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January 16, 2026 | Vol. MMXXVI | Issue 144 |
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In this edition:
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Appropriations |
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The current continuing resolution (CR) expires at the end of January, which makes passing a new CR or full-year funding bill a time-sensitive priority in Congress. Senate and House leaders are working on a few funding bills.
AUCD Network programs and other programs affecting people with disabilities will be covered under the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (Labor-H) bill, which looks like it will be last on the docket, along with the Defense funding bill and Transportation-Housing. House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) has said that leadership is aiming to release bill text for the Labor-H bill on Sunday, along with a few others.
On Wednesday, the House passed a two-bill funding package for Financial Services and General Government, as well as National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs funding package. The bipartisan bills rejected a lot of the cuts that the Administration made in the President’s Budget for 2026; it included more than double what the Administration requested for the State Department. The next step is for the Senate to consider the bills.
On Thursday, the Senate passed three funding bills for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development; and Interior, Environment. It is now headed to the President. The Senate is adjourning for recess and will return on January 26 to finish the appropriations process before the CR expires. The House has a recess scheduled for the week of January 26. |
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Plain Language |
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At the end of last year, Congress passed a continuing resolution (also called a CR), which is a funding bill that makes sure the government has enough money for a few more months. This CR will fund the government until the end of January, so Congress needs to figure out how they will fund the government after that. This process is called "appropriations." Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use.
Senate and House leaders are working on a few funding bills.
On Wednesday, the House passed two bills to fund parts of the government that deal with money for the government, the safety of the country, and the State Department (works on relationships with other countries). The President had previously released a document that said he wanted to cut a lot of money for these programs. This document is called the President's Budget, and it is not law, but guidance that the Administration wants Congress to follow. However, Congress didn't listen to the President. Congress did not cut a lot of money for these programs. The next step is for the Senate to vote on these bills.
On Thursday, the Senate passed a few bills that the House already passed. These bills would give money to programs under these Departments:
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Department of Energy (deals with things like fuel and gas or electricity)
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Department of Commerce (works on job creation and oversees trade)
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Department of the Interior (manages public land and protects nature)
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Department of Justice (makes sure the law is being followed)
The bills also give money to water programs and some science programs in the federal government. The next step is for the President to sign these bills into law.
AUCD programs and other disability programs are going to be in different bills, which are called Labor-Health and Human Services-Education bills. The leader of the House Appropriations Committee, Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), says these bills might be released on Sunday. The Senate is leaving Washington, D.C. for a week. They are going home to their states to have meetings and events. This time period is called recess or work in district. They need to come back from recess on January 26 to finish the appropriations process by the end of January. The House also has a recess scheduled for the week of January 26. |
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Healthcare |
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President Trump unveiled his healthcare framework, called “The Great Healthcare Plan.” The framework includes four main goals:
The plan includes some of the President’s key policy priorities, including using the most-favored-nation drug pricing deals and sending money directly to Americans’ health savings accounts in lieu of Affordable Care Act plans. It also includes something called a “Plain-English Insurance” Standard, which would require health insurance companies to publish coverage and rate comparisons in simpler English instead of healthcare industry jargon.
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Plain Language |
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President Trump has a new healthcare plan for Americans, called "The Great Healthcare Plan." It includes four goals:
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Lower drug prices
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Lower the amount of money that people pay for healthcare every month (called a "premium")
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Make sure big health insurance companies are not breaking the rules
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Make it easier for people to get information about healthcare prices
The plan includes some of the President's favorite policy issues. This includes things like making drug prices the same in the U.S. as they are in other, similar countries. It also includes sending money to a special account that some Americans have called a "health savings account." The President's plan includes something called a "Plain-English Insurance" Standard. This would make health insurance companies put public information in "plain English" or simpler terms. Usually health insurance companies use bigger words that not as many people know. |
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Department of Health and Human Services |
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Letter to Congress on Childhood Vaccine Schedule – On January 9, a group of more than 200 organizations representing healthcare professionals and advocates sent a letter to Congress, urging oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as it overhauls the childhood vaccine schedule. Last week, the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jim O’Neill, signed off on recommendations to change the childhood vaccine schedule, easing guidance for the rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and flu vaccines. The organizations write in their letter that these changes were “not based on credible evidence” and that they “will create even greater confusion for families and health care professionals, and leave more people unprotected against serious vaccine-preventable diseases.”
New Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Members – Two new members have been added to ACIP, both of whom have previously espoused anti-vaccine beliefs. Dr. Adam Urato and Dr. Kimberly Biss are both obstetricians-gynecologists.
Dr. Biss has described herself as “anti-vaccine” and said that COVID vaccines may have been responsible for an uptick in miscarriages, a claim that hasn’t been proven. She has also “falsely claimed that only 3 in 1 million children die from Covid, when the actual rate at the time was 10 in 1 million.”
Dr. Urato has questioned the safety of vaccines and antidepressants during pregnancy—he has said that SSRIs, a type of antidepressant, could change fetal brain development, showing “a signal for things like autism, ADHD, language processing, and motor function.” The research on this issue has not found this link.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – On Tuesday, hundreds of organizations were told that their SAMHSA grants were being cut, totaling around $2 billion. The grants are for health services supporting people experiencing addiction, homelessness, and mental illness, and the organizations were told that “SAMHSA officials no longer believe the defunded programs align with the Trump administration's priorities.” After significant bipartisan pushback, the Administration reinstated the grants. There has not been any clarification about the reversal or why it happened. |
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Key Takeaways |
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Secretary Kennedy has made reshaping vaccine policy a pillar of his policy priorities since he began his tenure at HHS. This includes changing the makeup of various committees and staff at HHS, including ACIP. In doing this, he is able to make policy changes based on his long-held belief that vaccines are mostly unsafe because they lead to developmental disabilities like autism or chronic illness like allergies, despite the lack of credible evidence to prove these points. |
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Plain Language |
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Vaccines are shots that keep people from getting diseases.
Letter to Congress on Childhood Vaccine Schedule - On January 9, a group of more than 200 organizations sent a letter to Congress about how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is changing vaccine guidance. These organizations all work on healthcare. They wrote about how HHS is changing the childhood vaccine schedule (a list of vaccines and timeline for when children should get them). HHS has changed the childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer vaccines for kids. These organizations are worried that these changes were made without experts and without good science to back it up.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided to change the guidance for vaccines that stop people from getting a few different viruses, including the flu. You can read more in this previous issue of Disability Policy News.
New Members on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) - HHS Secretary Kennedy added two more people to ACIP. ACIP is a group of health officials who make decisions about vaccines and when people should get them. The two new people, Dr. Adam Urato and Dr. Kimberly Biss, are both doctors who have said that vaccines might not be safe. They have both said things about vaccines that aren't true.
An important issue for Secretary Kennedy is changing vaccine policy. He does not think they are safe and has said that vaccines can give people allergies or disabilities like autism, even though this isn't true. He has added a lot of people to ACIP who share his beliefs.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) - SAMHSA is an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services. SAMHSA helps people who have addictions or mental health issues. Addiction is when someone can't stop using a drug or drinking alcohol even though it makes them sick.
On Tuesday, HHS told hundreds of organizations that their SAMHSA grants were being cut. These grants were for healthcare for people with mental health or addiction issues, and for people who are homeless. The total number of grants added up to about $2 billion. HHS said that the organizations were doing things that were not in line with what the Trump Administration wanted them to do. Many Members of Congress—both Democrats and Republicans—were upset about the cancelation.
However, the next day, people at HHS changed their minds and said that the grants would NOT be cut. Now that HHS is letting people continue to use the funding, they still haven’t told anyone why they tried to cancel it in the first place, so people are confused. |
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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 READDI for Disasters Act would make sure that local, state, and federal government agencies are working together to make sure that they are meeting the needs of people with disabilities and older adults during disasters.
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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. Read past blog posts here. |
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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 Executive Orders. |
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Words to Know |
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Health Savings Account (HSA)
A special account where people can put money that they want to use on healthcare. Not everyone has one, and it depends on what kind of healthcare you have. You can use it to pay for some healthcare needs.
Premium
The amount of money that people pay to have insurance every month
Childhood Vaccine Schedule
A list of vaccines and timeline for when children should get them |
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