Good morning!  It’s 8:30 am and we’re back in the House Human Services Committee.

We’ve already heard consideration of bills affecting the sharing of mental health and physical health records among providers and a proposed traumatic brain injury commission.  Now, James Toews and Richard Harris from the state Department of Human Services are testifying about the financial cost of implementing HB 3618.  This bill would provide workers compensation coverage to personal support workers who serve individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) and with mental illness (MI).  Representative Freeman is leading the charge by Republicans who are concerned about the cost of enacting the bill.

 Toews testifies that this bill would add about 8,000 new workers to WC coverage who serve about 10,000 individuals.  Democratic lawmakers ask if home care is less expensive than institutional care. (Yes) They also ask why this group of workers isn’t covered by the Home Care Commission that provides WC to home care workers for seniors and people with physical disabilities.  Toews responds that the DD brokerage system was put together as a result of the Staley law suit settlement which occurred after enactment of the state ballot measure that created the Home Care Commission.   The duties of workers who are mandated by Staley have different duties than traditional home care workers.

 Rep. Olson is concerned about public access to the names of registered home care workers.  Toews says that names are controlled by existing public records law which means that most names must be released to the public.  Olson asks if the state does a criminal records check on anyone who asks for worker names.  Toews says no.  Olson asks if the state feels vulnerable as a result.  Toews says it is a matter of general concern.  Rep. Dembrow says that the question of problems with Oregon’s public records law is a matter that goes beyond this bill.  He asks Toews if he is aware of a person being victimized as a result of having his or her name released.  Toews is unaware of such an instance.

 Rep. Olson asks how this bill will interact with HB 2442 from last session.  This bill beefed up Oregon’s protective services laws and requires exclusion of workers with certain offenses on their criminal record.  Toews says more people will be excluded under the combined effects of these bills.

 Doug Riggs from Oregon Alliance of Children’s Programs testifies.  His providers will suffer a cost impact from this bill and they are already suffering financially.  He says the legislature must increase reimbursement for his programs (present funding only covers 60% of cost) if they are to survive.  OACP does not oppose the bill’s intent but does not want to absorb additional unfunded requirements.  Rep. Tomei says this is a matter for the Ways and Means Committee.  Rep. Freeman says that while the Human Services Committee is a policy committee and not a fiscal committee, it should still be concerned about costs.

 Next up is a representative from SAIF, the workers compensation provider who is asked about costs of providing coverage to the new population.  Representative Maurer takes the lead in questioning about how costs can be controlled.  Maurer notes that the state budget is $182 million in the hole according to an upcoming state revenue report.  He is concerned about “creating a monster” that will cost the state more than anticipated.  Maurer notes the difficulty of assessing claims that occur in family homes when family members are providing services.  How, he asks, does SAIF determine when an injury happens on the job or off the job?

 Questions continue about who bears the additional costs.  Toews notes that provider agencies will not bear the fiscal risk of worker comp claims.  Rep. Freeman asks if a disabled child could end up with less services if costs are taken out of money available for those services.  The answer is yes.

 The committee adjourns for ten minutes to review the bill’s fiscal impact statement.  I go plug my meter.  When I come back, the committee approves the bill on a party-line vote.  The bill will now go to the Ways and Means Committee which will determine if the state can afford to pay for it.

I'm sitting in the House Human Services Committee where the committee just heard testimony on a bill that I can't easily explain but have worked on for the last month.  If House Bill 3618 is passed, people who are hired by folks with developmental disabilities or mental illness to provide assistance in the home or community would be registered with the Home Care Commission, receive workers compensation coverage and be allowed to vote to unionize.

My job in the hearing was to explain the latest set of amendments to the bill.  I tried to make is as simple as possible but legislative eyes were glazing over.  The upshot seemed to be that the Democrats like it and the Republicans don't.  It looks like the biggest issue will be the cost of providing workers compensation coverage to the workers.

The committee is now hearing a bill that would set up the Traumatic Brain Injury Strategic Partnership Advisory Council.  Senator Morrisette and Sherry Stock from the Brain Injury Association of Oregon are leading the testimony.  Additional testimony from General Mike Caldwell of the Oregon Military Department centers on the epidemic of brain injury that has been experienced by service members coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.  General Caldwell notes that early identification and treatment is essential.  He adds that the military has ignored the problem of TBI until recently.  Things are now changing but the number of affected veterans has overwhelmed VA services.

HB 3692 creates information and referral services and an advisory committee that reaches across all departments of state government.  Sherry notes that 80% of homeless individuals have TBI, particularly homeless veterans.  Inmates in Oregon prisons are also affected in large numbers.  About half of those with TBI acquire their injury through auto accidents.  This is why the Advisory Council would be funded from fees charged on traffic violations.

