This is your last chance to stop the tax reform bill in the Senate, with the full Senate voting on it at 11am ET. Please call all your Senators now - we have a short script for you below. You can find out who your Senators are here - their websites will list their office phone numbers. In particular, if one of the Senators listed below is your Senator, they are considered swayable and tallying calls for and against the bill, so your call will be strategic:
Senator Murkowski (R-AK), (202)-224-6665.Senator McCain (R-AZ), (202) 224-2235.Senator Flake (R-AZ), 202-224-4521.Senator Moran (R-KS), (202) 224-6521.Senator Collins (R-ME), (202)224-2523.Senator Daines (R-MT), (202) 224-2651.Senator Corker (R-TN), 202-224-3344.Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), (202) 224-5323.
Calling will take less than five minutes. Simply tell the person answering the phone, "I am a constituent who cares deeply about issues affecting people with disabilities. If you do not already oppose the tax reform bill coming up for a vote today, please do so because it has provisions that would harm services for people with disabilities. Thank you for your hard work answering the phones." If you cannot get through to a staffer, please leave a message.
The tax legislation as written would have negative impacts on IDD services, including:
- The changes proposed to the charitable tax deduction reduce the ability of nonprofit disability service providers to fund important services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
- As the only other federal support for Medicaid long-term services and supports, the House passed legislation removing the medical expense deduction could put significant strain on the Medicaid program that serves people with I/DD.
- The changes to the unrelated business income tax (UBIT) impact the ability of nonprofit providers and their associations to maintain limited but important revenues.
- The changes to state and local taxes would have a negative impact on certain states that obtain significant funding from these taxes for services for people with I/DD.
- The House legislation's elimination of tax breaks on bond financing could significantly undermine the financing for affordable housing for people with I/DD.
- The addition of up to $1.5 trillion to the national debt may be used to justify future cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security which are the main federal programs that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Thank you for your advocacy - we believe it is important to speak up about the importance of Medicaid to people with I/DD now before pressures on the federal budget caused by the proposed tax cuts make it a more explicit target for spending cuts.