The second economic stimulus package proposal released Thursday by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives includes a one-time stimulus payment to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients amid several proposals to fund programs benefiting Americans with disabilities.
The plan, which features $550 billion in spending on domestic programs and $275 billion in tax cuts, would provide funds for health care, education and employment programs aimed at people with disabilities.
The nation’s 7.5 million SSI recipients would qualify for a one-time stimulus payment of about $450 for individuals or $630 for married couples in a $4.2 billion portion of the package.
The proposal will be considered by the House within the next two weeks. It must also be voted on by the Senate. A version is expected to reach the desk of president-elect Barack Obama by mid-February.
Aside from the stimulus payment, some highlights of the proposal include:
• Funding for IDEA: $13 billion to states to fund the cost of special education for the 6.8 million students with disabilities. And, $600 million for early intervention services for young children.
• Medicaid: $87 billion for a temporary increase in the Medicaid matching rate for states.
• Independent Living: $200 million for the nation’s Centers for Independent Living.
• Vocational Rehabilitation: $500 million to states to help people learn skills and gain employment.
• Job Training: $4 billion for programs providing worker training.
• Teacher Quality: $200 million to provide incentives for educators.
• National Institutes of Health: $1.5 billion for biomedical research.
• Social Security: $500 million to reduce backlogs in the Social Security Administration’s claims and appeals processes.
Hi, while I appreciate your concern I need to point out a few things. I too have a daughter with multiple disabilities and I am dismayed that the current administration is trying to use the disability community to garner support for much more wasteful spending that will hurt our children much more in the long run rather than help them.
First of all, no funding already in place will be cut. No one is losing funding.
Second of all, the vocational assistance is only to revamp the vocation offices, not to help people find jobs. The Medicare money has many stipulations on it that only low income areas and states must match certain criteria to get those funds.
Third, the states have very little say in where the money goes. The feds have mandated everything across the board. This bothers me because what works in New York schools, does not work in Texas schools.
Fourth and probably the most important, is the feds have written the right in the bill to change anything and everything about how the money is spent after the bill gets passed. Just like what happened with the TARP bill. That money was supposed to go to help the homeowners in foreclosure. The feds changed their mind and gave it to the banks.
I wish people would see this for what it is, but they have been manipulated by scare tactics to push through something that will ultimately hurt them. If you want to fight for additional disability funding, fight for individual bills, not one giant one that will never see the disability community anyway.
Although I fear the damage has already been done. It will probably pass, and unfortunately we will all be disappointed that the money was not used as it was originally planned. Thanks for listening.