ACTION ALERT!! Stop Drastic Medicaid Cuts > Please Call

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ACTION ALERT!! Stop Drastic Medicaid Cuts "

> From the National Council on Independent Living,

http://www.ncil.org/

Urge Your Senators To Support -Bingaman Amendment to

Budget Resolution to Avoid Drastic Medicaid Cuts

The Budget Committees of the US Senate and House of

Representatives have approved budget resolutions that would

force more drastic reductions in Medicaid funding than

those proposed by the Bush Administration's 2006 Budget.

Although the Congressional Budget Office estimated the net

reductions in Medicaid spending proposed by the Bush

Administration at $7.6 billion over the next five years,

the budget resolutions reported out of committee propose to

drastically increase these funding reductions. In the

House, the Budget Resolution would require the Energy and

Commerce Committee to make legislative changes that would

reduce Medicaid spending by $15-20 billion over the next

five years. The Senate Budget Resolution would require the

Senate Finance Committee to make $15 billion in reductions

over the next five years.

If both the House and Senate pass their initial budget

resolutions with the current reconciliation instructions,

then legislation that would remove $15-20 billion in

Medicaid funding over the next five years would become

virtually inevitable.

THE SMITH-BINGAMAN AMENDMENT

US Senators have an alternative: they can support the

bipartisan -Bingaman Amendment to the Senate Budget

Resolution. The -Bingaman Amendment would remove the

reconciliation instructions requiring $15 billion in cuts

and replace it with a provision to create a bipartisan

commission that would recommend ways to improve the

efficiency and effectiveness of the Medicaid program.

NCIL calls upon the US Senate to approve the -Bingaman

Amendment, to ensure that good policy rather than arbitrary

cuts drives changes within the Medicaid program. The Senate

may vote upon this amendment as early as Tuesday, March 15!

ACTION STEPS

Especially if your Senators are identified in the below

list of " Key Senators, " please call their offices, let them

know that you are an advocate from the disability rights

community and urge them to support the -Bingaman

Amendment. Remind them that making decisions based on good

policy rather than arbitrary budgetary limits is in the

best interest of persons with disabilities and others who

are Medicaid beneficiaries.

For those who cannot afford long-distance calls, the

following 1-800 hotlines that have been set up by various

advocacy organizations will connect you with the Capitol

Hill switchboard. At that point, you would ask the operator

to connect you with your Senator's office.

Hotlines that you can use include 1- or 1-800-

247-2971.

Please feel free to pass this alert on to your advocacy

networks.

If you are having difficulty getting through to your

Senators' offices, please send an e-mail through

www.congress.org or FAX their office (if the number is

listed).

If you get indications of how any of the " key senators " are

likely to vote, please e-mail daniel@... and

gwen@....

KEY SENATORS

While advocates in all 50 states should contact their

Senators, based on the information we have, it is

especially important that advocates contact the following

Senators to let them know how important it is to their

constituents that they support this crucial amendment:

Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Burr (R-NC)

Tom Carper (D-DE)

Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)

Thad Cochran (R-MS)

Norm (R-MN)

(R-ME)

Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Mike DeWine (R-OH)

Graham (R-SC)

Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

ny Isakson (R-GA)

Kay Hutchison (R-TX)

Landrieu (D-LA)

McCain (R-AZ)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Ben (D-NE)

Bill (D-FL)

Mark Pryor (D-AR)

Rick Santorum (R-PA)

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Ted s (R-AK)

Voinovich (R-OH)