AUCD Legislative News InBrief -Appropriations Special Report

December 21, 2007

Congressional Schedule

The first session of the 110th Congress came to a close this week. Congress was able to pass and send to the President a number of bills, including a large omnibus appropriations bill and a stopgap Medicare/SCHIP bill. Democratic leaders had hoped to move other bills with broad bipartisan support, such as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). However, timing and Senator Coburn's (R-OK) "hold" on a number of bills prevented action. The House is expected to return on January 15, followed by the Senate on January 22.

FY 08 Labor, HHS, ED Appropriations

The House and Senate approved the new FY 08 omnibus appropriations bill just before adjourning the first session of the 110^th Congress on Wednesday evening. The final omnibus wraps 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills together into one huge $560 billion spending package. As was reported in last week's In Brief, the new bill was cut back to be in line with the President's discretionary funding cap in order to gain his signature. The Congress also added additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some earmarks were eliminated but many remain intact. The President is expected to sign the bill.

Although the vetoed conference report would have provided a $4.4 million increase for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), given the very contentious appropriations battle this year, AUCD is very pleased to report that the UCEDDs are slated for a $3.7 million increase over FY 07 in the final bill. In addition, the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) programs will see a significant percentage increase for activities authorized under the Combating Autism Act. These increases were due to an extraordinary effort on the part of the entire network over the past year. Unfortunately, other programs important to AUCD did not fare as well. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through which the Developmental Disabilities Research Centers (DDRC) are funded, is among the many programs that received major reductions from amount that was in the vetoed conference report in order to stay within the President's top spending line. In addition, many other disability programs are level-funded in the final bill but will receive cuts after a 1.747% across-the-board cut to most domestic discretionary programs is applied.

Below is a table with FY 08 funding in the final omnibus bill for selected programs important to the AUCD network. The figures in the omnibus column are totals after the across-the-board cut is applied. A brief analysis of these programs follows the table.

 

FY 08 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bills Compared
Program	FY 07 Final	President's Budget	House	Senate Committee	FY08 Omnibus	Difference over FY 07
Health and Human Services
UCEDDs	33.2	33.2	33.2	38.7	36.9	+3.7
DD Councils	71.7	71.7	76.7	77.3	72.5	+0.7
P&As	38.7	38.7	38.7	42.7	39.0	+0.3
PNS/Family Support	11.4	11.4	11.4	15.4	14.2	+2.7
Help America Vote Act	15.7	15.7	36.7	16.7	17.4	+1.7
Lifespan Respite Care Act	New law	0.0	10.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
MCH Block Grant	693.0	693.0	750.0	673.0	666.0	-26.8
Autism and related DD	20.0	0.0	30.0	37.0	36.4	+16.4
CDC Center on Birth Defects/DD	124.5	124.5	130.3	126.2	129.6	+5.1
NIH	28,931.0	28,621.0	29,650.0	29,899.9	29.229.0	+329.0
NICHD	1,252.8	1,264.9	1,273.9	1,282.2	1,254.7	+1.9
IDEA
Part B State Grants	10,782.9	10,491.9	11,342.4	11,240.0	11,042.3	+259.3
Part B Preschool Grants	380.7	380.7	380.7	380.7	374.1	-6.6
Part C Infants and Toddlers	436.4	423.1	436.4	450.0	435.6	-0.7
State Personnel development	0.0	0.0	0.0	46.0	22.6	+22.6
TA and Dissemination	48.9	48.9	48.9	48.9	48.0	-0.8
Personnel Preparation	89.7	89.7	89.7	89.7	88.2	-1.6
Technology and Media	38.4	25.1	36.9	40.0	39.3	+0.8
Rehabilitation and Disability Research
VR State Grants	2,837.2	2,874.0	2,874.0	2,874.0	2,874.0	+36.9
Supported Employment	29.7	0.0	29.7	29.7	29.181	-0.5
NIDRR	106.7	106.7	106.7	106.7	105.7	-0.5
Assistive Technology	30.5	26.1	30.5	32.0	29.9	-0.5
Higher Education
Demonstration in Disabilities	6.8	0.0	6.8	6.8	6.7	-0.1
Institute of Education Sciences
Research in Special Education	71.8	71.8	71.8	71.8	70.8	-1.2
Special Education Studies & Evaluation	9.9	9.6	9.9	9.6	9.4	-0.4

