We only need 14 more Senate cosponsors to have a majority of Congress cosponsoring DIA!
Yesterday, Senator Mazie Hirono (HI-D) became the 36th cosponsor of the Disability Integration Act (S.117) in the Senate! Including Senator Schumer – who is the sponsor of the bill – we have a total of 37 Senators cosponsoring DIA! To secure a majority of the Senate (51), we only need 14 more Senate cosponsors.
We already have a majority of the House of Representatives cosponsoring DIA, so that means we only need 14 Senate cosponsors to have a majority of the entire Congress cosponsoring the bill that gives people with long term service and support disabilities an enforceable statutory right to live in freedom.
Who do we still need in the Senate?
We are focused on securing Senate Democrats – who should support our civil right to live in freedom and a bill introduced by Senate Minority Leader Schumer (NY-D). We also need Senate HELP Committee members so we are also targeting Republicans on the HELP Committee. Here is the list:
Yesterday, Senator Mazie Hirono (HI-D) became the 36th cosponsor of the Disability Integration Act (S.117) in the Senate! Including Senator Schumer – who is the sponsor of the bill – we have a total of 37 Senators cosponsoring DIA! To secure a majority of the Senate (51), we only need 14 more Senate cosponsors.
We already have a majority of the House of Representatives cosponsoring DIA, so that means we only need 14 Senate cosponsors to have a majority of the entire Congress cosponsoring the bill that gives people with long term service and support disabilities an enforceable statutory right to live in freedom.
Who do we still need in the Senate?
We are focused on securing Senate Democrats – who should support our civil right to live in freedom and a bill introduced by Senate Minority Leader Schumer (NY-D). We also need Senate HELP Committee members so we are also targeting Republicans on the HELP Committee. Here is the list:
- Alaska : Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Arizona : Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Democrat - the only Democrat from Arizona not cosponsoring DIA)
- California : Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat)
- Hawaii : Senator Brian Schatz (Democrat and the only member of the Hawaii delegation not cosponsoring DIA)
- Indiana : Senator Mike Braun (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Kansas : Senator Pat Roberts (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Kentucky : Senator Rand Paul (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Louisiana : Senator Bill Cassidy (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Maine : Senator Susan M. Collins (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Nevada : Senator Jacky Rosen (Democrat/HELP Committee - the only Democrat from Nevada not cosponsoring DIA)
- New Hampshire : Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat and the only member of the New Hampshire delegation not cosponsoring DIA)
- New Mexico : Senator Martin Heinrich (Democrat)
- New Mexico : Senator Tom Udall (Democrat)
- North Carolina : Senator Richard Burr (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Ohio : Senator Sherrod Brown (Democrat - the only Democrat from Ohio not cosponsoring DIA)
- Oregon : Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat)
- South Carolina : Senator Tim Scott (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Tennessee : Senator Lamar Alexander (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Utah : Senator Mitt Romney (Republican/HELP Committee)
- Virginia : Senator Mark R. Warner (Democrat)
- Virginia : Senator Timothy Kaine (Democrat/HELP Committee)
- Wyoming : Senator Michael B. Enzi (Republican/HELP Committee)
Of course, EVERY cosponsor helps move us forward! For more information on current DIA cosponsors, go to: www.c4ci.org
The Impact of the Coronavirus Underscores the Importance of DIA
We have seen the news reports about the coronavirus being in nursing facilities and the deaths that it caused. As reported in the New York Times, “The mortality rate is shocking,” said Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive of the American Health Care Association. He said the death rate might well exceed the 15 percent that had been reported in China for people aged 80 and older.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/
The reason this is “news” is because those deaths are part of a bigger news story. The reality is that illnesses in fact circulate throughout nursing facilities and kill the residents. When 11 children died in a New Jersey nursing facility, most people didn’t hear about it.
https://www.northjersey.com/
While people are being advised to avoid cruise ships and large groups, people with significant long term service and support disabilities often have no choice but to go into a nursing facility or other institution where they are kept in tight quarters and always at risk. It isn’t a small number of folks. Right now, over 2 million people are in nursing facilities and other institutions. As American life changes in response to the coronavirus, we need to address the fact that disabled and elderly people continue to be forced into institutions where they are at risk. There is no doubt that if the residents of the Life Care Center in Washington State or the Wanaque nursing facility in New Jersey were able to be supported independently, they would have been at far less risk of dying.
For a number of years, disability rights activists have been framing the fight for the Disability Integration Act as a fight for Life and Liberty. The outbreak of the coronavirus reminds us that this isn’t just rhetoric. The freedom of people with disabilities – young and old – is literally a matter of life and death.
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