Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd to Testify at NCD Policy Forum on Voting Access

Excerpt from: National Council on Disability (click for full article)

 

Former United States Senator Chris Dodd, author of the Help America Vote Act, is scheduled to provide testimony and receive questions. Senator Dodd served in the United States Congress representing Connecticut for 36 years – six years in the House of Representatives and thirty years in the U.S. Senate.

Through his tireless leadership securing passage of HAVA, Senator Dodd fought for a simple yet profound truth: in the United States of America, every voter – including voters with disabilities -- should have an equal opportunity to vote privately and independently, and that vote should be counted.

In addition to Senator Dodd, the event will include testimony from representatives of federal agencies, the Administration, and the disability civil rights community.

This event is open to the public. The event will be held in Dirksen Senate 608 beginning at 2:00 PM. Those planning to attend should schedule an additional 30 minutes for long lines at security and to get settled into the room before the event starts. Those unable to join in person can follow the proceedings live on Twitter using the hashtag #NCDVote.

DCA Fact Sheet: FAQs About the Affordable Care Act

Excerpt from: Direct Care Alliance, Inc. (click for full article)

 

Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health reform act often referred to as Obamacare, in 2010, but it will not be fully implemented until 2014. While opponents of the law have attacked it as unconstitutional and bad for America, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional, and millions of Americans are already benefiting from it. Nonetheless, considerable confusion remains about what it will accomplish. This fact sheet answers some frequently asked questions about the new law and explains how it benefits millions of Americans, including direct care workers.

Congress Rewrites IDEA Funding Rule

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

A small change tucked inside a government spending bill this month may have big implications for special education.

Lawmakers included language clarifying the penalties that states may face if they fail to adequately fund education programs for students with disabilities. The issue has become significant in recent years as states struggled financially in the recession and some sought to cut education spending.

Under federal law, special education funding must be maintained or increased from one year to the next. If states fail to meet what’s known as “maintenance of effort” without obtaining a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education, they can lose out on future federal dollars.

At least two states — South Carolina and Kansas — got into trouble in recent years for slashing their special education budgets without federal approval. As a result, they faced permanent reductions in their allocations from the Department of Education.

Is the Estate Tax Doomed?

Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)

 

Under the deal struck by President Obama and Congress to avert the “fiscal cliff,” the estate tax — long targeted for elimination by Republicans — survived, but in a substantially diminished form.

The estate tax has a history as long and controversial as the income tax. Its first modern version appeared in the federal tax code in 1916, three years after the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which authorized the federal income tax. Advocates of the estate tax see it as a crucial tool for raising revenue and a buffer against the sharp, nearly inexorable rise in inequality over the past four decades. Opponents, who call the levy “the death tax,” say it penalizes savers, harms growth and interferes with parents’ ability to pass on their wealth to their children.

March 20 Briefing: What's The State Of LTC Financing - And What Are The Options For The Future?

Excerpt from: The Scan Foundation (click for full article)

 

On Wednesday, March 20, 2013, national experts convened for a briefing hosted by The SCAN Foundation on the key issues affecting the nation's long-term care system. They presented practical options from various perspectives for increasing access to affordable long-term care services for the millions of Americans needing this support.  Congress recently created a national commission to develop a plan for the nation's growing long-term care needs. A series of policy papers was also released.

Expanded ADA Accommodations Sought

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

Two bills introduced this week in Congress would broaden access to the movies for people with disabilities.

Under legislation proposed Wednesday, the Americans with Disabilities Act would be amended to require movie theaters to offer closed captioning and audio descriptions of films to aid those with visual or hearing impairments. The accommodations would be required at all showings at movie theaters with two or more screens.

A second bill would mandate captioning and narration on all airplanes where in-flight video entertainment is offered.

About the Sequester

Excerpt from: medpage today (click for full article)

 

With the sequester in place, some in Congress have embraced it, believing that these across-the-board cuts can actually help address our long-term fiscal problems. They are badly mistaken.

This Congress has not even begun to grapple with what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has called our greatest fiscal challenge: rising healthcare costs. In fact, the debate around the sequester has diverted attention from the more fundamental goals of "bending the curve" of rising per capita healthcare costs and getting more value for our public and private healthcare dollars.

The need for further action to address these longer-term problems remains. Congress has three choices: continued, indiscriminate meat-ax cuts like the sequester; shifting of federal costs onto consumers, health plans or employers; or a smart savings approach that finally addresses the enormous levels of waste and inefficiency in our health system.

Sequestration Will Hurt Kids With Disabilities

Excerpt from: Special Education Law Blog (click for full article)

 

Sequestration starts today unless the Congress acts.  It will hurt the education of children with disabilities!

How will IDEA be affected? Under sequestration, federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will be reduced by $1,053,600,000 in 2013, or 28 percent of the total reduction to education programs. 

You can view an analysis and explanation by our friends at IDEA money watch here.

You can see the amount of money that your state  and the projected number of special ed staff will lose on this chart.

What the 'Sequester' Could Mean for You

Excerpt from: AARP (click for full article)

 

Here we go again: Congress and the White House simply can't get past their budget differences.

At this point, the nation is no longer facing a single trigger point that would unleash economic calamity. Instead, with no deal in sight, we face a series of them:

• March 1 — The "sequester" — a very large remnant of the deal that averted the "fiscal cliff" at the beginning of the year — kicks in and cuts a whopping $85 billion from military and domestic programs.
  
  
• March 27 — Funding to continue running the country expires, meaning the government shuts down.
  
  
• May 18 — Uncle Sam again hits the debt ceiling, meaning we can't borrow more money. Come July or August, we'll be facing default.

What Sequestration Means for Elders

Excerpt from: Time Goes By (click for full article)

 

In nine days, on 1 March, the so-called “sequestration” - also known as the Budget Control Act - will take effect meaning automatic and immediate across-the-board cuts to federal spending in the amount of $85 billion for 2013.

That is, it will happen unless Congress passes new legislation that would forgo the sequestration or, at least, postpone it for awhile. But as usual with Congress when one of their regularly-scheduled and manufactured crisis deadlines is imminent, they're out of town and off the job until next week.

Meanwhile, some Congressional Republicans are saying (with barely concealed glee), let it happen and damn the consequences, while President Barack Obama sticks his nose in front of a camera every day predicting terrible things if sequestration is not stopped.