2014 is near end and a lot has happened this year regarding national autism legislations and news. There are some items that I was interested in following that relate to autism.
First, the ABLE Act Passed the U.S House of Reps on Dec 3rd by a vote of 404 for yeas and 17 nays. It is worth noting all eight Minnesota house members (5 DLFers and 3 GOPs) voted for this. HR 647 had an impressive bipartisan in a partisan town and this was a great example of when we all work together – we all are abled and achieve. To explain this act to those that might not follow autism and Congress news. About eight years ago, disability parents contacted their congress members asking to pass a tax free savings account (Achieving a Better Life Experience) for their disabled children. As is with life, members of Congress especially those with children that have disability felt empathy and the need to pass this. However, initially the office of congressional budget office estimated the cost around 20 billion which then made many sort of not push to pass it. The ABLE Act will amend the current tax code and allow people with disabilities including autism to save for college, medical needs, housing, etc. This explains better what it does and it does not do as well as when states will comply with this new law.
Then began the negotiations of how to pass this and make it cost a little less. CBO estimated the cost down to 2 billion. And it overwhelmingly passed the House in first week of Dec 2014. It had 380 co-sponsors. One person I noticed that did NOT vote for this bill that will help all people with disability including autism was current DNC (Democratic National Committee) chair Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz. When I called her office to find out why, they directed me to this statement. Yes, we should not be cutting benefits to seniors and Medicare, but really the head of the DNC – the party that tell us they are for the low income, disabled and the underdog, I think this was a poor excuse and a sorry excuse for not supporting people with disabilities.
On the Senate side the bill was S313 and it had an equally impressive bipartisan cosponsors of 78 and was authored by Sen Casey a DFLer from PA. It passed with 76 YEAs and 16 NEYs. Again, it is worth noting both our MN senators voted for it. A one NO was from Sen Warren of MA – you know the rising DFL star who was against the Cromnibus because it removed some Dodd/Frank regulations for Wall Street. Rep Frank is from MA – connecting the dots here. Being from Boston and all, I contacted Sen mighty high horse Warren’s office asking why she didn’t vote for this extremely bipartisan bill and they said they will check with her and no response thus far.
I really thank The Nationwide ARC for staying with this legislation throughout the years until its final signature by President Obama on Dec 19, 2014.
What is a Cromnibus and who the heck cares? Well, we all should even if it has a weird name.
This bill is thousands of pages long and really who reads all of it. The areas that interested me and relate to autism were for the funding under HHS which is where NIH and CDC are under along with CMS. Things stayed pretty much the same, except NIH got some funding for brain research which hopefully will include autism. Here is that portion of this huge spending bill. It also had a slight increase for special education, but not nearly as much as needed. Special education has been grossly under-funded by Congress for years despite the fact that autism and other developmental disorders have risen. If you want information on special education funding, contact Rep Kline from Minnesota who chairs that committee.
Also, remember all of the hoopla about police body cameras that President Obama talked about and was supposedly added to the budget. Guess what, it has been removed and I checked with Congressional Black Caucus – you know the folks that should be fighting for us. They had no comment, just disappointed. Now what now. If so, then why was Rep Maxine Waters making all of those comments about the Dodd/Frank provision removal. I am sorry, but Black Americans would do much better if those that reflect us in Congress actually spoke for us. In other words, Let Warren and Pelosi who is one of the wealthiest members in congress scream about some Wall Street legislation. By the way, Pelosi lecturing about wall street is sort of like Eliot Spitzer or Anthony Weiner lecturing about good marriage. If you are a member of CBC – scream about racial injustice, racial health disparity and racial education gap – period. Sadly, they don’t. From NAACP, NUL, CBC all take their cues from the media and then take on that as a cause for African Americans. Personally, it bothers me to my core.
There was some change in how long truck drivers can drive which indirectly affects Somali autism parents given many of them are truck drivers. Of course, no one in our community follows state or federal legislations that affect our community. In sum, the way a crumnibus works is very similar to the way a state omnibus works. Some bills get a full hearing and the public get to hear it and debate and some sort of sneak in because they have high powered lobbying groups or members of Congress pushing it.
Another interesting thing that almost no one reported was the sudden discontinuance of children’s study by NIH. American Academy of Peds said it was disappointed. I guess I am sad it was stopped before it even got off the ground and we will now not have that study which would’ve had a huge impact on autism.
Finally, my two cents on Black Lives Matter nationwide and Minnesota is – fight strategically with change in policy and politics not in privately owned malls or business. That gets us nowhere. I think it is better if we protest in front of elected official’s offices, state capitols and in congress along with advocating and pushing change in policies and more diversity in law enforcement, county attorneys, county prosecutors, judges and politicians. For example, Minnesota has dozens of county attorneys – guess how many are Blacks and minorities or even women. Not many – that is where we need to change through our voices and our votes. For example, Minnesota Senate Committee will hear on Dec 22, 2014 about the proposed body cameras for Mpls. Imagine if MN Black Lives Matter testified and showed up in this committee with similar numbers they did at Mall of America which is not even owned by Americans, rather brothers from Iran. Come on, we must advocate with a focus.
Above words do not reflect any committee, agency or candidate.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate