This means Congress has until January 30, 2026, to reach a deal on funding bills for all other federal agencies and programs, except for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The agreement also reinstates all federal employees who received Reduction in Force (RIF) notices – or layoffs – during the shutdown, bans new RIFs until January 2026, and provides backpay to all working and furloughed federal workers who haven’t been paid since September 30, 2025. The Office of Personnel Management has said that federal employees could start to receive backpay as early as Sunday, with a goal of getting all federal employees paid by Wednesday, November 19th.

What Does this Mean for People with Disabilities?

With the shutdown over, funding will again begin to flow to critical programs like SNAP and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a program that helps many people with disabilities heat their homes in the winter.

As of Wednesday, November 12, 25% of states had not paid November SNAP benefits due to conflicting court orders, which are now moot since the shutdown has ended and Congress has appropriated funding for SNAP benefits through September 2026. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the SNAP program, says that funds will be available to states within 24 hours; however, it may take longer for states to load the benefits onto recipients’ EBT cards. Check your state department of human services website for updates about when you can expect to receive your November SNAP benefits.

It may take up to four weeks or more for states to receive LIHEAP grants and distribute energy assistance payments to recipients. The shutdown led many states to pause acceptance of applications due to the lapse in LIHEAP funding, and many states announced a delay in the start of their winter LIHEAP program during the shutdown. Now that a funding bill has been passed into law, it will take time for furloughed federal employees to calculate and distribute funding to the states. State social services departments will also need time to accept and process energy assistance applications. As a result, some states may not be able to distribute benefits until December or even January.

If your energy assistance benefits are interrupted, contact your electric, gas, or oil service provider, explain the situation, and inquire about available arrangements and assistance. Check whether your state has a law that prohibits disconnecting utility services during the winter months.

If your state DOES have a moratorium on disconnection of utility services during cold weather months, it is important that you:

• Beware of scams. Hang up on threatening calls that demand immediate payment or request payment through gift cards, payment apps, or wire transfers.
• If you receive a call demanding immediate payment of utility bills, check your bank account and contact your utility company at its official customer service number to report the call.

Check your state department of human services website for updates about when you can expect to receive energy assistance benefits.

Medicare Extensions Included in Bill

The bill passed by Congress to fund the government and end the shutdown also extends the following provisions for Medicare:

• Telehealth flexibility: The government funding bill extends the ability of healthcare providers to offer care via telehealth until January 30, 2026. This ability was first expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic and last extended in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. This extension is retroactive to October 1, meaning that if you’re on Medicare and received healthcare via telehealth during the shutdown, your provider can submit a claim and be reimbursed for the visit.
• Delay of Medicare Payment Cuts: The bill also delays until the end of January the 2% reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates, which were mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2013. Congress must pass full-year funding bills by January 30, 2026 to further delay this cut.
• Waiver of Mandatory PAYGO Budget Cuts: The government funding agreement also waives the 4% funding cuts to Medicare, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal programs mandated by the “Pay-As-You-Go” Congressional budget rules. This means that if Congress spends beyond a certain amount, they must pay for it with new revenue or cut funding by 4% from Medicare and other programs unless Congress waives the rule.
  
  If Congress had not waived the mandatory PAYGO budget cuts, this would have resulted in reduced payments to healthcare providers, Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare prescription drug benefits, and more.

The Fight is Not Over

While the government is reopening today, unfortunately, this agreement does not extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits, which are scheduled to end on December 31. Without these vital insurance subsidies, roughly 24 million Americans could face steep premium increases in 2026—some by 100% or more.

These enhanced ACA premium subsidies allow millions of people with disabilities who make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance,  or are entrepreneurs or self-employed individuals, to afford and maintain health insurance from the ACA marketplace.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has promised to hold a vote on extending the ACA subsidies by mid-December as part of the deal to reopen the government; however, there is no guarantee it will happen.

The shorter-term funding timeline (through January 30) means our work is far from over. Congress will soon return to negotiations on appropriations for the full fiscal year and health insurance subsidies before January 30, 2026, and we need to keep applying pressure.

If you rely on ACA premium subsidies to afford health insurance, we want to hear from you now. Your stories about how these subsidies make coverage accessible are powerful tools to show Congress why they need to act.

Click here to share your story. You can add personal details about how the loss of enhanced ACA premium subsidies would impact your ability to keep healthcare coverage, afford critical medications, or remain independent.

Your voices will help us show how important these subsidies are for millions of Americans with disabilities and others who rely on them for affordable care.

AAPD will keep you updated as this situation unfolds.

The post Explainer: The Government Shutdown Is Over. What Does This Mean for Disabled Americans? appeared first on AAPD.

A Reduction-in-Force (RIF) is a process in which an employer permanently eliminates some positions, resulting in layoffs. For any employer, RIFs can happen for reasons like budget cuts, reorganization, or shifting priorities. Unlike a temporary furlough or hiring freeze, a RIF leads to permanent job loss. In a RIF, not only are employees laid off, but the positions that they worked in are entirely eliminated. In this case, the employer is the federal government, the largest employer of people with disabilities in the country. A RIF reduces the federal capacity to deliver essential services. 

What’s happening now?

On Friday, October 10, the Trump administration issued RIF notices to about 4,100 federal employees across various agencies. These include the Department of Education, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Administration on Children and Families (ACF), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), among others. The Office of Management and Budget, part of the Executive Office of the President that assists the President in implementing their policy, management, and regulatory agenda, has said that more than 10,000 federal employees could receive RIF notices during the shutdown.

On Wednesday, October 15, a federal judge issued an emergency order halting the RIFs while the lawsuit continues, calling them “unlawful.”

Impact on Special Education

Disability offices at the Department of Education have been heavily affected by the RIFs, including:

• The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
• The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
• The Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
• The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)
  

These offices are essential for making sure students with disabilities get the right accommodations in schools, and that adults with disabilities can access training, support, and opportunities to join and stay in the workforce.

Why this matters

The loss of staff in these offices results in real harm for disabled people. For example, the mass layoffs in the Department of Education will make it significantly more difficult for people with disabilities to:

• Access special education services guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 
• Obtain reasonable accommodations in educational settings, 
• Secure vocational rehabilitation and employment supports, and; 
• Receive civil rights protections against discrimination in educational settings 

The Office for Civil Rights investigates cases when students with disabilities are denied access to education. For example, in 2018, the Department of Education found that Texas had violated the IDEA by placing a cap on the number of students who could receive special education services. OCR worked with the state to develop a plan ensuring that students with disabilities had access to education and continued to monitor its implementation. Without the staff to conduct this work, thousands of students with disabilities would have lost out on access to education. 

These RIFs are part of a long-term plan by the Trump administration to dismantle and eventually shut down the Department of Education. This effort has been ongoing since the beginning of this year. 

Impact on Mental Health

The RIFs go beyond the Department of Education. Agencies such as SAMHSA, CDC, and HUD — which offer essential health and housing assistance — have also been impacted.

At SAMHSA, the impact is especially concerning. SAMHSA oversees programs that directly support people with mental health and substance use disabilities, including:

• The Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Program, 
• The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and; 
• National initiatives supporting mental health and addiction treatment.

At a time when the nation is already facing a mental health crisis, reducing SAMHSA’s capacity endangers the stability and safety of millions.

SAMHSA’s work is crucial for improving outcomes, expanding access, and building an equitable, person-centered system for mental health and substance use services. These programs help prevent over-reliance on restrictive hospital settings and make sure that people with disabilities can access the community-based supports they need to live and thrive.

For example, within the cuts to SAMHSA, the Children’s Branch was eliminated. The Children’s Branch helps to support school-based mental health services for children, including children with dually diagnosed disabilities and mental health conditions. Schools are the primary place where kids and youth receive mental health support, especially youth with disabilities, because of the lack of accessible mental health services more broadly. 

Impact on Early Intervention

Within the Administration for Children and Families, all employees working on Preschool Development Grants Birth to Five in the Office of Early Childhood Development were laid off. These employees support grants that are provided to states and territories to facilitate early intervention services and service coordination for children with disabilities. Without publicly funded early intervention services, fewer children will be diagnosed, making it harder to get treatments, accommodations, and special education for years to come. 

Impact on Housing

The HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity investigates and enforces violations of fair housing laws. In just one example of their work, HUD intervened for a disabled veteran in Maine when he was turned away from renting an apartment because he had a service animal. This type of everyday work to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities cannot happen without staff. The majority of the staff in both the national and regional offices of Fair Housing and Equality Opportunity have been laid off.

Many communities with smaller populations around the country have used Section 108 loans from HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development to build large affordable housing communities. High Point, North Carolina, used this funding multiple times to build hundreds of affordable homes for low-income families, many of whom were families with a disabled loved one. But today, there are only two people left on the team that runs and supports this program for the entire country.

RIFs and the Government Shutdown

The administration had previously threatened to issue RIFs in the event of a government shutdown. However, it is essential to understand that a government shutdown does not automatically result in permanent reductions in the federal workforce. The current RIFs are not a result of the shutdown and are being challenged in court. These RIFs are a part of an existing long-term strategy to eliminate certain federal agencies that has been in motion since the beginning of the year. 

What’s next

Disability rights advocates, federal worker unions, and legal experts challenged these RIFs in court, arguing that they violate federal workforce protections and surpass the administration’s authority. As noted above, a federal judge issued an emergency order to stop the layoffs while the legal challenge proceeds. The Trump administration will appeal this emergency order, and the matter is likely to end up before the Supreme Court. AAPD will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide updates as they become available.

What you can do

Stay informed through AAPD updates and information from our partner organizations. Reach out to the White House via our outreach tool here to tell the Administration that you oppose these RIFs and their unfair impact on the disability community. Urge them to restore critical positions in federal agencies immediately. AAPD’s tool provides a pre-written letter and message, so all you have to do is provide your contact information and hit send.

Additionally, you can share verified information on social media to raise awareness about how these cuts threaten vital services and civil rights protections.

The post Explainer: What the Trump Administration’s Reduction-in-Force Means for People with Disabilities appeared first on AAPD.

The federal government shutdown is now in its fourth week, with no immediate end in sight. As you can read about in our previous explainer, Congress has failed to pass a funding bill, leaving millions without access to critical programs.

On October 22, at least 25 states announced that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will not be paid in November if the shutdown continues. Many people with disabilities depend on SNAP for food, making this an urgent threat to our community. 

While the Trump administration has authorized tariff revenue to fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC benefits), the Trump Administration has said that it will not use any of the $6 billion in reserve funds held by the US Department of Agriculture to fund SNAP. This news arrives just before the holiday season, when many gather with friends and family to share a meal. Some states are using their own emergency funds to pay November SNAP benefits, including California, Colorado, Louisiana, and Virginia; however, not all states have the ability to do this.

Additionally, as the coldest weather since last winter arrives in much of the country, some states have announced delays in starting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps low-income individuals and families with their home heating costs. Some states may still have funds available to continue providing assistance. Reach out to your state social services department to find out the current status of energy assistance programs in your area.

Also, while housing assistance payments for current Section 8 voucher holders are expected to continue until November, new Section 8 vouchers will not be issued. Landlords will possibly need to cover expenses out of their own pockets if the shutdown lasts a long time and begins to impact housing assistance payments for renters who get Section 8 vouchers. This can lead to foreclosure and greater housing instability. 

In addition to the delays affecting when people with disabilities will receive their benefits, there are also potential delays in processing administrative requests, disability benefits applications, and casework. 

Even if a deal is reached to reopen the government by the end of October, benefits for November will probably be delayed because it will take time for federal agencies to distribute funding to states.

What You Can Do If Your Benefits Are Interrupted

• • Find a local food pantry: feedingamerica.org
  • Seek help from local churches, charities, and organizations like Kelly’s Kitchen. Kelly’s Kitchen also hosts the Food Security Network that you can use to locate food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, rural farms, urban farms, and food justice organizations.

• If your energy assistance benefits are interrupted, contact your electric, gas, or oil service provider, explain the situation, and ask about available arrangements and assistance. 

• Other companies, like your bank, internet, and cell service provider, may offer flexibility in bill payments if you reach out to them. 
• If you are receiving public assistance currently, Amazon offers a 50% discount on Prime Memberships via the Amazon Access Program, which may help reduce food costs. Also,DoorDash  has launched an emergency food response where they will waive merchant fees for all 300+ Project DASH partner food banks, food pantries, and community organizations nationwide, cover the delivery and service fees for about 300,000 orders for SNAP recipients, and donate directly to local food banks.
• On Thursday, October 30th at 3 PM Eastern, the National Council on Independent Living will host a virtual Community Conversation about how the government shutdown is affecting programs like SNAP, how to find food resources to fill the gap, and how local Centers for Independent Living can assist people with disabilities who are experiencing food insecurity. ASL and CART will be provided. Click here to register.

Take Action

Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to reopen the government before tens of millions of people, including many people with disabilities, face even more hardship. Your advocacy matters and can make a real difference.

We will keep you updated as the situation develops. Thank you for your commitment to supporting disabled people.

Previous versions of this resource

On Wednesday, October 1, at 12:01 AM, part of the federal government shut down because Congress could not  agree on a funding plan. As of now, the government has been shut down for two weeks. Congress and the White House are still working to reach a deal to reopen it.

What Happens During a Government Shutdown?

When the government shuts down, all “non-essential” government activities come to a halt. Essential workers — such as those in defense, national security, or air traffic control — keep working. Some get paid, and others are expected to work without pay. Most other federal employees are sent home and do not receive pay until Congress funds the government again, which is called a furlough.

Right now, around 750,000 federal workers are furloughed. If the shutdown goes on, many might miss their next paycheck and have trouble paying rent, mortgages, or other bills. Furloughed federal workers are required by law to receive pay that covers the time that they were furloughed, but the White House has illegally threatened that this may not happen for federal employees affected by this shutdown. 

Why Is Congress Stuck?

Congress cannot agree on how to fund the government. The President and many Republicans want to pass a short-term seven-week funding bill. However, Democrats prefer a longer-term deal that also:

• Extends enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are scheduled to expire this year. These subsidies are called ACA Tax Credits. ACA Tax Credits lower the cost of health care for people who receive health insurance through their state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.  
• Cancels Medicaid cuts that were passed earlier this year.
• Ensures the President cannot block funding that Congress already approved. Since January, the Trump administration has refused to disburse funding for many federal programs that were authorized by Congress without following the proper procedure under the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the President’s ability to cancel spending approved by Congress.

If those insurance subsidies expire, around 24 million Americans could face steep premium increases in 2026 — some by 100% or more.

The $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts included in the budget reconciliation bill passed this summer will cause millions of Americans to lose access to healthcare coverage, home- and community-based services, employment support services, and other vital benefits if those cuts are not repealed.

How the Shutdown Affects Government Programs

Medicaid and Medicare:

Medicaid and Medicare benefits will continue during the shutdown.

Medicare and Medicaid are funded separately from regular government operations, so those benefits will stay active even in a shutdown. 

However, some people might not be able to get help with tasks like Medicaid eligibility verification because of reduced staffing at federal agencies. Additionally, healthcare providers may experience delays in processing claims. It may be harder for people who depend on Medicare and/or Medicaid to access healthcare during the shutdown. About 43% of adults with disabilities under age 65 are covered by Medicaid. Medicaid covers over half of all long-term care in the United States. 

Medicare provides health insurance coverage for people 65 and older.  Approximately 45% of all Medicare beneficiaries report having a disability, while about 12% of beneficiaries are under age 65 and qualify for Medicare due to a disability, meaning there are a significant number of both older and younger individuals with disabilities who are covered by Medicare. 

Social Security and Disability Benefits:

Social Security payments will continue being paid as scheduled.

Social Security provides benefits for low-income children and adults with disabilities, retirees, older adults, and surviving spouses and children of deceased individuals  through a variety of programs. 

This includes:

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) 
• Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
• Social Security Retirement and Survivor benefits

These benefits are funded separately from the government’s annual budget, so they are unaffected by the shutdown. However, some services — such as obtaining a replacement Medicare card or a benefit verification letter — may be delayed or interrupted due to staffing furloughs. If people have any problems with their Social Security benefits during the shutdown, it will take longer to fix those problems, potentially cutting people off from benefits they need to live. Check the Social Security Administration’s website for updates on which services are available.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a program that helps low income people buy the food they need for good health. About 80% of households who receive SNAP benefits are households with children, a disabled person, or an older adult. People with disabilities are more likely to be food insecure than people without disabilities, which means that SNAP is an essential program to make sure many people with disabilities do not go hungry and still have healthy food to eat. 

The federal government sends states SNAP benefits every month, and then states send these benefits to low income individuals who are eligible for SNAP. The October SNAP benefits have already been distributed to states, so payments to individuals will be made on schedule. However, if the shutdown continues, November SNAP benefits might be delayed or interrupted, and people will go hungry, including people with disabilities and their families. 

WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) benefits: 

WIC funding could run out within days because the program has not yet received new funding for the new fiscal year, which started on October 1. Some states may fill the gap with their own funds, but others cannot.

WIC benefits support pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding individuals, as well as their infants and children. If funds run out, families could lose access to food benefits, including formula for babies. Parents with disabilities and babies with disabilities are among those who will be hurt if WIC benefits run out. 

The White House has announced that it plans to use revenue from tariffs — taxes on goods imported from overseas — to fund WIC. However, the details of that plan are not yet clear. 

Food stores that need to renew their WIC or SNAP licenses may also have to wait until the shutdown ends.

If your SNAP or WIC benefits are delayed, you can visit Feeding America to locate a nearby food bank or food pantry. Additionally, many churches, community centers, or charity organizations in your local area may be able to assist if SNAP or WIC benefits are disrupted.

Housing Assistance

Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher benefits will continue. However, a long-lasting shutdown could delay lease renewals or jeopardize payments, causing landlords to cover the shortfall with their own funds. This may cause landlords to fall into foreclosure and cause housing instability for their tenants.

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program helps eligible low-income families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities afford housing in the private rental market by providing vouchers that subsidize a portion of their rent. About 25% of Section 8 beneficiaries are people with disabilities. People with disabilities face many barriers to housing, and Section 8 is an important program to help disabled people keep a roof over their head during the shutdown.  

If you receive a Section 8 housing voucher, you are still responsible for paying your share of rent during the shutdown, even if you are experiencing additional financial hardship due to the shutdown.

Other services, like housing inspections and new housing assistance applications, will be paused until the government reopens.

Energy Assistance

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is affected during the shutdown, but the impact on families varies by state. LIHEAP helps low-income households cover their energy bills, which includes many families with disabilities. During the shutdown, states will not receive new grants to assist families with electric or gas bills. Additionally, the entire staff of the Division of Energy Assistance at the Administration for Children and Families, which manages LIHEAP, had their jobs cut earlier this year.

Some states might have leftover funds to keep offering assistance. Contact your local or state social services department to learn about the current status of energy assistance programs in your state.

If your energy assistance benefits are interrupted, contact your electric, gas, or oil service provider, explain the situation, and inquire about available arrangements and assistance. Utility companies understand that shutdowns are heavily affecting consumers who depend on energy assistance programs.

