Disability activists start campaign to keep support for independent living in economic stimulus plan

From the Penny for your thoughts blog:

Here's the situation. The Senate continues to debate their version of H.R. 1, the economic stimulus bill, known as, "the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," this evening. Earlier today, an amendment which could have devastating consequences for the community of people with disabilities and the community of families who rely upon special education to prepare their children for a future of independent living, was introduced by Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Known as the Nelson-Collins Amendment, this amendment proposed to cut economic stimulus funding for people with disabilities in several significant ways. While the exact language in the proposed amendment was not released, it is the understanding of disability rights advocates that the amendment would strike all of the $500 million funding for vocational rehabilitation, cut by half funding for IDEA, from the $13.5 billion which was included in the House bill, to $6.750 billion authorized under the amendment, and significantly decrease funding for Independent Living. As I write this, there has been no word yet concerning
the fate of the Nelson-Collins amendment.

However, various news sources have indicated tonight that an agreement has been reached on proposed language that both Democrats and Republicans can apparently live with. Senate leaders indicate that a vote on the final bill will be scheduled during the week end, after debate on the compromise language occurs.

Not knowing what the compromise language actually entails, it is difficult to recommend specific language to citizens who want to stress to their Senators the importance of including support for people with disabilities in any final stimulus legislation. Nonetheless, it will be valuable for you to communicate with your own Senators to emphasize the importance you attach to issues included in the broad classifications of special education, vocational rehabilitation, and independent living.

Call your Senators at: 202.224.3121.

I tried calling my own Senators from Maryland and found, during the course of the afternoon and evening, that both of their office phone lines were perpetually busy. So, I went to: http://www.senate.gov/ to find their e-mail addresses, and I sent them e-mail.

On days like today, I find myself wondering, nearly 20 years after passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which never has received the federal matching funding promised when the legislation was introduced and passed; and after decades of experiences with uneven enforcement of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, and after so many of us have endured endless variations in our
love-hate relationship with the voc. Rehab. agencies funded under the provisions
of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, why our legislators still seem to consider our needs marginal.

On a day when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their snapshot of unemployment for the month of January, which included the 13.1 unemployment rate for people with disabilities (as compared to the not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for everybody else of 8.3 percent), why would the Senators target people with disabilities, so many of whom were not working in decent jobs even before these latest statistics concerning newly unemployed individuals were collected, as the so-called "fat" in the economic stimulus package?

I'm not feeling fat. I'm feeling deprived. I'm tired of politicians paying lip service to my needs and describing my struggles for independence and a decent quality of life as "noble." I told my Senators, and I hope you will too, to put their money where their collective mouth is. If there was ever a population who could benefit from economic stimulus, it is ours! Don't talk about your disability platforms while you label our needs as the" fat" in the economic stimulus package.

Enough is enough! The Senate leadership has promised to pass some version of the economic stimulus package during the week end, and after that, the Senate bill and the House bill will go to conference, where there will be further opportunities for advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities. Call your Senators now! Call them
tomorrow, and keep right on calling until people with disabilities are seen as worthy of fair treatment in the economic stimulus legislation and all the legislation that will follow.