House Pleasantly Surprises with $20M Short-Term Boost to MFP

Last Monday ANCOR was thrilled to see the U.S. House of Representatives pass, in a surprise move, a bill containing a $20 million stopgap funding increase for the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program. As U.S. Representative Guthrie (R-KY) explains in this video, the bill (H.R. 1859) is meant to keep the MFP program stable during Congressional negotiations for a longer-term or permanent extension of the program. U.S. Representative Guthrie has been a champion for MFP in the House, along with his lead cosponsor on MFP legislation, U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI). MFP is an important program that has helped over 85,000 people with disabilities and/or chronic conditions voluntarily leave state-run institutions and live in the community.

H.R. 1859 is now under consideration in the Senate, where Senate allies of the disability community are trying to bring it up for an expedited vote through a process known as “unanimous consent”. We encourage you to call and email your Senators today to ask them to support this legislation – the linked tools allow you to do this in two minutes or less and this is a strategic time to weigh in.

This article would not be complete without a THANK YOU to the 333 ANCOR advocates who sent 600 messages last week through ANCOR’s tools to their U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators last week. Congratulations on this recent success and keep up the good work – we now need this bill to pass the Senate!