AUCD’s Community Inclusion Team supports the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) Network in partnership with the Administration for Community Living.
AUCD’s Maternal and Child Health Engagement supports the Autism CARES Programs, including LEND and DBP Programs.
AUCD’s Public Health Team works to create health promotion and public health efforts that include people with disabilities.
AUCD Emerging Leaders are a part of a community that includes trainees, early career professionals, self-advocates, and family members from AUCD member Centers and Programs.
AUCD's Disability Policy News (DPN) is a weekly newsletter highlighting federal policy issues affecting people with disabilities and their families. DPN features updates in plain language and action steps that people can take to educate policymakers. DPN is published every Friday.
In this edition:
*Note: FY26 appropriations are different from H.R.1, or the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” H.R.1 was passed into law using the budget reconciliation process in July. FY26 appropriations are currently under consideration in the Senate.*
AUCD has a new tool to protect funding for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities!
Take 2 minutes to act now: Campaign to Safeguard UCEDD Funding
1. Use the tool to contact both your Senators and Representative.
Thank the Senate for rejecting the proposed elimination of UCEDDs.
Urge the House to adopt the Senate’s bipartisan approach and protect disability programs in their bill.
2. Share the campaign widely.
Encourage families, students, staff, alumni, and community partners to join you.
Send the campaign to 3 people in your life and ask them to fill it out.
Post the campaign on social media, share that you participated, tag AUCD, and use hashtags #SaveUCEDDs and #DisabilityAdvocacy.
Important Note: This campaign does include direct requests for funding and constitutes lobbying. Please consider this when choosing the email address or list you use to send messages.
The Administration’s FY 2026 budget proposal recommended eliminating discretionary funding for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) and consolidating UCEDD activities under the Independent Living program, alongside four other distinct national disability programs. On Thursday, July 31, the Senate Committee on Appropriations held a markup for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) FY26 Appropriations bill (S.2587). Bill markup is the process by which a bill gets voted out of committee. The bill passed out of committee 26-3. There was a lot of emphasis in the hearing about the bipartisan work that went into this bill. The bill text and report language were also released on July 31.
The Senate’s bill shows a rejection by the Senate of the Administration’s desire to cut critical disability infrastructure. This is a result of strong advocacy from the disability community, but we still have a long way to go.
Senate: Now that the Senate bill has passed out of committee, it will have to be debated on the floor and put to a vote. We need to thank Senators for supporting UCEDDs and other programs in the markup but make sure they know we want this bill passed into law.
House: The House will hold a markup for its own LHHS bill in early September, and this bill may not be as positive for disability programs. We need to advocate to the House ahead of markup to fund our Centers and Programs.
Congress: After the House bill passes committee and is voted on the floor, the House and Senate will have to work together to pass a funding bill they can both agree on. We need to have Members advocating for us in both the Senate and the House.
Remember! FY26 appropriations are about spending money for many different programs. Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use. This is different from H.R.1, which is also called the reconciliation bill or the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” H.R.1 is the bill that became a law in July. H.R.1 made huge spending cuts to Medicaid, so a lot of people will have their health care taken away because of it. FY26 appropriations are different bills that haven’t yet been passed by Congress. FY26 appropriations bills are still being worked on in Congress, so we need to speak up to tell Congress what we want to see in the final bill BEFORE it becomes a law.
AUCD has a new tool for people to tell their Members of Congress how important the UCEDDs are. The new tool explains that there is a spending bill in the Senate that gives UCEDDs a similar amount of money that they usually get, and this is good. It explains that UCEDDs support people with disabilities and their families, so we need to make sure that they have enough money to do this important work.
Take 2 minutes to act now: Campaign to Protect UCEDD Funding
1. Use the tool to contact both your Senators and Representative.
Thank the Senate for rejecting the President’s plan to get rid of UCEDDs.
Urge the House to use the same plan that the Senate used—tell them that both Democrats and Republicans in the House need to work together to protect disability programs in their bill.
2. Share the campaign widely.
Encourage families, students, staff, alumni, and community partners to join you.
Send the campaign to 3 people in your life and ask them to fill it out.
Post the campaign on social media, share that you participated, tag AUCD, and use hashtags #SaveUCEDDs and #DisabilityAdvocacy.
The Administration wants to take away the UCEDDs. The Administration wants to combine the work of the UCEDDs with the work of a few other disability programs to make the Independent Living Program do that work. This breaks up a network of programs that help people with disabilities and their families in every state and U.S. territory. The UCEDDs do important work like research, training, and offering services that improve everyday life for people with disabilities.
UCEDDs are important because they help people with disabilities live, learn, work, and be a part of their communities. With your help, we want to protect UCEDDs from losing their funding.
Congress needs to pass a government spending bill to make sure the government is funded in 2026. Before Congress can vote on that bill, committees in the House and Senate need to first review it. This is a process called a markup and the committees are called Appropriations committees.
During markup, lawmakers can look over a bill and share suggested changes. The committee then votes on these suggested changes. If the committee agrees on the suggested changes in a vote, the bill with the changes is sent to either the full House or Senate for more discussion and voting.
The Senate Appropriations Committee had their markup meeting to talk about their government spending bill and they passed the bill—26 members voted to support the bill and only 3 voted against it. Senators from both parties (Republicans and Democrats) worked together on this bill. The committee did not agree with the Administration’s plan to take away UCEDDs and other important disability programs. Instead, the Senate Appropriations Committee wants to keep giving money to the UCEDDs and other disability programs at the same level as last year. This shows that the Senate still supports these important programs and does not want them to go away.
This happened because people with disabilities, older adults, and advocates spoke up and told Senators these programs are important. There is still more work to do:
The full Senate still needs to vote on this bill, so we need to make sure every Senator knows that we want this bill to pass.
The House will have a markup meeting for their spending bill in early September. The House spending bill may not be as good as the Senate bill for the UCEDDs and disability programs, so we need to tell Members of Congress in the House what we want.
After both the Senate and the House agree on their spending bills, they will need to work together to make one final bill.
We can make a difference in this process if we keep speaking up! Watch this Disability Policy for All with Liz video about why UCEDDs are important.
View past issues of Disability Policy News to learn more about AUCD's policy priorities and how you can engage in policy actions.
