Political Quotes

“I know the Chair said I may speak for a few minutes before the vote. I spoke earlier so I will not reiterate every argument. Really, what we are doing with this particular amendment is sending this legislation to the Finance Committee so as to focus it as the motion itself says: When this bill would be recommitted to the Finance Committee, the Finance Committee could examine it from the perspective, in this case, of people with disabilities and to focus on changes that could be made in order to prevent harm to individuals with disabilities as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The reason we mention that particularly is that is the seminal piece of legislation to protect people with disabilities who would be harmed by this legislation because you cannot just have rights that are guaranteed without the support for those rights. Medicaid provides that support so folks, if they want to live at home or if they want to live in a community-based setting, can do that, but they can only do that with the help of Medicaid. It is a pretty simple amendment to make sure there is some adequate review of the impact on Americans with disabilities. We have, in Pennsylvania, for example, over 720,000 people who have a disability and depend upon Medicaid.…”