It’s happened! The Community Choice Act has been reintroduced into both the House of Representatives and the Senate! Yesterday, March 24, 2009, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) came together to do the deed. I don’t have any information about the Senate, but on the House side, the bill number is H.R. 1670, and it has 25 original co-sponsors. Here they are:
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] – 3/23/2009
Rep Brady, Robert A. [PA-1] – 3/23/2009
Rep Carney, Christopher P. [PA-10] – 3/23/2009
Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] – 3/23/2009
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] – 3/23/2009
Rep DeLauro, Rosa L. [CT-3] – 3/23/2009
Rep Doyle, Michael F. [PA-14] – 3/23/2009
Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] – 3/23/2009
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] – 3/23/2009
Rep Israel, Steve [NY-2] – 3/23/2009
Rep Kaptur, Marcy [OH-9] – 3/23/2009
Rep Kind, Ron [WI-3] – 3/23/2009
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] – 3/23/2009
Rep Langevin, James R. [RI-2] – 3/23/2009
Rep Larson, John B. [CT-1] – 3/23/2009
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] – 3/23/2009
Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] – 3/23/2009
Rep Meeks, Gregory W. [NY-6] – 3/23/2009
Rep Moore, Dennis [KS-3] – 3/23/2009
Rep Olver, John W. [MA-1] – 3/23/2009
Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] – 3/23/2009
Rep Sanchez, Loretta [CA-47] – 3/23/2009
Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y. [PA-13] – 3/23/2009
Rep Sestak, Joe [PA-7] – 3/23/2009
Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12] – 3/23/2009
There was a celebration in Washington, DC inside the Capitol. A busload of Rochester ADAPT folks attended (and are still there today for the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Long Term Care), but unfortunately, I wasn’t on that bus. I’m still out from surgery. I went to CDR, and was able to attend via teleconference. CDR was one of 119 sites in 37 states around the nation that had local hook-ups to the celebration. After Senator Harkin (who recognized Bob Kafka and Yoshiko Dart in his sppech), Senator Specter, and Rep. Davis Spoke (as usual, Danny Davis mentioned our mutual friend, Dennis Schreiber in his remarks), my dear friend Dawn Russell, from ADAPT got things started with a rousing call to action. Other speakers included Mitch LaPlante, who wrote the study that led to the new scoring on CCA, Victor Robinson, of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), Marty Ford, of Citizens Consortium of people with Disabilities (CCD), Andy Imparato, of American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), who is my old boss (I used to work at AAPD), and John Lancaster, of NCIL. I was proud that in his remarks, John mention that ”The two best CILS in the country-Philadelphia and Rochester”.
As I mentioned earlier, The Rochester, and presumably, the Philly crew are staying for the hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on the role of Long Term Care in Health Reform. CCA is supposed to be one of the topics that will be covered. The hearing is at 2:30. I hope it will be webcast, but it doesn’t appear that it wiil be. I’ll check again.
I’ll also let you know when I get the Senate numbers for CCA, and co-sponsor list.