We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

The importance of Senator Kennedy to the disability rights movement cannot be overstated.  He has been our champion for decades.  It will take volumes of scholarship to fully document his importance to our community and the nation as a whole, but let me give you a highly abbreviated taste of what he accomplished for us over the past 40 years.

1975:  Cosponsored the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The law served to amend the Education of the Handicapped Act and to guarantee a free and appropriate public education to children with disabilities.

1975:  Cosponsored legislation to create a “bill of rights” for people with developmental disabilities, providing funding for services for people with this type of disability, supplementing funding for affiliated university facilities and creating state-based systems of protection and advocacy groups in all 50 states.

1978:  Cosponsored the Civil Rights Commission Act Amendments of 1978, which expanded the jurisdiction of the Civil Rights Commission to protect people from discrimination on the basis of disability.

1978:  Strongly supported the Rehabilitation, Comprehensive Services and Developmental Disabilities Amendments of 1978 establishing a functional definition of developmental disability, creating the National Council on the Handicapped and the National Institute of Handicapped Research, setting a funding minimum for protection and advocacy services and authorizing a grant for independent living services.

1980:  Cosponsored the Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act, which enforced the rights of people in government institutions such as the elderly, the disabled, the mental ill, and the incarcerated under the Constitution.

1982:  Cosponsored the Job Training Partnership Act, designed to break down barriers facing “economically disadvantaged” individuals including people with disabilities and assuring that people could not be excluded from the training program based on a disability.

1982:  Cosponsored legislation allowing states to cover home health care services for particular children with disabilities under their Medicaid plans. This was intended to allow parents “respite” or rest periods with a trained professional helping to care for their child’s needs.

1984:  Cosponsored legislation requiring polling stations to provide physical accessibility and registration and voting aids for people with disabilities.

1986:  Cosponsored the Air Carrier Access Act requiring facilities and services to be accessible to people with disabilities traveling by air.

1986: Cosponsored the Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act, which made work incentives for disabled individuals a permanent fixture of the Social Security Act.

1986: Cosponsored the Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986, which overturned a Supreme Court decision and allowed courts to award sensible attorneys fees to parents of children with disabilities winning in due process proceedings and other court actions under part B of the Education Act.

1986:  Cosponsored amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act, establishing a new grant program aimed at developing an early intervention system benefiting infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families and promoting preschool programs for children ages 3 to 5 with disabilities.

1988:  Introduced the Fair Housing Act Amendments to extend the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to include people with disabilities and families with children.

1990: Cosponsored a bill that changed the name of the Education of the Handicapped Act to IDEA, changed the term from handicapped to disability, and added two categories to the amendment: autism and traumatic brain injury. It also reauthorized the programs under the previous act to provide improved support to students with disabilities particularly in the terms of computer access and assistive technology.

1990:  Introduced (with Senator Harkin) the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities.

1990: Introduced the Ryan White CARE Act which provided emergency relief to thirteen cities hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, and also provided substantial assistance to all states to develop effective and cost-efficient AIDS care programs, aimed particularly at early diagnosis and home care.

1991:  Sponsored legislation to reorganize the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.

1997:  Cosponsored amendments to IDEA directing inclusion of special education in state and district-wide assessments, promoting mediation as an option to disputes between teachers and parents of children with disabilities, providing that special education students be disciplined in the same way as other students, continuing services to adult inmates with disabilities who were eligible for IDEA prior to their incarceration, and requiring charter schools to meet the needs of children with disabilities and to receive IDEA funds from district schools.

1998: Cosponsored the Crime Victims and Disabilities Awareness Act of 1998 directing the Attorney General to conduct a study of crimes against people with disabilities.

1999:  Cosponsored the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. The law and its “ticket to work and self-sufficiency” program expanded employment opportunities for people with disabilities through providing disabled Social Security beneficiaries greater support and more options. It also allowed for working people with disabilities to receive benefits from Medicaid and/or Medicare.

2004:  Cosponsored the Assistive Technology Act which supports states in to sustain and strengthen the capacity to meet the assistive technology needs of individuals.

2004: Sponsored the reauthorization of the IDEA, with a new focus on promoting better alignment of special education with general education and having school districts be accountable for the educational outcome of all students, including students with all ranges of disabilities.

2006:  Won a 5-year-long battle to pass the Family Opportunity Act. The law provides states the option of allowing families of disabled children to purchase health coverage through Medicaid. The bill passed as an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill.

2008:  Championed mental health parity legislation assuring individuals living with mental health and substance abuse issues that their mental health benefit would be treated equally with the medical-surgical benefit regarding treatment limitations and financial requirements.

