1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
NCIL Leader Testifies at DOJ ADA Revision Hearings
2) National News
U.S. House Resolution Declares Support for National Ed Roberts Day!
FTA Expands Transit Options for Persons with Disabilities on Intercity and Tour Bus Lines Nationwide
How Will the New Tax Law Affect Your Nonprofit, Your Employees, and the People You Serve?
Congressman Asks for Hearings on SSI Benefits and Overmedication of Youth
3) State News
IL Nursing Homes Escape Full Fines after Kids with Disabilities Harmed
New York State Supreme Court Issues Temporary Stay Against Monroe County
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
White House Internship Opportunity, Summer 2011
Equal Rights Center Wants to Hear from People with Disabilities about Shopping Experiences
“EITC Made EZ” Partner Webinar, January 4, 2011
NCIL Leader Testifies at DOJ ADA Revision Hearings
Kelly Buckland provided comment to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on behalf of NCIL members regarding the possibility of revising ADA regulations. The Justice Department is currently seeking ways to address issues with accessible web information and services, movie captioning and video description, accessibility of Next Generation 9-1-1, and accessible equipment and furniture.
During hearings at the United States Access Board in Washington, D.C., Kelly addressed some of the most prevalent concerns of the NCIL membership, particularly access to accessible medical equipment and furniture such as examination tables. A re-broadcast of Kelly’s testimony, and the rest of the Washington, D.C. ADA revision hearings, can be found at: http://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/hearing_rebroadcast.htm.
An advance notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on July, 26 2010 regarding these issues, and the comment period closes on January 24, 2011. It is very important that you contribute your comments so that ADA regulations can address current problems, and help more people live independently. Go to the Department of Justice ADA homepage at www.ada.gov and click on “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” to view the ANPRMs and Fact Sheets.
If you have any questions on how to submit comments, or for any additional information, please contact Austin Walker at austin@ncil.org, or (202) 207-0334 ext. 1008.
U.S. House Resolution Declares Support for National Ed Roberts Day!
Source: California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, Contact: Mike Roth (CFILC Applauds Passage of House Resolution Honoring Disability Advocate Ed Roberts)
The California Foundation for Independent Living centers applauded [last Thursday’s] overwhelming passage of legislation honoring pioneering disability rights advocate Ed Roberts in the House of Representatives. Authored by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), House Resolution 1759 declares the House’s support for a national “Ed Roberts Day” to be held on January 23rd.
“Ed Roberts was a ground breaking leader who helped galvanize the disability rights movement around the fundamental idea that all people should have the opportunity to pursue education, go to work, and live in the community,” said Sheri Burns, Chair of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers.
“As we recognize Ed’s lifetime of leadership in the Disability Rights Movement we remain committed to continuing his work by advocating for access, equality, and full inclusion of people with disabilities.”
In addition to supporting the establishment of Ed Roberts Day, Miller’s legislation acknowledges the accomplishments Roberts made in helping reduce barriers, increase access and improve lives for persons with disabilities.
Roberts, who passed away in 1995, was the first student with significant disabilities to attend UC Berkeley, where he began advocacy efforts and helped found the nation’s first student-driven disabled students program. Roberts founded the Independent Living Center in Berkeley, directed the California Department of Rehabilitation and was a key leader in the national disability rights movement. Roberts later co-founded and became the President of the World Institute on Disability.
The full text of H Res 1759 is here. The resolution was sponsored by the California Foundation for Independent Living and cosponsored by Representatives Sam Farr, Rush Holt, Barbara Lee and James Langevin.
FTA Expands Transit Options for Persons with Disabilities on Intercity and Tour Bus Lines Nationwide
Source: FTA
On Thursday, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced that 128 intercity and tour bus lines will receive a total of $128 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Over-the-Road Bus Program to assist in making buses accessible before the 2012 federal deadline. Most grantees received about $100,000 for one or two wheel chair lifts except Greyhound of Dallas, Texas who received $5.3 million to purchase 146 lifts and to provide technical assistance for training of bus line personnel for lift maintenance, boarding assistance, securing wheelchairs, etc. This is one more victory in making transportation accessible to all.
