[Headline] ADAPT Closes Down All Access to HHS
[subheading] Wins Meeting with Director

Over 500 ADAPT activists closed off all access to the DC Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 28. They kept it closed until HHS Sec. Michael Leavitt agreed to meet with them.

75 ADAPT members entered the building entered the building before security locked the doors. They presented their demands to HHS staff:

* Meet with ADAPT leaders within 30 days. Recognize that access to the community is a civil right.

* Improve the implementation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects. Increase the flexibility states have.

*IMMEDIATELY eliminate rules that cause undue burdens regarding case management.

*Eliminate rules that discourage small grassroots providers, like Centers for Independent Living, from meeting the needs of consumers they serve.

*Eliminate regulations and interpretation of "spousal impoverishment" and "risk." They must not promote institutionalization of persons with disabilities.

*Work with ADAPT to pass the Community Choice Act (S 799 and HR 1621).

After a six hour standoff, Leavitt's aide committed to Leavitt to meeting with ADAPT within 30 days. He acknowledged that access to the community is definitively a civil right. Renewed communication began immediately with another meeting between ADAPT and HHS staff on April 30.

[image]
[image caption] ADAPT blocked all access to HHS and the RNC

[image of child with a sign that says "FREE OUR People" and a drawing of the ADAPT logo]

[text resumes]

Dawn Russell of Texas ADAPT said, "People must be able to choose to live in their own homes, near families and friends. Families shouldn't be torn apart by mean-spirited Medicaid policies and regulations. They force some people into nursing homes.

"They even force people to leave their home state to get the community-based services and supports they need."

[Subheading] McCain Arrests Disability Advocates

On April 29, ADAPT took over the offices of Sen. John McCain in DC. 250 activists demanded support for the Community Choice Act. McCain is the only presidential candidate who has not signed on as a co-sponsor.

McCain arresting over 40 of the activists. Another 250 ADAPT activists stormed the offices of the Republican National Committee (RNC) a few blocks away. Five wheelchairs gained entry. The rest blocked all doors and driveways.

[boxed text]
250 APAT activists stormed the offices of the RNC. Five wheelchairs gained entry. The rest blocked all doors and driveways.

[main text resumes]
The main ADAPT demand was that the RNC schedule a meeting with Sen. McCain. ADAPT wants to talk to him about support for the Community Choice Act. The RNC staff repeatedly stated that they did not have the power to ask their candidate's staff for such a meeting. Their denial resulted in a nine-hour standoff.

During the standoff the RNC staff refused access to the bathroom for ADAPT members. Congressional co-sponsors and supporters of the Community Choice Act came by to personally meet people arrested by the act. They congratulated ADAPT on their efforts to get it passed.

The 500 ADAPT activists from nearly every state in the union represent thousands more ADAPT members. Many did not have the ability to travel to DC.

Those thousands are only the tip of the disability voting bloc. They are feeling disrespected and ignored by Sen. McCain and the Republican Party.

www.adapt.org

Created on

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Posted on

Sunday 20 December 2020

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• ADAPT's 25th Anniversary - Washington DC, Spring 2008

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