Congresswoman DeGette, ADAPT appreciates the decades of support that you have given the Disability Community. We are encouraged by your commitment to our community. As you seek a leadership position within the caucus, there are things you must commit to do that will further advance the rights of people with disabilities.
ADAPT demands that Congresswoman DeGette:
- Be an initial co-sponsor of the Disability Integration Act, currently H.R.2472, and champion the bill so that House Democrats pass this civil rights legislation during the 116th Congress, ensuring that People with Long Term Service and Support Disabilities are no longer forced into unwanted institutional placement.
- Continue to strongly support and co-sponsor the Empower Care Act, H.R.5306.
- Help ADAPT #StopTheShock at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts by getting FDA Director Scott Gottlieb to finalize the rule that will ban the torture device used at only one institution in the country and used exclusively to painfully shock people with disabilities as “therapy”. We need an update on the progress you have made with Scott Gottlieb and Alex Azar, and what our next steps are with them on this issue.
- Work with ADAPT and CCDC to introduce a bill by February 1, 2019 carving out consumer directed care and family caregivers from the Electronic Visit Verification requirements in the 21st Century Cures Act.