Brain Injury Association of America
Policy Corner E-Newsletter – September 12, 2008
A weekly update on federal policy activity related to traumatic brain injury
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Advocates:
Congress reconvened this week to begin its fall legislative session after a month-long summer recess.
The Brain Injury Association of America submitted formal testimony at a hearing held this week by the House Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee. The hearing was held on Tuesday, September 9, and focused on several pieces of legislation, including H.R. 3051, The Heroes At Home Act of 2007, which BIAA has strongly endorsed.
BIAA also sent out a Legislative Action Alert this week, urging grassroots advocates to tell their elected officials in Congress to increase appropriations for federal TBI programs in the expected upcoming extended Continuing Resolution. To take action, please visit BIAA’s Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/bia/home/.
In addition, the Senate passed The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 3406) on Thursday, September 11. This legislation to clarify and update the Americans with Disabilities Act has been widely supported by disability advocacy organizations, including BIAA.
In other news this week, it was announced that the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) School of Medicine will lead a $60 million, five-year, 10-site Clinical Consortium funded by the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program to conduct studies leading to the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and TBI. In a September 10 San Diego Union-Tribune article reporting on this new Consortium, BIAA CEO and President Susan H. Connors was quoted, stating, “This war, no matter how you feel about it, is going to make a monumental difference in the lives of people with brain injuries.”
***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT*** : BIAA is excited to announce that the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force will be holding a briefing on Capitol Hill next Tuesday featuring a presentation by Michael Paul Mason, a brain injury case manager and author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath. BIAA has been proud to help facilitate this educational event, which will be held on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 10:30 a.m., in Room 121 of the Cannon House Office Building. The briefing is open to the public, as well as to Members of Congress and their staff.
*Distributed by Laura Schiebelhut, BIAA Director of Government Affairs, on behalf of the Brain Injury Association of America; 703-761-0750 ext. 637; lschiebelhut@biausa.org
BIAA’s Policy Corner and Legislative Action Alerts are made possible by the Centre for Neuro Skills, James F. Humphreys & Associates, and Lakeview Healthcare Systems, Inc. The Brain Injury Association of America gratefully acknowledges their support for legislative action.
To sign up to receive future BIAA Policy Corner E-Newsletters and Legislative Action Alerts, please go to http://capwiz.com/bia/mlm/signup/
__________________________________________________________________
House VA Health Subcommittee Considers Heroes at Home Act of 2007
The Brain Injury Association of America submitted formal testimony at a hearing held this week by the House Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee. The hearing was held on Tuesday, September 9, and focused on several pieces of legislation, including H.R. 3051, The Heroes At Home Act of 2007, which BIAA has strongly endorsed.
This important legislation, introduced by Rep. John Salazar (D-CO), would authorize the creation of a program within the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide training, certification and compensation to family caregivers acting as personal care attendants for returning servicemembers with severe TBI. BIAA submitted testimony in strong support of this bill, describing the importance of providing much-needed supports to family caregivers of individuals with brain injury.
BIAA’s testimony stated, “Family care is the most important source of assistance for people with chronic or disabling conditions, including people with brain injury. Yet, research has found that all too often, the traumatic brain injury of a spouse or close relative places extreme stress on family caregivers, frequently resulting in negative physical and emotional outcomes for the caregivers themselves. Unfortunately, despite these documented physical hardships and psychological stress, family caregivers receive little support.”
BIAA also continues to support similar legislation in the Senate, The Caring for Wounded Warriors Act (S. 2921), which was introduced earlier this year by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). This bill would authorize a pilot program within the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide training, certification and compensation to family caregivers acting as personal care attendants for returning servicemembers with severe TBI. The Caring for Wounded Warriors Act would also authorize a pilot program to leverage existing partnerships between Veterans Affairs facilities and the nation’s premier universities, training graduate students to provide respite care for families caring for wounded warriors with TBI.
Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations Update
This week, BIAA sent out a Legislative Action Alert, urging grassroots advocates to tell their elected officials in Congress to increase appropriations for federal TBI programs in the expected upcoming extended Continuing Resolution (CR).
As in past years, Congress is not expected to finish appropriations before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Instead, Congress will most likely need to pass an extended Continuing Resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations to keep the government running into the next fiscal year beginning on October 1.
It is expected that most programs will be funded at last year’s levels in the upcoming CR which, depending on whether or not Congress holds a lame duck session after the November election, could extend into February of 2009, if not longer.
In addition to issuing its own Legislative Action Alert, BIAA has signed on to several other coalition letters urging Congress to provide increased funding for health programs in the CR and any eventual final Fiscal Year 2009 funding bill. One of these letters was spearheaded by The Coalition for American Trauma Care, and urges key appropriators to fund trauma-related programs – including TBI Act programs - at the highest level provided by either this year’s House or Senate Committee-passed Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bills.
The other appropriations-related letter BIAA signed on to recently was led by the Coalition for Health Funding. This broad health letter urged appropriators and House and Senate leadership to ensure that all health programs in the Continuing Resolution receive increased funding as provided in this year’s House and Senate Committee-passed Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bills. A total of 300 health groups signed onto this letter.
To take action, please visit BIAA’s Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/bia/home/.
Senate Passes The ADA Amendments Act of 2008
In addition, the Senate passed The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 3406) on Thursday, September 11. This legislation to clarify and update the Americans with Disabilities Act has been widely supported by disability advocacy organizations, including BIAA.
According to a news article in CQ Today, this bill is designed to “clarify a landmark 1990 disability rights law [The Americans with Disabilities Act] in the wake of numerous Supreme Court decisions that lawmakers say have improperly narrowed the law’s scope” (CQ Today, 9/11/08, Karoun Demirjian).
BIAA has signed on to multiple coalition letters in recent weeks and months urging passage of this legislation. This legislation aims to restore the Americans with Disabilities Act to its original intent in the wake of a series of court rulings which disability advocates assert has resulted in a category of clinically disabled people who do not qualify for protections under the ADA.
The House passed its version of the legislation, H.R. 3195, earlier this year but is expected to take up the Senate’s version next week in order to expedite final passage and signature into law in coming weeks.
If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.
Add to the discussion