Policy Corner: February 14, 2020

President Releases FY2021 Budget Requests

The president sent his $4.8 trillion budget request to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2021 to Congress. Referred to as the “Budget for America’s Future,” the president’s budget calls for deep cuts to programs impacting individuals with disabilities, including persons with brain injury. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Program was spared from cuts or elimination. Funding for the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research program, however, is recommended to be cut by nearly $22 million. Overall, the budget calls for a $143 million cut to ACL, the division that oversees disability-specific federal programs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is also proposed to take a hit in the amount of $50 million. Although the president’s budget request appears to propose a funding increase of roughly $50 million, this increase is due solely to the inclusion of a new program on Drug-Free Communities funded at $100 million. The proposal is to combine several programs, including the CDC TBI Program, into a block grant with CDC setting priorities as to what programs and how much funding would be available.

Other proposals include:

• Nearly one trillion dollars to be cut from Medicaid through per capita caps or block grants and limiting Medicaid expansion to people with very low incomes.
• Significant cuts to all Developmental Disabilities (DD) Act Programs: State Councils on DD (-28%), Protection and Advocacy for DD (-5%), University Centers for Excellence in DD (-21%), and Projects of National Significance (-92%).
• Nearly 30% cut in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), referred to as food stamps, by limiting the number of people who can maintain benefits by imposing additional work requirements. It also contains the “Harvest Box” proposal, which would give low-income families prepackaged goods as SNAP benefits instead of allowing them to choose what to eat for themselves.
• Elimination of the Social Services Block Grant, a flexible source of funds used by states to help prevent abuse and neglect, provide family supports, and prevent the institutionalization of persons with disabilities, among other things.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development is cut by 15% below 2020 enacted levels ($8.6 billion), not including those cuts offset by Federal Housing Administration receipts, including zeroing out the Community Development Block Grant program and the National Housing Trust Fund.

The budget would cut overall Department of Education funding by nearly$5.6 billion,or a 7.8% decrease compared to 2020 enacted levels. The budget proposes consolidating nearly 29 different public school programs serving different subsets of low-income students and students of color into a single, one-size-fits-all $19.4 billion “Elementary and Secondary Education for the Disadvantaged” block grant for schools. Some of the consolidated programs include programs specifically for disadvantaged populations including Native Hawaiian, homeless, and migrant students, as well as funding specifically for rural education and community schools. The new block grant offers $4.7 billion less than the combined funding of all 29 programs. The proposed budget calls for a new tax credit of $50 billion over 10 years to support school vouchers. Such initiatives, which forfeit public funds, do not have to accept nor appropriately serve students with disabilities.

In response to the president’s budget, the co-chairs of the Fiscal Policy Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, of which the Brain Injury Association of America is a member, composed a statement of record expressing deep concern with regard to the drastic cuts for programs that support the health and well-being of people with disabilities. House and Senate leaders have also indicated that the budget will not be considered.

House Passes Emergency Supplemental Appropriations

The House of Representatives passed the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief and Puerto Rico Disaster Tax Relief Act, H.R. 5687. The funding package includes tax provisions directed at Puerto Rico and other territories that are estimated to cost $16.1 billion in annual deficits over the coming decade. Those include expanded earned income and child tax credits. The bill is now in the Senate, where it has less support.

House Committee Marks Up Bill to Ban Surprised Medical Billing

The House Education and Labor Committee marked up the Ban Surprise Billing Act, H.R. 5800, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott Scott (D-Va.), for the purpose of ending surprise medical billing and increasing transparency in health coverage. In certain circumstances, the bill would require insurers to reimburse out-of-network providers based on the median payment rate for in-network care.

House Oversight Committee Studies Food Stamp Regulations

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy held hearings last week on the negative effects of the regulations proposed by the Administration to SNAP. A final rule was issued in December that could limit food stamps to nearly 700,000 households with children. The committee’s extensive series of hearings will assess the detrimental impact of the administration’s actions on child poverty, housing, hunger, and health.

House Veterans Committee Prioritizes Suicide Prevention Concerning Military and Veterans

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.), in opening remarks before a hearing, announced that suicide prevention is the committee’s number one legislative priority. Rep. Takano made his remarks before the full committee oversight hearing, “Caring for Veterans in Crisis: Ensuring a Comprehensive Health System Approach.” He announced a new strategy to address veteran suicide that is based on the CDC Seven Core Strategies for Suicide Prevention. The committee’s strategy has seven goals: strengthen economic supports, strengthen access and delivery of care, create protective environments, promote connectedness, teach coping and problem-solving skills, identify and support people at risk, and lessen harm and prevent future risks for all veterans. The committee intends to take these steps for all veterans, not just those already in VA care.