 

Developmental Disabilities

In addition to the funding levels mentioned above for UCEDDs, all other DD Act programs received increases, although not nearly as much as was proposed in the vetoed conference report. The DD Councils receive a $711,000 increase to $72.4 million, much less than the $5.5 million increase that was proposed in the vetoed bill. Protection and Advocacy Systems (P&A) receive a slight increase of $306,000 to $39 million. For DD projects of national significance, the bill includes $14.4 million. Within that amount, the Congress intends for $2 million be provided for a National Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Center, as was proposed by the Senate. The report does not specify the amount intended for the existing family support program.

MCH

Funding for the LEND programs was shifted from the SPRANS set-aside to a separate line item for "autism and related developmental disorders." The bill provides $36.4 million for autism and related developmental disabilities within MCH. This is almost $17 million more than was funded in FY 07 for autism related activities due to activities authorized by the Combating Autism Act. The report accompanying the final bill states that "an increase of no less than $6 million is provided to continue and expand the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities program. In addition, an increase of no less than $6 million is provided for research on evidence-based practices for interventions for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, for development of guidelines for those interventions, and for information dissemination."

AUCD also worked with Friends of Title V for an overall increase to the MCH Block Grant. Earlier this year the House had proposed a substantial increase to $750 million. However in the end, the block grant received a net loss of nearly $7 million dollars after the across the board cut was applied. After accounting for the $20 million shift of autism funding to a separate budget line item, the final block grant level for FY 08 is $666 million.

Dental

In addition to $4.8 million of MCH SPRANS funding for oral health activities, an additional $5 million is provided for Dental Health Improvement Act State grants (authorized under section 340G of the Public Health Service Act) within allied health. The final bill includes language proposed by the Senate that identifies not less than $5 million for general dentistry programs, not less than $5 million for pediatric dentistry programs, and not less than $24.6 million for family medicine programs.

NIH

After adjustments to the initial conference agreement and a 1.7% across-the-board rescission in the final bill, NIH will receive an appropriation of $29.2 billion, which is an increase of $329 million (1.1%) over FY 2007. The program level for NIH is $28.942 billion, an increase of $133 million (0.46%). The program level includes a $201 million increase from 2007 to 2008 in the transfer from NIH to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund. NICHD, which provides core funding for the Developmental Disabilities Research Centers is provided $1.25 billion, a $1.9 million increase over the FY 07 funding level.

CDC

AUCD worked with the Coalition on Health Funding to advocate for additional funds for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The omnibus bill includes $6.049 billion for the CDC overall, $49 million more than the FY 07 level. Of this amount, the final bill includes $129.6 million for the National Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities instead of $130.3 as proposed by the House and $126.3 as proposed by the Senate. This amount represents a $5.1 million increase over the FY 07 level. A total of $16.5 million is included specifically for autism activities, slightly more than proposed by either the House or Senate.

Department of Education

Special Education State Grants are increased by $259 million to $11.042 billion, the amount proposed by the Senate. Unfortunately, most other IDEA program are level-funded or cut due to the across the board cut. The personnel preparation grants that continue to be zeroed out in the President's budget are restored by Congress in the final bill. However, the final bill provides $22.6 million, half the amount proposed by the Senate bill. This program provides competitive grants to help States reform and improve their systems for personnel preparation and professional development in the areas of early intervention, educational, and transition services to improve results for children with disabilities.

Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants will receive the mandatory cost of living increase of $36 million to $2.8 billion. Because these grants are in the mandatory spending category, they were not subject to the across the board cut. Assistive Technology and NIDDR programs both takes slight cuts due to the across the board rescission. Head Start funding would get an increase of $13.6 million at $5.5 billion in 2008.

Child Abuse Prevention

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) basic state grants take a cut of $472,000 with FY08 funding at $26.535 million; CAPTA discretionary grants at $27.135 million would include earmarked funds for special projects totaling $1.837 million, effectively cutting the competitive grants program by approximately half a million dollars. An additional $10 million, as requested by the White House, is in the bill to go for support of "a range of home visitation programs...that have met high evidentiary standards." Discretionary funds for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program are reduced by $25.789 million. With the mandatory portion held at $345 million, the PSSF funds for FY08 would total $408.311 million compared with $434.1 million in FY07.

