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September 5, 2025 | Vol. MMXXV | Issue 128 |
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In this edition:
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FY26 Appropriations
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Department of Health and Human Services
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Vaccine and Public Health Guidance
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Letter to Secretary of Labor on Section 503 Changes
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New Legislation
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AUCD Materials
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Words to Know
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FY26 Appropriations |
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On Thursday, July 31, the Senate Committee on Appropriations held a markup for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations bill (S.2587). Bill markup is the process by which a bill gets voted out of committee. Substantial bipartisan work went into this bill, and it passed out of committee 26-3. The legislation funds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at $116.6 billion—a $446 million increase in discretionary funds. You can read the Senate’s bill text and report language.
On Tuesday, September 2, the House Appropriations Committee held a Subcommittee Markup for its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill for FY26. The bill was passed out of committee 11-7, along party lines—only Republicans voted to advance it. The legislation appropriates $108.6 billion for HHS, a decrease of $6.8 billion. You can find bill text here—report language has not yet been made public as of this writing, so we don’t have some specific line-item numbers yet, like we do with the Senate bill.
Now that the Senate bill has passed out of committee, it will have to be debated on the floor and put to a vote. The next step for the House bill is for it to be marked up in the full House Appropriations Committee. Some reporting says this may happen on September 9; Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chair of the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee, says he tentatively expects the bill to be approved in full committee on that day.
Funding to keep the government open runs out on September 30. To avoid a government shutdown, Congress must approve a new government funding package for FY26 or pass a continuing resolution (CR) that keeps the government operating on current funding levels for a specified period. The timeline is very tight, and there may not be enough time to pass a full spending bill before the deadline. |
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Key Takeaways |
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It’s worth mentioning that the Senate’s legislation is bipartisan, while the House’s is not. House Appropriations LHHS Subcommittee members were divided on this bill—Democrats decried the bill, while Republicans celebrated its alignment with President Trump’s agenda. The Republican summary of the bill is here, and the Democratic summary is here. The House bill makes more than $500 million in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and nutrition benefits, and it cuts funding for education, health care, and labor programs by $24 billion. The Senate bill increases funding for HHS, while the House cuts it. This difference could make it harder for the Senate and House to agree on LHHS appropriations legislation, making it less likely that a full appropriations bill will be passed by September 30—this increases the likelihood of a CR.
Both the Senate and House rejected the President’s Budget proposal to eliminate funding for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) and make substantial changes to HHS departments and agencies, which is a positive sign.
More information:
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From Senate report: $43.1 million to UCEDDs (flat funding)
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From Senate report: $56.3 million to Autism and Other Developmental Disorders (flat funding)
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From Senate report: $1.7 billion to Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (where IDDRCs are housed) (increase of $20 million)
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From House bill: $2.4 billion to the Administration for Community Living (where UCEDDs get funding) (decrease of $11 million)
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From House bill: $1.76 billion to NICHD (flat funding)
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From House bill: $7.1 billion to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) (where LENDs get core funding) (decrease of $886 million)
We need to thank Members of Congress for supporting UCEDDs and other programs in the markup but make sure they know we want a full appropriations bill passed to maintain funding for HHS and our Network Centers and Programs.
Action Item - Tell your Member of Congress to safeguard UCEDD funding in FY26 appropriations. AUCD has a tool to protect funding for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities! Take 2 minutes to act now: Campaign to Safeguard UCEDD Funding. Share the campaign widely, and encourage families, students, staff, alumni, and community partners to join you. Post the campaign on social media, share that you participated, tag AUCD, and use hashtags #SaveUCEDDs and #DisabilityAdvocacy.
Important Note: This campaign does include direct requests for funding and constitutes lobbying. Please consider this when choosing the email address or list you use to send messages.
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Plain Language |
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Congress needs to pass a government spending bill to make sure the government is funded in 2026. Before Congress can vote on that bill, committees in the House and Senate need to first review it. This is a process called a markup and the committees are called appropriations committees. Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use. The appropriations process happens once a year. Money is sometimes requested by the President’s Administration or by Congress for a specific use.