2009: Succeeded in having the CLASS Act included in the text of the Affordable Health Choices Act that was passed out of the HELP Committee. This bill aims to provide elderly and disabled individuals with a daily cash benefit to purchase services and supports they need to remain in and be a productive member of the community.

 These accomplishments amount to a virtual history of the disability rights movement.  For this and so much more, we salute and thank Senator Kennedy.

It's not my job to advocate on every bill affecting people with disabilities, that would be impossible.  Every bill affects folks in the disability community in some way because we are all citizens.  DRO only weighs in on legislation that directly affects people who are most likely to be our clients.  Yesterday, as most committees prepare to shut down, there was a lot to weigh in on.

At 8:00 am in Senate Judiciary, we had HB 2441 that would allow those who sexually abuse folks with developmental disabilities to be more easily prosecuted.  This bill is getting strong push-back from criminal defense and civil liberty groups.  Also on the docket was HB 2335, a bill that we don't care about except that it is being used as a possible vehicle for a variety of amendments that could be used to save the state some money.  The "-11 amendments" would eliminate client-requested hearings before the Psychiatric Security Review Board and extend a time limit for another type of hearing.  Both of these bill did not get a hearing because of time and were set over to today.

At 1:00 pm, the Ways and Means, Human Services Sub-committee heard SB 25 that would create an advisory board for Oregon State Hospital and HB 2442 that would create a Quality Care Fund to support training and technical assistance for group homes to achieve high standards of care.  Both bills were amended to remove fiscal problems and moved to the full Ways and Means Committee.

Then, at 3:00 pm, three separate committees were hearing bills that DRO has worked on.  In House Health, SB 16 was passed after last minute negotiations with the committee chair.  The original bill allowed advance health care directives to be used to authorize in-patient psychiatric care for people with dementia.  The committee chair wanted the bill to also allow any person to receive such care, not just folks with dementia (presently, the advance directive can't be used for this purpose - you have to use a "declaration for mental health treatment").  A compromise was struck to make the change only for people with dementia but to form a work group to explore other changes.

While that was going on, the House Rules Committee was hearing HB 2853, a bill that would require information about criminal convictions and civil and criminal commitments to be sent to the FBI for a national registry to prevent those convicted and committed from buying firearms anywhere in the country.  Many changes have been made to the original bill to address concerns of gun advocates and disability advocates (an interesting alliance).  Additional amendments will be needed before the committee will act on the bill.

Not to be outdone, the House Consumer Protection Committee heard SB 731.  It would assure that people who receive public benefits that are exempt from garnishment do not have to go to court to reclaim their exempt funds.  This bill would protect many of our vulnerable clients from losing access to money that they rely upon for food, housing and other essentials.  The committee adopted the bill's "-11 amendments" and passed the bill out.  [Careful readers will note the second occurrence of -11 amendments today.  Coincidence?]  This is one of those bills that will help many of our clients in a very direct way. Many thanks to Sybil Hebb from the Oregon Law Center for her skilled shepherding.

So that's enough, right?  Well, no.  Midway through the afternoon, we learned that our #1 priority, SB 874, had run into a technical problem.  This bill would conform state law to changes made by Congress to the ADA.  It has already passed the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee.  But the Legislative Council decided that the bill has to amended.  Another bill was recently signed by the Governor that changes a section of law that our bill affects.  If our bill is not amended, it will wipe out the other bill's changes.  So SB 874 is coming back to the Judiciary Committee today to be amended.  It will then go to the House floor for a vote and then go back to the Senate for concurrence (knock on wood).  Since the bill had a close vote in the Senate, we are not thrilled by this development.  But that's how things go here at the legislature.

The auditorium at Portland Community College was full by 5 PM for the 6 PM Ways and Means Committee forum.  By the time the forum began, the overflow room was overflowing.

Co-Chair Margaret Carter was absent due to illness, but 21 other members of the committee were present.

Our orange "No DD Cuts" stickers seemed to be just as numerous and obvious as the purple t-shirts - yeah for us!  We heard a full hour of testimony before anyone from the DD community spoke - that being Jeanne Farr (thanks to Bernie for being there early to sign her up, distribute stickers, etc). Following on Jeanne's heels was Bud Thoune.  Both Jeanne and Bud represented our interests very eloquently and persuasively.

Parents and self advocates were also well represented in the crowd.  I saw Arlene and Roberta from FACT; Steve, Hannah and Sherry from SAAL, and several other familiar faces.  Everyone who could get their hands on a copy of the committee's survey was filling one out.  Most of those wearing our orange stickers were new to me - a good sign that our grassroots are reaching beyond the usual suspects.

We're on a roll...so keep on rollin'!

Bill

Bill Lynch, Executive Director
Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities