Volume 6, Issue 5
October - November, 2008

The 2008 election results will bring significant changes to the Executive Branch and the Congress. Republicans lost the White House and had their minority status further eroded in the House and Senate. Moderates and incumbents were other high casualty groups, losing a number of important seats.

There are two main official sources for what the disability comunity might expect from the Obama Administration:

1) The 2008 Democratic Platform lays out the priorities for the incoming Administration, including many disability specific programs. However, it is important to note that this platform was developed before the economic crisis, which had yet to hit with full force, became a national focal point. Attention to the increasing unemployment rate, the credit crunch, and industry bailouts can be expected to push much of the health and human service agenda laid out in the party platform to the back burner, at least temporarily.

Nonetheless, the platform does provide some indication of what we might expect, particularly for agendas that do not entail significant federal appropriations. Civil rights issues, such as expanding hate crimes legislation to include persons with disabilities, are one such example. Click here to read a synopsis of sections of the 2008 Democratic Platform most relevant to the disability community.

2) The Obama-Biden Plan on Disability. This plan was unveiled after the election and is available on the transition team’s website www.change.gov.

Each of these priorities are consistent with the Legislative Agenda for the 111th Congress recently developed by The Arc, United Cerebral Palsy, the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), and the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD).

The transition team has been extremely active preparing formalized plans of action for the White House and each of the federal agencies. The team has been using a variety of mechanisms to solicit community input on all national issues. On December 10, the transition team rolled out a new feature that allows the public to ask questions on any issue of interest – Open for Questions (see image below). This resource is a “crowd sourcing” tool which allows users to post and/or vote for questions. Votes determine which series of questions are answered by the transition team. Open for Questions received over 7,000 questions from over 11,000 people who cast over 600,000 votes for questions within its first 24 hours.

Fortunately, the transition team has also been gathering information that is specific to disability issues through:

Meetings with disability organizations. The transition team has been conducting an ambitious series of meetings with national disability organizations. There have been two general kinds of meetings – policy specific (e.g. education, civil rights) and federal agency review (e.g. the Departments of Education and the National Council on Disability). The agency review meetings were completed in mid December.

Of The People, By The People. The transition team has created a web page where the public can submit stories, ideas, and opinions regarding disability issues. The Arc and UCP strongly encourage our constituents to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to weigh in on the issues that are so important to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. See: http://change.gov/page/s/disabilities

To date, The Arc and UCP staff has participated in seven meetings with the transition team members. More are expected in the coming days. For example, representatives of The Arc and United Cerebral Palsy were among six national organizations to meet with transition officials regarding intellectual disabilities. In each meeting, The Arc and UCP are guided by our Legislative Agenda for the 111th Congress.

The Arc and UCP provided education and information to the transition team on:
• Overall priorities for people with disabilities
• The Social Security Administration
• The National Council on Disability
• Special education
• Civil rights enforcement
• Rehabilitation, job training and other employment issues
• Economic stimulus and including programs which serve people with disabilities
• Administrative actions that could be taken early in the Administration to address key priority issues such as withdrawing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed rule on Medicaid's rehabilitative services option.

Democrats gained at least seven seats, bringing their total to at least 58*. Only one seat is still in question. The Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman (R-MN) and challenger Al Franken is still undecided. The outcome of the November 4 election will not likely be final until early in 2009. A court fight could follow, further delaying the final tally.

Change in Party Ratios in the Senate

Though Democrats gained as many as seven seats, they failed to reach 60. Having 60 votes in the Senate is extremely important. The only way to stop a filibuster (unlimited debate) is through a cloture vote (to limit debate), which requires 60 votes. However, Democrats may be able to recruit at least two Republicans in certain circumstances to reach 60.

* The Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama, though possibly slated for a special election in April, 2009 due to the scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, was generally believed to be a safe one for Democrats. Nonetheless, as of this writing, a special election remains a possibility. In addition, Democratic governors in New York and Colorado need to appoint senators to replace those who have been nominated to the Obama cabinet.

Democrats gained 24 seats in the House, giving them a 39 seat advantage. Republicans ended up with 178 Members.

Committee ratios. Once all election results are final and the exact number of majority and minority party members are known, Congress determines how many of its members will be assigned to each committee.

Committee assignments. Congress then makes committee assignments based the numbers in the majority and minority parties. Though most returning Members of Congress keep their committee assignments, there is a fair amount of shifting as Members seek to move up the ladder by getting assigned to more prestigious committees or to fill the seat of committee chairpersons who have left to join other committees, retired, or were voted out of office.

Agenda and schedule setting. The majority party, regardless of the size of the majority, has tremendous power as it decides what legislation to consider. The majority also determines when legislation is scheduled to be considered.

Most Members of Congress spend over half of their time working in committees. Committees are where the most substantive work of the Congress gets done. Bills are drafted, revised, debated and marked up in committees.

Congressional committees have several full time staff who have considerable expertise on the programs and issues for which the committee is responsible. Consequently, much of The Arc and UCP’s federal advocacy efforts involve working with committee staff to develop legislation and oversee programs of interest to the disability community

Bipartisanship has always been and will continue to be essential for getting disability public policies adopted. The disability agenda has been advanced by Democrats and Republicans alike for many years. The graph below shows how several of the bills that we were not able to get enacted lack bipartisanship. If we hope to see these and other bills succeed in the 111th Congress, enlisting the support of Republican sponsors will be essential.