This afternoon, Gene and I had a meeting with Rep. Louise Slaughter in her Rochester office. For the better part of a year, ADAPT has been trying to get her to become a co-sponsor of the Community Choice Act. She had sign on the CCA’s previous incarnation, the Bill Formerly Known as MiCASSA, but she balked at signing on to CCA stating that the bill cost too much. We provided her with the new study by the University of California at San Francisco, but her staff never found time to read it, or bring her up to speed. When ADAPT met with her in January, right after the hearing on CCA before the House Energy and Commerce Committe, she gave us the same tired old speech about the bill costing too much, and us being in a war, and under a deficit.
On Friday, March 14th, Bruce was sitting next to Rep. Slaughter on a flight back to Rochester, and took the opportunity to speak with her about meeting in Rochester to discuss the Community Choice Act. She told Bruce that she was very busy, travelling back and forth to Albany, meeting with Gov. Paterson, and “playing Grandma”, but suggested that Bruce call her staffperson, Bobbi, and see if she could squeeze some time into her schedule. Bruce immediately called me, and asked that I do the deed, which I did. Bobbi wasn’t there, but I left her a message, then, called her again on Monday. Bobbi was able to squeeze in time for the 25th (today), but she made the meeting for Bruce alone. I didn’t like that, but felt that we needed to get that meeting.
As it turned out, Bruce was in Albany today, so Gene and I went in his stead. We brought copies of the study from U of C. Gene took the lead in this meeting and started out by discussing the new study, and some of the highlights. Rep. Slaughter asked about the waivers, and we explained that the waivers are capped at the number of people that they serve. I also told her that CCA would actually cost less than the waivers, which are optional. Gene also said that the states would get 10% more in federal matching funds under CCA.
Towards the end of the meeting, Rep. Slaughter said three words that ADAPT has been waiting for a year to hear — “We’ll Sign on”. She spoke about the horrors of the medicare prescription program, and how, Under Bush, people with disabilities are really being devastated by program cuts. After some more conversation, and a reiteration that she would be signing on, we left.
I am very happy that Louise Slaughter will sign on to CCA. I’m curious about why she signed on after all this time, but I won’t speculate about that. I’ll be even happier when I go to Thomas, and see her name on the list. of course, even if she called Rep. Danny Davis’s office as soon as we left, it won’t appear on the website for several days. Rest assured, I will let you know the moment her name is on the CCA co-sponsor list!