Date: Thursday, August 19, 2021
Category: Standards News

On July 29, 2021, the House of Representatives passed its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and related agencies. The Labor-HHS-Education bill has allocated federal funding to organizations supporting people living with disabilities, including the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), which received the largest increase in years. The $124.8 million total allocation to NIDILRR will specifically support the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center (TBIMS NDSC) and Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) Centers with federal funding.

The report includes verbatim report language offered by the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC) emphasizing the importance of the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR). The committee provide $2,000,000 for competitive grants to support existing and new alternative financing programs that provide for the purchase of AT devices. Click here to view the full language from ICDR.

In addition, the Department of Labor placed great emphasis on workplace opportunities for people with disabilities. The Committee is supportive of the budget proposal for ODEP to invest in research and demonstration projects related to testing effective ways to promote greater labor force participation of people with disabilities.

As a member of the DRRC, RESNA advocates at the US federal level for disability rehabilitation and research funding priorities.

Click here to read the full report and spending allocation.