May 15, 2026 | Vol. MMXXVI | Issue 161

In this edition:

• Budget and Appropriations
  

• Department of Health and Human Services
  

• Department of Education
  

• New Legislation
  

• AUCD Materials
  

• Words to Know

Budget and Appropriations

Senate Judiciary Republicans have released a proposal for their party-line budget reconciliation bill to fund the immigration enforcement agencies in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secret Service upgrades related to the President’s White House ballroom project. Congressional Republicans are also discussing a third reconciliation bill for a few months down the line that would invest heavily in the military.

The budget reconciliation bill is different from appropriations, which Congress needs to do in order to make sure government agencies are funded. Appropriators have begun drafting legislation to fund various federal agencies, as well as holding markups and hearings to consider the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2027.

The House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Bill—which funds AUCD programs—is going to be marked up on June 5 by the LHHS subcommittee and on June 11 in the full Appropriations Committee.

Plain Language

Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use.

Congressional Republicans want to pass a bill to give money to the part of the Department of Homeland Security that includes immigration police: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They are using a special process called reconciliation. This process can be used for bills that are about spending money. It can be used when the same political party (Republicans or Democrats) are in charge of the Senate, the House, and the Presidency. This is because you don’t need as many lawmakers to vote ‘yes.’ It 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. This bill will also include money for some safety and security work at the White House, including making some change to the ballroom, which is one of the fancier event rooms.

Congress is starting to write and pass appropriations bills for different federal government departments and programs. They are having budget hearings, where they meet with agency leaders who talk about the President's Budget. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in charge of funding and other support that AUCD programs get. Congress will also hold markups, which is when they meet to work on bills and make updates and changes. The House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Bill—which funds AUCD programs—is going to be marked up on June 5 by the subcommittee (a smaller group that just focuses on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education) and on June 11 for the full Appropriations Committee.

Department of Health and Human Services

HCBS Listening Session – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is holding a national virtual listening session for stakeholders on Section 1915(c)(11), which was created under H.R.1 to provide another waiver option for home and community-based services (HCBS) in states. CMS is interested in hearing how the agency can best support states and consumers and enhance program integrity with the new waiver option. Participants are invited to share experiences, perspectives, and recommendations, including potential implementation barriers and ways to leverage 1915(c)(11) to improve HCBS and improve cost efficiency. The listening session will be on Tuesday, May 19, at 1:30pm.

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Investigations – The Trump Administration is blocking new home health agencies (HHAs) and hospice care providers from enrolling in Medicare for the next six months. The moratorium will only apply to new Medicare enrollment—agencies that are already enrolled will not be affected. The Administration says that HHAs and hospice care are significantly affected by fraudsters attempting to get Medicaid money by pretending to operate these kinds of agencies. Along with implementing this new moratorium, the Administration is continuing its investigations into healthcare fraud, which includes conducting site visits to verify legitimacy of hospice providers, increasing oversight of newly enrolled Medicare hospice providers in states where the Administration sees “elevated fraud risk, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, and Texas”, and implementing enhanced screening measures for Medicare provider enrollment.

The Administration is also withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California because they say the state is not making enough of an effort to combat fraud. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz has said that the Administration believes that “half of the hospices in the entire area around Los Angeles are fraudulent.” CMS suspended payments to 800 hospice facilities in California.

On May 13, HHS Inspector General Bell sent letters to every state’s governor, informing them that HHS will audit state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs) and threatening to cut off Medicaid funding if the federal government finds the state’s anti-fraud efforts to be lacking. The Inspector General wrote in his letters:

“HHS will protect American taxpayer dollars by requiring every single MFCU to comply with all of their obligations under Federal law in order to receive their MFCU funds. And not just that. Noncompliance with your MFCU obligations can take your State’s entire Medicaid program out of compliance. This means your failure to do your job as head of the MFCU has put all of your State’s Medicaid funds in jeopardy."

Key Takeaways

The Administration—and Congressional Republicans—have been singularly focused on rooting out what they view as rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. At the State of the Union, the President announced that Vice President J.D. Vance would be leading efforts to crack down on healthcare fraud; additionally, CMS announced a six-month national moratorium on Medicare enrollment for certain durable medical equipment, the Administration took unprecedented action to withhold Medicaid funding from Minnesota multiple times over its fraud cases, and Dr. Oz sent letters to each state’s governor asking about their plans for combatting Medicaid fraud.

Home care and disability advocates are concerned that using the language of “fraud-busting” could be cover for the Administration to cut Medicaid services for people with disabilities and older adults. Focus on HCBS as a frequent source of fraud is misleading, advocates argue—Medicaid HCBS is subject to cost neutrality regulations and providers must go through extensive screening and use Electronic Visit Verification. The hospice care field seems to a be a little mixed—some experts say that there is significant fraud because of gaps in oversight and enrollment screening, and welcome the Administration’s focus on those issues. Others are concerned that the Administration’s efforts will end up limiting access to care, especially for rural and underserved populations.

