FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2012

Contact:
Janine Bertram (503) 622-6387
Rachel Siler (312) 479-0220
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
Amber Smock ambity@aol.com

DISABILITY ACTIVISTS CONFRONT HOTEL LOBBY ATTACK ON THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

Washington, D.C.--- Hundreds of disability rights activists with the national group ADAPT have poured into a Rayburn House Office Building hearing room to confront hotel industry lobbyists attacking the fundamental legal infrastructure of the Americans with Disabilities Act through a seemingly unlikely sector: swimming pools. A threat to the ADA poses a threat to the legal underpinnings of ADAPT's fight to end the institutional bias in Medicaid and ensure community living supports for people with disabilities and seniors.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2012

Contact:
Janine Bertram (503) 622-6387
Rachel Siler (312) 479-0220
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
Amber Smock ambity@aol.com

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ADDRESSES ADAPT CONCERNS ABOUT ATTENDANT SERVICE RULES

Washington, D.C.--- At 11 am EST, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Deputy Secretary Seth Harris will address hundreds of disability rights activists with the national group ADAPT at DOL headquarters at 200 Constitution Ave NW. Earlier this year, DOL requested comments on a new set of proposed federal rules governing the employment of personal attendants, also known as home care workers.  Both disability advocates and unions serving this sector expressed concern about the perspective and goals of the proposed regulations.  Left without comment, the proposed regulations would have pitted people with disabilities against their attendants, putting both groups on opposite sides of what is both a civil rights and a labor issue.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2012

Contact:
Janine Bertram (503) 622-6387
Rachel Siler (312) 479-0220
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
Amber Smock ambity@aol.com

ADAPT APPLAUDS ISSUANCE OF KEY AFFORDABLE CARE ACT REGULATIONS

Washington, D.C.--- On Tuesday, after months of pressure on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Medicaid division to release federal regulations for the Community First Choice (CFC) Option, the national grassroots disability rights group ADAPT stormed the HHS headquarters once again by surrounding its doors.  This time, the protests yielded the long-awaited result: Cindy Mann, Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations announced at 6 pm that she had just that very afternoon submitted the CFC Option regulations in final form to the Federal Register for publishing.  The issuance of the regulations brings the possibility of much-needed Federal assistance to states struggling with massive Medicaid cuts.

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Former "ER" star Noah Wyle and about 100 members of the group ADAPT were arrested Monday during a Capitol Hill protest to urge Congress not to cut Medicaid.

In an interview with The Associated Press while waiting to be processed in the basement of the Cannon House Office Building where the protest took place in the rotunda, Wyle said being arrested for the first time was "slightly surreal."

"As soon as everybody saw me being led away, they let up a big whooping cheer, which made me feel really good," Wyle said.