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CEC's Policy Insider is your connection to special & gifted
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CEC Celebrates-
HHS Rescinds Medicaid Regulations!!
The fireworks and celebration began early at
CEC this week. On Monday, Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the administration will
rescind all or part of three Medicaid regulations that were previously
issued and delay the enforcement of a fourth regulation. Each of these
rules, in whole or in part, had been subject to Congressional moratoria
set to expire on July 1, 2009.
CEC, along with the disability, health and education advocacy
communities, worked for over two years to ensure these regulations were
not implemented. To achieve this victory, CEC members sent thousands of
letters to the Hill and conducted multiple visits with Senators and
Representatives to explain the negative impacts these rules would have.
Indeed, this issue was second only to IDEA full funding in terms of
CEC's advocacy efforts. This victory represents a savings to local
school districts and early intervention programs of almost $9 billion
dollars. The rescinded regulations ensure that local districts will
continue to receive reimbursement for school-based administrative costs
and costs of transportation to and from schools, allow beneficiaries to
access case management services and retain the scope of services
recognized as an outpatient hospital service under Medicare.
CEC is pleased its advocacy efforts paid off. Read more about CEC's involvement
and its many efforts in this area. CEC thanks its members for all of their support and encourages
everyone to share this good news!
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Health Care Reform
Advances: CEC monitors impact on disability issues
The Senate and House have
released broad outlines of health care reform legislation. On June 9th,
Democrats on the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions)
Committee released draft legislative language and a summary of their
health care reform plan, the "Affordable Health Choices Act." On June
19, the chairmen of the three committees with jurisdiction over health
policy in the U.S. House of Representatives, House Ways & Means
Chairman Rangel (D-NY), Education and Labor Chairman Miller (D-CA), and
Energy and Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA), jointly released their
discussion draft for health care reform. Finally, in July, the
Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its draft legislation.
President Obama has stated he would like health care reform in place
before the August recess.
CEC wants to ensure that any legislation
eventually passed respects students with disabilities and ensures they
are included. To that end, CEC is monitoring this process to
ensure that legislation is affordable, does not exclude for pre-existing
conditions, and covers not just acute care, but also long term and
chronic issues which often impact students with disabilities.
Specifically, CEC is concerned about the effect this legislation will
have on Medicaid. Both of the current drafts increase services under
Medicaid. Much work is left to be done, however, and many more details
need to be provided before CEC can determine whether it will support any
particular bill.
One other facet of the healthcare debate
which CEC is monitoring is the potential use of reconciliation
legislation. If Congress cannot pass free-standing health care
legislation by October 15, the Budget Resolution deadline, legislators
may use a reconciliation bill. The advantage of using reconciliation
legislation is that it cannot be filibustered on the Senate floor, so it
only requires a majority vote to pass. Since 1980, the
reconciliation process has been used 18 times and has been initiated by
both republicans and democrats.
This year the Senate adopted reconciliation instructions which included
both education and healthcare. Since only one reconciliation bill can be
approved per year, if reconciliation is used for education, approval of
education funding will likely hinge on whether and when healthcare
reform passes.
CEC continues to monitor this process and will provide periodic updates
on it here in the Policy Insider.
Read the "Affordable Health Choices
Act".
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Celebrate this 4th of July by Exercising your Patriotic
Strength!
Advocate
to Congress for Funding of Programs for Students with
Exceptionalities!!!
On July
10, the House appropriations subcommittee, which governs education, will
decide how to fund IDEA and the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented
Students Education Act when it marks up the FY 2010 appropriations bill.
This is an important moment in the budget process: this subcommittee
makes the first and possibly the most important decisions about how and
where to invest federal dollars in education. Therefore, CEC is urging
its members to tell their representatives that fully funding IDEA and
increasing funding for the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students
Education Act (Javits) are essential.
Details: The appropriations subcommittee covers Labor,
Health and Human Services and Education. It has a total budget of
$160.65 billion, a number allocated to it by the House Appropriations
Committee in the end of June. Out of that total pot, the subcommittee
will decide how to fund all of the programs it covers. Its
decisions must ultimately be approved by the full House, Senate and the
President. Congressional appropriators, therefore, must attempt to
reconcile their allocations with the President's objectives. CEC is
concerned because the President recommended eliminating Javits
and only funding IDEA at its FY 2009 level, $11.5
billion. To read CEC's full story about the
President's budget request click here. Although the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act boosted education spending and its funds are available
through FY2011, the Administration's recommendations fail to acknowledge
the decade's long commitment to fully fund IDEA, the great work of
Javits, and the negative effect the growing economic crises in the
states are having on special and gifted education.
Therefore, CEC is asking the subcommittee to allocate the following
amounts for special and gifted education:
$14,434,200 billion to Part B - Grants to States
$774,100 million to Part B
619 - Preschool Program
$939,427 million to Part C -
Infants and Toddlers
$181,662
million for State Personnel Development Grants
$339,102 million for
Personnel Preparation
$181,662 million for TA,
Demonstration Projects,
Dissemination of
Information and Implementation of Scientifically Based
Research
$121,108 million for Parent
Information Centers
$121,108 million for
Technology Development, Demonstration
$20 million to Jacob K.
Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act
$278,548 million for
Research in Special Education
Take
Action--Two Easy Ways to Advocate for Exceptional Children:
1)
Send a letter: using CEC's Legislative Action
Center to your
Congressman explaining why the above programs are important and asking
him/her to fund them according to CEC 's recommendations. The LAC is
easy to use. Just enter your zip code, personalize the letter we have
already drafted for you and click send. It's easy to
help!
Congress's Next Steps: The House
Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the subcommittee's
mark ups on July 14. Following this, the bill will go to the House
floor and the full chamber will vote on it. The House's floor vote is
tentatively scheduled for July 21. The Senate's schedule is unclear at
this time.
Stay tuned
to CEC's Policy Insider for updated information.
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The Policy
Insider is a publication of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).
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purposes only. © Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). All rights
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