As evidenced by the Administration’s actions cutting off millions of Medicaid dollars to Minnesota and billions to California, CMS may use examples of fraud to cut off broader Medicaid funding to states. Cutting off Medicaid funding in this way is likely to impact innocent beneficiaries; withholding federal funds abruptly will introduce financial instability in benefit programs and result in service disruptions for older adults and people with disabilities.

Section 504 Rule Delay – HHS is delaying implementation of a regulation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act which mandates healthcare providers ensure their websites meet web accessibility standards. The rule was supposed to take effect May 11. HHS published an interim final rule this week pushing the deadline for healthcare providers to meet these standards—large providers have until May 11, 2027 and smaller providers have until May 10, 2028. HHS said in the interim final rule that it is considering giving members of the public an opportunity to comment on the 2024 final rule.

Key Takeaways

Similar to the Department of Justice’s decision to delay implementation of a different web accessibility rule by a year, this decision means that people with disabilities will continue to face barriers to accessing information and services to which they are entitled.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned this week after turmoil at the agency. Kyle Diamantas, the current Deputy Commissioner for Food, is expected to take over as acting commissioner. President Trump will have to nominate a new FDA Commissioner for the Senate to confirm.

Plain Language

HCBS Listening Session – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is holding a listening session, which means they want to hear from people about a particular issue. This will be virtual, so people have to sign up and then join a Zoom call. CMS wants to hear from people about a new option for home and community-based services (HCBS) called Section 1915(c)(11). This new option was created through H.R.1, a bill passed last year that made a lot of changes to Medicaid. CMS wants to hear what people think about this new HCBS option and how CMS can help healthcare providers and people who work in state governments make sure everything is running smoothly. The listening session will be on Tuesday, May 19, at 1:30pm. You can sign up here.

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Investigations – The Administration says there is a lot of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Fraud is when you pretend to do something or be someone else in order to get money. The President and his Administration have talked a lot about how they think there is a lot of fraud in Medicaid. Many Republican Members of Congress have talked about this too. Advocates are worried that the Administration is using fraud as an excuse to take Medicaid away from people and spend less on it.

This week, the Administration did a few things on healthcare fraud:

• The Vice President announced that the Administration is stopping new home health agencies and hospice care providers from signing up for Medicare. Hospice is a special kind of healthcare that takes care of people who are going to die from an illness or disease soon. HHS is going to visit different places that say there are hospice providers to see if they are lying or not.
  
  

• The Administration is also stopping $1.3 billion in Medicaid money from going to California. They say California is not doing enough to stop fraud.
  
  

• The HHS Inspector General is in charge of looking into fraud and making sure people are using HHS money the right way. The Inspector General sent letters to every state governor this week, telling them that his office will be looking into how they are stopping Medicaid fraud. Each state has a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), which is a part of the government that works on stopping fraud. The Inspector General said that if states' MFCUs are not working correctly, HHS might stop sending that state their Medicaid money.
  
  

Many disability advocates say that home care does not have a lot of fraud, but more people are signing up for it. Some experts in hospice care say that there is a lot of fraud. Some experts are worried that the government will accidentally make it harder for people to get hospice care if they continue with these anti-fraud efforts. The Administration cut off millions of Medicaid dollars to Minnesota earlier this year when they found examples of fraud there, so people are worried that the Administration will do the same thing to other states. The Administration says there might be more fraud in Arizona, California, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, and Texas.

Section 504 Rule Delay – HHS is changing the date when people have to follow a rule under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This rule is about making healthcare providers make sure their websites are accessible for people with disabilities. This rule was supposed to start on May 11, 2026. The Administration is changing the start date to May 11, 2027 for large healthcare providers and May 10, 2028 for small healthcare providers. HHS said they are thinking about giving people an option to comment on the rule. This is a big change because it is one more year that many websites about healthcare will not be available for people with disabilities, which is not fair.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – FDA Commissioner Marty Makary quit this week after there had been a lot of tension at the FDA about him. Kyle Diamantas, the Deputy Commissioner for Food, will probably be the Commissioner for a short period of time before the President finds a new official FDA Commissioner. President Trump will have to nominate a new person for the job and then the Senate will have to vote on that person before they can start the job.

Department of Education

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating multiple cases of potential discrimination against students with disabilities.

In Houston, OCR is investigating the Houston Independent School District for its new “Special Education Success Program”, which would separate many students with disabilities from their nondisabled peers. The plan would centralize some programs to certain campuses across the district, so some students would have to switch campuses in order to access their special education programs. The commute could be challenging for students whose parents have worked hard to acclimate them to their commute and routine, and will have a hard time with this new change. Students with disabilities may also be forced to have a longer commute to get to their new campus, which would not be equitable.

