USICD Fund Raising Gala

It’s that time of year again—the U.S. International Council on Disabilities Annual Gala, our one essential fundraiser. This year’s event is virtual, making it accessible to all.

December 3, 2025 • 6:30–8:00 PM

Tickets at: 2025USICDGala.eventbrite.com.

Like every nonprofit, USICD is navigating challenging times. But our mission—advancing global disability rights, strengthening international partnerships, and ensuring immigrants with disabilities have a voice—makes our work especially vulnerable to shrinking federal aid and rising political pressure.

This year’s gala is critical to sustaining that work. Disability rights are under siege, and organizations like ours cannot continue without collective support. Your ticket matters. Truly.

Your support helps us:

• Equip local leaders to expand disability rights in their communities.
• Shape inclusive economic development strategies.
• Build practical solutions to reduce poverty among disabled people—especially women and girls.
• Educate policymakers so disability perspectives are represented at every decision-making table.

If you stand with us —

• Hope will be renewed.
• Thoughtful action will replace rhetoric.
• Facts will drive progress, not deepen disparities.
• A new generation of young leaders with disabilities will rise.

Please help us keep this work alive.

One ticket is not just support—it is a statement of belief in a more just, inclusive world.

Visit USICD.org to learn about this year’s great honorees — trailblazers with creativity and passion. Things we need to celebrate this year more than ever.

Thank you, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5654100548468406256/2894400594685848680

Common Grounder

Inter-Connectivity

 I am overjoyed that both the House and Senate Appropriations bills are set to continue funding for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs). They are a vital cog in the wheel of collaboration among State DD Councils, State Protection and Advocacy Agencies and Universities  Each has distinct and complementary functions resulting in collaboration-driven products — training, newsletters, projects, webpages and more. 

The degree of this collaboration is high. It is especially high when quality of life, employment, health, early intervention, or cultural diversity are the focus. 

I urge everyone to visit AUCD.org to learn more about UCEDDs. That site can direct you to individual university websites. I was particularly impressed by the Minnesota and Mississippi UCEDD websites where they highlight their within state collaboration. 

In the current political climate we need to identify, celebrate, and promote collaboration. Through collaboration comes renewed strength and power to make every community in America more inclusive of individuals with disabilities. 

Thank you. 

Common Grounder

Can Politicians Afford to Ignore a Voting Bloc of 60 Million

Today is the 35th anniversary of the ADA and I have a question — Can Politicians Afford to Ignore a Voting Bloc of 60 Million? Sixty million Americans live with disabilities -- a nation within a nation. Add in their parents, siblings, friends, and advocates. You’re looking at a voting bloc that touches well over half the country.

So, no — the smart money says you absolutely cannot write them off.

Many in power are acting like this community isn’t paying attention. That’s a mistake. They see what is in that “big beautiful” bill that recently became law. Cuts to Medicaid. The rollback of student loan forgiveness. Shrinking Pell grants. Financial burdens shifted from the federal government to states. The gutting of federal agencies. This gutting affects nonprofits doing work here and abroad in the areas of disability rights and community accessibility. So, yes, this 60+ million bloc of voters cares.

This voting bloc is a true reflection of America: red states and blue. MAGA and not. Immigrant and native-born. Wealthy, working-class, poor. Religious, secular. Straight or something else, every race, every identity. Republicans. Democrats. Independents. As well as military families and disabled veterans.

This voting bloc looks like everybody.

Here’s a warning to those in elected office and those who want to be: Wake up. Wise up. You have a choice. You can support and restore the programs and policies that matter to voters with disabilities — or you can pretend they don’t matter and face the consequences at the ballot box. 

Thank you. 

Common Grounder

Divide and Conquer: A Risky Strategy in Disability Funding

In its proposed FY 2026 budget, the Trump Administration has quietly but significantly shifted funding for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) to the Independent Living Services program. On paper, this may seem like streamlining — but in practice, it’s a potential recipe for administrative chaos and long-term harm to people with disabilities.

