GCDD’s Deputy Director Visits the White House - Part 2
This is the second part of a two-part blog written by Pat Nobbie, GCDD Deputy Director, on a community leaders briefing at the White House on Friday, February 10, 2012. In this blog, Nobbie shares an overview of her White House visit and the various issues that were addressed, as well features pictures below. To read the first part, click here.
Part 2:
Robert Gordon, Office of Management and Budget spoke next.
Gordon stressed education, early intervention and prevention. He spoke about the Early Learning Challenge fund of $500 million to develop assessment systems sensitive to developmental disabilities, the Race to the Top grants, which include funding to develop better assessments for people with cognitive disabilities in particular and IDEA Part C expansions. The next round of Race to the Top grants will allow local school districts to apply for funds. Goals such as improving outcomes to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will be worked into the grant applications. The Administration is developing the SSI Promise Program, which provides incentives for states to integrate HHS, Health and Education projects. There will also be planning grants available.
The bigger budget picture is more sobering. The first priority is to maintain the payroll tax cuts, keep teachers employed and maintain unemployment insurance funds. The second priority is deficit reduction. The Administration already reduced the deficit by $2 trillion dollars. The next round will create significant limits on discretionary spending, which will affect other parts of the budget. There will be targeted reductions in Medicare and efforts to make the richest earners pay more in taxes. If Congress fails to cut, sequestration will occur, and cuts will result in all places which have already been cut. This will be extremely destructive on discretionary programs. Gordon summarized the bottom line by saying the following, “If we are going to meet our country’s challenges, we have to raise more revenue.”
Next, Jack Lewin, White House Chief of Staff, spoke on the Administration’s efforts to keep working and do everything they can within the executive branch to keep the President’s agenda moving.
Finally we heard from Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice.
Tom was one of the attorneys that litigated the Georgia Settlement Agreement. The latest news features the Virginia Settlement, signed last week, that builds upon the Georgia settlement by including crisis services, family support, waivers to transition people from training centers and ICF/ MRs. It also expands upon it by including employment first policy and housing supports. Perez said that these agreements are “threefers:” they satisfy the legal agreements of the ADA and Olmstead; they satisfy the moral compact of a society to those who are more vulnerable; and they satisfy the fiduciary obligations to tax payers, since home and community-based services and crisis aversion is 1/3 of the cost of the institutional setting. The DOJ is pursuing 35 matters in 21 states, as well as doing “stovepipe implosions,” where they are trying to bust systems out of their silos to create the necessary financial and structural support for integrated community life.
After Tom finished, we had some down time. Then the staff came in and put the Presidential Seal on the podium, Secret Service people showed up at the doors, and suddenly, in bounded President Obama! “Hey Hey Hey, how are you all?” The room erupted with clapping and cheering. He spoke for a few minutes, and then he worked the crowd. Since Sandy, Jessica and I were in the first row, we got to shake his hand! Very exciting. See his remarks at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA4Okhk_SqA.
Summary of the morning? The Administration is thinking about the right stuff, trying to break down intra-agency barriers, as well as funding streams and regulatory restraints to make it easier to leverage resources and support community living.
We also had the opportunity to tour the White House East Wing and stood in the room, where just the day before, the President addressed educators on the NCLB waivers granted to give 10 states more flexibility in exchange for greater results. He emphasized increased accountability for the achievement of children with disabilities, the Green Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room and the state dining room.
Then we went across the street to the White House Conference Center, where we broke up into four groups and met with another set of policy officials from the DOJ, Administration on Aging, Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Education. During these sessions we got to ask a lot of questions, share what is going on in our state, express our concerns and share what kind of Federal guidance we would find helpful for the issues our communities are facing. I participated in the session on Medicaid, and most of the discussion circled around managed care. Carole Johnson gave a brief overview of the ACA opportunities and talked about the Innovations Center at CMS, which would be releasing $1 billion in grants to do systems design in Medicaid, Medicare and SChip.
We gave her feedback in the following areas: how to enforce stakeholder input at the state level for some of the wide-ranging reforms that states are considering; could CMS establish a Foundation of Values to guide state’s work for the ABD population; can they provide guidance on a reasonable time frame for managed care implementation; ensure that self-direction remained a part of the service delivery system; help states develop good assessment tools, particularly for ID/DD populations; continue to think about universal waiver design; keep family support flexible; connect the dots between cost data and outcomes; figure out how families could move between states without losing services and more. She took notes, listened and asked questions. We heard from her, as well as several others, that this Administration has no intention to block grant Medicaid.
Continue the Conversation at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Engage. (This link is no longer active.)
Sunday morning, I heard the White House Chief of Staff on State of the Nation with Kathy Crowley and thought, I met that guy! A trip like this brings our government close to home. I know I felt that the official took our concerns and issues seriously, and they are thinking of ways to make this work better for people with our challenges. It was a great experience.
These are several pictures featuring the community leader briefing at the White House:
