COVID-19 Advocacy
Update: February 17, 2021
Join us in a disability community day of action today to encourage your members of Congress to include dedicated funding for home and community-based services (HCBS) in the next COVID relief bill! The budget reconciliation bill the House is working on does include this important funding, but we need to make sure that funding remains in the final bill.
The disability community has been fighting for additional HCBS funding since the start of the pandemic. HCBS funding is urgently needed to help disabled people and older adults live safely in their homes rather than being forced into nursing homes and other congregate settings where COVID-19 is rampant.
Contact your members of Congress today! You can email and tweet your Senators and Representative directly here. You can also find more information on contacting your members of Congress, including email and call scripts and sample tweets below.
More on the House’s budget reconciliation bill and other recent coronavirus relief proposals can be found on our legislation page.
Overview
Work on a new coronavirus relief bill began with the release of the Biden-Harris administration’s $1.9 trillion proposed COVID-19 relief plan. The plan included many important priorities, including full federal Medicaid funding for administration of vaccines and additional housing and nutrition funding. It also, importantly, would phase out the subminimum wage, including for people with disabilities.
It did not, however, include additional dedicated funding for home and community-based services (HCBS). HCBS funding is urgently needed to help disabled people and older adults live safely in their homes rather than being forced into nursing homes and other congregate settings where COVID-19 is rampant.
Ten Republicans then met with President Biden to discuss a $600 billion proposal. That proposal has so far failed to gain momentum.
Congress has now begun moving forward with new coronavirus relief provided as part of a larger budget reconciliation bill. The relief provided largely matches the Biden Administration’s proposal, but importantly would also include dedicated funding for HCBS. You can find more information on the budget reconciliation bill and other COVID relief proposals on our legislation page.
There has been pressure to remove this much needed funding from the bill, so we need to urge members of Congress support HCBS funding and work to ensure it remains in the final bill.
Please take a moment now to contact your members of Congress! It’s important that they hear from us about why this funding matters! A sample email and call script, tweets, and more are included below and you can email your Senators directly here.
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.