United Spinal is asking Congress to provide a funding increase to the SCI Model Systems program in fiscal year 2022, so that not only would each existing Model System receive an increase in funding, but that when the next 5-year funding cycle begins in late 2021, there would once again be 18 SCI Model Systems receiving funding from the federal government.

The Build Back Better Act represents significant progress towards fulfilling key goals of United Spinal Association and the disability community by making overdue investments in human infrastructure and addressing longstanding systemic inequities.

United Spinal supports the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act to responsibly end the 14(c) program, which allows employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage.

United Spinal is working with The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), and Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI) to pass the Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion (REAADI) for Disasters Act.

United Spinal is working with The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), and Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) to pass the Disaster Relief Medicaid Act (DRMA), which would address the challenge faced by people with disabilities who are displaced from their homes by a disaster and due to the circumstances are living in a different state. Currently, for people who receive long-term services and supports through Medicaid, this can mean the loss of those services, as a person must be a resident of the state that is providing those services through Medicaid.

Funding for Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS), which helps to keep people with disabilities in our own homes and part of our communities, has long been neglected. The Biden administration, as part of its American Jobs Plan, proposed an investment of $400 billion over 10 years in Medicaid HCBS. Congress has taken the President’s directive and turned it into legislation called the Better Care Better Jobs Act (H.R. 4131/S. 2210). It is essential that this legislation, which is currently being considered as part of a larger package of physical and human infrastructure funding, be funded at the $400 billion figure proposed by the President.

United Spinal and our partners in the disability community worked extensively with Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to introduce the Disability Access to Transportation Act (H.R. 1697/S. 2038), which addresses some of the biggest needs that people with disabilities have with our transportation system.

Access to telehealth has proven to be essential for people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that experience has made it clear that the expanded access to telehealth that was granted on an emergency basis should be made permanent.

United Spinal supports expanded access to telehealth, and the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated just how valuable this service is not just to our community but to all Americans. United Spinal supports the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Peter Welch (VT-AL), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Bill Johnson (R-OH), and Doris Matsui (D-CA).

Telehealth has played a crucial role in the lives and health of people with disabilities throughout the course of the pandemic and the availability of telehealth must be made permanent.

H.R. 110 makes improvements to the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) by designating that VA use consistent criteria in making eligibility decisions to accept veterans into the program; preventing VA from taking actions during a reevaluation to remove veterans currently in the program; and extending the stipend for the caregiver from 90 days to 180 days when a veteran passes away.

According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, Americans with disabilities are nearly three times as likely as non-disabled Americans to say that they never go online (23 percent to 8 percent). For the disability community, it is imperative that we close this gap by supporting universal broadband across the country.

More than 30 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, people with disabilities and older adults who choose to live in the community are still not provided needed community supports and services. United Spinal supports ongoing efforts to expand and improve home and community-based services (HCBS) for all Americans who need them, including people with disabilities.

United Spinal believes that the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act (H.R. 1696/S. 642) includes a number of new protections that will make air travel more accessible to people with disabilities.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility rules haven’t been updated in decades and make it difficult to keep your eligibility if you get married.

We support an increase in the age of eligibility for ABLE account holders from the age of 26 to 46 and hope to have a legislative bill to fix this issue in the 116th Congress.