Social Security Administration

The FY 08 Omnibus bill recommends a funding level for SSA of $9,746,953,000. The President's FY 2008 budget request for SSA was $9,596,953,000. This funding level for SSA in the Omnibus measure is $150 million over the President's budget request - and $451 million over the FY 07 level of funding. Hopefully, this increase will allow SSA to hire staff to start addressing the hearings backlogs and keep the number of initial disability claims pending from rising.

 

 

President Bush is expected to sign the bill before the current Continuing Resolution expires on Monday, Dec. 31, 2007. At a press conference on Dec. 20, the President stated that he was pleased with the bill overall, except that it still contained an excessive amount of earmarks. There is some speculation that the President may instruct Federal agencies to withhold the provision of funding for some of the earmarks and that the delay in signing the bill may be due to needing time to review the details of the earmarks.

Given the difficult budget environment over the last year, AUCD would like to express its appreciation to its partners for the collaborative efforts advocating for funding for disability programs, especially to the Autism Society of American and Autism Speaks, Friends of Title V, the Coalition for Health Funding, Friends of NICHD, the Lifespan Respite Coalition, and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. AUCD would also like to thank all of its network members many of whom literally walked the halls of Congress, took the time to write personal letters, made phone calls at critical times, and worked throughout the year to keep up to date on the appropriations process, and developed or maintained key relationships with congressional staff. Our success this year would not have been possible without this collaboration and teamwork. Thank you AUCD network and partners!

 

Medicare/SCHIP

House and Senate leaders reached a compromise on a stopgap Medicare/children's health bill. The deal extends funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) until March 2009 with additional funding to maintain current enrollment. In addition, CMS released a notice this week that additional funding would be made available to 12 states facing 2007 shortfalls. However, the stopgap measure is silent on the CMS rule issued last summer limiting states from expanding coverage to higher income levels if they have not covered 95% of children at lower levels. The National Governors Association sent a letter this week signed by 30 Governors in opposition to this rule. While the stopgap bill extends SCHIP until the next Administration, Democrats insist that broader SCHIP extension will be debated next year.

The Medicare/SCHIP package also includes several positive outcomes for the disability community. It addresses a 10% Medicare pay cut for physicians, extends the exceptions process on therapy caps, and includes a moratorium to prevent new rules that would cut Medicaid habilitation and school-based services -all for six months, until June 30, 2008. The disability community pushed for a longer moratorium that would reach into a new Administration. However, the 6-month moratorium buys additional time. The 6-month physician payment fix makes it certain that Congress will consider another Medicare bill next year. Unfortunately, the Administration is now attempting to make the Medicaid school-based rule final before the President signs this Medicare/SCHIP bill with the moratorium language.

Another positive provision in the Medicare/SCHIP bill concerns an issue known as the "75% rule" that impacts funding for inpatient rehabilitation facilities. This rule limits funding for rehabilitation facilities that do not serve 75% of patients with 13 specified conditions. Many feel this is an arbitrary threshold and has inappropriately forced individuals with disabilities into nursing homes. The Medicare/SCHIP bill freezes the threshold level at 60% instead of 75%.

NICHD

The House and Senate both passed a bill (S.2484) to rename NICHD the "Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development." The bill was sent to the President for signature. In addition, NICHD intends to change the name of the MRDDRC network to "the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers Program. This renaming will be officially announced at the ceremony to honor Mrs. Shriver before the next NICHD Council meeting on January 23rd.

Traumatic Brain Injury

The Senate passed a bill to reauthorize Traumatic Brain Injury programs (S.793). In addition to reauthorizing programs the bill includes provisions to help returning veterans receive treatment for brain injuries, directs the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health to study treatment techniques, and requires the CDC to monitor injury cases.

2008 Disability Policy Seminar

Registration is now open for the 2008 Disability Policy Seminar sponsored by The Arc, UCP, AAIDD, AUCD, and NACDD. This year's Seminar is March 2-4 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. More information and a link to register is on the AUCD website: http://www.aucd.org/template/event.cfm?event_id=930&id=533&parent=533

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The next issue of In Brief will be on January 7, 2008.