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BUILD BACK BETTER RETAINS PROVISIONS • A HUD grant program that includes funds
IMPORTANT TO VETERANS, AGING, AND DISABILITY to make pre-occupancy home
COMMUNITIES modifications to accommodate qualified
homebuyers or members of their
household with disabilities.
The latest Build Back Better proposal, while • A Small Business Administration program
considerably pared back in scope, retains a number
of provisions important to the veterans, disability, and to support startup businesses owned or
aging communities: controlled by individuals with a disability.
• Funding to upgrade the accessibility of
• $5 billion to improve health care delivery bus or rail public transportation services
for veterans by modernizing VA health for persons with disabilities, including
care facilities, leasing medical facilities, individuals who use wheelchairs.
and speeding up claims processing.
• $150 billion for Home and Community
Based Services expansion under NEWS OF NOTE
Medicaid along with $20 million in funding
through the Administration for Community Jobs Report for People with Disabilities Reflects
Living to support a national technical Gains
assistance center for supporting direct
care workforce recruitment, education In October, the major employment indicators for
people with disabilities reached their highest
and training, retention, career recorded levels since September 2008, when
advancement, and for supporting family reporting for this cohort was begun by the Bureau of
caregivers and caregiving activities. Labor Statistics (BLS), according to the National
• $ 5 million for the Lifespan Respite Care Trends in Disability Employment – Monthly Update
Program in addition to amounts otherwise (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the
available for fiscal year 2022 and $40 University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability
million for the National Family Caregiver (UNH-IOD). Substantial gains were reflected in year-
Program's activities of national to-year comparisons, as well as for month-to-month
significance to fund "initiatives to address data. Read the nTIDE report here.
the behavioral health needs of unpaid Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against the
caregivers of older individuals and older State of Texas to Protect Voting Rights
relative caregivers."
• Authorizing Medicare to negotiate The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit
prescription drug prices on the costliest against the State of Texas and the Texas Secretary
medicines, extending the American of State over certain restrictive voting procedures
Rescue Plan’s expanded Premium Tax imposed by Texas Senate Bill 1, which was signed
Credit for Marketplace coverage, and into law in September 2021. The United States’
increasing access to affordable hearing complaint contends, in part, that Senate Bill 1
violates Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act by
coverage under Medicare. improperly restricting what assistance in the polling
• Directing a portion of the funding for booth voters who have a disability or are unable to
apprenticeship programs toward serving read or write can receive. The complaint alleges that
individuals with disabilities. Senate Bill 1 harms those voters by barring their
• Designating $450 billion for project rental assistors from providing necessary help, including
assistance for supportive housing for answering basic questions, responding to requests
persons with disabilities. to clarify ballot translations or confirming that voters
with visual impairments have marked a ballot as