What You Can Do

Call Your Bank and Other Creditors if You Need Help

If your benefits are delayed or disrupted and you need to use your own funds to buy groceries instead of paying utility, cell phone, or other bills, contact your bank or service provider and explain the situation. Financial institutions, including banks, credit card companies, and utility providers, are aware that a federal government shutdown can cause financial hardship for many people. They may be able to offer flexible arrangements, such as postponing payment due dates until the shutdown ends. While there’s no guarantee they will do so, it’s worthwhile to ask what they can do to support your financial security during this time.

Contact Your Representatives and Senators

AAPD urges people with disabilities and their allies to contact their Senators and Representatives and implore them to:

• Fund and reopen the government,
• Protect access to healthcare, and;
• Prevent further harm to people who rely on federal benefits.

The longer the shutdown continues, the harder it will be for families, especially those with disabilities or low incomes, to make ends meet. Additionally, if federal workers miss paychecks, it can have a significant impact on the broader economy.

The post Explainer: What the Government Shutdown Means for SNAP, WIC, and Disability Programs appeared first on AAPD.

This resource provides an overview of some of the most significant policies in the budget reconciliation bill, and how this bill would affect the disability community. 

AAPD has also created an explainer for the budget reconciliation process. We encourage you to read the reconciliation explainer here. 

Cuts to Medicaid and Changes to the Affordable Care Act 

The bill’s new requirements for Medicaid recipients and reductions in federal funding represent the largest cuts to the Medicaid program in its 60-year history. Medicaid currently covers more than 73 million people, including adults, children, people with disabilities, and low-income seniors. Many rely on Medicaid to cover costs that Medicare does not cover, such as premiums and copays. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, these cuts will result in at least 13.7 million Americans losing their health insurance between now and 2034.

In addition, these requirements pose the risk of causing hospitals in rural areas to close, as many rural hospitals serve communities that rely heavily on Medicaid. Disabled people are also more likely to live in rural areas and to rely on these hospitals to access routine care. Medicaid recipients and non-recipients alike will be negatively impacted by losing access to rural hospitals, and more Americans than ever will live in a “care desert.”

Some of the new policies and requirements include:

Medicaid Work Requirements: If this bill becomes law, many Medicaid recipients will be required to work in order to continue receiving Medicaid. This policy is called “Medicaid work requirements.” AAPD strongly opposes Medicaid work requirements for many reasons. Work requirements cause harm in order to address a problem that doesn’t really exist: 92% of all adults under 65 on Medicaid (who also do not receive Social Security benefits) are already working, and doing so without work requirements. 

Medicaid work requirements are difficult to implement and they cause people to lose their Medicaid benefits due to inability to submit required documentation, difficulty working enough hours to meet the requirements, and administrative errors. Arkansas and Georgia have implemented work requirements for Medicaid in recent years, which caused thousands of people in those states to lose their Medicaid coverage.

The text of the bill exempts individuals who are pregnant, have a disability, have a substance abuse or mental health disorder, and those who care for children or sick relatives. There are three major problems with this exemption: 

1. Historically, definitions of disability can leave out people who have disabilities that are not well understood, or have a disability that is impeding their ability to work, but has not yet been diagnosed. Policy can – and often does – reflect ableist assumptions and bias. 
2. In states that have implemented work requirements with similar exemptions, we have witnessed that many people who qualify for these exemptions still lose their Medicaid because of confusing and complicated paperwork processes.
3. Even without work requirements, Medicaid recipients already spend multiple dozens of hours meeting documentation requirements and navigating bureaucracy and red tape in order to keep the benefits they have now.

Work requirements also ignore how the support provided by Medicaid services, like Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS), are the only reason many people with disabilities are able to work at all. If their Medicaid services are cut even a little bit, many individuals to lose the very supports that are necessary for them to remain employed. If this bill passes, work requirements will begin by the end of 2026.

Proof of Citizenship or Immigration Status for Medicaid: The reconciliation bill also requires Medicaid recipients to provide proof of citizenship or immigration status to receive Medicaid. This requirement would go into effect immediately, creating a timely administrative requirement that many people would need time to fulfill. Many people do not have easy access to documents like birth certificates, Social Security cards, visas, or other documents to prove their citizenship or immigration status, and would need time to gather these documents. However, there is no waiting period for this requirement, which means the policy would not give them time to gather the proof they need.

This policy is based in anti-immigrant ideas. It is specifically designed to punish states like California, Minnesota, New York, Utah, and others that use state money to extend healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants. These states have some of the largest populations of Medicaid recipients and disabled people in the country, which means this requirement could remove large numbers of people from Medicaid. For example, in California, Medicaid recipients who lost their homes – and important personal documents – in the January 2025 wildfires in LA could be thrown off their health insurance very suddenly by this policy.

Reduced Medicaid Funding for States that Cover Undocumented Immigrants: The bill includes a second policy driven by anti-immigrant sentiment – the federal government will cut 10% of federal Medicaid funds given to any state that uses state funds to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrant adults, children, or both. This will lead to devastating cuts in optional Medicaid services, such as Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), which millions of disabled Medicaid recipients rely on to maintain their independence.

More Frequent Eligibility Determinations: In order to continue to receive Medicaid, all Medicaid recipients are required to submit extensive financial and medical documents once a year in order to certify their eligibility to remain on Medicaid. This process is called “eligibility redetermination.” The House bill requires states to do Medicaid eligibility redeterminations every 6 months instead of once a year. This will add yet another time-consuming paperwork burden on Medicaid recipients.

Restricting the Open Enrollment Period for the Affordable Care Act: The bill would shorten the open enrollment period, which is the time each year when Americans can sign up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance marketplaces in their state.

The bill would also no longer allow low-income Americans to use the ACA marketplace to enroll in ACA-facilitated health coverage any time throughout the year. This means if a low-income person experiences a sudden drop in income (for example, if they are one of the 28 million Americans with no paid leave and need to take time off to care for a sick parent) or loses their job, they may be unable to immediately sign up for health coverage through Medicaid or the ACA marketplace, and have to go weeks or months without health insurance.

Restricting States’ Ability to Finance Medicaid: The bill also places a restriction on new or increased provider taxes. Many states use provider taxes to finance their Medicaid programs. These taxes are levied by states on hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities to help pay for their share of Medicaid programs. This will lead to significant gaps in state Medicaid budgets, which will reduce Medicaid recipients’ access to services.

New Cost-Sharing Requirements: To shift even more of the costs of Medicaid to the states, this bill will require states to charge patients a fee of up to $35 for each Medicaid-covered medical service provided. This will significantly burden low-income people on Medicaid, especially people with disabilities who often need multiple medical services a month. 

Most people on Medicaid do not have extra money to cover these fees. Many disabled people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) also receive Medicaid. Social Security recipients are subject to strict rules about how much money they can earn and save; in 2025, any recipients under the age of of 66 cannot earn more than $23,400 per year.

Reductions in SNAP Benefits

The House reconciliation bill also includes major changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps many low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and their families buy food each month.

These reductions in SNAP funding will cause many to lose the benefits that help them buy groceries each month. For disabled people, high healthcare costs, lack of employment opportunities, and difficulty accessing food resources make them more likely to experience food insecurity. In fact, more than  37% of households that receive SNAP include a disabled adult, making SNAP a critical source of food for people with disabilities. 

Taken together, these extreme cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will leave millions of Americans without access to healthcare, Home- and Community-Based Services, and food at a time of increasing economic uncertainty and rising prices. Lack of access to Medicaid will saddle many struggling families with increased medical debt, forcing them to make the awful, gut-wrenching choice between getting their prescriptions or putting food on the table.

Here is a summary of the changes to SNAP:

• Reduced Federal Funding for SNAP: The House bill would cut $267 billion in federal funding for SNAP over the next ten years. These cuts will reduce or completely cut current or future benefits for all 40 million SNAP recipients – children, parents, older adults, disabled people, workers, and other low-income people. Roughly 1 in 8 people in the U.S., and 1 in every 5 children relies on SNAP to eat.

• Increases Financial Burden on States: For the first time, states would be required to fund at least 5% of benefit costs, and could be required to pay as much as 25% in states with a high incidence of benefit payment errors. In addition, states would have to cover 75% of the costs of administering SNAP, an increase from the current 50%. This could lead some states to make very difficult decisions to reduce SNAP benefits, or cut other vital programs like public education or veterans services.

• Imposes Work Requirements: Currently, SNAP recipients aged 18-54 are required to work, look for work, or be enrolled in an educational or vocational training program in order to receive benefits. If signed into law, the bill passed by the House would expand SNAP work requirements for individuals up to age 64. Older adults may have difficulty getting a job to satisfy these work requirements and lose their SNAP benefits as a result.

• Restricts Existing Exemptions to Work Requirements: In addition to the expanded work requirements for SNAP, the House bill would restrict current exemptions from work requirements for parents who cannot work because they are caring for their children. The bill would limit the exemption to adults caring for children under the age of 7. This will lead many to lose their benefits if they cannot find or afford adequate childcare so that they can go to work. Others may be unable to work because they care for a disabled child over the age of 7 with significant care needs; they, too, would be forced to return to work under these exemption restrictions.

Increased Contributions to ABLE Accounts

The reconciliation bill passed by the House does include some good provisions, including an extension of the increased contribution limits and other enhancements to ABLE Accounts, which allow individuals with disabilities to save tax-free for future disability-related expenses.

Here’s a closer look at some of the ABLE provisions:

• Extension of the Increased Contribution Limit: If signed into law, the bill passed by the House would extend the increased contribution limits for ABLE Accounts, allowing contributions up to the federal poverty level for one person or the beneficiary’s earned income for the year, whichever is less.

