A roughly $2 trillion bill including a historic investment in Medicaid home and community-based services and support for employment, housing and other disability programs is one step closer to becoming law.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 220 to 213 to approve President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better Act” just before leaving for Thanksgiving.
The bill, which has been in the works for months, would inject $150 billion into home and community-based services with any eye toward getting people with disabilities off of waiting lists and bolstering the workforce of direct support professionals who provide such services.
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That’s considerably smaller than Biden’s initial proposal of $400 billion. But if approved, the investment would be the largest that Congress has ever made in the program that provides the support people with disabilities need to live in their own homes or in group homes rather than in institutional settings.
“This plan is major progress in our country doing what we know is right: putting vital dollars behind something that really should never come with a price tag — basic humanity,” said Peter Berns, chief executive officer at The Arc. “People with disabilities, families and the direct support professionals who support them are struggling to persevere through the hardest of times while suffering in unprecedented ways. And the clock is ticking on how much more they can take.”
The plan also would allocate $300...
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