Here’s the issue: UCEDDs are funded under the Developmental Disabilities Act, while the Independent Living Services program and the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program fall under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Trump Administration’s proposal would move funds authorized under one law into a program governed by a completely different statute. Whether that’s even legal is questionable.

More importantly, it’s bad policy.

If this proposal goes through, funds that currently support university-based research and training programs — programs that train professionals, evaluate what works, and build evidence-based practices — would be controlled by state VR agencies. These agencies have no obligation to fund UCEDDs or their work. The money would likely flow directly to Centers for Independent Living (CILs), which provide vital services but are not structured to do research or professional training.

CILs do important work: they help people with disabilities develop the skills to live as independently as possible and connect them with needed services. But they’re not designed to evaluate best practices or train the next generation of disability professionals. Eliminating UCEDD funding could gut this essential infrastructure — and for what? A short-term funding bump for services, at the cost of long-term progress and sustainability.

There’s a better way.

Congress should preserve separate funding for UCEDDs and CILs. But it should also incentivize stronger collaboration between the two. Their missions are distinct but complementary. Universities generate evidence-based strategies and train practitioners. CILs apply those strategies on the ground, helping people put them into practice.

By keeping the two funding streams separate — while fostering partnerships — we can preserve what works and build something even stronger. The Trump proposal, in contrast, would sow confusion, diminish outcomes, and take years to repair.

It’s time to tell Congress: don’t let a misguided budget maneuver undermine the disability infrastructure we’ve spent decades building. Keep UCEDD funding where it belongs — and strengthen collaboration instead of forcing consolidation.

The Big Beautiful Bill — Those Odd Effective Dates? Strategic Moves, Not Accidents

I usually focus on disability issues, but this post goes broader—because everyone should understand what just happened.

The President signed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4, 2025. It’s massive—many provisions, each with its own effective date. Some start right away, others next year, and a few won’t kick in for several years. Some are permanent; others vanish in a few years. None of this is random.

These dates were chosen with strategy in mind—timed for maximum political impact.

For example:

• Need a car? There’s a juicy tax break on car loans—for first-time buyers or growing families—but only through December 31, 2028. After that? Gone.
• High earners (think $500K/year) get to deduct up to $40K in state and local taxes (SALT)—but only through 2030. After that, the ceiling drops back to $10K.
• Seniors get a special $6,000 deduction for 2026–2028. After that, poof.

See the pattern? Benefits aimed at groups politicians want to impress—especially before the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

You don’t pay taxes on tips or overtime if you make under $150K—starting now through 2028. Perfect timing to win over working-class voters.

But it’s not all gain.

• Clean energy incentives? Slashed. The clean vehicle credit and the home energy upgrade credit were supposed to last till 2032. Now they’re axed early. Bad optics if you care about climate.
• College access? Tougher. Limits on student loans, tighter repayment plans, more demands on Pell Grant recipients. A strange move, considering MAGA families seek post secondary education too.
• And those new work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP? The feds have until late 2026 to finalize the rules. Expect a mess—and political fallout. 

This bill has a little something for everyone to love—or hate. But one thing is clear: it’s designed to shape voter behavior in 2026 and 2028.

No matter your political lean, do your homework. Pay attention to what’s really in the law—and don’t let candidates from either party sell you spin over substance

Thank you. 

Common Grounder

Open Letter to the MAGA Community

I am someone who supports secure borders, lower taxes, and fair international trading policies. I also support programs for people with disabilities that promote independence, including those in all environments — education, employment, health care, housing, transportation, recreation and other parts of community living. 

Of course, sometimes to achieve independence in any of these environments, a person with a disability may need to have access to accommodations, often minor, so they can engage in these environments like others without disabilities. 

Arranging accessible environments takes time and cooperation. Government, organizations, and private citizens all play a part in creating accessible communities, so that community members with disabilities can contribute to community life. 

The Developmental Disabilities Network, funded through the federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, are partners with others within states to help people with disabilities achieve independence. 

