For Immediate Release

May 4, 2001
For more information, contact:
Tim Wheat (901) 726-6404
Bob Kafka (512) 442-0252

Disability Rights Activists to Query Bush on Promises

(MEMPHIS) Will President George W. Bush's New Freedom Initiative (NFI) for persons with disabilities become a fully funded reality, or is it just another empty political promise dangled before 50 million Americans who want freedom and civil rights? Seven hundred ADAPT activists; including 10 from Memphis, will be in Washington D.C. May 12-17 to demand the answer.

“We see our brothers and sisters institutionalized everyday without any thought by our public officials that our health care system is wrong and immoral to force individuals with disabilities and older Americans into dehumanizing warehouses where there bodies and spirits die,” said Deborah Cunningham, Tennessee ADAPT State Organizer. 

Announced early in the Bush administration, the NFI promised an Executive Order to implement the 1999 Supreme Court Olmstead decision, which declared unnecessary institutionalization of persons with disabilities to be discrimination. The Court further mandated in Olmstead that people could choose to receive long term care services in their homes in the community instead of being forced into nursing homes and other institutions. To date, Bush has not issued the promised Executive Order, and has included nothing in his budget to assist states to comply with the Supreme Court decision.

“When the New Freedom Initiative was announced I felt very encouraged and hopeful for our new administration,” said Cunningham. "Although it may be early, President Bush has made insensitive and predictable choices in his candidates for our judicial system. These choices will have real and dramatic effects on people with disabilities."

ADAPT, America's largest grassroots disability rights organization, with chapters in nearly every state, has fought for 10 years to assure that people with disabilities, old and young, are not victimized by the current institutional bias in Medicaid. ADAPT is committed to reforming Medicaid to become a system that prioritizes "Community First". Action on ADAPT's federal legislation, MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act , was postponed by last year's elections. Re-introduction of MiCASSA by Senator Tom Harkin (D, IA) and Senator Arlen Specter, (R, PA) is scheduled for later this month.

“There are over 37,000 people in Tennessee's 352 nursing homes,” said Cunningham, "and all of them deserve to choose to receive services in their own homes. If President Bush won't honor his commitment to them, then Congress can free them by passing MiCASSA. That is the other message we're taking to Washington in May.”

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