August 4, 2020
Join the disability community in a call-in day on Tuesday, August 4th, to urge the Senate to include funding for home and community-based services (HCBS) in the coronavirus relief bill being negotiated. Contact your Senators to tell them #WhatWeNeed is #HCBS funding!
HCBS funding is crucial to help people with disabilities and older adults stay safe in their own homes and out of nursing homes and other congregate settings that are being ravaged by COVID-19. The Senate introduced a coronavirus relief package, the HEALS Act, last week but it has no funding for HCBS! The House included dedicated funding for HCBS in the HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) passed in May, and the Senate must do the same (with a clarification that all HCBS, including community mental health services, are included).
Even if you’ve called or emailed before, or shared your HCBS story on social media, we need you to contact your Senators again. It’s urgent that they hear from as many of us as possible, as soon as possible to get dedicated HCBS funding included in the final bill.
Contact your Senators today! More on our efforts to make sure the needs of the disability community are met during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found on the Center for Public Representation's (CPR's) advocacy page. For more information on HCBS and why dedicated funding is so critical right now, check out CPR's fact sheet.