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.