COVID-19 Advocacy
Update: September 10, 2020
Senate Republicans’ new “skinny” coronavirus relief bill, which didn’t include any of the disability community’s priorities, has failed to get enough votes to move forward.
We encourage everyone to please contact your Senators now and tell them to work together to pass coronavirus relief legislation actually meets the needs of disabled people. You can find more information below, including call and email scripts or you can email your Senators directly here.
Our summary of what disability priorities are and are not included in the bill is available here and for a quick comparison of the Senate’s recent coronavirus relief proposals and the HEROES Act passed by the House, click here.
Overview
The Senate has released a new coronavirus relief package, the HEALS Act. Unlike the HEROES Act passed by the House in May, the bill fails to address the disability community’s most urgent priorities, including additional funding for home and community based services (HCBS), which is desperately needed to help people with disabilities stay in their own homes and out of congregate settings, where they face a higher risk of infection and death from COVID-19. For more on HCBS and why dedicated HCBS funding is so important to the fight against COVID-19, check out our HCBS COVID-19 fact sheet.
The HEALS Act would also shield businesses, non-profits, schools, or medical providers from liability for serious harm related to COVID-19, which would threaten the safety of people with disabilities and older adults in congregate settings, make it easier for employers to escape liability for discrimination and safety violations in the workplace, and allow businesses to refuse to accommodate disabled people.
We need everyone to take action and push your Senators to include our priorities in the relief package that ultimately passes the Senate, so please contact them now! You can find more information below, including call and email scripts and sample social media. More information on our advocacy for people in congregate settings, including around liability issues, can be found here.
Rather than releasing the HEALS Act as a single bill, it has been released as a series of bills. You can find information on each of those bills here. For more on what priorities are and are not included in the HEALS Act, check out our summary here and for a quick comparison of the HEALS Act and the HEROES Act, click here.