It’s a flash flood of legislation.
Things are moving fast in this very short session. Many bills have been introduced, already had a hearing, and been passed out of their committee, waiting for a floor vote to move to the other chamber and go through the process again. Some of the bills are wonderful ideas such as changing language in state law (HB 2490) and recommending Congress do the same (HJM 4024) to eliminate the “R” word. HB 2801 expands tools, information & strategies for anti-harassment in public schools. There are other bills protecting vulnerable students and vulnerable adults as well as protecting individuals with developmental disabilities from becoming homeless when they leave a Residential Habilitation Center.
Some bills are a bad idea such as HB 2955, which would require a means test (income limit) for families receiving services through the Individual and Family Services program. This program provides respite to families caring for a loved one with developmental disabilities at home. It also helps pay for some therapies and in-home modifications. Means testing has been tried before. It saves no money and uses valuable case manager time to collect and evaluate family incomes.
It is also inequitable for families who choose to care for their child at home to be means tested for this small amount of support when families who choose the state Residential Habilitation Centers for their child (at a much higher cost to the state) are not means tested. You can help stop this bill by calling committee members now. Check out the Action Alert at http://capwiz.com/arcwa/state/main/?state=WA
The deficit is still a huge question.
We still are facing at least a $2.6 billion deficit. The Economic & Revenue Forecast Council will meet on February 12th for the next revenue review. The House and the Senate budget staff are working hard to decide which recommendations from the Governor’s budget proposals they will want to keep and what other ideas they may want to include instead. Keep posted for their budget proposals. There are still many areas in the DD budget that are proposed to be eliminated or reduced by the Governor that it is important to advocate to protect now so they don’t end up in the final budget. To see a more comprehensive chart of the Governor’s proposed budget go to http://www.arcwa.org/state_budget.htm
Advocacy Days are here again!
The Thirtieth Annual Disabilities Legislative Reception was held last Wednesday evening in Olympia. The Autism Society of Washington held their annual Autism Awareness Day earlier that day with a record attendance. Several legislators spoke about their support for individuals and families with autism, families shared personal stories and individuals on the autism spectrum rallied the crowd as well. A brief summary of current developmental disability issues was also well attended that afternoon with many new faces coming to Olympia that day. Individuals with developmental disabilities, their families and their providers wanted their concerns to be heard.
This Wednesday starts the 2010 Advocacy Days. Last year blue scarves were provided at the Independent Living Day rally to advocates for developmental disability services in the community. If you still have your scarf, you are encouraged to wear it each time you come to Olympia. If you don’t yet have one try to wear blue colors. Last year we only provided blue scarves to advocates, this Wednesday we will be providing a blue scarf with a “Develop Abilities” button on it to each legislator. Come to Advocacy Day on Wednesday and help us distribute them to legislators.
Many community advocacy groups have pins or buttons that represent their voice. You can help deliver those to all legislators with your personal message and ask them to add the button or pin to their blue scarf. This is a great way to show unity and help legislators recognize the need. To learn more about Advocacy Day go to http://www.arcwa.org/advocacy_day.htm
Make sure to come to the rally on the February 24th Advocacy Day where we will be providing more blue scarves to advocates (there is no cost to you). Last year we had more than 700 rally participants in blue scarves on the capitol steps. This year we want to reach 1,000 participants so plan ahead!
What can you do to help?
The Arc of Washington State has an Action E-list at http://capwiz.com/arcwa/state/main/?state=WA you can sign up for that makes it very easy for you to let your legislators know what is most important to you. When bills or budget items need emails or phone calls targeted to your legislator you will receive an email with basic information about the issues and a suggested email you can revise or just send that will go directly to your legislator from you with just the click of a button.
You can also participate in this process by letters, phone, email and personal visits to ask legislators to make sure that bills or budget items you are most concerned about get heard.
Don’t forget to check the Olympia Insider website (www.olympiainsider.org) every week for new podcasts, and to subscribe using iTunes or another RSS tool in order to be notified automatically when something new is posted. Remember you can download these to your video-enabled handheld devices!
Advocacy Day needs you there because change is made by those who show up!
Diana Stadden
Arc of Washington State
Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Olympia Insider January 15, 2010
The 60 day session has begun... don’t blink or you’ll miss something!
In this first week of session there was no time to acclimate. Hearings were scheduled every day, work sessions were held to help legislators learn about issues, public hearings were held on the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget and on various bills. Some bills were even moved out of committee (exec’d) in this first week (HB 2490 Respectful Language).
A bad budget year once again.
Washington State faced an all cuts budget last year to fix a $9 billion deficit. The Governor has released her 2010 supplemental budget which, by law, has to be balanced so it makes critical cuts throughout human services. This is called her Book 1 budget. She also released a Book 2 version this week that “buys back” some of those cuts by proposing revenue increases.
