[Nfbk] Washington Update

Mon Jul 30 15:06:57 UTC 2012

Washington Update

The Congress inched closer to developing a Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 budget
for the Department of Education this week with the House Labor, Health
and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee meeting to
mark up Chairman Denny Rehberg's (R-MT) bill this week.  It was a
contentious event and education was not on center stage.  Chairman
Rehberg chose to eliminate all funding for programs authorized by the
Affordable Care Act, in light of House action to repeal the statute last
week. In fact, he eliminated funding for all but a handful of
Administration priorities.  It made for good political theater and also
signaled the difficulty appropriators will face in trying to compromise
with their Senate colleagues and the bill they adopted a few weeks ago.
That opportunity will not occur until after the November elections.

Though it is impossible to predict what the final government-wide budget
will look like for 2013, a bit of good news is that it seems no one-or
at least very few Members of Congress-have the stomach for a budget
fight prior to November.  They sense public fatigue with threatened
shutdowns and have decided to hold their fire.  It appears there is
agreement to adopt a continuing resolution, necessary to keep agencies
operating after September 30th, at current funding levels or at the
level agreed to in last year's debt ceiling deal, without the $20
billion in cuts that the House has been clamoring for.

Another surprise development this week was the announcement that six
more states and the District of Columbia have been granted waivers from
the certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.  That brings the
total number of waivers to 33.  These states are released from the
requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014.
Five more state applications are under review by the Department.  The
remaining states have until September 6th to submit an application.  A
moment of silence for the No Child Left Behind Act might be in order.

House Subcommittee Marks Up its FY 2013 LHHS Appropriations Bill

On Wednesday, the House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
(LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and approved its FY2013
funding bill.  Doubts about whether or not the Subcommittee would
actually meet to complete its work on their funding bill have been
circling for weeks, and many advocates didn't believe it would happen
until the bill text was formally released the day before the markup.
Overall, the bill provides roughly $150 billion in discretionary
funding, which is $6.3 billion below FY2012 spending levels and some
$8.8 billion below the Administration's request.  For education
programs, which received a total of $70 billion, this means a cut of
roughly $1.2 billion and $2.9 billion below the President's request.
According to Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT), Chairman of the LHHS
Appropriations Subcommittee, "The bill promotes a pro-job growth fiscal
environment by eliminating duplicative and ineffective programs."  The
Democrats on the Subcommittee had a drastically different view of the
legislation.  Calling it a "reckless" document, Representative Rosa
DeLauro (D-CT), Ranking Member of the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee,
stated, "Instead of meeting the basic responsibilities and common-sense
values of our people, this bill takes us back in time, threatens the
future of a generation, and would vastly increase the pain and suffering
of our most vulnerable Americans all across the country."  Education
stakeholders interested in large formula grant programs like Title I,
special education and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC)
were pleased to see these funds protected.  Specifically, Title I and
the 21st CCLC initiative were level funded; special education grants to
states received a $500 million increase.  Head Start and the Child Care
Development Block Grant programs also received increased funds.  Funding
for the Administration's core priority programs, such as Race to the
Top, Investing in Innovation (i3) and the School Improvement Grant (SIG)
program, was eliminated.  Surprisingly, the Promise Neighborhoods
initiative, another Administration priority, was level funded.  While
Democrats acknowledged their support for increases in crucial
longstanding education programs, they contend that these positives were
offset by even more damaging cuts to programs important to society's
most vulnerable.

In addition to programmatic spending cuts, the legislation contains
close to 20 "policy riders" -a term for non-germane policy proposals
attached to a bill.  The riders proposed defunding organizations such as
National Public Radio, Planned Parenthood and all the programs under the
Affordable Care Act, and even prohibited any further work on proposed
rules to better prevent "black lung" disease among coal miners.  The
Democrats on the Subcommittee offered amendments to strike some of these
policy riders, but they all failed.  One Republican amendment from
Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) proposed cutting the bill's funding
by $8.6 billion across-the-board.  This amendment also failed to pass in
light of Chairman Rehberg's opposition.  Details about specific
programmatic funding levels in the Subcommittee-approved bill will not
be known until the full Appropriations Committee meets-perhaps as early
as next Wednesday.  At that time, the bill and report will be public. To
read the opening statements of Subcommittee Chairman Rehberg and Ranking
Member DeLauro go to:
http://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3034
64 and
http://democrats.appropriations.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content
<http://democrats.appropriations.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&
view=article&id=1030:delauro-statement-at-subcommittee-markup-of-the-lab
or-hhs-education-appropriations-bill-fy2013&catid=82:reports>
&view=article&id=1030:delauro-statement-at-subcommittee-markup-of-the-la
bor-hhs-education-appropriations-bill-fy2013&catid=82:reports.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Rights of Persons with
Disabilities

On Thursday, July 19, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a
hearing to mark up the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities" (Treaty Doc 112-7). The Convention is an international
agreement for the protection of the rights of individuals with
disabilities, which sets broad goals of autonomy, equality, acceptance,
and accessibility. Experts and interested parties from government and
civil society expressed strong support for Senate ratification of the
treaty. Panelists present to testify included: Senator John McCain
(R-AZ); Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA); Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for
International Disability Rights at the State Department; and Richard
Thornburgh, a former Attorney General of the United States and Of
Counsel at the law firm K&L Gates. For more information, visit:
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/kerry-statement_conven
tion-on-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-.