In Washington, D.C., the Education Department says that the District of Columbia Public Schools system failed to provide accommodations to students with disabilities and denied them “individualized placements” and “reliable transportation” to and from school. The Department launched an investigation into DCPS a year ago after finding that the school district has received more complaints about special education than any other state or territory in the country.

Key Takeaways

These investigations are important reminders of why the Office for Civil Rights must be protected—oversight is a key function of OCR and it is vital to upholding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other federal disability statutes.

Plain Language

The Department of Education has an office called the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is in charge of making sure students are being treated fairly. When a student with a disability is treated unfairly because of their disability, they go to OCR to get justice. OCR sometimes looks into schools if they think they are discriminating against students with disabilities. Discriminating means treating someone badly because of who they are.

OCR is looking into a few different cases of possible discrimination:

• The Houston school district (group of schools in one area) has a new plan to keep some special education programs together instead of spread around the school district. This means that some students with disabilities will have to move schools to get to their special education programs. This could be hard for some students and it is unfair that they would have to go to a new school just because they use certain programs.
  
  

• Washington, D.C. has had a lot of complaints about schools not helping students with disabilities who need accommodations at school. Accommodations are changes to a place or program that make it accessible. There are issues with the personal plans that students have to help them learn in the classroom and issues with transportation. The Department started looking into D.C. schools a year ago after finding that the school district has gotten more complaints about special education than any other state or territory in the country.

OCR is really important because they are helping students who are facing discrimination and making sure that different school districts across the country are following the law.

New Legislation

• The Federal Employee Short-Term Disability Insurance Act (H.R.8731)

  • Introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)

  • Would allow federal employees to purchase short-term disability insurance at group rates to replace a portion of their income lost due to a short-term injury or disability, pregnancy, or pregnancy-related illness

  • You can read Rep. Norton’s press release here.
    
    

• The Restoration of Employment Choice for Adults with Disabilities Act (H.R.8736)

  • Introduced by Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI)

  • Would lower the applicable age threshold in Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act from 24 to 18; this would mean that states have fewer adults with disabilities for whom they need to help find competitive integrated employment before placing them in a Section 14(c) employment setting where they may be paid subminimum wage

  • You can read Rep. Grothman’s press release here.
    
    

• The Multigenerational Caregiving Data Act (S.4513) (H.R.8792)

  • Introduced by Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)

  • Would require at least one federal survey to include a question identifying individuals who provide unpaid care to both older adults and children

  • You can read Senator Kim’s press release here.
    
    

• S.4487

  • Introduced by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS)

  • Would increase the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans

Plain Language

There are a few new bills in the U.S. Congress.

• The Federal Employee Short-Term Disability Insurance Act would give people who work for the federal government an option to get a certain kind of insurance for when you have a disability for a short period of time.
  
  

• The Restoration of Employment Choice for Adults with Disabilities Act would change a part of the law that says employment systems in state governments have to try and find people with disabilities work in the community where they can work along with people without disabilities. It would mean that states have fewer people they have to try and help find competitive integrated employment (CIE) before they can put them in subminimum wage settings. You can learn more about CIE and subminimum wage here.
  
  

• The Multigenerational Caregiving Data Act would make the federal government do a survey to see how many people are unpaid caregivers to both older adults and children.
  
  

• A bill to give more money to veterans with disabilities—veterans are people who used to be in the military.

AUCD Story Collection

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: 

• Medicaid and its impact on people's lives 

• The impact of dismantling ACL 

• The important work of UCEDDs, LENDs, IDDRCs, PNS’s, DD Councils, P&As

• The impact of zeroing out UCEDDs, LENDs, IDDRCs, PNS’s, DD Councils, P&As  

• Impact of grants that are being cut

• 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. 

AUCD Policy Blog

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 our newest blog from Cobey Meyer on his IPSE experience.

Disability Policy for All with Liz

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 recent video on the President's Budget.

Words to Know

Appropriations

Appropriations means money that is set aside by Congress for a particular use.

Markup

A markup is when a committee in Congress meets to make changes to a bill and then vote to pass it or not.

Fraud

Fraud is when you pretend to do something or be someone else in order to get money.

Hospice

Hospice is a special kind of healthcare that takes care of people who are going to die from an illness or disease soon.

Subminimum wage

Subminimum wage means a paid wage less than the federal minimum wage. Typically, this would be illegal, but Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) allows some employers who apply for and are given a piece of paper—called a 14(c) certificate—to pay certain employees, such as people with disabilities, at hourly rates below the minimum wage.

Competitive integrated employment

Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) is work where employees with a disability work with—or have the opportunity to work with—coworkers without disabilities. CIE also means that employees with disabilities are given the same benefits and opportunities to move forward in their careers as their nondisabled coworkers, all while being paid at or above the minimum wage.