Right now, Congress is in the middle of its appropriations process for 2026 funding. The Senate and the House both have committees that work on appropriations. Within those committees, they have special groups (called subcommittees) that focus on health, work, and education laws. The Senate appropriations subcommittee passed their 2026 appropriations bill in July, which gives more money than usual to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including programs in the AUCD Network: University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs), Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Programs, and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers (IDDRCs). The Senate bill was bipartisan, which means it was supported by both Democrats and Republicans. We know more details about the Senate’s bill because they released a report that has more specific funding amounts for programs. The House subcommittee that works on health, work, and education passed their bill this past week. They cut a lot of funding for programs in HHS. The House bill was passed by only Republicans, so it was not bipartisan.
Both the Senate and House rejected the President’s Budget proposal to get rid of funding for UCEDDs and make big changes to HHS departments and agencies, which is a good sign.
There is still more work to do:
- The full Senate still needs to vote on their bill, so we need to make sure every Senator knows that we want the bill to pass.
- After both the Senate and the House agree on their spending bills, they will need to work together to make one final bill.
Watch this Disability Policy for All with Liz video on updates on the FY26 appropriations process.
Action Item - Tell your Member of Congress to make sure UCEDDs have funding in FY26 appropriations. AUCD has a tool to protect funding for the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities! Take 2 minutes to act now: Campaign to Keep UCEDD Funding Safe. Share the campaign, and invite families, students, staff, alumni, and community partners to join you. Post the campaign on social media, share that you participated, tag AUCD, and use hashtags #SaveUCEDDs and #DisabilityAdvocacy. |
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Department of Health and Human Services |
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Senate Finance Committee Hearing - On Thursday, September 4, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. testified at a Senate Finance Committee hearing entitled “The President’s 2026 Health Care Agenda.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioned Secretary Kennedy about his statements undermining vaccine safety guidance and HHS’ cancelation of hundreds of millions of dollars in public health research grants.
Autism Study – The Wall Street Journal has reporting out that Secretary Kennedy’s upcoming autism report will include the claim that some potential causes of autism include low levels of folate and Tylenol when people take it during pregnancy. The article says, “Some previous studies [on Tylenol] have indicated risks to fetal development, but others have found no association. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it is safe to use in pregnancy, though it recommends pregnant women consult with their doctors before using it, as with all medicines.” The article also notes that “[h]undreds of lawsuits linking acetaminophen to autism or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder have been filed, though a federal judge in 2023 ruled that the scientific evidence behind the claims was unreliable.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - The former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. She alleged that Secretary Kennedy fired her because of she refused to follow his orders to “preapprove” the recommendations of a “vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.” The op-ed is behind a paywall, but this article from The Hill outlines some of its content. Recent reporting affirms that Secretary Kennedy’s new panel of vaccine advisers had made changes to vaccines, and Monarez had refused to sign off on those changes. In his hearing before the Finance Committee, Secretary Kennedy said that Susan Monarez was lying about this assertion. Jim O’Neill is currently serving as acting Director of the CDC.
HHS Employee Letter – More than 1,000 current and former HHS employees sent a letter to Congress and Secretary Kennedy, saying Kennedy is endangering the health of the nation and demanding his resignation. The signatories represent multiple agencies within HHS, including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Community Living (ACL), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), among others.
Letter from Physician Members of Congress - Six Democratic Members of Congress who are physicians wrote a letter to Secretary Kennedy demanding his resignation, citing his firing of Director Monarez and the resignations of multiple high-ranking officials at CDC, as well as the changes he made to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP).
They allege that Secretary Kennedy “never once requested briefings from the NCIRD [National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases] or NCEZID [National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases] directors before implementing major changes to vaccine policy. These leaders have cited that the CDC is being used to create policies unsupported by current science and without input from subject matter experts.” |
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Key Takeaways |
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Exchanges during the Finance Committee hearing became heated as many lawmakers pushed Secretary Kennedy on his problematic statements about vaccine safety. During the hearing, Secretary Kennedy made several false statements about COVID-19 vaccines and masks being ineffective to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Notably, in addition to Democratic lawmakers on the panel, several Republican Senators (including Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)) pushed Secretary Kennedy on his unfounded and unscientific assertions about the efficacy of vaccines. They cited the Secretary’s past work on the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, his decision to cancel $500 million in federal mRNA vaccine research funding, and his statement that “the Covid vaccine killed more people than Covid.”
Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) mentioned that discredited vaccine skeptic David Geier was working with HHS on the Secretary’s autism study, which is looking into the cause of autism. Senator Luján asked that the Secretary make the protocols used in the study public and available to the Finance committee. He also told Secretary Kennedy that he should resign. During the hearing, Secretary Kennedy also cited a 2002 study conducted by the CDC of children in Fulton County in Atlanta, Georgia where they compared kids who got the MMR vaccine on time (before 36 months) and kids who got the vaccine late (after 36 months). Allegedly the data from that study showed that black boys who got the vaccine on time had a 260% greater chance of getting an autism diagnosis. In fact, the conclusions that Secretary Kennedy cited about the study—made by anti-vaccine activists Brian Hooker and Andrew Wakefield—have been debunked.
Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly stated that autism is linked to vaccines, but that is not true. He has been describing increases in autism diagnoses as an “epidemic” to be cured, but autistic people do not need to be eliminated or cured. Government agencies dedicated to promoting health should work to support autistic people and better understand the autism community. |
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Plain Language |
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Senate Finance Committee Hearing – On Thursday, September 4, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. met with the Senate Finance Committee to talk about his recent work at HHS. Many Senators were upset with Secretary Kennedy because he has made changes at HHS that will make it harder for people to get vaccines like the COVID vaccine. Vaccines are shots that doctors give people to keep people from getting sick. He made a lot of changes to the committee that gives people advice on vaccines. He put a lot of people in charge of this committee who have said untrue things about vaccines or told people that they shouldn’t get vaccines even though they should. Secretary Kennedy and a few different Senators sometimes yelled at each other during the hearing. Senator Ben Ray Luján told Secretary Kennedy that he should resign and that he should not have hired David Geier to work on an autism study. David Geier is a person who has gotten in trouble in the past for doing bad experiments on autistic children and for pretending to be a doctor. He and Secretary Kennedy both have said that vaccines cause autism, which is not true.
Autism Study – Secretary Kennedy has announced that he is working on an autism study that will find out the cause of autism. The Wall Street Journal has an article that says that Secretary Kennedy’s autism report will say that one of the causes of autism might be “low levels of folate.” Folate is a vitamin. It will also say that one of the causes of autism is when pregnant women take Tylenol, which is a medicine that helps with pain. The article has some information on studies that have been done that show there is no connection between Tylenol taken during pregnancy and autism. Some studies say there might be, but many scientists and doctors say it is safe to use in pregnancy. There is a lot of focus on the cause of autism, but autism is not a bad thing. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) has said this: “Autism is a developmental disability — and disability is a natural part of human diversity. Autism is something we are born with, and that shouldn’t be changed. Autistic children should get the support they need to grow up into happy, self-determined autistic adults.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Secretary Kennedy fired Susan Monarez, who used to be the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that she was fired because she refused to agree with some advice from the committee that gives people advice on vaccines. She said that Secretary Kennedy told her to approve the advice even though she didn’t agree with the advice. Susan Monarez says that the committee has a lot of people on it who are against vaccines, even though vaccines save lives and keep people from getting sick. Secretary Kennedy said that Susan Monarez lied when she wrote this article.
HHS Employee Letter – More than 1,000 employees who either work at HHS or used to work at HHS sent a letter to Congress and Secretary Kennedy. They said that Secretary Kennedy is putting people in danger and the changes he is making at HHS will make people’s health worse. They want him to quit his job.
Letter from Members of Congress - Six Democratic Members of Congress who are doctors wrote a letter to Secretary Kennedy asking him to quit his job. They say that Secretary Kennedy has made big changes to vaccine policy that will make people sick. The Members of Congress are worried because Secretary Kennedy fired Susan Monarez from being the Director of the CDC and fired all the people on a committee that makes vaccine advice and replaced them with people who are against vaccines. The Members of Congress are worried that Secretary Kennedy and the new people he hired are not using science when they make these decisions and not listening to experts. |
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Vaccine and Public Health Guidance |
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West Coast Health Alliance – California, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon are partnering to create the West Coast Health Alliance, which will provide public health recommendations. Since Secretary Kennedy began making changes at HHS to promote vaccine misinformation and revoke important vaccine recommendations, the governors of the aforementioned states have announced that they will take up the mantle of providing science-based recommendations.
