Policy Corner: October 7, 2022
Categories: Policy Corner Archives
Lawmakers Introduce Assistive Technology Act Reauthorization
Last Friday, House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Chair Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) and Representative Joe Sempolinski (R-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 9028, the 21st Century Assistive Technology Act, which is bipartisan legislation to help people with disabilities live independently by expanding access to assistive technology (AT). Assistive technologies are critical to ensuring that people with disabilities can live, work, and participate in their communities independently. First enacted in 1998, this law has not been reauthorized since 2004.
H.R. 9028 would:
- Facilitate access to AT by streamlining funding to focus on the four state-level activities, including state financing activities, device reutilization programs, device loan programs, and device demonstrations
- Enhance capacity building and services for Protection & Advocacy agencies and increases the grants for states with minimum allotments once the program reaches $8 million in funding
- Establish technical assistance support for state-level activities and Protection & Advocacy systems
- Encourage Innovation and Collaboration: If the amount appropriated exceeds $49 million, the legislation provides funding for “Projects of National Significance” that may focus on the needs of specific populations, such as youth in transition, or on collaboration among state agencies that provide AT and other services to people with disabilities
The Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) Office of Interagency Innovation oversees the State Grant for Assistive Technology Program and the Assistive Technology National Activities funded under the current Assistive Technology Act legislation.
BIAA Supports the Proposed Rule to Protect Civil Rights of People while Receiving Health Care Services
This week, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) supported the Coalition to Preserve Rehabilitation’s (CPR) letter to the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights with regard HHS’ proposal to revise the regulations in Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). CPR and BIAA support the current proposed rule entitled “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities,” which would restore key provisions from the original regulations promulgated in 2016 by clarifying and strengthening nondiscrimination protections for people with disabilities and other populations that have experienced discrimination and barriers to receiving equitable and effective healthcare.
Similarly, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), and Education and Labor Committee Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra supporting the proposed rule and urged that the rule be swiftly finalized follow the public comment period. The Biden Administration’s proposed rule applies to Section 1557 of the ACA to ensure that individuals’ civil rights are protected while receiving health care services. The proposed rule rectifies key gaps in prior iterations of the rule that were inconsistent with the ACA’s statutory mandate and undermined the purpose of the law.