ANCOR Sends Thank You Letter to U.S. Representatives Who Supported COVID-19 Package

ANCOR formally thanked the 219 U.S. Representatives who voted to pass the American Rescue Plan Act, the COVID-19 relief package that contains a temporary increase to the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for the Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) program. ANCOR has been advocating for this targeted FMAP bump, designed to maintain the stability of disability supports during the pandemic, since the spring of 2020.

If your U.S. Representative is among the 219 who voted for this package, we encourage you to take a moment to thank them for their vote by sending a message through their websites or by posting on social media. Follow our Twitter account @TheRealANCOR to see some examples of thank you messages you can use.

As written in the letter:

“The HCBS program funds the majority of the disability supports in the United States that enable people to live in the community. During the pandemic, HCBS has been a lifeline to a community particularly vulnerable to the worst effects of COVID-19. The increased expenses of keeping everyone safe is making the HCBS program more fiscally fragile than it was before the pandemic. We appreciate your effort to direct funding specifically to the HCBS program to bolster it at this time of heightened vulnerability. Right now, participating providers are at a financial breaking point, facing exponential increases in overtime and personal protective equipment costs while losing revenue from having to close lines of service to comply with social distancing directives. The funding this legislation provides will be critical to the survival of these organizations during and after the pandemic.”

We will be writing a similar letter to members of the Senate who voted to pass its COVID-19 relief legislation on Saturday. We likewise encourage members to amplify our social media posts in coming days thanking Senators who voted yes on the legislation.