CDCAN REPORT 072-2006_ Controversy Raised on Last Minute Amendments to AB 2193.htm

CDCAN
CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
DISABILITY RIGHTS NEWS REPORT
#072-2006 August 18, 2006 - Friday
Advocacy Without Borders:
Connecting people with disabilities & seniors to rights and unified action
1225 8th Street Suite 480 - Sacramento, CA 95814 916/446-0013 Fax: 916/446-0026
To Respond to THIS email report reply to: martyomoto@rcip.com
CDCAN website: www.cdcan.us

California Legislatire
* Last Minute Amendments to AB 2193 Stirs Controversy But Bill Is Likely "Dead"
* Calls for Workforce Service Center Pilot in Bay Area
* Legislation Did Not Pass Out of Senate Appropriations Committee

SACRAMENTO - Amendments to a bill, AB 2193 by Assemblymember Loni Hancock (Democrat - Berkeley), were made yesterday (August 17) that would require the Department of Developmental Services to establish a "Bay Area Regional Center Workfroce Enhancement Pilot Program", but the bill was referred back to the Senate Appropriations Committee and not acted on. The bill, which originally covered child welfare issues and originally authored by Assemblymember Karen Bass (Democrat - Los Angeles), is considered "dead" because the deadline to pass bills out of both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committee is today (August 18) - and both houses adjourned for the weekend on Thursday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday, August 21 one last time for the year, but only to hear a handful of bills that received special permission (a waiver of legislative rules) to be heard. AB 2193 is not scheduled to be heard.

Amendments Stir Controversy Among Some Advocates
The major amendments made to AB 2193 in the Senate Appropriations Committee raised controversy among some advocates because it was done at the last minute and by-passed the policy committees. The bill, as amended August 17, would have:
* Would have required the Department of Developmental Services to establish, by March 1,2007, a Bay Area Regional Center Workforce Enhancement Pilot Program to grant incentives for agencies providing certain services to persons with developmental disabilities who maintains a contract for the purpose of obtaining its direct-care workers from a nonprofit public benefit corporation. The corporation would among other requirements, provide for improving recruitment, retention, training, and career opportunities for direct-care workers, and increasing the availability and quality of consumer-directed community-based services for people with developmental disabilities.
* Would have provided for specified increases in regional center reimbursement rates for services and supports provided under the pilot program.
* Would have required the University of California to conduct an independent evaluation of the pilot program, and to submit a report
to the department and the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature by November 1, 2011.

The issue of "workforce service centers" was the subject of controversy in previous legislation authored by former Assemblymember Patricia Wiggins in AB 649 in 2003, which later was amended in 2004, as a study bill and vetoed by the Governor.

NEXT STEPS
* The deadline to hear and report bills out of both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committee is today, August 18 - though committees held their final regular hearings on Thursday, August 17. Both houses adjourned on Thursday for the weekend, meaning that for all bills - except those receiving special permission - still in either committee, are considered "dead".
* AB 2193, unless it receives special permission to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee next week on Monday (August 21) from the Senate Rules Committee - which is not considered likely - is "dead" for the year. The Senate Appropriations Committee is essentially done with its work for the year, except for a hearing on Monday, August 21, to hear a handful of bills that did receive special permission to be heard after the deadline.
* The proposal could be brought up in new legislation next January.

CDCAN News Reports and Alerts
These CDCAN Reports are partially funded by a small grant from the USC UCEDD, Grant #90DD0540 from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. The opinions expressed or content in these reports do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the USC UCEDD.
The California Disability Community Action Network is a non-partisan link to tens of thousands of Californians in every community, including people of color, people of every type of disability, including people with physical disabilities, people with developmental and other disabilities, people with traumatic brain and other injures, people with mental health needs, seniors, people with MS, Alzheimer's and others, and all of their families, community organizations and providers, direct care and other workers, and other advocates. These action alerts and news reports is for all of them.   If you would like to get on this distribution (and conversely, get off of it) please send an email with that request to: martyomoto@rcip.com OR sign up via the NEW CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us Sharing information is part of our organizing effort. Please feel free to forward or copy this (attribution is nice but not necessary). We're all in this together!
MANY THANKS to Training Toward Self Reliance, UCP, California NAELA, Californians for Disability Rights, Inc (CDR), CHANCE Inc, Parents Helping Parents, Arriba, Strategies Toward Empowering People, Parents Helping Parents, Asian American parents groups, Resources for Independent Living and many other Independent Living Centers, several regional centers, People First chapters, IHSS workers, other self advocacy and family support groups, developmental center families, and hundreds of individuals. Thanks also to partnerships and the good people with the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and also the Department of Health Services, the Department of Developmental Services, Department of Social Services and the CA Health and Human Services Agency and other agencies, and the State Legislature and staff, the Legislative Analyst Office. Good people who do good things can make a difference together.