• Extension of the Savers Credit for ABLE Contributions: The bill would also make permanent the Savers Credit for beneficiaries who make qualifying contributions to their ABLE Accounts. The Savers Credit is a tax credit designed to help low and moderate-income individuals offset the cost of saving for the future. The credit can reduce the amount of tax you owe, but it is nonrefundable, meaning you don’t get it back.
• Extension of Provision Allowing Rollovers from Qualified Tuition Savings Accounts: Finally, if enacted, this bill would permanently extend the ability to roll funds from qualified tuition savings programs, such as 529 Plans, over to ABLE Accounts tax-free.

While these ABLE Account provisions are good for people with disabilities, the positive impact of these ABLE provisions would be greatly diminished by the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, which will significantly reduce the ability of people with disabilities to save money and drastically reduce disabled people’s economic security overall. 

That is why, even though it contains these positive advances in ABLE Accounts, AAPD opposes this bill. AAPD believes that this budget resolution poses a major threat to the health, economic opportunity, and lives of millions of disabled Americans.

What Comes Next?

Now that the House has passed the bill, it goes to the Senate, where Senators will debate and amend the bill. 

Some Senators have expressed grave concerns about the cruel Medicaid cuts proposed by the House and have indicated they intend to change or oppose these cuts. Senators are much more likely to change or oppose these cuts if they are hearing from their constituents that they do not want their elected official to support cuts to Medicaid. 

The Senate bill may contain significant differences and changes from the bill passed by the House. If the Senate passes a version of this bill, the House and Senate will have to meet and come to an agreement on any differences, and the House will have to vote again on final passage before the bill goes to the President to be signed into law. This means we still have at least 3 votes left before these cuts are finalized, and many opportunities to stop this bill. You can learn more about where we are in the reconciliation process and what is next by reading AAPD’s Budget Reconciliation Explainer. 

It has never been more important for you to use your power and speak out against these cuts. We need you, your family members, and your friends to contact your Senators and tell them NO CUTS TO MEDICAID OR SNAP! Use AAPD’s tool linked here to call and write your Senators in just a few clicks, then share it with 3 others and ask them to take action, too. 

The post Explainer: The House Passed a Budget Reconciliation Bill – What’s In the Bill and What Would It Mean For Disabled Americans? appeared first on AAPD.

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What Is Reconciliation? 

• The House and Senate must each pass a budget resolution every year. Reconciliation is the name for a fast-track legislative process Congress uses to address certain budget issues.
• Reconciliation addresses areas of the Congressional budget in which revenue (money the government brings in), spending, and federal debt levels need to be adjusted – or reconciled – for Congress’ final budget to work. Reconciliation is not the only process used for the federal budget, but it is an important one!
• Congress can spend money in two ways: discretionary spending and mandatory spending. Mandatory spending is required  (or “mandated”)  by laws Congress has already passed. Reconciliation only deals with mandatory spending. Discretionary spending is managed by a different legislative process, called “appropriations.” 
• Mandatory spending consists mostly of social and benefits programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP. Social Security is the only mandatory program whose funding cannot be touched in reconciliation. 
  • The Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, unemployment insurance, federal foster care funds, programs to help military veterans retire, and required payments towards the federal debt (specifically, payments towards interest on the debt) are also part of mandatory spending. In 2023, mandatory spending was roughly 60% of the federal budget. 
• The Senate has a special set of separate rules for reconciliation bills. These Senate rules include less debate time, they can only add amendments to the bill that are considered relevant to the bill’s topics, and Senators cannot filibuster. Filibustering is when someone uses an official process to speak for a long time to delay, block, or protest a law from moving forward in Congress. 
  • The most significant difference in the rules for reconciliation and regular legislative processes is that reconciliation bills only need a simple majority in the Senate to pass, instead of a 2/3 majority (60 votes). 

History and Use of Reconciliation

• The reconciliation process was created 51 years ago by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Over the last 51 years, reconciliation has been used 28 times: 23 bills have been signed into law, four were passed by Congress but vetoed by the President, and one passed in the House but not the Senate. 
  • Sometimes, one party in Congress is working on proposed legislation they intend to push through the reconciliation process, but ultimately, the reconciliation process does not happen. Those instances are not counted as part of the 28 times reconciliation has been used. One recent example of this is the Build Back Better Act of 2022.
• As the United States and Congress have become increasingly partisan in recent decades, it has become much harder for legislation to receive 60 votes in the Senate. When one party has a slim majority in the Senate, they will sometimes use reconciliation to pass legislation that would otherwise never receive 60 votes. Both Democrats and Republicans have used the rules of reconciliation to their advantage to pass significant legislation.
• Reconciliation has been used to reform benefit programs, create new ones, balance the federal budget, and enact significant tax reform. 
• Most reconciliation processes have focused on reducing the federal deficit, but in some years, most recently in 2017 and 2021, reconciliation legislation has increased the federal deficit. 
  • The federal deficit is the amount of money the government spends in a year that is greater than the revenue the government brings in that year. Increasing the deficit requires the government to take on more debt.
• Examples you may remember of major legislation passed in recent years under reconciliation include the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (COVID-19 stimulus package), and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

What is the Budget Reconciliation Timeline? 

Step 1: Concurrent Budget Resolution

Before a reconciliation bill can be considered, the House and Senate must each pass a “concurrent budget resolution” (concurrent means they happen at the same time). The budget resolution is a kind of first draft or framework that sets the big priorities for that year’s budget. When the budget resolution is passed, it does not go to the President for signature and does not carry the force of law. 

Passing the budget resolution establishes the framework of the budget. The budget resolution contains many instructions to various congressional committees. Sometimes, it instructs committees to spend more money on a particular program or issue. Other times, it instructs committees to find savings, which means cutting programs or expenses. 

The instructions provide specific dollar amounts – fiscal targets – of how much money should be spent, saved, or repaid. However, the resolutions do not contain any instructions or suggestions about how to meet those targets. Decisions about how to meet those targets are then made in committees.

Step 2: Committee Work

After passing the Concurrent Budget Resolution, committees in the House and Senate begin drafting legislation outlining how they will meet the fiscal targets set by the resolution. Committees that don’t receive any specific instructions in the budget resolution are not involved in developing the reconciliation bill. 

The committees that receive specific instructions will respond with recommended changes to the law that would meet the budget resolution instructions. This stage involves a lot of negotiation and discussion. Committees may also respond with proposed changes to the targets they’ve been given.

Once the committee has determined their response and written their portions of the bill, the committee votes to submit their reconciliation recommendations to the Budget Committee. 

The Budget Committees in the House and Senate then combine all the legislation passed by the committees into one single (usually very long) reconciliation bill. At this stage, the Budget Committee cannot make substantive changes to the legislation drafted by the other committees. Then, the Budget Committees send the reconciliation bill to the House and the Senate to consider it for a vote.

Step 3: Debate and Passage

The House and Senate then debate the content of the reconciliation bill and vote on it. 

The reconciliation debate process is subject to different rules than other bills. 

In the House, the House Rules Committee establishes guidelines for debate (like how many hours they can debate) and whether representatives are allowed to submit amendments. After the time allotted by the Rules Committee for debate has passed, the House will vote on the bill. If the bill receives a simple majority, it passes.

In the Senate, floor debate is limited to 20 hours, and only 51 votes are needed to pass the bill. Even after the 20 hours of debate, senators are allowed to offer amendments and make other motions. This is usually called “vote-a-rama.” During vote-a-rama, amendments are voted on one after another without debate, until no more amendments are offered. Once vote-a-rama is concluded, the Senate will vote on the bill’s final passage.

Step 4: Conference Between Chambers

If both the House and Senate have passed the reconciliation bill, the next step is for the House and Senate to resolve any differences in the bills passed by their respective chambers of Congress. Resolving these differences to finalize one unified bill is a requirement before the President can sign the reconciliation bill. 

Amendments made in the Senate can create significant policy differences between the two bills. Members of both chambers usually form what is called a “conference committee” to negotiate policy differences between the House bill and the Senate bill. The conference committee must finalize one unified bill that both chambers can agree upon. 

After the conference committee delivers the text of one final, unified bill, the Senate and the House must vote one more time to pass the unified bill. During this final vote, no changes or amendments may be made to the bill. 

Step 5: Final Approval 

After both the House and Senate pass the unified bill with no changes or amendments, it goes to the President to sign it into law.

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On April 16, 2025, the Washington Post reported on a leaked budget proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Presidential and agency budgets can be confusing, especially in the context of legislative action in the U.S. House and Senate. This resource describes what this draft budget might mean and outlines a few of its policy proposals that will most significantly impact disabled Americans.

What is the President’s Budget?

Every year, the President of the United States sends a proposed budget to Congress, referred to as “The President’s Budget,” or the Presidential Budget. The President’s Budget includes costs for every program at every federal government agency, including new programs to be funded and old programs to be removed. However, the numbers in the President’s budget do not actually change the amount of funding that agencies or programs receive. Congress does not have to adopt the President’s budget. 

That means Congress can spend funds as it sees fit, and it does not have to use the President’s budget to make decisions. Congress can spend funds in whatever way it determines during congressional negotiations. In this way, the President’s budget is what we call a messaging document, meaning it exists to send a message about the President’s top priorities and share them with Congress and the American people. 

Members of the President’s party may pressure other members of Congress to support the President’s goals by supporting the President’s budget. The President also may try to pressure members of Congress to support certain parts of the budget. Still, ultimately, it is up to Congress what the budget of each federal agency looks like. This means that once the President’s budget is finalized, significant negotiations begin in Congress. It also means that none of these proposals will become policy without the active consent of Congress. There will be much more news about the budget to come in the next few weeks and months.

While this proposed draft HHS budget is a leak from one agency that is part of the President’s overall budget, AAPD expects the full final Presidential budget to come out in May. Congressional committees that oversee spending, i.e., appropriations committees, will then begin to discuss and negotiate how federal funds will be spent for the next fiscal year. They may consider the administration’s priorities in their discussions or disregard them as they develop Congress’s funding bill.

Why should I be concerned about a draft proposed budget?

The proposed HHS budget may or may not be the final version submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and eventually Congress. However, this leaked draft shows that the Trump Administration has a desire to eliminate vast amounts of infrastructure and key programs to support disabled people, children, and older adults. The draft proposal would significantly reduce access to health equity services. Everyone should be concerned about the draft proposed budget, as it could substantially impact the future of healthcare, independent living, community integration, and disability rights in the United States. 

What can I do to fight against this draft budget?

If you are worried about the changes outlined here and want to take action, you can contact your member of Congress to share how vital these programs are to you and people with disabilities. You can use this action alert from the National Disability Rights Network to easily contact your members of Congress to ask them to oppose these cuts.

Who does this draft proposed HHS budget harm?

If OMB accepts these proposals and they become part of the President’s budget, and appropriators adopt the proposals in the House and Senate, there will dire consequences and significant harm for disabled people, young children, families, caregivers, older adults, researchers, and organizations that provide critical services to millions of people around the country.

What are the most concerning parts of the proposed draft budget?

• Eliminating Disability-Related Agencies and Divisions: One of AAPD’s major concerns with the draft proposed budget is that it would eliminate several divisions and agencies within HHS that do essential work for our community. The budget document proposes to eliminate the following divisions and agencies: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, Administration for Community Living (ACL), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). In particular, for disabled people and older adults, the elimination of ACL, HRSA, SAMHSA, OCR, and ASPR is seriously concerning, given the programs run and oversight provided by these agencies.
• Restructuring with Sweeping Program Eliminations: The draft proposed budget includes the proposed restructuring of HHS agencies and divisions. The Make America Healthy Again Commission and Initiative proposes to realign and eliminate specific programs. For example, the Make America Healthy Again Commission and Initiative proposes eliminating and realigning HRSA and parts of the CDC in a new entity called “Primary Care and Health Centers.” This reorganization proposal would eliminate programs for family planning, traumatic brain injury, elderly falls, rural hospital flexibility grants, and more. Within Maternal and Child Health Programs, the Autism and Other Disorders programs, Healthy Start, and Universal Newborn Hearing Screening programs would all be eliminated. Each of these programs significantly impacts people with disabilities and older adults around the country.
• Eliminating Almost All Programs for Mental Health: The draft budget proposes that SAMHSA be renamed “Mental Health” within a completely new reorganization of HHS. This reorganization, if finalized, would eliminate nearly every mental health program SAMHSA currently supports. Democrat and Republican administrations and members of Congress alike have long supported and prioritized funding for mental health programs across demographic groups, including women, children, and families. More than 40 programs would be shuttered under this proposal, leaving only some programs for substance use treatment, the 998 hotline, and youth suicide prevention to remain. 
• ACL Program Reorganization & DD Program Elimination: The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is an essential entity that oversees independent and community living programs for people with disabilities and older adults across the entire federal government. ACL, perhaps more than any other federal entity, makes real the promise of true integrated community living. The draft HHS budget proposes dismantling ACL and either moving or outright eliminating many of the programs that ACL operates. The draft HHS budget proposes removing nearly all programs authorized by the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act). Eliminating these programs means ending forms of legal assistance for disabled people, research on disability, development of new disability leaders and practitioners, and state leadership and technical assistance.

• That includes Protection and Advocacy (also known as P&A) programs – meaning organizations that provide free legal assistance and advocacy for people with disabilities, guard against abuse, ensure access and accountability in health care, education, employment, housing, transportation, voting, and within the juvenile and criminal justice systems. State Councils on Developmental Disabilities; Voting Access for People with Disabilities; University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs); the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR); and the Limb Loss Removal Resource Center – all essential programs that would be eliminated. 
• • One program the proposed budget would maintain but drastically change is grants for independent living. Currently housed within ACL, the draft budget proposes moving these grants to ACF. The proposal appears to suggest consolidating all “disability programs” within independent living grants in block-grant-style funding to states. This would boil down a complex and vast ecosystem of disability-related grant programs within independent living grants and would result in community living and independent living services becoming further varied for disabled people by state.
    • Block-grant funding provides states with federal funds for a very broad scope of work. Block-grant funding doesn’t usually work for disability and healthcare programs because the needs of the disability community are too complex and nuanced.
• Remove Head Start and Other Children and Families Programs: The draft budget proposes removing programs under the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), including Head Start. Head Start is a critical program that provides free child care services for families with children from birth through age five. Head Start programs support children with disabilities and disabled parents. Head Start has been providing services to families since 1965. This proposed budget seeks to eliminate all federal funding for the program. 
• Reorganization and Elimination of Programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Historically, there has been bipartisan support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the extensive medical and scientific research the NIH conducts. The draft proposed budget eliminates several institutes and centers within NIH and consolidates other programs. These changes would seriously impair and reduce the work carried out by NIH. The National Institute for Nursing Research, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Fogarty International Center, and National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities are all eliminated in the proposed budget. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities is a critical source of data and research specific to the health and care barriers faced by the disability community. Further, all remaining institutes and centers that are not cut would be consolidated into only eight centers/institutes. This attack on NIH could cause serious harm to the future of scientific discoveries and health research, which would likely reduce the quality of life of people with disabilities and take away essential resources and information the disability community needs.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Reorganization and Sweeping Program Elimination: Similar to other components within HHS, the proposed draft budget presents a “reform” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The following programs would be eliminated: Prevention and Public Health Fund; National Center for Viral Hepatitis, STD, & TB Prevention; Lyme Disease, Prion Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, & Harmful Algal Bloom; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion; and Global Health Center. The Office for Preparedness and Response would be eliminated, establishing a new Center for Preparedness and Response. The Strategic National Stockpile is proposed to sell all surplus, and the Hospital Preparedness Program Cooperative Agreement, the Office of Medical Reserve Corps, and the HHS Coordination Operations Response Element would all be eliminated. If these programs are eliminated outright, the United States government will be unable to mount an appropriate response to future epidemics and pandemics.

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On January 7, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule titled “Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information” (Regulation V). 

What Is the CFPB?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a federal agency that protects people from unfair treatment by banks, credit reporting agencies, and lenders. It creates and enforces rules to help make the financial system safer and more transparent for consumers. The Bureau was created in response to the 2008 financial crisis to ensure consumers have a voice in financial decision-making and regulatory oversight. As of December 2024, the CFPB had secured over $21 billion in relief for consumers through debt cancellation, reductions, or monetary compensation resulting from its enforcement actions.

What does the CFPB Rule (Regulation) V Do?

This rule introduces significant changes regarding how medical debt is handled in credit decisions. It eliminates a regulatory exception that previously allowed lenders to consider medical debt when determining a person’s eligibility for credit. Under this new rule, lenders can no longer consider medical debt despite having previously been permitted to do so under an exception to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Additionally, the CFPB clarifies that credit reporting agencies cannot include medical debt on credit reports if the lender is not legally permitted to use that information. This is a significant advancement in protecting consumers with disabilities from being disproportionately penalized for medical debt due to higher healthcare costs of unexpected and frequent medical visits, specialized healthcare treatments, and necessary assistive technologies. The CFPB Regulation V will accomplish the following:

• Prohibits credit reporting companies, such as Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, from including most medical debt on credit reports.
• Prohibits lenders from using medical debt in making credit decisions.
• Helps 15 million people with unjustly lowered credit scores.
• Raises credit scores by an average of 20 points. Reduces pressure to pay bills that may be incorrect or already in dispute.

What Threatens the CFPB and Regulation V?

• February 6, 2025: The U.S. District Court in Texas granted a 90-day stay, delaying the CFPB rule’s effective date to June 15, 2025, after lawsuits were filed by the credit industry and collections groups. 
• February 8, 2025: The Trump administration directed the CFPB to cease ongoing investigations and new enforcement actions, pausing its core functions. The next day, the agency’s headquarters was shut down, and layoffs began as part of broader federal agency reductions.
• February 14, 2025: A federal judge, Amy Berman Jackson, issued an injunction blocking the administration’s attempt to dismantle the CFPB, ordering the reinstatement of laid-off employees and restoring the Bureau’s responsibilities.
• March 6, 2025: U.S. Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina introduced a House Joint Resolution 74 (H.J.Res.74) to the House and was referred to the Financial Services Committee. This resolution seeks to cancel the CFPB’s Regulation V, which prohibits credit reporting companies and lenders from using medical debt. If passed, it would block the rule from taking effect and prevent similar regulations in the future unless Congress passes a new law.
• March 11, 2025: U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota formally introduced the Senate Joint Resolution 36 (S.J.Res.36) to the Senate, read it twice, and referred it to the Senate’s Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. This resolution is the Senate version of the same disapproval measure. It carries the same intent: to repeal the CFPB rule and stop the agency from regulating medical debt on credit reports in the future.
• March 26, 2025: There was a hearing on H.J.Res.74 within the House’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, but no vote was held.

What Is a Joint Resolution, and What Is the Congressional Review Act (CRA)?

A Joint Resolution is a type of bill that must pass both the House and the Senate and be signed by the President to become law. The Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress to use a joint resolution to overturn a rule created by a federal agency. In this case, two joint resolutions have been introduced to repeal the CFPB’s medical debt rule. If either H.J.Res.74 or S.J.Res.36 passes both chambers and is signed by the President, the following will occur: 

• The CFPB’s medical debt rule, Regulation V, will be repealed. 
• The CFPB will not be allowed to create a similar rule in the future unless a new law is passed
• There would be a long-term gap in protections for people with medical debt

Why Medical Debt Is a Problem?

