Action Center
Resources
United Spinal Association encourages everyone to get involved and be an advocate and activist. We can facilitate change but only if we actively pursue it.
Mobilization
The District Mobilization Initiative is focused on two primary goals: recruiting committed advocates all across the country who will commit to sending United Spinal’s action alerts to their members of Congress, and having those advocates serve as ambassadors for the SCI/D community with their lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Priorities
We focus resources and expertise on advancing opportunities, social equity, and disability rights for all people living with a spinal cord injury or disease.
COVID-19 Action Alerts
Support the Disability Community's COVID-19 Relief Priorities
Congressional leaders have reached agreement on a COVID-19 relief and government funding bill that addresses some, but not all, of the disability community’s urgent priorities. It is important that Congress pass this legislation and then return to work in 2021 to address our remaining critical challenges.
No Rolling Back the ADA - Amend the Senate COVID Package
The U.S. Senate majority has released its proposed COVID-19 relief bill, and not only does it fall short of addressing the most pressing needs of people with disabilities during this pandemic, but it actually seeks to roll back the hard-won protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Expand Paid Leave Provisions for People with Disabilities
As stay-at-home orders are extended in many states, the importance of paid leave programs continues to grow. The paid leave programs passed by Congress in response to COVID-19 must be expanded in order to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
Support Caregivers to Ensure People with Disabilities Remain at Home
As we all struggle to make it through the COVID-19 pandemic as stay-at-home orders continue to be enforced, it is critical that people with disabilities have the resources necessary to remain in their homes and not in nursing homes, where COVID-19 is spreading rapidly.
Advocacy Actions
Keep Our Access to Telehealth for Physical and Occupational Therapy
Telehealth has played a crucial role in the lives and health of people with disabilities throughout the course of the pandemic and the availability of telehealth must be made permanent.
Support the National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month Resolution
Each year, we come together to celebrate the SCI community and to educate the general public about spinal cord injury. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) are introducing a Senate resolution in support of National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. You can help United Spinal and the SCI community by asking your U.S. Senators to cosponsor this resolution.
Equal Wheelchair Access
There must be equal wheelchair access for people with disabilities. Congressional action is needed to ensure equal access for Medicare beneficiaries and others with significant disabilities who rely on individually configured complex rehab manual wheelchairs and accessories.
Support the TEAM Act S. 4393
VetsFirst has partnered with over 30 Military and Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) within the Toxic Exposure in the American Military (TEAM) Coalition and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to introduce landmark legislation to help those with toxic exposures.
We need YOUR help in getting this critical legislation passed into law. Stand with VetsFirst and the entire TEAM Coalition and ask your Senator to support the TEAM Act on the Senate floor (S. 4393) now!
Increase Funding for SCI Model Systems
United Spinal is asking Congress to provide a funding increase to the SCI Model Systems program in fiscal year 2021, so that not only would each existing Model System receive an increase in funding, but that when the next 5-year funding cycle begins in late 2021, there would once again be 18 SCI Model Systems receiving funding from the federal government.
Help Create a National Spinal Cord Injury Database
We are asking Congress to provide $5 million to the CDC for the National Neurological Conditions Surveillance System (NNCSS) in fiscal year 2021. This funding will allow the CDC to continue ongoing surveillance for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, which were the initial neurological conditions the NNCSS was authorized to study, as well as to allow the CDC to assess costs and staffing needs as they look to expand the NNCSS to other neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury.
Support Provisions in the INVEST in America Act
United Spinal and our partners in the disability community worked extensively with Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) to introduce legislation that addresses some of the biggest needs that people with disabilities have with our transportation system. We are pleased to support provisions in the INVEST in America Act, which authorizes funding for federal transportation programs over the next 5 years. This bill incorporates key provisions of the Disability Access to Transportation Act (H.R. 6248).
Make MFP Program and Spousal Impoverishment Protections Permanent
The Money Follows the Person (MFP) program, which helps get people with disabilities out of institutions and back in their homes, needs to be made permanent. So do important protections for Medicaid eligibility.
Support the SSI Restoration Act
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility rules haven’t been updated in decades and make it difficult to keep your eligibility if you get married.
End Subminimum Wage for People with Disabilities
United Spinal supports the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act to responsibly end the 14(c) program, which allows employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage.
Let’s Pass the REAADI for Disasters Act
The REAADI for Disasters Act will establish a National Commission on Disability Rights and Disasters to study the needs of individuals with disabilities.
Support The ABLE Age Adjustment Act
We support an increase in the age of eligibility for ABLE account holders from the age of 26 to 46 and hope to have a legislative bill to fix this issue in the 116th Congress.
Air Travel Wins But We Need to Keep the Pressure On
Congratulations to all of you for helping to change air travel for the better for people with disabilities. As of the Fall of 2018, new consumer protections were signed into law by the President. However, as our President and CEO James Weisman states, as long as discrimination of people with disabilities exists anywhere, United Spinal will continue to fight for equal access and equal rights for all.
A Separate Medicare Complex Rehabilitation Technology Benefit Is Needed
Don’t let them take away the wheelchair that works for you. Help ensure complex rehab technology is available to all people who need it!