DOL and HHS Offices Launch Joint Effort to Boost Employment for People
with Disabilities

On July 17th, the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment
Policy (ODEP) and the Department of Health and Human Services'
Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD)
announced the signing of an interagency memorandum of agreement to
aggregate attention and resources for the promotion of integrated
employment for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.
Joint efforts will focus on helping states develop and implement
"employment first" policies that involve technical assistance and
training toward a goal of "full inclusion" in local and community
workplaces that can make a significant dent in disabled Americans'
disproportionately high unemployment rates.  "This agreement is a
historic opportunity for ODEP and AIDD to work together to further
disability employment practices and support state efforts to transform
public systems so that they reflect integrated employment as the first
option of service for individuals with significant disabilities," said
Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary for ODEP.

For more information, visit:
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/odep/ODEP20121425.htm

Senate HELP Committee Report Highlights Continued Barriers to Employment
for People with Disabilities

On July 16th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions (HELP) issued a new report that details the employment
landscape for people with disabilities and offers recommendations for
improvement following a series of bipartisan hearings oriented around
the goal of raising the number of Americans with disabilities in the
workforce by one million over the next three years.  Despite legal and
social gains, the report found "no evidence" that employment outcomes
for people with disabilities have improved "on the whole" since the
passage of the ADA in 1990; by June of this year, less than a third of
working-age people with disabilities were actively employed.  Disabled
workers experience a "disproportionate level of poverty"-not
surprisingly, given that their average earnings are less than two-thirds
the wages earned by their non-disabled peers.  The post-2008 recession
has seen disabled workers leave the workforce at five times the national
average.  To address the situation, the report suggests legislation that
will provide more "integrated employment" support (training and
technical assistance) to young people entering the workforce and
incentivize state-level policy changes, along with additional "savings
and wage support."  Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA)
remains optimistic that employment targets for people with disabilities
can be met or exceeded.   "At this time, we are seeing a convergence of
strong bipartisan leadership from the public and private sectors, with
the coming of age of a new generation of young adults with disabilities
who have high expectations for themselves and have the education and
skills to succeed in the modern workplace.  If we make this issue the
priority it deserves to be, in the next few years we will see a real
change in employment outcomes for Americans with disabilities."  For
more information, with links to the full report:
http://www.help.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=fbf20a90-cad2-4ba8
-a236-df6bbc623a8a
<http://www.help.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=fbf20a90-cad2-4ba
8-a236-df6bbc623a8a&groups=Chair> &groups=Chair

NGA Chair to Promote Employment for People with Disabilities

On July 15th, incoming National Governors Association (NGA) Chair Jack
Markell announced plans for boosting employment rates for people with
disabilities as part of his year-long "Chair's initiative" launched at
the closing session of the NGA Annual Meeting.  According to Gov.
Markell (D-Delaware), this initiative will focus on addressing the
barriers to employment faced by those with physical and intellectual
disabilities through an emphasis on partnerships between businesses and
state governments that "facilitate and advance opportunities for these
individuals to be gainfully employed in the competitive labor market."
Particular attention will be paid to providing supportive services,
including job placement as well as structured training and supervision
programs for people with "significant" cognitive challenges.  Statehouse
policymakers will gather more information on economic prospects for
their own disabled populations as part of a process of developing
state-specific "blueprints" that detail best practices in the context of
overall efforts to reduce unemployment in the long term.  "The bottom
line," said the Governor, "is that there are so many people with
disabilities who have the time, talent, and desire to make meaningful
contributions to interested employers.  More companies are recognizing
that creating greater economic opportunity for these workers improves
their own bottom line as well."  For more information, visit:
http://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/page_2012/col2-conte
nt/new-nga-chair-announces-year-lon.html

New Study Validates Parental Reporting as Tool for Identifying Autism

On July 10, the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine
released a new study that confirms parental reporting through a
particular survey is a valid tool for identifying autism in very young
children.  The study focuses on a 63-question assessment known as the
First Year Inventory (FYI) developed to screen one-year olds for
behaviors associated with autism.  Of the children in the research
sample found to be "at risk" according to the FYI, 31 percent were
diagnosed with autism by age 3 and 85 percent were ultimately found to
have a developmental disability of some kind.  Authors of the study say
this indicates that an "overwhelming majority of kids who screen
positive on the FYI indeed experience some delay in development by age
three that may warrant early intervention."  For more information:
http://aut.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/07/04/1362361312439633.abstrac
t.

Unemployment Rate Increases in June for People with Disabilities

On July 6, the Department of Labor reported that American workers with
disabilities lost further ground in June, and placed their unemployment
rate at 13.3 percent, up from 12.9 percent in May. The DOL has tracked
disability employment rates since October 2008; data covers those above
age 16 not living in institutions and is not seasonally-adjusted because
the information available does not yet span enough time.

For more information, visit:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Access Board Creates Panel on Equipment Standards

On July 3rd, the U.S. Access Board announced the formation of an
"advisory panel" to provide expertise on crafting new accessibility
standards for medical diagnostic equipment.  The 27-member panel is
designed to represent a balanced "cross-section" of issue stakeholders
from government, academia, business and the nonprofit sector, with
meetings scheduled to begin in September.  The Access Board is an
independent federal agency created in 1973 to supervise initiatives then
underway to make government facilities more accessible. In recent years,
it has become an information clearinghouse focused on accessible design
for the public and private sectors.

For more information, visit:
http://www.access-board.gov/news/mde-committee-notice.htm

Joey Couch
phone 606-216-8033.
email ki4vjd at gmail.com
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