Earlier this week, the Senate proposed a new package of COVID-19 relief bills called the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools Act (the HEALS Act) as a counter-proposal to the HEROES Act, which passed the House in May. While the HEROES Act contained increased dedicated funding for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), the HEALS Act omitted funding for HCBS. To date, there has been ZERO funding for HCBS allocated by Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting people with disabilities and the agencies that support them at grave risk.

Increased HCBS funding is needed so that agencies that support people with intellectual/developmental disabilities can purchase personal protective equipment, cover staff overtime and hazard pay and provide supports such as day and employment services that temporarily closed to maintain social distancing. HCBS funding is also crucial to help people with disabilities and older adults stay in their own homes and avoid unnecessary placement in dangerous congregate settings, where there have been extremely high infection and death rates during the pandemic.

The House and Senate will begin meeting shortly to reconcile the differences between the HEALS Act and HEROES Act, and we need to loudly and clearly demand that Congress include funding for these essential HCBS supports for people with disabilities, their families, and the direct support professional workforce.

Please ask your Senator TODAY to include increased HCBS funding in the final COVID-19 package. It’s urgent that they hear from as many of us as possible. Please also contact Senate Leadership – Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators. We also encourage you to tweet your Senators and use the hashtags #WhatWeNeed and #WeAreEssential. You can find their social media information here.

For more on what priorities are and are not included in the HEALS Act, check out the Center for Public Representation’s summary here and for a quick comparison of the HEALS Act and the HEROES Act, click here. Rather than releasing the HEALS Act as a single bill, it has been released as a series of bills. You can find information on each of those bills here.

 

Call your Members of Congress:

1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at: (202) 224-3121 (voice) or (202) 224-3091(tty) and ask to be connected to your Senators.

2. You can use this easy tool to find your members of Congress.

[IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address and zip code to ensure your call is tallied]

Thank you for your advocacy efforts!

The NDSC Policy & Advocacy Team

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