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July 7, 2025 | Vol. MMXXV | Issue 119 |
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Fiscal Year 2026 Budget |
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The President’s budget proposes getting rid of University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs). The Administration wants to combine the work of the UCEDDs with the work of a few other disability programs to make the Independent Living Program do that work. It is now up to Congress to decide how much money is given to important programs like UCEDDs.
Action Item: Use AUCD’s new toolkit to contact Members of Congress and state elected officials to tell them why UCEDDs are so important for people with disabilities and their families all across the country.
This toolkit includes:
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Information and resources that explain why the budget proposal is harmful for people with disabilities
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Graphics and captions for social media
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Email scripts and talking points for speaking with elected officials and their staff
Starting this Thursday, Senate appropriators will begin marking up spending bills for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) wants to complete markups for all 12 appropriations bills for FY26 by July 30 and many lawmakers are adamant that they do not want to pass another continuing resolution (CR). The House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education subcommittee has jurisdiction over funding for AUCD Network programs, and its markup is scheduled for Monday, July 21. The LHHS legislation text has not yet been released. |
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Plain Language |
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The Administration wants to get rid of UCEDDs. The Administration wants to combine the work of the UCEDDs with the work of a few other disability programs to make the Independent Living Program do that work. It is now up to Congress to decide how much money is given to important programs like UCEDDs.
Action Item: Use the resources in the new AUCD toolkit to contact Members of Congress and their staff to educate them about the important work UCEDDs do. This toolkit has tools to help you speak up for people with disabilities.
Before Congress can vote on a government spending bill, committees in the House and Senate need to first review the bill. This is a process called a markup. During markup, lawmakers can look over a bill and share suggested changes. The committee then votes on these suggested changes. If the committee agrees on the suggested changes in a vote, the bill with the changes is sent to either the House or Senate for more discussion and voting.
In the Senate, Senate leaders will begin the markup process for next year’s government spending bills this week. In the House, lawmakers want to finish their markup process for all spending bills by July 30. The bill that includes funding for AUCD Network programs has its markup planned for Monday, July 21. The bill has not been released to the public yet. |
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Reconciliation |
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On July 4, President Trump signed the reconciliation bill (H.R.1) into law. Below is a summary of last week’s procedural steps:
Tuesday, July 1: The Senate—after more than 24 hours of a vote-a-rama where Democrats tried to delay the vote as much as possible—passed the legislation 51-50 with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) were the only Republicans to join Democrats in opposing the bill.
Thursday, July 3: The House passed the Senate’s bill along party lines, 218-214. U.S. Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) were the only Republicans to vote against it.
Friday, July 4: President Trump signed the bill into law. |
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Key Takeaways |
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This bill enacts the largest cuts to Medicaid in U.S. history. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that at least 16 million Americans will lose their health coverage because of this bill. It is estimated that 51,000 people will die each year due to this health coverage loss. H.R.1 will inflict harm on people with disabilities, older adults, low-income families, immigrants, people living in rural areas, and more. Read AUCD’s statement on the passage of the bill, released after Congress passed the bill and before the President signed it.
While Congressional Republicans were particularly motivated to pass the bill and enact President Trump’s legislative agenda, this process was characterized by constant discord and public disagreements among those same Republicans, while Senate and House Democrats presented a largely unified front in opposition to the reconciliation bill every step of the way. In the House, Politico notes that a “preliminary vote Wednesday was held open for more than nine hours — what Democrats claimed was a new House record — as GOP leaders scrambled to secure the votes. Once they did, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delayed final action almost another nine hours with a record-breaking floor speech attacking the 887-page bill.”
The path to passage was not an easy one, and advocates made a difference in slowing the process down and calling out the real-world effects these cuts would have on millions of people across the country. As we grieve and recuperate from this fight, we should remember that the work done by advocates in the disability community—who banded together amidst many attempts from lawmakers to pit us against each other—made a real difference in keeping some damaging proposals out of the final bill, like block granting Medicaid or implementing per capita caps. We should also remember that there are divisions within this group of lawmakers that we can levy the next time our rights, services, and supports are on the line.
