Policy Corner: March 5, 2021

CBITF Hosts Virtual Briefing for Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) and the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, chaired by Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), hosted a virtual Brain Injury Awareness Day congressional briefing March 3. The briefing, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Persons with Brain Injury,” is available as a recording here.

House Advances COVID-19 Relief Bill

The Senate is taking up the American Rescue Plan, H.R. 1319, today and this weekend. The House passed the bill last Saturday. The House version includes a provision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years and end subminimum wages, including 14(c) waivers for employees with disabilities. However, the Senate parliamentarian has already ruled that the $15 minimum wage and the provision to end subminimum wages will not be a part of the package as both provisions violate Senate rules for a reconciliation bill.

After Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) called for the Senate staff to read the entire bill out loud yesterday, the Senate began debating the bill and offering amendments. Tonight they will hold a vote-a-rama, when Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the bill. One amendment that advocates are watching is one that would create a closed-door, fast-tracked commission to cut Social Security and Medicare. This has been introduced before in a separate bill called the “Trust Act.”

The House version of the bill contains an increase in the federal match for Medicaid home- and community-based services for individuals with disabilities and older adults. It also includes another round of payments of $1,400 per person for people earning up to $75,000 and couples earning $150,000. The payments would be reduced for individuals earning over that amount. The legislation also includes an additional $1,400 per dependent regardless of age. Other provisions address a range of assistance to assist public health with testing and vaccinations, schools, and individuals who are unemployed needing rental assistance and unemployment benefits.

House Passes Police Reform Bill

The House of Representatives passed a police reform bill Wednesday to prohibit racial and religious profiling by law enforcement at every level. The bill also bans chokeholds at the federal level and no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, creates a mandate for data collection on police encounters, and establishes a nationwide police misconduct registry to hold accountable problematic officers who are fired or leave an agency.

Senator Introduces Bill to Raise Age Eligibility for ABLE Accounts

Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.) introduced S. 331 to raise to 46 the age by which a person must have acquired a disability to be eligible for special tax-advantaged savings accounts for those with disabilities. The Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014, or ABLE Act, allows individuals who were deemed disabled before the age of 26 to save money in specific accounts and not jeopardize necessary government benefits, such as SSI and Medicaid. Prior to ABLE accounts, individuals were limited to how much they could save and not lose all their benefits, which can impact housing, employment, transportation, and more. S. 331 would make more individuals with disabilities, including individuals with brain injury, eligible.

ACL Hosts TBI Tuesdays to Promote Brain Injury Awareness

In observance of Brain Injury Awareness Month and in lieu of the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) annual in-person Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Stakeholder Day, ACL is hosting virtual TBI Tuesdays during the months of March and April. Each TBI Tuesday session will highlight the work of the TBI State Partnership Program grantee workgroups and their resources for stakeholders, federal partners, and will involve individuals with brain injury. Each TBI Tuesday session is structured to include panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and generous breaks in between. To register and learn more about each session, click here. Sessions will be live-captioned and ASL-interpreted. If you require additional accommodations to participate or if you have any questions about the sessions, please contact tbitarc@hsri.org.

BIAA gratefully acknowledges the Centre for Neuro Skills and Avanir Pharmaceuticals for their support for legislative action. Click here to read past issues of Policy Corner.