affordable Care Act to Medicare and Medicaid. Compact states
would instead receive a block grant set at the level of federal health
spending in their states in FY2010, which would grow at a cost of
living rate rather than the rate of health care costs.

The House voted to adopt HB1560, as introduced by a 221-131 voting
margin after defeating the House Commerce Committee's recommended
amendment to HB1560, which would have converted the bill to a study
committee.  It has since moved on to the Senate, where it has been
referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

TAKE ACTION AT THE HEARING: Families, individuals, advocates, advocacy
organizations, and businesses willing to testify in opposition to the
proposed Interstate Health Compact are encouraged to submit oral and
written testimony.  Contact information for the Committee members is
below for those who cannot attend.

The hearing will be held:

Thursday, April 19th at 2:00 PM - Legislative Office Building, Room 102

Directions can be found here:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/misc/directions.htm
Selected talking points on HB 1560:

•	HB 1560 would jeopardize all of the protections and benefits
currently guaranteed under federal law, including Medicare, Medicaid,
and protections under the Affordable Care Act.

•	HB 1560 proposes nothing to actually take the place of the
federally-guaranteed health services and protections that it would
take away.

•	HB 1560 leaves huge questions about how NH residents will access
coverage, whether we will face major cuts or gaps, or whether we will
just be denied health care altogether.

•	The Union Leader called HB 1560 "frivolous" and said "legislators
should not waste their time".

•	HB 1560 is part of a cookie-cutter national strategy and political
effort, developed by out of state interests.

•	A Health Compact has no real benefit to NH residents and we have so
much to lose.

Click here to see more detailed background and talking points on HB
1560 as introduced, provided by New Hampshire Voices for Health.

Contact Information For NH Senate Health and Human Services Committee
Name	Mailing Address	Phone Number	E-Mail Address
Jeb Bradley	630 South Main Street
Wolfeboro, NH  03894	(603) 387-2365	jeb.bradley at leg.state.nh.us

Tom De Blois	Statehouse Room 105-A 107 North Main Street Concord, NH
03301	(603) 271-4151	tom.deblois at leg.state.nh.us

Molly Kelly	Statehouse Room 120 107 North Main Street Concord, NH
03301	(603) 271-3207	molly.kelly at leg.state.nh.us

Gary Lambert	Statehouse Room 107 107 North Main Street Concord NH
03301	(603) 271-2609	gary.lambert at leg.state.nh.us

Andy Sandborn	Legislative Office Building Room 5 33 North State Street
Concord, NH 03301	(603) 271-3067	andy.sanborn at leg.state.nh.us


	
Employment Crisis for Americans with Disabilities
Social Security Employment Support Services to be Shuttered

The Commissioner of Social Security, Michael Astrue, recently
announced that he plans to shut down Social Security’s vital
employment support counseling services for its disability
beneficiaries who make it into the workforce. Social Security has
funded these mandated counseling services nationwide since 2000.

These employment support counseling services, commonly known as Work
Incentives, Planning and Assistance counseling programs (WIPA) and
Protection and Advocacy for Social Security Beneficiaries counseling
programs (PABSS) will end either June 30 or September 30, 2012.

Shutting these programs down means that thousands of Social Security
disability beneficiaries who are planning to work, or who are working
today, will have severely limited access to the correct federal and
state rules and procedures for their work and benefits situation. With
the shutdown, disability beneficiaries will have little to no help
with complicated return to work rules when they encounter employment /
SSA-related problems.

Together, we can help stop the planned national shut down of the
Social Security WIPA and PABSS employment support counseling services.

A Rapid Response Letter Template is available attached to this alert
for your use.

Key Request to President Barack Obama and to SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue:
•	“Like taxes, Social Security work rules are complicated! We request
that you extend the current SSA WIPA and PABSS employment support
counseling services for SSA disability beneficiaries for 18 months, as
the Congress deliberates and reauthorizes the WIPA and PABSS
employment support counseling programs.”
•	Contact President Barack Obama through Gene B. Sperling, Director of
the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for
Economic Policy at gsperling at who.eop.gov.
•	Contact the Commissioner of Social Security, Michael J. Astrue, by
email at Michael.Astrue at ssa.gov.
Key Request to your Congress Members:
•	“Reauthorize the national WIPA and PABSS programs in all U.S. states
and territories for five years. The 1999 Ticket to Work Act’s mandated
counseling services are foundational to help increase employment for
Americans with disabilities who experience long breaks from the
workforce, or who are starting work for the first time.”
Contact Information For NH Members of the U.S. Congress
Name	Mailing Address	Phone	Fax	E-Mail Contact Form
U.S. Representative Frank Guinta 	1223 Longworth HOB Washington, DC
20515	(202) 225-5456	(202) 225-5822
	https://guinta.house.gov/contact-me/email-me

U.S. Representative Charlie Bass	2350 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC
20515	(202) 225-5206	(202) 225-2946
	https://forms.house.gov/bass/webforms/contact-form.shtml

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte	144 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510	(202) 224-3324	(202) 224-4952
	http://www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact

U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen	520 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 	(202) 224-2841	(202)
228-3194	http://shaheen.senate.gov/contact/


Attitudes – The Real Disability
Change to Rape Statute Sparks Political Correctness Debate

>From the Landrigan Report (4/10/12):

A seemingly innocuous bill simply changing a phrase from the state's
aggravated rape statute touched off some colorful criticism and
perhaps some House-Senate gamesmanship, The Lobby has learned.

The bill, SB 274, merely removes the phrase ''mentally defective''
from the statute after Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams passed on
a 2011 case involving Richard McDonald where that term was heavily
debated.

Judges considered it offensive since the term is about the victim of
an aggravated sexual assault. They wanted it replaced with less
offensive language, which in this case would be the ''victim has a
disability that renders him or her incapable of freely arriving at an
independent choice whether or not to engage in sexual conduct.''

According to several sources, some conservative Republicans on the
House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee were insulted that
the change was offered.

Rep. Jason Antosz referred to it as ''PC nonsense'' and said that
words such as ''defective'' and ''retarded'' were ''just words.''

''I'm sick of always having to change my language in order to be
politically correct,'' Antosz said during the executive session on the
bill.

Rep. Ken Kreis noted that the victim in the McDonald case was 29 years
old and ''had her entire life to get used to being called defective.''

The coalition supporting the bill included the NH Chiefs of Police
Association, NH Troopers Association, NH Police Association, NH
Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and its 14 member
programs, the Attorney General's Office, Disabilities Rights Center,
Community Support Network and its 10 area agencies, the County
Attorney's Association and Ending the Violence.

The House panel voted 11-4 to recommend passing the bill.

Here's where the intramural stuff came in.

Late last week, Chairman Elaine Swinford, R-Center Barnstead, pulled
the bill back from the House calendar and returned it to her
committee, reportedly after a request from the majority office.

Both Reps. Kyle Tasker, R-Northwood and Kreis noted that "mentally
defective" was a term used in federal law and argued it should be
retained.

Stay tuned to this one; we will.

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You can also follow them on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/#!/NHNewsViewsBlue