Secretary LaHood said, “Most of us don’t think twice about the simple act of getting on a bus yet for millions who use mobility devices for independence such as wheelchairs, a broken or non-existent lift can interrupt a commute to work or cause someone to miss a visit with friends or family. This investment will ensure greater mobility for all.”
For more information, visit: http://www.fta.dot.gov/news/news_events_12224.html.
How Will the New Tax Law Affect Your Nonprofit, Your Employees, and the People You Serve?
Source: National Council of Nonprofits
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act (H.R. 4853) has numerous components of interest and concern to nonprofits – as employers and as mission-based organizations involved in local communities. This list presents portions of interest to most nonprofits, nonprofit employees, and the people they serve:
- Tax Rates Maintained: All of the individual tax rates put in effect in 2001 and 2003 are maintained through 2012, including those for upper-income tax brackets. Most immediately, this means that nonprofit and other employers will not have to adjust employee withholdings for income taxes.
- Individual Payroll Taxes Reduced: Employees receive a two percent reduction in the Social Security tax they pay. For 2011, nonprofit and other employers will need to reduce the individual's share of payroll withholding from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. To illustrate what this change means, an individual earning $50,000 will see $1,000 in tax savings.
- Estate Tax: The bill restores and reduces the federal estate tax at a rate of 35 percent and increases the exemption level to $5 million, two changes that many fear will eliminate previous incentives for the wealthy to give.
- Charitable Giving Incentives: The IRA rollover and other expired charitable giving incentives (promoting donations of food, land, computers, and books) are restored for the remainder of 2010 and through the end of 2011, which should help promote giving.
- Unemployment Benefits: The legislation extends the enhanced program of 99-weeks of unemployment benefits through 2011. This allowance may prevent additional strain that would have hit many nonprofits that provide services to those with no income.
- Alternative Minimum Tax: Middle-income taxpayers will not be subject to the alternative minimum tax in 2010 and 2011 because the bill renews a "patch" that limits the application of the AMT to approximately four million upper-income individuals. Without this patch, many taxpayers would have seen an automatic increase in their tax rates.
The following link will take readers to a 12-page summary that provides greater detail about the bill, including provisions that might be of interest to particular nonprofits (e.g., those providing child care, adoption assistance, certain education): Read the Summary of the Reid-McConnell Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010.
Also, the IRS just released instructions to help employers implement the 2011 cut in payroll taxes, along with new income-tax withholding tables that employers will use during 2011. See Notice 1036.
Congressman Asks for Hearings on SSI Benefits and Overmedication of Youth
Source: Boston Globe, by Noah Bierman
US Representative Richard E. Neal called yesterday for a congressional hearing on whether low-income children are being overprescribed drugs so that their families can qualify for federal disability payments.
Neal, a Springfield Democrat, said his concern was raised by a three-part Globe series this week showing how the Supplemental Security Income program has changed from a federal initiative conceived to help poor children with severe physical disabilities to one that pays families of children with relatively common mental, learning, and behavioral disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The Globe found that the program has created an incentive for poor families to seek prescription drugs to prove the severity of the child’s behavioral or mental condition. The series also showed that teenagers on SSI had little incentive to work, because doing so could jeopardize their benefits. Qualifying families receive up to $700 a month, money that may be used to meet a range of household expenses.
Neal serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Social Security. He said he would send his request for a hearing to the committee’s incoming Republican chairman, Dave Camp of Michigan, who assumes power in the next session of Congress.
“I don’t want to substitute my judgment for that of the medical community,’’ Neal said in an interview. “But, at the same time, I think that the story calls attention to what conceivably may be an overuse of medication, with the incentive being the maintenance of public assistance.’’ Read More.
IL Nursing Homes Escape Full Fines after Kids with Disabilities Harmed
Source: Chicago Breaking News Center
In 2004, a 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy became wedged between the mattress and protective padding of his bed at Alden Village Health Facility in Bloomingdale. Nursing aides didn't immediately notice because the room was so crowded and cluttered, and within three hours, Sharif Khamissi was dead.
Illinois regulators hit the home with one of their largest penalties: a $50,000 fine. But in the end, the facility cut a deal with the state and paid just $10,000. "It should have been more," said the boy's father, Farhad Khamissi. "Alden was at fault for my son dying."
Throughout Illinois, facilities caring for children and young adults with [significant] developmental disabilities have escaped serious penalties when kids have been harmed or died on their watch.
