BIAA Issues Legislative Action Alert
The Brain Injury Association of America issued a Legislative Action Alert this week asking advocates to contact their Members of Congress on two important timely issues – “Wounded Warrior” Legislation containing important TBI provisions and SCHIP reauthorization legislation containing important Medicaid provisions related to TBI care.
The first part of the alert encouraged brain injury advocates to contact their Representative to urge conferees to retain the Senate’s Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act. Earlier this week, the Senate passed its version of the defense authorization bill, including the text of the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which contains critically important provisions to improve TBI care for returning service members. The House of Representatives passed its defense authorization bill, which does not contain these critical TBI provisions, in May. Conferees have now been appointed, as the House and Senate will work in conference to produce a final version of the legislation to send to President Bush. For more information on BIAA’s position on the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, please visit our website at http://www.biausa.org/policyissues.htm.
The second issue addressed in the alert was the immediate need for advocates to contact their Representative to urge them to vote to override President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP reauthorization bill (H.R. 976). On October 3, 2007, President Bush vetoed legislation to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. This bill includes a six-month moratorium on implementing a federal regulation proposed by the Bush Administration, which would restrict the use of Medicaid’s Rehabilitative Services option. Rehabilitation services provided under the Medicaid Rehabilitative Services option are often vital to individuals with traumatic brain injury to improve and maintain their health and independence.
It is expected that a vote to override the president’s veto will occur on October 18 in the House of Representatives. As the Senate already has sufficient votes for the two-thirds majority required for an override of such a likely veto, the question will largely come down to whether the House of Representatives can garner enough votes to override the veto as well. Currently it appears that there is not enough Republican support in the House for an override.
Note: BIAA has been working as part of the Coalition to Preserve Rehabilitation to prevent implementation of this restrictive rule, and will soon be submitting comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) voicing strong opposition to proposed regulation. These comments will be posted on BIAA's website shortly.
Appropriations Update
Congress moved one step closer this week to a potential showdown with President Bush over Fiscal Year 2008 spending bills. House and Senate Democratic leaders have reportedly reached a tentative agreement on how much each of the 12 separate appropriations bills should provide, which will allow conference negotiations on final bills to go forward.
None of the 12 spending bills have yet reached the President’s desk. Earlier this year, both chambers of Congress agreed to spend $956.1 billion – or $23 billion more than requested in the President’s Fiscal Year 2008 Budget – but as is normally the case each year, the House and Senate differed in their allocations for most of the individual appropriations bills.
In particular, the House allocated $151.1 billion - $1.9 billion more than the Senate allocation - for the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (H.R. 3043), (although the Senate version of the bill does contain greater funding for TBI, specifically a 14% increase in funding for TBI Act programs). While the Senate version of the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill is not expected to be considered by the full Senate until after Columbus Day recess, in reality conference negotiations between the two chambers have likely already started, now that a tentative agreement has been reached on a total amount for the bill. It is expected that the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill could be one of the first the Democratic leadership sends to President Bush, in order to draw a clear distinction with the president on spending priorities. President Bush has threatened to veto all of the appropriations bills except for the two that are defense-related (Defense (H.R. 3222) and Military Construction-VA (H.R. 2642)).
New Report Calls for Improved Disability Benefits for War Veterans
A report issued on Wednesday by the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission recommended revising the disability rating schedule to better take into account neurological disabilities, including TBI. Specifically, the Commission recommended tackling “post-traumatic stress disorder, other mental disorders and traumatic brain injury expeditiously” when revising the disability rating schedule.
The report called for completing a revision of the current disability rating system within the next five years. In addition, the Commission found that, overall, the current disability benefits structure does not take into account the full impact of service-connected disabilities on veterans’ quality of life, and recommended that Congress provide a 25 percent increase in benefits until a new system is put into place.
With the current youth's opinion that helmets and protective padding standing strong are "dorky" or "uncool," most children skating in skate parks choose not to wear them. And considering the parks remain unsupervised, skate-at-your-own-risk facilities, it has become easier then ever to get away with it. .jpg)
The National Institute of Health is funding a grant to assess brain damage at the point of care to avoid delays and set up protocol to decrease the extent of damage.
