| APAPAC Events
3/15 Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
3/15 Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI)
3/16 Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
3/17 Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
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DGR Telephone:
703-907-7800 | |
Follow APA Advocacy on Twitter!
The APA Department of Government Relations is now on Twitter! Now you can find out about APA Advocacy activities, Congressional hearings, mark-ups, and floor votes in real time.
Please click on the following link to start following APA Advocacy Twitter:
http://twitter.com/apa_
advocacy
Questions about the Twitter page or how to set up an account? Please contact Kyle Folsom at advocacy@psych.org. |
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APA Advocacy Day 2011
Plan to attend the APA 2011 Advocacy Day Event! Come to Washington, DC, April 11-13 to advocate for the profession and for psychiatric patients. The APA has opened 20 self-pay spots to APA members. Here is the latest information. |
FY 2011 Budget Update
The House is expected to vote late on February 15 on a recently-introduced Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government at current rates, until April 8, while cutting $6 billion in spending. The legislation (H.J. Res 48) is the second short-term funding extension to prevent a government shutdown while Congressional negotiations continue on a long-term plan to keep the government running through the end of FY11.No cuts are made to NIH, SAMHSA, CDC or Title X (Planned Parenthood services). The cuts in the new CR are limited to the funding cuts in H.J. Res 48 include funding rescissions, reductions, and program terminations that the Obama Administration had already identified. The measure eliminates $2.6 billion in earmark accounts within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Science, Financial Services/General Government, and Interior subcommittee jurisdictions.The Senate is expected to approve H.J. Res. 48 later this week. |
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FY 2011 Targets
To find spending rollbacks in the forthcoming stopgap bill, GOP appropriators probably will eliminate money for earmarks, a relatively soft target compared with other government programs such as NIH, SAMHSA and heating assistance that are defended by many Democrats. Both chambers have agreed to an earmark moratorium, so any reductions to those accounts should be palatable for both parties. Even after the current CR eliminated about $2.7 billion in earmarks, there is still roughly $6 billion left in earmarked funds that lawmakers could excise. The chances of quickly completing the overdue FY11 appropriations process appear slim, particularly as the debate on federal finances appears to be expanding into a broad debate beyond the scope of annual spending bills. Lawmakers from both parties are increasingly calling for a serious look at how the federal government will pay for Medicare and Social Security. |
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HHS Issues Rules on State Flexibility Towards Health Reform Implementation
A proposed rule that would allow states to come up with their own plans for implementing major provisions of the health care reform law was issued March 10 by the departments of Health and Human Services and Treasury. To receive "innovation waivers," states seeking alternatives to federal regulations for implementing the health insurance coverage requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, would have to show that they could provide coverage as comprehensively and as affordably as required under PPACA. In addition, states would have to show that their plans would cover a comparable number of residents and would not increase the federal deficit. States could receive the waivers for five years with an option for renewal. Recently, President Obama has endorsed legislation introduced by Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Brown (R-MA) to move the date that states may apply for these waivers forward to 2014. |
| Advocacy Training at the District Branch Executive Orientation
Kate McAllister also gave an update on federal and state resources available to APA members and District Branch Executives including:
If you have any questions on legislative resources available to APA
members please contact Kate McAllister at advocacy@psych.org or
703-907-7800. |
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