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URGENT APPROPRIATIONS ALERT Lifespan Respite Care Act (P.L. 109-442) - Funding Alert No funds were included in the Senate or House versions of the FY08 Labor/HHS/Education Funding bills for Lifespan Respite. The full Senate Appropriations Committee approved their version of the bill on June 21, but the full House Appropriations Committee still must approve their version before it can be brought to the House floor for a vote. We are working diligently to find a House Member who will champion an amendment in the full House Appropriations Committee to add Lifespan Respite Funds to the bill, or a House Member or Senator who will offer an amendment when the bill comes to the House or Senate floor. An amendment at this point, however, will require an offset from another budgetary account to stay within the mandatory Labor/HHS/Education funding allocation. The difficulty will be finding an offset that we can support since we will not support taking money from one program to pay for another if it means loss of services or supports. The House bill will not be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee until at least July 9, and both the House and Senate bills are not expected to come to the floor until mid-July. In any case, the President is threatening to veto the bill, which means the whole appropriations process probably will not be resolved soon. The good news is that this gives us more time to rally for the cause -- and let's be undeniably heard this time!! ACTION: Until we have an amendment to specifically support, please use the following message. When and if we have an specific amendment to support, I will send out another message to use. MESSAGE: We are deeply disappointed in the failure of the House and Senate Appropriations committee to include funding for Lifespan Respite in the FY 08 Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bills. The Lifespan Respite Care Act was passed by Congress and signed by the President in December with strong bipartisan support. With minimal funding of $40 million, respite relief would begin to address the tremendous needs of the nation's 50 million family caregivers who provide loving care everyday to children, spouses, and aging parents with disabilities and chronic conditions in order to keep them at home and out of institutions. We understand the tremendous pressure Congress is under to restore much-needed funding to health, social service and education programs. And we applaud your efforts in trying to do so in the face of serious fiscal constraints. But in not funding the Lifespan Respite Care Act, you overlooked a critical and cost-effective program that has tremendous potential to help families avoid or delay more costly out-of-home placements, thus saving billions of dollars in Medicaid and other long-term care costs. Respite can also help assure the stability and well-being of the nation's family caregivers, who provide over $300 billion in uncompensated care every year. As family caregivers, we jeopardize our own physical and emotional health, and that of our families. How much longer will we be able to do this without supports such as respite? Please be assured that we stand ready to assist you in every effort to secure funding for this much needed program. Please contact Congress today and then circulate this alert widely to networks, affilates, colleagues, parents, families, and neighbors. We've come this far -- don't give up now! Prepared by National Respite Coalition. For more information, please contact Jill Kagan at jbkagan@verizon.net or by phone at 703-256-9578 or visit www.archrespite.org/nrc.htm. Updated June 2007.
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