Although there were still many proposed cuts in her budget, she also advocated for some increase in community services based on the recommendations from the Feasibility Study that looked at the consolidation/closure of Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC). She included the study’s proposal to close Frances Haddon Morgan Center and begin downsizing Rainier.
Even more important, she acted on the study’s recommendation to build up services in the community by creating three new State Operated Living Alternatives for children coming out of the RHCs. She also directs the Division of developmental Disabilities to increase the Children’s Intensive In-home Behavior Supports program enrollees back to six children per month instead of the current one child per month in order to prevent further institutional placements of children. In addition, 12 new community respite beds are to be created. Case management and oversight is also provided for those moving out of an RHC.
The transfer of state-only employment clients has continued and the majority of those clients have been transferred to the Basic Waiver. The Governor’s budget allows for 343 graduates from this year to also be transferred to the waiver for their employment services.
The Governor also released a document entitled “Reforming how we care for Washingtonians with Developmental Disabilities” which you can view at http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/reform/facclosureDDD.pdf
A partnership of several DD advocacy organizations began a new effort called “We All Belong”. The goal of "We All Belong" is to call attention to items Governor Gregoire proposed in her budget to reform how Washington supports and cares for people with developmental disabilities. You can check out the effort's website at www.weallbelong.org
There are still many areas in the DD budget that are proposed to be eliminated or reduced. To see a more comprehensive chart of the Governor’s proposed budget go to http://www.arcwa.org/state_budget.htm
Bills are flying in and out of committees already.
This first week of session has already seen bills get “dropped” or become bill language with a bill number and be assigned to a committee. There have been a multitude of hearings and two bills in particular have already been heard in committee and have been or are scheduled for executive session. HB 2490, sponsored by Representative Angel, concludes action from HB 1835 last year that directed the Code Reviser to determine where derogatory words such as “mentally retarded” could be replaced with “intellectual disability” in state language. The bill was heard in the House State Government committee and was “exec’d” or approved and passed on to the next committee that same day. SB 6423, sponsored by Senator Fairley, revises language concerning RHCs so that we do not have to keep all five RHCs permanently open. It was heard in the Senate Health & Long Term Care committee and is scheduled for Executive Session next week.
To see all the bills we are tracking throughout the legislative session and see their status go to http://www.arc wa.org/2010_Bills_of_Interest.htm
Advocacy starts this week, get ready!
The Thirtieth Annual Disabilities Legislative Reception will be held on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at the capitol building in Olympia. This event is designed to bring legislators and their constituents from all over Washington together to discuss issues important to the disability community. Be sure to call your three legislators’ offices and tell them you will be there and ask them to attend. Legislators are much more likely to attend if they know they will have constituents there to talk with. You can find your legislator’s phone number by going to www.leg.wa.gov and click on Find Your Legislator.
A rally for autism issues will take place on the Rotunda in the Legislative Building at 11:30 am that day. A brief summary of current developmental disability issues will be provided in the afternoon across the street from the capitol at The United Churches at 2:30 pm. Go have dinner after the briefing, then join us at 5:30 pm for the Legislative Reception in the Columbia Room on the first floor of the Legislative Building. For more information call toll free 1-888-754-8798.
What can you do to help?
The Arc of Washington State has an Action E-list at http://capwiz.com/arcwa/state/main/?state=WA you can sign up for that makes it very easy for you to let your legislators know what is most important to you. When bills or budget items need emails or phone calls targeted to your legislator you will receive an email with basic information about the issues and a suggested email you can revise or just send that will go directly to your legislator from you with just the click of a button.
Advocacy Day will begin on Wednesday, January 27th. Last year we made a show of force in blue with our blue scarves denoting support for developmental disability issues. If you still have your blue scarf from last year, please bring it and wear it anytime you come to the capitol. If you don’t have a blue scarf you can wear blue colored clothing.
On the first Advocacy Day we will be delivering a blue scarf to each legislator. Many community advocacy groups have pins or buttons that represent their voice. You can deliver those to all legislators and ask them to add them to their blue scarf. February 24th will be the Independent Living Day Rally where we hope to provide another huge crowd of blue for legislators to acknowledge. A limited quantity of blue scarves will be available for advocates at the rally.
You can also participate in this process by letters, phone, email and personal visits to ask legislators to make sure that bills or budget items you are most concerned about get heard.
Come join us for the Legislative Reception and other activities on January 20th because change is made by those who show up!
Diana Stadden
Arc of Washington State
Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
In this first week of session there was no time to acclimate. Hearings were scheduled every day, work sessions were held to help legislators learn about issues, public hearings were held on the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget and on various bills. Some bills were even moved out of committee (exec’d) in this first week (HB 2490 Respectful Language).
A bad budget year once again.
