Tom Harkin: “The amendment before us is the one where the money follows the purse. It is $350 million a year for 5 years whereby…”

“The amendment before us is the one where the money follows the purse. It is $350 million a year for 5 years whereby States can use this money to get out of institutions, out of nursing homes, people with disabilities and get them into community, home-based living. Thirteen years ago, this Congress and the President signed a bill called the Americans With Disabilities Act. One of the premises of that was we no longer wanted to segregate people with disabilities in our society. We wanted to integrate people with disabilities in education, work, travel, jobs, everything. However, under the Medicaid system, it is still segregation. Seventy percent of our Medicaid money goes to institutional care, only 30 percent to community-based care. What this amendment says is that for the first year, the Federal Government will pick up the full share of the State so the State can take people out of institutions and put them into community-based living. This was proposed by President Bush in his budget proposal for next year. It is exactly what the President proposed.”