Today, April 29, the Education and Workforce Committee in the House of Representatives is marking up a Resolution directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to send documents relating to the elimination of the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to the House.
AUCD believes that ACL does critical work to empower states, ensure civil rights protections, and support systems change, including through the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) and our other Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act) partners.
As the Administration moves to eliminate ACL and at best disperse programs across other agencies, and at worst, eliminate those programs entirely, critical oversight is needed. Without ACL and programs such as UCEDDs, State Councils on developmental Disabilities (DD Councils), and Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems:
- People with disabilities and their families will be cut off from vital services.
- We will lose training pipelines for the disability workforce, removing workers who pay taxes and contribute to their community.
- We will lose support for education, healthcare, and employment systems.
- There will be an increase in unnecessary institutionalization and an erosion of civil rights.
This resolution is one step in protecting the country from these harms. As the Administration moves forward on the elimination of ACL, there must be a close look at how the agency’s elimination, reductions in force, dismissal of career staff, and other actions could impact people with disabilities and their families. AUCD supports this resolution and believes its passage helps protect the disability community from harms that will result from the elimination of ACL. ACL’s formation in 2012 was the result of a bipartisan effort and now a bipartisan effort is needed to make sure the programs that support older Americans and people with disabilities are not lost.
Plain Language
- The President and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary decided to close the Administration for Community Living, which is an agency that helps people with disabilities live in the community and make sure people with disabilities can go to the doctor’s office and get healthcare just like nondisabled people.
- Closing the ACL would be bad for people with disabilities, older adults, and disability researchers.
- In the Education and Workforce Committee of the House of Representatives, there is a Resolution—or a formal request—that would make the President and HHS Secretary give information about the decision to close ACL.
- AUCD supports this Resolution because it is important to pay attention to what happens with ACL and make sure that people with disabilities still have the services that they are supposed to have under the law.