Washington State faced an all cuts budget last year to fix a $9 billion deficit. The Governor has released her 2010 supplemental budget which, by law, has to be balanced so it makes critical cuts throughout human services. This is called her Book 1 budget. She also released a Book 2 version this week that “buys back” some of those cuts by proposing revenue increases.
Although there were still many proposed cuts in her budget, she also advocated for some increase in community services based on the recommendations from the Feasibility Study that looked at the consolidation/closure of Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC). She included the study’s proposal to close Frances Haddon Morgan Center and begin downsizing Rainier.
Even more important, she acted on the study’s recommendation to build up services in the community by creating three new State Operated Living Alternatives for children coming out of the RHCs. She also directs the Division of developmental Disabilities to increase the Children’s Intensive In-home Behavior Supports program enrollees back to six children per month instead of the current one child per month in order to prevent further institutional placements of children. In addition, 12 new community respite beds are to be created. Case management and oversight is also provided for those moving out of an RHC.
The transfer of state-only employment clients has continued and the majority of those clients have been transferred to the Basic Waiver. The Governor’s budget allows for 343 graduates from this year to also be transferred to the waiver for their employment services.
The Governor also released a document entitled “Reforming how we care for Washingtonians with Developmental Disabilities” which you can view at http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/reform/facclosureDDD.pdf
A partnership of several DD advocacy organizations began a new effort called “We All Belong”. The goal of "We All Belong" is to call attention to items Governor Gregoire proposed in her budget to reform how Washington supports and cares for people with developmental disabilities. You can check out the effort's website at www.weallbelong.org
There are still many areas in the DD budget that are proposed to be eliminated or reduced. To see a more comprehensive chart of the Governor’s proposed budget go to http://www.arcwa.org/state_budget.htm
Bills are flying in and out of committees already.
This first week of session has already seen bills get “dropped” or become bill language with a bill number and be assigned to a committee. There have been a multitude of hearings and two bills in particular have already been heard in committee and have been or are scheduled for executive session. HB 2490, sponsored by Representative Angel, concludes action from HB 1835 last year that directed the Code Reviser to determine where derogatory words such as “mentally retarded” could be replaced with “intellectual disability” in state language. The bill was heard in the House State Government committee and was “exec’d” or approved and passed on to the next committee that same day. SB 6423, sponsored by Senator Fairley, revises language concerning RHCs so that we do not have to keep all five RHCs permanently open. It was heard in the Senate Health & Long Term Care committee and is scheduled for Executive Session next week.
To see all the bills we are tracking throughout the legislative session and see their status go to http://www.arc wa.org/2010_Bills_of_Interest.htm
Advocacy starts this week, get ready!
The Thirtieth Annual Disabilities Legislative Reception will be held on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at the capitol building in Olympia. This event is designed to bring legislators and their constituents from all over Washington together to discuss issues important to the disability community. Be sure to call your three legislators’ offices and tell them you will be there and ask them to attend. Legislators are much more likely to attend if they know they will have constituents there to talk with. You can find your legislator’s phone number by going to www.leg.wa.gov and click on Find Your Legislator.
A rally for autism issues will take place on the Rotunda in the Legislative Building at 11:30 am that day. A brief summary of current developmental disability issues will be provided in the afternoon across the street from the capitol at The United Churches at 2:30 pm. Go have dinner after the briefing, then join us at 5:30 pm for the Legislative Reception in the Columbia Room on the first floor of the Legislative Building. For more information call toll free 1-888-754-8798.
What can you do to help?
The Arc of Washington State has an Action E-list at http://capwiz.com/arcwa/state/main/?state=WA you can sign up for that makes it very easy for you to let your legislators know what is most important to you. When bills or budget items need emails or phone calls targeted to your legislator you will receive an email with basic information about the issues and a suggested email you can revise or just send that will go directly to your legislator from you with just the click of a button.
Advocacy Day will begin on Wednesday, January 27th. Last year we made a show of force in blue with our blue scarves denoting support for developmental disability issues. If you still have your blue scarf from last year, please bring it and wear it anytime you come to the capitol. If you don’t have a blue scarf you can wear blue colored clothing.
On the first Advocacy Day we will be delivering a blue scarf to each legislator. Many community advocacy groups have pins or buttons that represent their voice. You can deliver those to all legislators and ask them to add them to their blue scarf. February 24th will be the Independent Living Day Rally where we hope to provide another huge crowd of blue for legislators to acknowledge. A limited quantity of blue scarves will be available for advocates at the rally.
You can also participate in this process by letters, phone, email and personal visits to ask legislators to make sure that bills or budget items you are most concerned about get heard.
Come join us for the Legislative Reception and other activities on January 20th because change is made by those who show up!
Diana Stadden
Arc of Washington State
Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
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