Access Living friends and allies,
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a drastic reduction and restructure of their entire agency.
HHS’ announcement can be found here. In the name of cost savings and efficiency, the proposal includes cutting 10,000 staff (on top of the 10,000 they have already eliminated) and reducing the number of divisions from 28 to 15. These divisions include programs that provide Medicaid, Medicare, mental health services, senior services, other disability services and much more. The HHS proposal also proposes the dismantling of the Administration on Community Living (ACL).
ACL administers the important grants that fund Centers for Independent Living (CILs) like Access Living. CILs are all organizations staffed by a majority of people with disabilities, serving fellow people with disabilities in communities nationwide. We cannot afford the uncertainty that dismantling ACL will create. The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) has also shared an update for CILs at this link.
Ironically, ACL was designed to create efficiency home and community based services for seniors and people with disabilities. It doesn’t make sense that an agency designed to create efficiency is being eliminated as an efficiency measure. ACL also helps coordinate many major programs that support Meals on Wheels, in-home supports for seniors and people with disabilities, and helping people move from nursing homes to the community.
Our members of Congress need to speak out against this attack on the disability and senior programs that we have built over the decades. We created an action alert link for you to use here. Thousands and thousands of people rely on HHS and the divisions like ACL that allow us to reach our fullest potential in communities across the United States. Dismantling ACL will not save money; it will cost both money and lives. This cannot come to pass.
What about special education? Ironically, last week the Secretary of Education announced that special education functions would move to HHS. It is unclear how this will work with HHS’s restructure and the dismantling of ACL.
We have to stop the erasure of disability and senior programs supported by federal agencies. We have come too far in the last fifty years to go back to the days of being warehoused in institutions. We ask you to step up NOW, with all your energy and resourcefulness, to do whatever you can to fight these destructive changes. Spread the word today!