There is more work to do to mitigate the harms of this bill. Advocacy on the state level will be important to protect access to home and community-based services (HCBS) and other optional services. New administrative regulations like work requirements mean many Medicaid recipients will need support keeping up with burdensome paperwork rules and navigating state Medicaid bureaucracy. AUCD will continue to track these changes and respond to the needs of our Network across all states and territories to ensure people with disabilities will not be left behind. |
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Plain Language |
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For the past few months, Congress has been working on passing the bills that affect how the government spends money, in a process called reconciliation. Reconciliation is usually used when one political party (either Democrat or Republican) is in charge of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency. This process allows a party to pass bills even if the other party does not like them very much.
Last week, President Trump signed the bill to make it a new law. This bill includes the biggest cuts to Medicaid funding in US history. This bill will take Medicaid away from millions of people and even make it harder for people to get health insurance in other ways.
Because many people with disabilities, older adults, and advocates spoke out, Republicans in Congress had a hard time passing this bill. Even though the bill passed, our advocacy efforts made a real impact. Now that the bill is law, there is more work to do. We can make a difference at the state level by speaking out so people with disabilities are not left behind. |
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |
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A federal judge in Rhode Island blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from carrying out its planned mass layoffs and huge reorganization, citing interruptions in critical public health services and abandonment of technical assistance services. The judge ordered the Trump Administration to stop its plans and provide a status report by July 11. The lawsuit had initially been brought by 19 Democratic attorneys general and Washington, D.C. in May. The judge wrote: “The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress.” It is not entirely clear what kind of action the Administration will take in response to this ruling. They’ve issued a statement saying they are reviewing the ruling and considering next steps. It's also unclear how this decision will be implemented based on the recent Supreme Court ruling that limits judicial authority regarding nationwide injunctions. |
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Key Takeaways |
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On March 27, HHS announced plans to restructure the department, including a consolidation of the 28 divisions of HHS into 15 new divisions. Since that announcement, HHS has fired tens of thousands of employees, eliminated the Administration for Community Living, closed the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and made many more changes in the Department that will negatively affect people with disabilities and their families. In his hearings before Congressional committees, Secretary Kennedy continually shows that he is unfamiliar with the structure of his own agency, the extent of the mass firings that have taken place since his tenure began, and the consequences of the significant cuts to personnel and funding. You can read AUCD’s statement on those hearings here. |
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Plain Language |
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A judge told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop its plan to fire workers and change how the agency works. The judge said these changes would harm important health services. We are not sure how the Trump Administration will respond. Since March, HHS has fired many workers, closed important offices, and made changes that hurt people with disabilities. Secretary Kennedy, who leads HHS, has shown many times that he does not know a lot about the firings and changes to the department. |
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U.S. Department of Labor |
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The Wage and Hour Division plans to withdraw a proposed rule that would have ended the practice of paying people with disabilities subminimum wage under 14(c) certificates. The Biden Administration had previously issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to phase out the issuance of section 14(c) certificates. The Trump Administration is now withdrawing that notice. On March 26, 2025, Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) and several House Committee on Education & the Workforce Republican Members had sent a letter to Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer requesting that DOL withdraw the proposed rule.
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On July 1, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer announced plans to rescind 63 regulations, including a rule that granted minimum wage and overtime pay to millions of home care workers. The proposed rule would change how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to certain “domestic service” employees by reverting current regulations back to the 1975 version of the FLSA, which exempted many domestic service providers from minimum wage and overtime requirements. You can read the press release from the Department of Labor here.
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Key Takeaways |
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The federal rulemaking process typically takes a long time to complete, from a notice of proposed rulemaking through a comment period and ending in a final rule publication. Since they are ongoing processes, they can be modified or ended in the middle of their process if a new President takes office and does not want to continue the rulemaking process.
Despite bipartisan support for phasing out the use of subminimum wage, the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) has still not passed Congress. This bill would provide states and employers with the resources to transition workers from subminimum wage under 14(c) certificates to competitive, integrated employment. It would stop new 14(c) certificates from being issued and give employers a few years to phase out their current 14(c) use. TCIEA has gotten close to passage in the past, but it’s not clear yet if there is political appetite for the bill to be taken up this Congress.