Medical debt is not like other forms of debt. People do not choose to get sick or injured. Medical bills often come without warning and are frequently incorrect or should have been covered by insurance. The harmful impacts of medical debt are:

• Over 70% of people report they received a medical bill they believed to be incorrect.
• About 40% have received a bill with incorrect charges 
• Medical debt is the #1 type of debt in collections on credit reports. 
• 20 million adults in the U.S. have medical debt. 
• Eleven million owe more than $2,000. 
• Three million owe more than $10,000.
• 58% of bills in collections on credit reports are medical debt.

For members of the disability community, this debt makes it harder to rent a home, qualify for a loan, or maintain independence.

Why Does the CFPB Regulation V Matters to the Disability Community?

People with disabilities face higher daily expenses and more frequent interactions with the healthcare system. These expenses cover a wide range of needs, including routine doctor visits, prescription medications, specialized treatments, durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs or hearing aids, and home healthcare services. Even with insurance, many people encounter high deductibles, coverage denials, and out-of-pocket expenses that result in medical debt. In many cases, medical expenses arise suddenly. For example, following an unexpected accident or emergency hospital visit, coming as a surprise due to billing errors, or a lack of transparency about what is and isn’t covered by insurance.

Unlike other forms of debt, such as credit card debt, which is often related to discretionary spending, medical debt is typically involuntary and unavoidable. A person may find themselves in debt simply seeking life-saving treatment or trying to manage a chronic condition. For example, someone who uses a ventilator may require both regular maintenance for their device and ongoing in-home care, expenses that are not always reimbursed through private insurance or Medicaid. These types of financial burdens are unique and unfair, mainly when they negatively affect credit reports and limit access to essential resources.

Common Harmful Impacts of Medical Debt on the Disability Community

• Difficulty renting or keeping housing because of low credit scores that landlords may use to screen applicants
• Paying more in interest on car loans or personal loans due to damaged credit history
• Delays in moving out of family homes or into supportive housing because of poor financial standing
• Avoiding or delaying necessary treatments, medications, or doctor visits to avoid incurring additional debt
• Increased mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, related to ongoing financial stress

Get Involved

AAPD encourages individuals, allies, and partnering organizations to support the CFPB’s final rule, Regulation V, which protects consumers with disabilities from harmful medical debt credit reporting. Contact your representative today in response to the recent threats, urging them to vote to oppose both H.J.Res. 74 and S.J.Res.36. Additionally, there are resources on what your state can do regarding medical debt.

Join AAPD in pushing for economic power and accessible healthcare. This rule represents a significant advancement forward in building financial security for the future of the disability community. If you’re interested in becoming a storyteller for upcoming medical debt opportunities, create and share a short video today!

The post Explaining Medical Debt and the CFPB Rule: What’s Going On With Medical Debt, and How Does It Impact Consumers with Disabilities? appeared first on AAPD.

On March 25, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” 

This EO proposes many changes to how our elections work, including voter eligibility, maintaining voter registration lists, vote-by-mail processes, which voting machines can be used, and who is responsible for managing elections. AAPD is highly concerned that if any aspects of this EO go into effect, voters with disabilities and other marginalized communities will be disproportionately harmed. Already, disabled voters face increased challenges in accessing their right to vote because of policies and practices that make voting difficult. The policies in this Executive Order are voter suppression tactics – policies that make it harder for many Americans to vote. 

This order comes at a time when Congress is actively considering similar voter suppression laws, such as the SAVE Act. If passed, the SAVE Act would require people to provide documented proof of citizenship in person when registering to vote and updating their voter registration, such as after a move. The SAVE Act would also make it harder for women who changed their last name after marriage.

Millions of voters do not have access to documents that would sufficiently meet the requirements that qualify as “documentary proof of citizenship,” such as U.S. passports. People with disabilities, older adults, and people of color may be especially unlikely to have access to these documents. The requirement of needing to go in person would make voter registration difficult or impossible for many disabled voters who do not have access to accessible transportation, are living in congregate settings, are immunocompromised and cannot go into many public spaces, or for whom the election office may not be accessible. Additionally, the in-person requirement would make it extremely difficult for individual organizers, coalitions, and organizations to host successful voter registration drives. This would lead to communities already excluded by get-out-the-vote efforts being further neglected. 

AAPD urges members of the disability community and our allies to contact their U.S. Representatives and Senators to tell them to vote “no” on the SAVE Act. In response to the Executive Order, AAPD recommends that community members reference the explainers and talking points outlined below. AAPD will monitor this Executive Order’s legal challenges and effects and share opportunities for action with our community

What is an Executive Order?

An Executive Order is a written order from the President of the United States regarding government policy and management. The current President can amend or undo the Executive Orders of previous presidents. When a new president takes office, it is typical that they issue many Executive Orders to begin enacting their agenda. Executive Orders are each assigned a number and typically describe broad policy goals and values, then direct federal departments to take specific actions to implement those policies and values.

Executive Orders do not overrule or supersede laws ratified by Congress. While an Executive Order is enacted without congressional approval, it cannot erase existing laws, force government agencies to take illegal action, or go against current regulations and statutes. Lawsuits can challenge Executive Orders.

Does The President Have the Power to Change Election Law With an Executive Order?

The President has no constitutional authority to change election laws. The Constitution gives that power to the states and Congress. Furthermore, this EO directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to make many proposed changes. The President does not have the power to direct the EAC, which is an independent, bipartisan agency. 

It is important to note that if this EO does change the voting process, these changes will not happen immediately. Lawsuits can challenge Executive Orders, and this EO will likely face legal challenges. However, this EO may still have an immediate impact because it will likely cause confusion and fear among election officials and voters. 

What Does the Elections Executive Order Say? 

Requires proof of citizenship to vote: The EO proposes requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. This change would mean that in order to register to vote or even update your voter registration, you would have to show additional documents that prove you are an American citizen. If this were the law, only a few types of documents would be allowed, such as passports. Many common documents would not be accepted; for example, birth certificates are not listed as acceptable documents.

What to Know:

• Millions of American citizens do not have access to the documents required by this law, which means that millions of eligible voters would not be able to participate in our democracy. Disabled people, older adults, voters of color, and voters who may have changed their names, like people who take their spouses’ names when they get married, are less likely to have these documents or have up-to-date documents. 
  • A recent survey found that 20% of people who self-identified as having a disability do not have a current driver’s license, with another 9% having a license but without their current name and address. For people without disabilities, around 6% did not have a license, and 13% did not have a license with their current name and address. 
• The last federal court case that considered a state’s law requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration found that this policy violated the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause.
• A similar requirement was recently passed in New Hampshire, resulting in multiple eligible voters having to jump through extra hoops and, in several cases, being unable to vote at all.
• This policy’s supporters say it is a way to prevent voter fraud. However, noncitizens voting in federal elections is extremely rare, and the process is already heavily monitored.

Changes vote-by-mail procedures: The EO proposes that mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, even if they are postmarked with an earlier date, cannot be counted. 

What to Know:

• Eighteen states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C., accept a mailed ballot if received after Election Day, as long as it was mailed on or before Election Day. 
• This is important because the United States Postal Service sometimes has delays that are not the voters’ fault. Sometimes, it may even take extra time for the ballot to reach the voter before they can fill it out and mail it back to cast their vote. 
• People with disabilities are more likely to vote by mail than non-disabled voters, and because of this, more disabled voters would be at risk of having their vote not counted than non-disabled voters. 
• While it may be tempting to want to be able to know the results of an election faster, we must count every vote. Taking time to make sure every vote is counted means that our system is working. 

Changes voting machine types and certification processes: The EO wants to limit the types of voting machines that polling locations are allowed to use and proposes that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) re-certify all voting systems. The EO notes an exception for accommodating people with disabilities. The EO also requires that all voting methods have a “voter-verifiable paper record.”

What to Know: 

• The EAC and state election officials already go through many different processes to test voting machines and make sure machines are secure, accessible, and can be used easily and privately.  
• While the EO notes that exceptions for voters with disabilities should be made, singling out how one population votes would threaten the privacy of disabled voters’ ballots and segregate disabled voters. 
• Current law requires polling places to have at least one accessible voting machine. Already, disabled voters frequently face issues casting their ballot when the machine is not correctly set up, poll workers do not know how to use the machine, or if the machine breaks down and there is no other accessible way for them to cast a ballot. If the use of voting machines is further discouraged or limited through this Executive Order, these issues will increase and prevent people from accessing their right to vote. 
• Requiring paper ballots would also end voting system innovation, prohibit the current uses of some Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, and prohibit electronic ballot delivery and return. DREs provide the most accessible option for voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Electronic ballot delivery and return make absentee voting accessible for disabled people and allow uniform and overseas voters to participate in elections—even astronauts at the International Space Station can vote this way.
• The EO describes voter-verifiable paper records as a necessary way for voters to check their ballots, but paper ballots are not accessible to some voters with disabilities, particularly individuals who are blind, have low vision, have difficulty reading or understanding print, or cannot physically hold their ballots.

Attempts to direct an independent bipartisan entity: The EO directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to carry out and enforce the administration’s proposed policies. 

What to Know:

• What is the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)?
  • The EAC was created in 2000 through the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). It is independent and bipartisan. The EAC has four commissioners, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. No more than two commissioners can belong to the same political party. This is important to ensure that our elections remain fair and unbiased. 
  • The EAC submits reports to Congress and holds public meetings and hearings. The President does not have the power to control what the EAC does. 
  • The EAC also does not have the power to take some of the actions described in the order, such as requiring all states to require documentary proof of citizenship or withholding funding to states that do not follow the EO. This has been upheld in the Supreme Court. 
  • In the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1), states have the power to set the time, place, and manner of elections. The Constitution also allows Congress to regulate how states use their authority. This has led to many federal voting rights laws like the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act. While states have differences in how people can vote,  laws passed by Congress try to ensure the right to vote is consistent across the country. For example, some states allow for anyone to vote by mail, and some states limit who can vote by mail based on disability and age, but all states allow for some form of absentee or mail-in voting. Over the last 100 years, there have been many Supreme Court cases around the state’s and Congress’s role in elections. 
• What does the EAC do?
  • The EAC works to certify voting equipment and provide funding and resources to states to run elections. 
  • The EAC is also responsible for ensuring that elections are accessible for disabled people. It creates training resources for election officials, tests voting equipment, and researches voting and accessibility.

