We Put Our Bodies On the Line to Save Obamacare. Now ADAPT Is Asking House Democrats to Support Our Fight for Freedom!

To: The Democratic Members of the House of Representatives who are not currently co-sponsors of the Disability Integration Act (HR.555) * See List Below
From: National ADAPT
Date: April 26, 2019
SUBJECT: We Put Our Bodies On the Line to Save Obamacare. Now ADAPT Is Asking You to Support Our Fight for Freedom!

We are writing because you are not currently a co-sponsor of the Disability Integration Act (HR.555), and ADAPT is formally asking that you co-sponsor this critically-important civil rights legislation.

You should be familiar with ADAPT and our work. We were literally yanked from our wheelchairs, dragged out of offices, tossed out of buildings, handcuffed and arrested – multiple times – to save the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid from attacks during the 115th Congress. We changed the battle over Medicaid to a fight for Life, Liberty and Freedom and are widely credited for saving Obamacare.

Our fight for Life, Liberty and Freedom continues in this Congress.  Although Medicaid funds the services and supports we need, it is also institutionally-biased and current policy forces elderly and Disabled Americans into nursing facilities and other institutions when it could support us living in the community like everyone else.  On January 15, 2019 – in honor of the 90th birthday of the great civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced the Disability Integration Act, DIA.  This bicameral and bipartisan legislation ensures older and Disabled Americans have a right to live and receive services in their own homes instead of being forced into unwanted institutionalization.

The Disability Integration Act has broad-based support throughout the Disability Community, and nearly 800 aging, disability, social justice and faith-based organizations have endorsed the bill.  As the bill was being introduced in January, ADAPT called on the House of Representatives to pass DIA before July 26, 2019 when thousands of people with disabilities will be in Washington, DC.  Organizations throughout the US have supported this call to action, including the National Disability Leadership Alliance which sent a letter to House Leadership with over 740 other organizations signed on. (http://www.disabilityintegrationact.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/NDLA-DIA-Letter.pdf)

ADAPT is surprised that as a House Democrat committed to supporting and advancing civil rights, you are not already a cosponsor of the Disability Integration Act (HR.555), especially because 133 other members of the House of Representatives have already shown their support for our freedom by cosponsoring the bill.  To support ADAPT’s fight for the Life, Liberty and Freedom of elderly and Disabled Americans by cosponsoring DIA/HR.555, simply have your staff contact Amy Bos in Representative Sensenbrenner’s office.  Her email is Amy.Bos@mail.House.gov.

If you have questions about the bill, please have your staff contact Stephanie Woodward SWoodward@ncdr.us or Dara Baldwin at DBaldwin@ncdr.us. 

ADAPT’s national week of protests will be in Washington, DC during the week of May 20th when we will be visiting the offices of Democrats in the House who are not cosponsoring the bill in order to ensure that the House can pass DIA by July 26, 2019.  Thank you in advance for your support.

* The Democratic Members of the House of Representatives who are not currently co-sponsors of the Disability Integration Act (HR.555)