March 5, 2019•Advocacy Matters
Listen to Advocacy Matters March 5, 2019: Congressional Update
Listen to Disability Matters Radio Show with Joyce Bender
March 5, 2019
#AdvocacyMatters Segment
Congressional Update
Hi Joyce. This is an exciting week in Congress. We have an update several issues we have discussed on #AdvocacyMatters.
The United State Senate Committee on Finance will host a hearing to examine abuse and neglect in nursing homes. The hearing will be held tomorrow morning at 10:15 am. The Senate Committee will broadcast the hearing live from the Dirksen Senate Office Building. A link to the hearing will be available on DRP’s twitter and Facebook page.
On Feb 11th, #AdvocacyMatters talked about the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. Both the House and Senate bills promotes economic self-sufficiency by phasing out the subminimum wage and transitioning to fair wages for individuals with disabilities. The transitions happen over 5 years and moves us from $4.25 per hour to $12.85 per hour.
The Committee on Education and Labor will mark up HR 582, The Raise the Wage Act on Wednesday, March 6, 2019. DRP will tweet and post on Facebook the hearing date, time and location. 10:15 on March 6th.
H.R. 555, the Disability Integration Act was reintroduced into the 116th Congress. This bill is so important because it address long term services and support for people with disabilities to live in the community instead of being forced into the costly institutional settings.
When we aired the segment on the DIA on February 5th, there were 24 cosponsors in the Senate and 66 in the House. Now there are 100 cosponsors in the House and 25 in the Senate.
The disability advocacy community is pushing hard to have members co-sponsor the Disability Rights Integration Act and push the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the legislation.
Wednesday is a national call to action day on the Disability Integration Act.
DRP will have resources on our twitter and Facebook page related to the Disability Integration Act for all to participate in the national call to action day.
#AdvocacyMatters. The goal of the advocacy community is to pass the Disability Integration Act by July 26th – the 29th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act. To do so, the bill must have more cosponsors and have a hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Committee.
To take action on this legislation, please use this link: http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51104/c/199/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=25884