Action Alert: Tell Congress the New Interim COVID-19 Funding Bill MUST Include Disability Supports
Today, Congress announced it is working on an interim COVID-19 funding bill to sustain small businesses while it works on a larger relief package that we anticipate will be debated in May. This represents an additional opportunity to reassert to Congress that funding disability supports is a matter of life or death.
The Ask: Use this tool to ask that interim COVID-19 small business relief legislation include funding for providers of I/DD supports.
The Details: Specifically, we need you to ask Congress to support funding that would:
Stabilize Medicaid-funded supports so they remain operational during the crisis.
Retain essential community supports currently suspended due to social isolation, to ensure they can reopen after the crisis.
Supercharge staff stabilization, retention, and recruitment.
As reported by Politico:
Congress and the Trump administration are quickly nearing a deal on more than $400 billion in emergency funding for small businesses hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with the Senate expected to vote on the legislation on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday.
Word of the impending deal came after Congress allowed the small-business rescue fund it set up to exhaust its $350 billion funding capacity on Thursday, amid a standoff over Democrats’ demand that the package include aid for hospitals and state and local governments. It appears Democrats will get some of their new demands, but will have to fight for the state and local funding in the next round of aid.
Please speak up today! Your continued pressure was effective in encouraging Congress to include policies that strengthen disability supports in previous COVID-19 legislation. Now, more support is critical to address the needs of people with disabilities and those who support them during this crisis.