Lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to convene multiple committees tasked with advising the federal government on disability issues that appear to have been put on hiatus.
The three panels — The President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities; The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research Advisory Committee; and the Interagency Committee on Disability Research — typically meet quarterly or several times a year, but have been less active as of late, according to six Democratic senators.
In a letter sent this month to Lance Robertson who heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living, the senators expressed concern that the panels “were largely ignored in 2017” leading to less input from people with disabilities and other advocates on federal policy.
“The administration’s failure to convene these committees and councils is a clear stifling of the disability community’s voice and representation in government,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and a lead signatory of the letter. “It’s insulting for the administration to make important decisions about key programs without input from the disability community.”
The title of one of Trump's ghostwritten books suggests his attitudes toward disability:
