Let's All Stay Safe

 I want to focus first on events that our local disability community has coming up:

-    First, this Sunday night is Quality Trust's annual gala, and if you haven't got your ticket yet, do it now!

-    Second, this coming Friday, August 22, DDS will host its monthly noon forum, which this month will focus on proposed changes to the IDD waiver amendment and on future planning.  The $1.6 million that had been cut from the DDA waiver budget by the DC council may also come up in the discussion.

BUT I know people are mostly focused on what is going on around us now.  This article from the 51st talks about the rights people have when interacting with law-enforcement officials.  This is even more important now, since the president announced this week a more direct federal role in DC crimefighting efforts.  What seems to me especially important in this article is:

• You need to provide your full name and address if asked
• It's a good idea to carry your ID and to provide it if asked
• You can always ask if you're free to go

Even though the procedures used by the MPD may differ some from those of federal agencies, if for any reason you're taken into custody you should be able to make a phone call to someone who supports you.

Stay tuned, there will be more helpful information coming your way in the coming days.  The #1 priority is for all of us to stay safe!

We're Getting Closer to a Budget

I imagine most of you are following the headline news with respect to DC's FY2026 budget, but in case you aren't, here is Martin Austermuhle's most recent article in The 51st to cover that territory,

Our issues don't make it into the headlines though, so to clarify:  the $1 million in one-time administrative fees that the Facilities committee restored remained in the DDS budget passed by the council in its first vote, BUT the $1.61 million (which I mistakenly rounded up to $1.7 million in my last post) that the committee stripped from DDS waiver funding was not put back in, since the committee felt it was needed for other important disability-related funding and questioned DDS director Reese's claim that the reduction could lead to a wait list for the waiver later in the year.

There will be another council vote on the budget July 28, but I wouldn't expect this money to show back up in the budget.  This won't have an immediate impact on DDA services, but it adds to future uncertainty, already on the horizon due to federal-level Medicaid changes.  In brief, there's going to be plenty of need for advocacy as the coming year unfolds.

[While you're here, take a look at the first post of my weekly "DClives" Substack newsletter, "Real People."]

And a short postscript:  You may have noticed that former councilmember Trayon White is projected to have defeated his three opponents in the July 15 Ward 8 special election, which could lead to another showdown with colleagues in the council.  The Ward 8 seat on the council has been vacant since White was expelled in February.

FY2026 DDS Budget: Where Do We Stand?

In my last blog post I was encouraging folks to attend the June 16 hearing on the DDS budget.  That hearing has now taken place, and you can find the video by going to this page and selecting the June 16 hearing – the Office of Disability Rights and the Mayor’s Office of Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing come first and are extremely interesting themselves, but the DDS segment starts about an hour and 53 minutes (1:53) into the video.

Since the hearing, Councilmember Lewis George has issued her committee report.  The most notable elements in the committee report are: 1) a one-time increase of $1 million in administrative fees for DDA provider agencies but 2) more confusingly, a cut of $1.7 million in operating funds for the HCBS waiver budget.  The committee report states that this “1.4% reduction should not diminish services to those people receiving waiver supports and services from DDA,” but DDS seems to believe otherwise so it seems discussions between the administration and the council are continuing on this. Hopefully this confusion will be resolved in the next week.

The first full-council vote on the FY2026 budget will take place on July 14, with the final budget vote scheduled for July 28.  

DC Disability Budget Hearing on June 16

The hearing on the DDS budget is next Monday, June 16, and from what I can tell only thirteen people have signed up, so there's plenty of room for more.  As I reported in my most recent post, the DDS budget was relatively well protected in the mayor's proposed budget for FY2026, particularly given the lack of Congressional action to restore the funds they abruptly erased from DC's FY2025 budget.  Still, there are some troubling elements, such as the fact that future funding for the DSP wage act of 2020 is not assured.  (Note: go here for unfamiliar terms or abbreviations.)  Given the continuing difficulty in locating and retaining staff to support residents with disabilities, this could mean more vacancies as people choose other types of employment instead.

The biggest concern going forward, though, is what will be happening to Medicaid nationally and how that will affect our local programming.  For this reason, when Andy Reese made his presentation on May 30, he said he would initiate an effort starting later in the summer to identify the reasons for significant increases in support costs and ways to bring those costs down.

The Mayor's Budget is Out

Well, we now have the mayor's budget in hand, described here by our friend Martin Austermuhle.  These are tough times and there's a lot of concern over the focus on longer-term economic growth at the expense of some near-term social programs, including those for people who aren't US citizens.  There's no doubt that the mayor is treading very carefully though, since otherwise the Congress and President Trump could easily slash our overall budget at any time.

Given this context, it was a relief to learn at the DDS Friday forum that there are not major cuts foreseen to current supports to people with developmental disabilities, and hopefully this won't change after council consideration.  (The clothing allowance reduction from last year will remain, though, and there are deeper cuts to administrative fees than last year.)  The power point and recording from last Friday will be found here and here as of this Wednesday 6/4, and the hearing on the DDS budget will take place on Monday June 16:  sign up here to testify.  The DD council can assist if folks need help with their testimony. [I haven't studied or heard how the EPD waiver is affected in the budget, but that hearing is on June 11, and you can sign up here to testify.]

Time is short, and the council will be voting on the mayor's budget in July.

Thanks for reading!  And note also that as of last month I've started a weekly newsletter on Substack entitled "DClives," about the real DC where people live and don't just pass through.  Here is my latest installment.

Keep Your Eyes on the DC Budget and Medicaid

The wheels keep turning, and the news continues to be...only not as bad as it could be.

Based on this report, and in line with DDS director Reese's announcement at the meeting of DC's Project ACTION! meeting on Saturday May 17, DC's chief financial officer started his 10-day review of the mayor's FY2026 budget last Thursday, which by my count would put it into the DC council's hands by a week from today (although that's Memorial Day, so probably May 27 instead).  Mendelson reported that he expects the council to hold its final budget vote on August 1, so it's looking like a busy June and July for budget hearings.  Meantime, no word on a fix in the House of Representatives for DC's FY2025 budget, so $410 million in cuts can be expected before the end of September.

DDS director Reese also announced at Project ACTION! that the DDS forum on May 23 would focus on the IFS waiver and vocational rehabilitation state plan, with, hopefully, a briefing on the proposed DDS budget for FY 2026 on May 30.

The fate of Medicaid nationally continues to churn.  The House budget committee passed a budget reconciliation bill over the weekend, rumored to have gotten the votes of the House Freedom Caucus based on the promise that Medicaid work requirements would start in 2027 instead of in 2029 as agreed by the House energy and commerce committee the previous weekend.  And for some of the most conservative House representatives, even this isn't enough.

Still Plenty of Uncertainty Ahead

Tomorrow.  Friday, May 16.  That's when the House budget committee will be considering the steep cuts to Medicaid that were proposed by the House Energy and Commerce committee on Sunday (after the 24-hour vigil to protect Medicaid that took place last week).  The proposed cuts focus on work requirements and eligibility restrictions, which would likely result in fewer Medicaid recipients overall.  For the moment though, no targeted reduction in the percentage of DC's federal Medicaid funding is included in the cuts - though this could change.

Our DC officials are working overtime to protect DC, not only with respect to Medicaid, but also to encourage the long-delayed vote in the House to permit our planned local spending in this fiscal year.  Fortunately, it appears that the amount we stand to lose could now be lower than the $1.1 billion originally projected, but it's still the case that we are looking at significant cuts in our spending between now and the end of September, which also is affecting the mayor's presentation of the budget for next year.  The delay also obviously affects the DDS budget briefing, which could still take place this month but is far from certain.  DC council hearings on the FY2026 budget, which normally start in March, may now not happen before June.

So - Things are better than they might have been, thanks to fancy footwork by the mayor's team, but we still have a long road ahead.

Advocating through the Night for Medicaid

 

I was proud to join advocates from DC and around the country yesterday for part of the 24-hour vigil for Medicaid, which is still going on as I write this blog post.  Besides the cuts being considered nationwide, the Energy and Commerce committee of the House of Representatives, where we in DC have no voting representation, is considering shifting the federal funding for Medicaid in DC from 70% to 50%, which would have devastating consequences.  

For now, it appears that the House committee has postponed its voting on the Medicaid cuts, but analysis has shown that in order to cut the government's budget deficit by $880 billion over the next ten years as directed by the House budget resolution, the House will indeed be cutting Medicaid, which is unacceptable.  So when you ask your friends and family living outside DC to write or phone their representatives NOW in opposition to Medicaid cuts, remind them to protect the cuts to DC Medicaid as well.  

They're coming for DC Medicaid too

Well, the celebrating over the past few days has been about Mayor Bowser's tentative deal with the Commanders to return to RFK Stadium (which still needs DC council approval).  At about the same time she was announcing that breakthrough, though, the mayor was also holding a press conference warning of the "dire impacts" of changes in the federal contribution to DC's Medicaid program that are being proposed by some in Congress.  This DC-specific proposal is part of a package of potential Medicaid cuts that I wrote about in my latest blog post.  Even though the mayor understandably focused on the consequences for local hospitals and health care, she mentioned that there would be effects on other programs, and as we know, this could affect our local disability supports as well.

The House of Representatives committee overseeing Medicaid will meet day after tomorrow to finalize these cuts, as described in this article.  While - as usual - we in DC have little ability to affect decisions that affect us directly, one thing you can do is look at this list of members of the House Energy and Commerce committee, and see if you know anyone in the districts they represent that you can ask to write in opposition to this DC-specific change, as well as any Medicaid reductions being considered in their own state.

We'll all been focused on the House's failure to restore its $1.1 billion in cuts to local DC funding in the current fiscal year, which continues to affect the mayor's presentation of next year's budget.  But these looming Medicaid cuts, if they go through, are even more significant because the effects will extend long before this year and hit the most vulnerable people in DC most directly.

So again, look at that list of members of the House Energy and Commerce committee, and generate those calls, letters and emails to them today and tomorrow!  There's no time to waste!

You Can Help Save Disability Protections Nationwide

NORMALLY MY BLOG IS OF MOST INTEREST TO PEOPLE WHO RESIDE IN DC, BUT THIS TIME THERE'S ESSENTIAL INFORMATION - AND A CALL TO ACTION - FOR THOSE OF YOU LIVING IN ONE OF THE FIFTY STATES!  PLEASE READ ON!

I won't lie to you:  this morning's Project ACTION! (https://www.facebook.com/dcprojectaction/) meeting was pretty discouraging.  

That's in part because the House is still on recess and we still don't know where we stand with DC's FY2025 budget.

But it was also discouraging to learn about the impact the Trump administration's FY 2026 budget passback for the US Department of Health and Human Services could have for essential disability supports nationwide, as explained here by the American Association of People with Disabilities.  

And this is where you - in DC but especially in places where you have voting representatives in the US Congress - can make a big difference - go to this page, fill it out, and also send it to your voting representatives.  SAVE ESSENTIAL DISABILITY ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT THE US by making your voice heard NOW.