This Network, made up of a governor’s council, one or more universities, and a disability rights center, in each state, work with others within states to try out new ways of improving accessibility; training people with and without disabilities on smart ways of increasing opportunities and educating others about the benefits of helping people with disabilities become more independent and productive; and brainstorm with others about challenges that need to be tackled. 

DOGE said these programs need to be closed down. I don’t agree.  The money put in these programs is smart money. Money from these programs causes others to partner with them and put money up to allow broader implementation of a tested idea to reach more people more quickly. Money from these programs allows others to come together and brainstorm without spending a dime of their money. Money from these programs allows things to be evaluated to determine if they are worth continuing. Money from these programs teaches others how to do things that change things for the better. Money from these programs allows good ideas to be shared across the nation so others can save time and benefit from good ideas that already have been implemented and evaluated. 

What I have described in this post is not waste, fraud, and abuse. All dollars have a local positive impact. Federal dollars spent on somethings make sense — bridges, roads, national security. Well, spending money on things that help people with disabilities achieve independence is right up there with bridges, roads, and national security. Please join me in educating DOGE and Congress about continuing to put money in DD Act programs — it is smart money, spent in communities, that increases the number of people with disabilities who contribute to the economy and vitality of their communities. 

Thank you. 

Common Grounder

It’s Time for Story Telling to Save the Day

The speed of action by the Trump Administration is overwhelming many of us. However, if we do not respond, through the Congress, courts and media, in a coordinated fashion, then programs and services that benefit people with disabilities will be dismantled. If the Trump Administration is successful in eliminating programs that benefit people with disabilities, it will take years to rebuild the infrastructure connected to them. 

I would begin by drafting your own story.  Describe — Who you are. What you enjoy. How you contribute to your community. What programs for people with disabilities you depend upon.  How your life would change if these programs  stopped. Include pictures, even videos. 

When you finish, share your story with local and national tv stations and newspapers, your social media accounts, your governor, your elected representatives and senators in the state legislature and Congress, the Secretaries in President Trump’s cabinet, the associations to which you belong, and your friends and work colleagues. Encourage others with disabilities to do the same thing. 

If you are a parent or a friend of a person with a disability suggest that he or she prepare their story to give to others. You could offer to help. 

Next, I would join an association, if you don’t belong to one already, that works with other associations to compile big books of people’s stories. 

One story is powerful. Many stories put together is more powerful. 

When you give your story to others, when they are in newspapers, on TV, on social media, given to elected officials, it educates everyone and helps others understand why programs for people with disabilities assist them to live independently and participate in community life. Many of the people who read, see or hear your story will become champions to help save programs important to people with disabilities. 

So let’s start writing or talking into a recorder. Together, using each individual story, we can save programs that help us thrive in our community. Strategic story telling is an effective first step ensuring things stay as they should.

Thank you. 

Common Grounder

The Right Thing

 We do not want the Trump Administration to eliminate Developmental Disabilities Assistance Act (DD Act) programs. However, we face two challenges. First, people with disabilities, who benefit from these programs, may not know how they are funded or how they are linked to each other or other community activities. As a Network we have never emphasized branding or links. In the future we should. That is why we must develop a coordinated, powerful, collective voice now.

Second, the Trump Administration does not understand or care about the domino effect, if it eliminates DD Act programs. Unemployment will rise. Families will need to pay for support for family members with developmental disabilities or quit jobs and provide care themselves. Individuals with disabilities will have fewer opportunities for training that would lead to greater independence, employment, or opportunities to become self-advocates. Teachers will have less access to cutting edge technical assistance to make them more effective in the classroom. Discrimination against people with disabilities will be more likely because there will be no consequences. Partnerships with communities around access and accessibility will decrease and thus will limit community participation by people with disabilities. Governors and legislatures will scramble to find funds and create infrastructure to replace what has been undone by the Trump Administration. This will create tension in communities and among policymakers as priorities for funding are weighed and chosen.

All of this will foster a lot of unhappy voters. People with disabilities are part of Republican and Democrat families. Does the Trump Administration, which already is rethinking tariff, deportation, and education policies, want to have to shift on disability policy as well?