Florida Ends Vaccine Mandates – The Florida Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, announced that the state would end all vaccine mandates. Families will no longer be required to vaccinate children between k-12 to get “ four or five doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine, four or five doses of the polio vaccine, two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, one dose of the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine, and at least two doses of the chickenpox vaccine unless the child has had the disease in the past.” This means that many children could be at risk of contracting one of these diseases, including those that were completely eradicated because of vaccinations against them. Surgeon General Ladapo has also opposed COVID vaccines and COVID quarantine guidance.
Senator Sanders “Vaccines Work” Press Conference – On Tuesday, September 9, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will host a press conference to spread information about how and why vaccines work. He is seeking clinicians, scientists, public health professionals, experts, and advocates to attend to show that the scientific and medical community support the message of the event.
Date: Tuesday, September 9
Time: Doors open at 10 AM for a 10:30 AM speaker start time. Please give yourself extra time to get through security.
Location: Dirksen Room G-50 **tentative/subject to change** |
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Key Takeaways |
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Vaccines are vital to keeping Americans healthy and safe, especially many people with disabilities who might be more vulnerable to certain diseases and illnesses. Reversing decades of progress in increasing vaccination rates is dangerous, and Secretary Kennedy has already sowed doubt and misinformation across the country with his anti-vaccine rhetoric. More regional agreements like the West Coast Health Alliance or the Northeast Public Health Collaboration could be necessary to implement in other parts of the country to push back against the destruction of scientific integrity in the federal government. |
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Plain Language |
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West Coast Health Alliance – California, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon are making a group called the West Coast Health Alliance. They say that because Secretary Kennedy is making bad changes at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), they will start giving their own public health advice.
Florida Ends Vaccine Mandates – A mandate is an order that tells people to do something. The Florida Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, announced that the state would stop making people get vaccines. This could be really dangerous because vaccines keep people from getting sick and they work best when a lot of people get them. Many children could be at risk of getting a disease. This is also concerning because sometimes people with disabilities get a disease easier than a person without a disability.
Senator Sanders “Vaccines Work” Press Conference – On Tuesday, September 9, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will host a press conference to talk about how and why vaccines work. He wants doctors, scientists, experts, and advocates to come to show that the scientific and medical community agree that vaccines are important .
Date: Tuesday, September 9
Time: Doors open at 10 AM for a 10:30 AM speaker start time. Please give yourself extra time to get through security.
Location: Dirksen Room G-50 **might change** |
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Letter to Secretary of Labor on Section 503 Changes |
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U.S. Representative Lateefah Simon (D-CA) led a letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer expressing alarm about the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 503 prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees and applicants because of their disability status. It also requires many employers to take proactive steps to recruit and advance the employment of qualified people with disabilities. The Department of Labor, which enforces Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, seeks to revise regulations to better align with President Trump’s Executive Orders: “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative.” Representatives LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Gwen Moore (D-WI), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also signed the letter. |
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Plain Language |
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The Administration wants to change how companies that work with the federal government treat employees with disabilities. Companies that work with the federal government are called contractors. The Administration wants to change parts of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 503 says that it is illegal for contractors to discriminate against people with disabilities who work for them or who want to work for them. Section 503 also says that these companies should make an effort to hire and promote people with disabilities.
The Department of Labor manages these rules. They want to change Section 503 so it better matches with President Trump’s Executive Orders. Executive Orders are official instructions the President gives to government agencies, telling them how to do their work. The Administration wants to remove two requirements in Section 503 that help make sure that more people with disabilities are hired to work for contractors. U.S. Representative Lateefah Simon (D-CA) wrote a letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer about this rule change. She is worried that it will be bad for workers with disabilities. Representatives LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Gwen Moore (D-WI), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also signed the letter. |
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New Legislation
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Plain Language |
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There are a few new bills in the U.S. Congress.
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The Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act would make sure that people with disabilities and older adults can serve on a jury. A jury is a group of people who help decide if someone is innocent or guilty of a crime.
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The Home Health Stabilization Act would help people on Medicare get home care services.
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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. Right now, we would love to hear from experts in our Network who want to write about education and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the IDEA. |
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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 on FY26 appropriations. |
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Words to Know |
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Appropriations
This is money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use. The appropriations process happens once a year. Money is sometimes requested by the President’s Administration or by Congress for a specific use.
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 have committees, which include Senators or Representatives from the bigger group. Once markup is done in these committees and the committee votes to approve the bill, it goes to the full Senate or House for more discussion and voting.
Vaccine
Vaccines are shots doctors give people to keep people from getting sick. |
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