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Congressional Schedule
Congress is currently on August recess. The long August recess is an excellent time to get in touch with your members of Congress about important issues, like the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ABLE Act, and appropriations.
Autism CARES Act
On Friday, August 8 President Obama signed the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support Act into law. The bill passed the House on June 25 and the Senate on July 31. The bill reauthorizes the Combating Autism Act of 2011 for five years, changes the title of the law and makes other small improvements. See a blog post from AUCD Director of Public Policy Kim Musheno and a post on the White House blog about the law.
Civil Rights
The Department of Justice has issued a proposed regulation implementing Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act related to movie theaters, closed captioning, and audio description. The rule would require that movie theaters provide closed captioning and audio description at all scheduled screenings, including a minimum number of individual captioning and audio description devices, based on the size of the theater. Comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are open until September 30.
Direct Support Professionals
On July31, the U.S. Senate, led by U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME), unanimously approved a resolution designating the week beginning September 7th as "National Direct Support Professional Recognition Week." This year's resolution marks the seventh consecutive year of recognition by the U.S. Senate for this essential workforce. Disability services providers across the country will mark the week by hosting celebrations to honor their Direct Support Professionals. Senate Resolution 532 recognizes Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) for their commitment to supporting individuals and promoting community-inclusion for individuals of all ages with disabilities. The resolution was also co-sponsored by Senators Blumenthal (D-CT), Brown (D-OH), Casey (D-PA), Franken (D-MN), Grassley (R-IA), King (I-ME), Klobuchar (D-MN), Manchin (D-WV), Markey (D-MA), Murphy (D-CT), Portman (R-OH), Rockefeller (D-WV), and Warren (D-MA).
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Follow our Executive Director @AndyAUCD and policy staff @kmusheno and @racheljpat
For definitions of terms used in In Brief, please see AUCD's Glossary of Legislative Terms.
For copies of this and previous issues of Legislative News In Brief please visit the Public Policy Page of the AUCD website: http://www.aucd.org/template/page.cfm?id=164
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