Accidentally or based on facts, the Trump Administration knows it must preserve the mandates in the Individuals with Disabilities Act, even as it works to dismantle the Department of Education. It does not want teachers, principals, state superintendents, governors, legislators and parents tying up its and congressional phones complaining? Well, the same is likely to happen if the Trump Administration eliminates DD Act programs, although the furor will be more wide spread. DD Act programs not only support rights and education for people with disabilities, they intersect with all aspects of community life. So the Trump Administration will hear from those mentioned above, as well as employers who hire people with disabilities with appropriate supports, hospitals that will lose  training for staff on accessibility, recreation coordinators who will have to cancel popular swimming programs for autistic kids, religious leaders who run innovative inclusive programs, mayors, transportation directors, housing directors, and others.

The solution is so simple. Do the right thing. Take the elimination of DD Act programs out of the Trump Administration budget pass back document.

Thank you.

Common Grounder

Top 10 Things We Can Do to Preserve DD Act Programs

I was Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Health and Human Services  from August 2001-January 2009. Under a reorganization in the Obama Administration, the programs I had overseen — State Disability Councils, State Protection and Advocacy Agencies, University Centers on Developmental Disabilities, and Projects of National Significance (authorized under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act)) and the disability-related provisions in the Help America Vote Act — were moved to a new unit, Administration on Community Living. Now, under the Trump Administration, all of these programs for individuals with disabilities are targeted for elimination. This would require enactment of new legislation. It could also be accomplished if Congress did not fund these programs. Or, it could be accomplished by the Trump Administration ignoring any specific direction from Congress. In such a case the courts, as is being demonstrated by current lawsuits on other matters, would need to be called upon to resolve the issue. Even then, the Trump Administration could choose to ignore any decision it didn’t like. The court system does not have its own enforcement agency. 

So what do we do? We must engage the Trump Administration. Provide facts about how lives are changed for the better through these programs.

Programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are apparently being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. It is a mystery as to how they were saved from elimination. If we find an answer to that question, maybe that will shed light on how we preserve, with funding, those currently in the Administration on Community Living that serve people with disabilities.

Until we get that answer, here are some things we can do to engage and provide constructive pressure to preserve programs that have worked as a catalyst to bring about greater independence and meaningful community participation for so many individuals with disabilities.

1. Demonstrate how the principles underlying IDEA are also the foundation of programs under the DD Act using personal stories, photos, and videos. This strategy was very effective when we were working on IDEA ‘97 and the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1988-1990 when engaging with Congress. If the Trump Administration can see parallels, then preservation of DD Act programs is more likely.
2. Connect with leaders in conservative think tanks; reinforce how assisting individuals with disabilities to achieve maximum independence is consistent with conservative principles.
3. Urge nonprofits with interests in federal support to join us in connecting with state leaders to ask them to ask Congress not to pass new legislation to terminate any programs that promote the independence of people with disabilities.
4. Identify people with contacts among leadership in all federal departments that impact people with disabilities and ask them to assist in educating this leadership about the benefits of sustaining rights and programs for people with disabilities.
5. Identify people with leadership positions in the Trump Administration who have family members with disabilities and reach out to them,  soliciting their assistance in sustaining federal rights and programs for people with disabilities. 
6. Develop a data base of contacts and a record of engagement so that it can be used repeatedly to apply focused engagement with the Trump Administration.
7. Develop a reservoir of examples of what happens when federal assistance has been provided and examples of what happens when such assistance is withdrawn from people with disabilities, compile both individual and community-based outcomes. Attach examples to specific people, so they may be contacted for media coverage and be included in floor statements of Members of Congress. 
8. Establish a steering committee to monitor and share efforts of engagement with the Trump Administration.
9. Create a web-based repository for storing and accessing personal stories, pictures, and videos, which can be searched by state or topic.
10. Share personal stories on social media platforms, such as a theme a week.

I know these activities have been started, but we must find a way to coordinate grassroots and national efforts so that we can give everyone what they need to have a powerful impact  alone and with the rest of us. 

Thank you. 

 Common Grounder