Late last week President Biden released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget – the first budget of his presidency. The FY22 budget proposes $6 trillion with record high levels of federal investments in critical programs and services, including many of the priorities outlined in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. Much of this would be funded by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Included in the President’s budget is a $32 million increase for the Independent Living Program, for a total of $148.2 million. The increase would include $29 million for Part C and $3 million for Part B. However, the budget indicates that up to $8 million of the Independent Living Program’s funding must be available to make and evaluate competitive grants to part C CILs to develop evidence-based interventions to increase employment for disabled people. While increasing employment for disabled people is critical – and something many Centers for Independent Living work toward – we oppose mandating the use of Independent Living Program funding toward non-core services. We have expressed these concerns to the Biden Administration and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and suggested funding from employment programs be directed to CILs for this purpose.
In addition to the proposed increase for Independent Living, other programs for people with disabilities have proposed increases as well, including (but not limited to): State Councils on Developmental Disabilities; Developmental Disabilities Protection and Advocacy; the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities; Voting Access for People with Disabilities; Assistive Technology, and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The documents with the specific proposed funding amounts can be found below.
The President’s Budget is not binding; it serves as a blueprint and provides insight into the Administration’s priorities. It is now up to Congress to pass a budget resolution and appropriation bills to actually fund the government for FY 2022. NCIL has submitted our appropriations requests and are hopeful Congress will follow the President’s lead an increase Independent Living funding. However, they need to hear from you!
Take Action!
Call members of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED), especially one of your Members of Congress are on those subcommittees! A full list of those members is below. Tell them that the Independent Living Program needs the funding increase included in the President’s budget, but that Independent Living Program funds should not be used for grants to fund non-core services!
- You can reach the Members of those subcommittees by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (voice) or (202) 224-3091 (TTY) and asking to be connected.
- You can find Senators’ contact forms at senate.gov and Representatives’ contact forms at house.gov/representatives.
- You can use Resistbot to turn texts into faxes, mail, or hand-delivered letters by texting “RESIST” to 50409.
Budget Documents:
- President’s FY 2022 Budget (PDF)
- President’s FY 2022 Budget Fact Sheet (PDF)
- Budget Appendix
- HHS Budget Estimate (PDF)
- ACL Budget Table (PDF)
- More ACL documents (including screen-reader-friendly versions)
Senate Appropriations L-HHS-Ed Subcommittee Members
- Patty Murray, Chair (D-WA)
- Roy Blunt, Ranking Member (R-MO)
- Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
- Mike Braun (R-IN)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Lindsay Graham (R-SC)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
- John Kennedy (R-LA)
- Joe Manchin (D-WV)
- Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
- Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Chris Murphy (D-CT)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Marco Rubio (R-FL)
- Brian Schatz (D-HI)
- Jeanna Shaheen (D-NH)
- Richard Shelby (R-AL)
House Appropriations L-HHS-Ed Subcommittee Members
- Rosa DeLauro, Chair (D-CT-03)
- Tom Cole, Ranking Member (R-OK-04)
- Cheri Bustos (D-IL-17)
- Katherine Clark (D-MA-05)
- Ben Cline (R-VA-06)
- Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03)
- Lois Frankel (D-FL-21)
- Josh Harder (D-CA-10)
- Andy Harris (R-MD-01)
- Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA-03)
- Brenda Lawrence (D-MI-14)
- Barbara Lee (D-CA-13)
- John Moolenaar (R-MI-04)
- Mark Pocan (D-WI-02)
- Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA-40)
- Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12)