In October, the Tribune investigation "Deadly Neglect" reported that another Alden facility for children -- Alden Village North in Chicago -- hadn't paid the full amount of any recent fine despite an alarming number of deaths. A review of more state records reveals a similar pattern at Illinois' other nine homes for children with disabilities: Of the $220,000 in fines levied since 2000, the facilities have paid just $45,000, or about 21 percent of the total. One home, the Tribune found, successfully fought to have its fine reduced -- and still hasn't paid up.
Several of these facilities are for-profit companies, and some have donated thousands of dollars to political campaigns or lobbying groups.
Floyd Schlossberg, operator of Alden Village North and Alden Village Health Facility, and his companies have given nearly $900,000 in campaign contributions since 2000, mostly to lobbying groups representing nursing home operators, campaign records show. Read More.
New York State Supreme Court Issues Temporary Stay Against Monroe County
Source: Yahoo! Contributor Network, by Anita Cameron
The NYS Supreme Court issued a two-week stay against Monroe County in the dispute with the Center for Disability Rights over the abrupt termination of its contract. The Rochester-based independent living center was the fiscal agent for people with disabilities who were participating in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services (CDPAS) program.
The stay, issued by Judge Richard Dollinger on Monday, August 2, 2010, will prevent the County from proceeding with the transition of 300 CDR consumers to other agencies. The stay will expire on August 13th, and a court hearing will be held August 23, 2010. The county must also send out letters to consumers in both English and Spanish informing them of this.
The ruling came as a relief to many at CDR, including me. Although I am not a part of the CDPAS program, many of my friends are either CDPAS consumers or personal care aides. Those needing attendant services feel that the ability to hire, train, discipline, or terminate their attendants is vital, giving them the control over a critical part of their lives that they would not have in a traditional home care agency. Attendants in the program appreciate its flexibility, and the fact that they work directly with, and under the supervision of their client. Read More.
White House Internship Opportunity, Summer 2011
President Obama believes in the capacity of young people to move America forward. He is committed to providing young leaders from across the nation an opportunity to develop their leadership skills and fostering a continued commitment to public service through the White House Internship Program. This hands-on program is designed to mentor and cultivate today’s young leaders, strengthen their understanding of the Executive Office of the President and prepare them for future roles in public service. The deadline for the Summer 2011 White House Internship Program is January 9, 2011. For more information and to apply, please visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/internship.
A completed application includes:
- two essays
- three letters of recommendation
- resume
President Barack Obama: This program will mentor and cultivate young leaders of today and tomorrow and I’m proud that they will have this opportunity to serve…I want to commend all who apply for their desire to help through public service to forge a brighter future for our country.”
Equal Rights Center Wants to Hear from People with Disabilities about Shopping Experiences
With holiday shopping in full swing, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) wants to hear from people with disabilities about their shopping experiences! Have you had difficulty shopping because of accessibility problems? Narrow aisles? High counters? Entrances with stairs? Inaccessible point of sale machines? If you have experienced these or other access problems, please contact the ERC Disability Rights Program today at (202) 234-3062 or email Rpowell@equalrightscenter.org.
The Equal Rights Center is a national non-profit civil rights organization dedicated to promoting equal opportunity in housing, employment, disability rights, immigrant rights, and access to public accommodations and government services. The ERC engages in cutting edge investigation techniques and is one of the few organizations in the United States which, when necessary, engages in comprehensive civil-rights enforcement for all protected classes under both federal and local law. Each year, the ERC advances civil rights and helps thousands of individuals through a comprehensive approach including counseling, civil rights testing and investigations, and education and outreach activities.
“EITC Made EZ” Partner Webinar, January 4, 2011
The upcoming Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day Webinar will air on January 4th 2011 at 2pm Eastern. Register at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=74786. The EITC Webinar is designed to help partners by providing information about the following topics:
- What’s new in 2011 for the Earned Income Tax Credit program
- How to claim the EITC
- Step-by-Step navigation using the EITC Toolkits: EITC Central website and Marketing Express
- How to customize and co-brand EITC marketing and communication products to speak directly to your audience
Thanks for your partnership as we work to make EITC Awareness Day as successful as possible. In addition, please see the following links for additional information on the EITC:
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December 22, 2010