Establishes federal voter rolls: The EO directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to review state voter registration lists, specifically to verify that no ineligible voters are on them.

What to Know: 

• Under current federal law, state governments and Secretaries of State are responsible for maintaining voter lists. 
• DHS and DOGE likely do not have the authority to review state voter registration lists or remove voters, but attempts to do so could create a lot of fear. 
• States will likely sue if DHS and DOGE attempt to access the state’s voter registration information.

Get Involved

Join our REV UP Campaign to make our democracy accessible and increase civic engagement in the disability community. REV UP stands for “Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!” Subscribe to REV UPdates or join a state or national call. REV UP has coalitions in twenty states and partners in 33, who work year-round to ensure disabled people have access to the ballot. For resources about voting as a person with a disability, visit the AAPD REV UP Campaign website.

The post Election Executive Order Explainer: What’s Going On With Voting Right Now, and How Does It Impact Disabled Voters? appeared first on AAPD.

March 20, 2025
Contact: Rachita Singh, rsingh@aapd.com

What is Happening at the Department of Education?

On March 20, President Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Improving Education by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities”. The Executive Order directs the Department of Education to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

Prior to today’s Executive Order, President Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon had taken action over the last few weeks to dismantle the Department, including firing approximately 50% of the employees. To date, the biggest losses in staff are in the offices handling student financial aid and civil rights enforcement. The Department of Education is already the smallest cabinet-level department in terms of the number of employees. Read AAPD’s statement on the staff reductions here.

The Executive Order DOES NOT eliminate disability civil rights laws such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which protect the educational rights of students with disabilities. Nor does it impact students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), 504 plans, or other accommodations at school. However, today’s Executive Order and the staff reductions will severely diminish the ability of the Department to enforce those rights.

What is an Executive Order?

An Executive Order is a written order from the President of the United States regarding government policy and management. The current President can amend or undo the Executive Orders of previous presidents. When a new president takes office, it is typical that they issue many Executive Orders to begin enacting their agenda. Executive Orders are each assigned a number and typically describe broad policy goals and values, then direct federal departments to take specific actions to implement those policies and values.

Executive Orders do not overrule or supersede laws ratified by Congress. This means that although an Executive Order is enacted without congressional approval, it cannot erase existing laws, force government agencies to take illegal action, or go against current regulations and statutes. Lawsuits can challenge Executive Orders.

President Trump cannot entirely eliminate the Department unless Congress passes legislation to do so.

What Does the Department of Education Do?

The Department of Education was established by Congress in 1979 and began operations in 1980. Under that law, the Department has four key functions:

• Establish policies on federal financial aid for education and distribution and monitor those funds.
• Collect data on America’s schools and disseminate research.
• Focus national attention on key issues in education and make recommendations for education reform.
• Prohibit discrimination and ensure equal access to education.

The Department of Education helps make the promises of Section 504  and IDEA a reality through civil rights enforcement and special education funding. As part of following these laws, the Department of Education ensures disabled students have access to IEPs, speech therapy, vocational rehabilitation, accessible school materials, and more. These supports and services are necessary to ensure that disabled students can thrive at school, in their communities, and in their future careers.

In addition, the Department also plays a vital role in enforcing critical laws that protect the rights of all students, including students with disabilities. Laws such as Title IX prohibit sex- and gender-based discrimination and protect the rights of students who are victims of sexual assault on campus.

Finally, the Department provides federal financial aid for millions of students pursuing education after high school at a college or university or career and technical education to prepare them for a skilled career.

How Does Dismantling the Department of Education Impact People with Disabilities?

AAPD is gravely concerned about the Executive Order, severe staff cuts, and calls to reassign civil rights enforcement functions to other federal agencies that lack the personnel and expertise to take over the enforcement and oversight of vital education laws and programs.

Oversight and Enforcement: 

The Department of Education has a key job in managing programs created by IDEA. This law helps about 7.5 million students with disabilities, about 15 percent of all students. The Trump administration cannot end IDEA or its funding without approval from Congress, but it could try to move the management of IDEA to a different agency. This change would drastically impact students with disabilities. No other federal agency has the knowledge needed to oversee special education and protect students’ rights to free and appropriate public education. Students with disabilities rely on federal laws daily to receive support that helps them feel safe and succeed in their education.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces IDEA and Section 504, has already lost nearly 50% of its staff. Shutting down or even reducing OCR’s staff will harm disabled students disproportionately by limiting their access to complaint investigations and enforcement litigation. OCR is one of the main paths through which disabled students can get the learning environment they deserve, and it is already backlogged with disability discrimination cases.

Funding

Disrupting the Department of Education will adversely affect federal financial aid, student loan borrowers, programs that collect and monitor outcomes related to special education grants and programs, and much more.

Schools rely on federal funds daily to support disabled students, pay special education teachers and therapists, and buy the materials and equipment that students need. While the Executive Order itself does not reduce education funding, other administration action raises concerns about the future of education funding.

Dismantling the Department of Education and undermining civil rights enforcement in education goes against the expressed will of Congress when it created the Department in 1979. Every American must contact their members of Congress and tell them that dismantling the Department of Education will hurt everyday Americans.

What Can You Do?

• Watch AAPD’s webinar: AAPD recently held a webinar highlighting the Department of Education’s importance and critical role in enforcing the rights of students with disabilities. We also discussed what an Executive Order to dismantle the Department would look like and the potential harms of such an order. You can watch a recording of the webinar here.
• Contact your members of Congress: Tell them that closing the Department of Education is a non-starter for the American people. Send a letter to your Representatives and Senators in just a few clicks using AAPD’s tool at this link.
• Get civically engaged: Go to your town halls, council meetings, school boards, etc., and share information and tell them to take action.
• Share stories: Tell your story/the story of those impacted on social media and all online platforms
• Unite and educate the community: Bring together students with disabilities, parents, teachers, and decision-makers – share the information you learn and motivate others to reject this EO and defend our civil rights.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Rachita Singh, AAPD’s Policy Manager, at rsingh@aapd.com.

The post Explaining the Impact of the Educational Executive Order on People with Disabilities appeared first on AAPD.

Since taking office, President Trump has taken several actions attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (often called “DEIA” or “DEI”) in the federal government. This resource provides an overview of what DEIA is, why DEIA efforts are essential for disabled Americans, and how diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts have been affected by these recent Presidential actions, including Executive Orders and guidance related to them.

What is an Executive Order?

An Executive Order (EO) is a written order from the President of the United States regarding the policy and management of the government. The current President can amend or undo the Executive Orders of previous presidents. It is typical that when a new president takes office, they issue many Executive Orders to begin enacting their agenda. Executive Orders are each assigned a number and typically describe broad policy goals and values, then direct federal departments to take specific actions to implement those policies and values. 

Executive Orders do not overrule or supersede laws enacted by Congress with which the EO conflicts. This means that an Executive Order cannot erase existing laws, force government agencies to take illegal action or go against current regulations and statutes. Executive Orders can be challenged by lawsuits.

What Exactly Is DEIA?

“DEIA” stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Sometimes, it is called “DEI” for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. AAPD believes that accessibility is an essential part of diversity, equity, and inclusion, so we will use the term “DEIA” in this resource. 

These initiatives come from the belief that workplaces, programs, and institutions should be places where everyone is respected and have equal opportunities regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or religious beliefs. 

Many communities in the United States have been subject to policies, practices, and societal attitudes that discriminate against, exclude, or otherwise harm them. These communities include the disability community, people who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+ people, and women. Sometimes, people who belong to these groups are called “marginalized,” “historically underserved,” or “historically excluded.” 

DEIA initiatives were created to make up for – you may also hear the words “remedy,” “compensate for,” or “offset” – some of the harm that has come to people from marginalized groups. Programs to promote inclusion and equity help ensure that all people can have an equal shot at the American Dream. 

What Do DEIA Initiatives Actually Do?

Some DEIA initiatives are focused on employees and workplaces. These programs may focus on the needs of all employees, such as pay equity initiatives or policies to improve fairness in hiring practices. Other workplace DEIA efforts focus on specific groups, such as initiatives to facilitate meaningful accessibility and provide accommodations for disabled employees. 

This is to offset structural disadvantages these groups otherwise face without such programs. Inclusive hiring programs expand the pool of individuals considered for a role. Efforts to be inclusive in hiring processes do not change the skills and expectations employers have of a candidate. All candidates hired through inclusive hiring initiatives still meet or exceed the skills and qualifications for the position. 

Other research, initiatives, and programs that make the world more equitable and inclusive are more external-facing and do not focus on workplace environments. These programs often address ways that the needs and experiences of marginalized groups have been historically ignored or underserved. Many marginalized people have not been represented in scientific research, are ignored in safety planning, are insufficiently included and recognized in history, or are not recognized for their talents. To remedy this, private corporations, philanthropies, universities, and the federal government have all created DEIA programs that make an impact outside of their workplace environment. 

These programs are not discriminatory. They are important tools for creating environments where everyone has a chance to succeed. 

Isn’t DEIA A Pretty New Concept? 

No! While it may have been called different things, DEIA has been around longer than most Americans alive today, dating back to 1918. 