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One of the Trump Administration actions that lays the groundwork for these new plans to rescind regulations is the Executive Order to eliminate ten existing regulations for every new rule. This announcement to change the home care worker overtime pay is justified by the Administration, who says that the current regulation “might discourage essential companionship services by making these services more expensive.” These regulations follow the Administration’s pattern of deregulation and putting hard-won advancements in fair pay for domestic service workers and home care workers in jeopardy.
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Plain Language |
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Currently, employers can pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage because of something called section 14(c) certificates. The Biden Administration wanted to stop this from happening, so they started a rule process to end the use of 14(c) certificates. The Trump administration has stopped this process. There is a bill that is usually introduced in Congress called the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) that would stop the use of 14(c) certificates. It would stop employers from paying people with disabilities less than minimum wage and it would help states and employers make sure they have the tools they need to support people with disabilities to work in competitive integrated employment, which means people with disabilities work with coworkers without disabilities and get fair pay. While the bill has support from both Republicans and Democrats, it still has not been passed.
The Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is changing a rule that makes sure home care workers earn minimum wage and receive overtime pay. This change means many home care workers may not get fair pay, even though they do important work. These changes to rules are part of the Trump Administration’s bigger plan to have less government rules. |
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New Legislation
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Plain Language |
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The Rural Emergency Hospital Financial Stability Act would give small rural hospitals more money from Medicaid. Rural hospitals are small hospitals in small towns, not in big cities. This extra money could help these hospitals stay open or reopen if they already closed. |
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AUCD Story Collection |
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AUCD is collecting stories from the Network on a variety of topics to amplify the effects of this Administration on real people and our programs. If you have a story, we want to hear it.
We are interested in stories about:
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Medicaid and its impact on people's lives
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The impact of dismantling ACL
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The important work of UCEDDs, LENDs, IDDRCs, PNS’s, DD Councils, P&As
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The impact of zeroing out UCEDDs, LENDs, IDDRCs, PNS’s, DD Councils, P&As
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Impact of grants that are being cut
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Stories responding to RFK Jr.’s claims about autism or the autism registry
You can use this link to provide information and let us know if you are comfortable sharing your story with Members of Congress and their staff. |
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AUCD Policy Blog |
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AUCD invites Network members to fill out this form if you’re interested in writing for the AUCD policy blog. We are open to a variety of issues areas, and we will follow up with you as relevant issues come up that we’d like you to write about.
Check out our most recent blog, “A Nurse’s Training and a Mother’s Heart: Why I’m Speaking Out Against H.R.1,” written by Gloria Smith, Registered Nurse and Medical Support Coordinator at Delta Community Supports, and parent of a son with Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy. |
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Disability Policy for All with Liz |
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Join Liz on Instagram Reels, where she provides plain language updates on policy, highlighting current issues and hot topics in federal disability policy.
Liz Weintraub is AUCD's Senior Advocacy Specialist and the host of “Disability Policy for All with Liz.” She has extensive experience practicing leadership in self-advocacy and has held many board and advisory positions at state and national organizations, including the Council on Quality & Leadership (CQL) and the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council.
Watch Liz’s most recent video on the President's budget and UCEDDs. |
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Words to Know |
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Reconciliation
This is a process of passing bills that affects how the government spends money. It is unique because usually, you need more people to vote ‘yes’ for a bill. With reconciliation, you don’t need as many lawmakers to vote ‘yes.’ This is why reconciliation is usually used when lawmakers in one political party (either Democrat or Republican) want to pass bills they know the other political party wouldn’t like very much. They can do this when there is the same political party in charge of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency.
Markup
This is a process where a group of lawmakers in Congress review a bill and talk about the changes they want to make to it. These changes to the bill are called amendments. During markup, lawmakers suggest changes and then vote on each change. This happens in a smaller group called a committee. Both the Senate and the House will have a committee, which includes Senators or Representatives from the bigger group. Once markup is done and the bill passes the vote, the bill goes to the full Senate or House for more discussion and voting.
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