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(WASHINGTON DC) Demanding hearings on the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA; S.971, H.R.2032), and the Money Follows the Person Act (MFPA; S1394), 500 ADAPT activists took over the Senate Finance Committee Hearing Room for over 8 hours Tuesday. Ultimately 129 persons were arrested for refusing to leave after negotiations with Sen. Chuck Grassley broke down when his staff declined to commit in writing their “promise” to hold hearings.
“I’m still baffled by their taking offense at our request to have their agreement to hold hearings in writing,” said Bob Liston, ADAPT Organizer from Montana. “If their word is good, writing it down shouldn’t be any big deal, especially because it assures that everyone on both sides has the same understanding and expectations. Would any of them in their personal lives enter into a contract that wasn’t in black and white? I doubt it.” “And frankly,” Liston added, “when we have the administration telling us one thing, and Congress telling us another, with each of them swearing they’re telling the truth and blaming the other for inaction, it sure makes it hard for us to know who to trust will keep their word.”
Both MiCASSA and MFPA have languished in the Senate Finance Committee because Finance Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and ranking Democrat Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) have refused to call for hearings despite written requests from the bills’ co-sponsors, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR). However, on Monday, March 22, Sen. Grassley announced an April 7 hearing on the President’s New Freedom Initiative, about which no legislation has been introduced. The April 7 hearing includes no mention of either MiCASSA or MFPA.
“While Grassley and Baucus are sitting on MiCASSA and MFPA, people we know all over the country are dying in nursing homes and dying to get out of nursing homes,” said Barbara Toomer, Utah ADAPT organizer. I just don’t understand how Sen. Grassley can schedule a hearing on non-existent legislation supposedly related to the administration’s budget proposals, and yet won’t schedule hearings on real legislation that’s being supported by 700 organizations. So, we decided we would go to the Senate Finance Committee Hearing Room to hold our own hearings…the Peoples’ Hearings on the need for MiCASSA and MFPA.”
After spending the morning and early afternoon distributing information on MiCASSA and MFPA to every member of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, ADAPT members slowly made their way up the Dirksen Building elevators, packing the large hearing room and the adjacent hallways. They were quickly joined by camera crews from NBC, ABC, and CNN, along with at least 50 members of the Capitol Police Force.
Inside the hearing room, one by one, people told their stories of unwanted confinement in nursing homes and institutions, some for many years, robbed of all choice, dignity and freedom. When the Peoples’ Hearings concluded, chanting and singing started that went on non-stop for 8 hours during the failed negotiations and arrests.
“We’re not giving on the hearings up by any means,” said Jose Lara of Desert ADAPT in El Paso, Texas. “We won’t stop until MiCASSA is passed. Sen. Grassley needs to hear from people all over America that we want hearings on MiCASSA and MFPA, and that ADAPT must be included in the witness panels to assure that the voices of people with disabilities who have escaped nursing homes will be heard.”
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