President Barack Obama has released a disability budget for fiscal year 2012 titled “Winning the Future for People with Disabilities.”
Some disability funding streams would increase or remain the same under the proposal. The budget calls for a $200 million increase in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) state grants and a $50 million increase for the IDEA Infants and Families Program.
The budget establishes a six-year transportation fund of more than $500 billion, including an investment towards the expansion of intercity passenger rail accessibility. There is $8 million for the Special Olympics and an $18 million increase in anti-hate crimes programs. There is also $96 million for the Administration's Caregiver Initiative to help seniors live in the community and provide assistance to their caregivers.
The Vocational Rehabilitation program will dedicate $30 million toward providing employment services to people with disabilities, including significant disabilities.
The budget also contains cuts, calling for a $104 million reduction in housing funds for people with disabilities, to $196 million.
Additional revenue streams target education and labor programs that include people with disabilities, as well as the Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE) to evaluate Supplemental Security Income benefits for families.
The budget calls for more than $100 million for independent living centers, with $34 million for older people with disabilities who are blind. However, the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) released a statement expressing outrage over news of a proposal to eliminate current funding mechanisms for education programs known as B and C centers to replace them with Grants for Independent Living. The NCIL said this plan would reduce consumer control of the independent living program and increase bureaucracy.
“This is a bad idea! This proposal is an insult to years of work to develop a consumer-controlled program that is funded in a method that assures such control. Allocating all Independent Living Program dollars through each state will remove much of that control,” the NCIL said.
Brad Williams, executive director of the New York State Independent Living Council criticized a funding cut in voter access for people with disabilities. “New York State has the lowest voter turnout of any state,” he said. “The last thing we need is to make a funding cut in this area.”
Additional proposals include a $24 million allocation to the Department of Labor to expand One-Stop Career Centers under the Disability Employment Initiative, as well as $120 million for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, with $10 million going towards reducing barriers to technology.
The budget aims to reduce the Social Security claims backlog by hearing more than 800,000 cases in 2012, to launch a Disability Research Center and to increase Federal employment of people with disabilities.
The next step in the budget process is for Congress to develop its own proposals, beginning with the House of Representatives.
This article was published in the April 2011 issue of Able News.
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