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts have been in effect for decades, especially in the federal government. Many DEIA efforts by the government were created because previous Presidents and other leaders understood the government plays a vital role in people’s lives, and believed the government employees and programs should be reflective of the entire American society. The federal government is one of, if not the largest employer, in many American communities. Multiple Republican and Democratic Presidents have taken executive actions to ban various forms of discrimination in the government and promote equal employment opportunities. 

The disability community most often talks about federal hiring programs for people with disabilities in the context of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was signed into law by President Nixon. The Rehabilitation Act requires that programs and services of the federal government be accessible to all Americans with disabilities and that the federal government and its contractors take affirmative action to hire people with disabilities. 

Federal inclusive hiring and employment opportunity programs date back to the Soldier’s Rehabilitation Act of 1918, the first federal vocational rehabilitation program, which helped veterans with disabilities find new jobs. The Smith-Fess Act of 1920 extended vocational rehabilitation services to civilians with disabilities. In 1936, the Randolph Shepard Act gave blind vendors preference for federal contracts.

What Actions Has President Trump Taken on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility? 

President Trump has released many Executive Orders in the past few weeks. This is an overview of some of the impacts but is not a comprehensive overview of all recent EOs.

Some of the key things President Trump’s recent EOs and follow-up memoranda do include:

• Instruct federal agencies to terminate all programs, offices, and staff positions designed to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and equal opportunity. 
• End all government contracts and grants relating to equity and inclusion.
• Overturn Executive Orders from Presidents Biden, Obama, Clinton and Johnson which sought to make the work of the federal government more inclusive and equitable.
• Overturn Executive Order 11246, which was issued by President Johnson in 1965 and required each federal agency to have an equal employment opportunity program. It also barred discrimination by federal contractors and required contractors of a certain size to take affirmative action based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. 
• Require federal agencies to have all of their grantees and contractors affirm they “do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”
• Direct federal agencies to “investigate” private businesses, philanthropies and other entities engaging in DEIA efforts; a clear effort to chill equity work outside the government.
• Direct the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate all employees in critical safety positions in an EO that strongly suggests that the presence of disability results in an inability to carry out an FAA job. This suggestion, the suggestion that people with disabilities cannot be “high-capacity” workers, and many of the other statements in this EO about disability are demonstrably false. 
• Caused agencies to create lists of banned words. These lists include the words “disability,” “inclusion,” and “barriers.” It also includes “female,” “LGBT,” “activism,” “racism,” “excluded,” and “hate speech.” Programs or grants that use these words are being flagged for review and further action, which may include ending these activities.
• Shut down research related to inclusion and equity, not only within the government at the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other federal agencies, but also issuing “stop work” orders to the nongovernmental National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
• Remove webpages, data, and federal resources related to inclusion and equity. For example, the Office of Disability Employment Policy removed recently published resources on artificial intelligence and inclusive hiring and resources related to the economic outcomes of disabled people of color. Most web pages containing information about marginalized groups or inclusion efforts have been taken down.

Does This Mean that DEI Is Illegal Now? 

The Executive Orders make clear that President Trump considers DEI illegal and immoral. President Trump’s new order instead claims that promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion “violates civil rights laws” and requires agencies to “prevent the hiring of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion.”

To be clear, saying that any effort to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion “violates civil rights laws” is the President’s political belief. However, equal opportunity and remedying discrimination are enshrined in federal civil rights laws and the U.S. Constitution. These Executive Orders do not change that.  

How Does This Impact Disability Civil Rights, Like the ADA and Rehabilitation Act?

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – which serves as a sort of Human Resources agency for the federal government – recently stated that agencies should comply with federal law regarding accessibility but retain the “minimum” staff necessary to provide accessibility services. OPM also reminded agencies that they “should not terminate or prohibit accessibility or disability-related accommodations, assistance, or other programs that are required by” the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act or related laws.” 

Sadly, the words of these OPM memos and the actions of many federal agencies do not align. Many agencies are shifting accommodation practices that will delay receipt of accommodations and result in a denial of access. AAPD has learned that at least some agencies are reviewing all employees’ reasonable accommodations. A review of all reasonable accommodations and disabled employees carries great risks of discrimination. 

AAPD has received reports that in some agencies, staff members who facilitate access are being laid off. Many federal employees who work in roles targeted by these anti-inclusion executive orders also hold secondary roles as Disability Program Managers and Special Placement Program Coordinators, both of whom help recruit, manage, accommodate, and retain people with disabilities in federal jobs.  

What About Federal Disability Hiring Programs? How Are They Affected? 

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required the federal government to hire qualified disabled employees. This resulted in what is called the “Schedule A Hiring Authority.” The Schedule A Hiring Authority streamlines the traditional federal hiring process for qualified candidates with disabilities. Employees hired under Schedule A must still meet all job qualifications, and the necessary skills and experience required for the role are not adjusted for Schedule A employees. 

Because the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is still the law and cannot be undone by an EO, orders to cease inclusive hiring practices should not pause or end Schedule A hiring. However, OPM released a memo stating that federal agencies must stop taking employment actions based on certain characteristics, including disability. The memo strongly implies that OPM is directing agencies to cease programs that promote the hiring of people with disabilities, which are still required by the Rehabilitation Act. 

There are other ways Schedule A employees are being negatively impacted by these efforts. Disabled employees hired under the Schedule A Hiring Authority have a probationary period that is twice as long as employees hired through a standard process. Efforts to execute a reduction in force focused on employees still in their probationary period will disproportionately impact people with disabilities. Agencies have stated that they will have to review all existing accommodations. AAPD is concerned that these reviews may negatively impact Schedule A employees and that systemic reviews of all existing accommodations is likely to facilitate discrimination.

Overall, How Will These Actions Affect Disabled People? 

This will most significantly affect disabled people, especially disabled people of color and disabled LGBT people, who work for the federal government or federal contractors or work in federally funded initiatives that focus on equity. This is important because the federal government is the largest employer of people with disabilities. If disabled people are subject to mass layoffs of government employees, then we will lose significant progress on disability employment overall. 

The federal government also plays an important role in establishing standards for accessibility, providing technical assistance, and funding research to advance accessibility and enhance disabled people’s lives. States, cities, large companies, and many other entities rely on federal resources to inform their decisions related to disability inclusion and accessibility. However, all of this could stop depending on how these EOs and follow-up memoranda are interpreted.

The federal government is also one of the largest funders of disability organizations, research, and programming. While agencies review contracts and grants, disability community organizations and organizations serving people with disabilities have been forced to reduce hours, cut services, and lay off staff. President Trump’s sudden federal funding freeze also negatively impacted disability organizations.

These actions have already negatively impacted the accessibility of federal information and services for employees with disabilities. While federal law provides protections for employees with disabilities and requires federal programs to be accessible, accessibility has already been negatively impacted by creating a chilling effect on efforts to hire qualified individuals with disabilities to work as federal employees. 

Some of the impacts of this chilling effect include: 

• Section 508 contracts have been terminated. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act establishes standards for accessibility of electronic content and information to ensure disabled people – such as those who are blind and low vision – can access government websites and information
• Workers who have worked remotely have been given orders to return to in-person work
• Some agencies have included their accessibility programs in the dismantling of DEIA offices and staff, as required by the White House. 
  • For example, Deaf federal employees report being unable to access ASL interpreting services, and the White House has not provided ASL interpretation of its broadcasts despite the legal requirement to do so. 
• Lists of probationary employees in their first 1-2 years of work have been gathered, which will include disabled people hired through Schedule A and standard hiring processes.

What is AAPD Doing About This? 

AAPD is deeply concerned by the dismantling of accessibility services, blaming employees with disabilities for tragedies, the dismantling of equal employment opportunity offices designed to combat discrimination, and the potential undoing of disability hiring programs required by law. We are also concerned that a review of all FAA employees and accommodations used by federal employees will result in discrimination against disabled employees. 

Some of the Trump Administration’s actions may be illegal. Many lawsuits are ongoing, and many more may be filed. AAPD is working closely with allies and partner organizations to speak out and support lawsuits against these actions. We’ve also provided ways to take action below. 

What Can I Do? 

• Reach out to your members of Congress, especially if you have been personally impacted, and let them know you are their constituent and want them to tell the White House that the attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility must stop
  • Use AAPD’s Quorum campaign to send a letter like this in just one click! 

• Raise awareness and share your stories, experiences, and perspectives
  • Attend town halls with your elected officials and tell them that you want them to take action against these attacks
  • Go live on social media and/or record and share a short video clip across your platforms to explain what is happening and how it will affect the people you represent
  • Share stories with local media to show the impacts of the EOs in your community 

• Stay informed – through AAPD and other channels – about what is happening on this front and what to do.
  • Sign up for AAPD’s Action Alerts by signing up for our email list

• If you are a disabled federal worker and not currently in a union, we recommend joining one.
  • The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) has a landing page with guidance for federal employees: https://nffe.org/guidance/

• Tips for safely organizing and digital safety and security 
  • Limit personal posts that contain identifiable information (email address, phone number, home address, etc).
  • Switch to applications that are end-to-end encrypted, so only you and the person you’re communicating with receive the messages or calls. There are even encrypted notes app, like Standard Notes.
    • Standard Notes: https://standardnotes.com/
    • Signal (for messaging): https://signal.org/ 

• Access Now, an organization that defends and extends the digital rights of people and communities at risk, has a 24/7 Digital Security Hotline that can offer direct technical assistance and advice to civil society groups and activists, media organizations, journalists and bloggers, and human rights defenders. Access Now helps people and communities at risk to improve digital security practices, and provide rapid-response emergency assistance in nine languages. Visit their website to see if your issue qualifies as something they can help with: www.accessnow.org/help/#how-we-help

The post Explaining Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), The Trump Administration’s Recent Actions on DEIA, and the Impact on Disabled Americans appeared first on AAPD.