Nearly a month into the federal shutdown, some organizations aiding people with disabilities are starting to scale back services as the effects begin to mount.
The government shut down at the beginning of the month when Congress failed to agree on spending before the start of the new fiscal year. Since then, thousands of workers have been furloughed and federal agencies have only operated services deemed essential.
Social Security and Supplemental Security Income payments and funding for Medicaid home and community-based services have continued, but other operations including civil rights investigations at the U.S. Department of Education are at a standstill. Military families have reportedly seen coverage of applied behavior analysis therapy for their children with autism halted and at least one state-run job training program for people with disabilities — the Tennessee Rehabilitation Center-Smyrna — closed its doors as a result of the shutdown.
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Now, protection and advocacy organizations — which exist in each state to provide free legal and advocacy services to individuals with disabilities — are feeling the pinch.
In what may be the most extreme example, Disability Rights Arkansas said last week that it would stop taking new cases and the organization plans to furlough staff beginning Nov. 1 citing “unprecedented funding challenges” stemming from the shutdown.
“We have been operating on limited carryover funds from FY 2025, which are now nearly exhausted,” Tom M. Masseau, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Without new federal funding, we are forced to make difficult decisions to preserve our ability to serve existing clients and maintain core operations.”
Masseau told Disability Scoop that funding for two of the organization’s nine grants are out of money and two more will be depleted by mid-November.
“The longer the shutdown goes on, the more difficult decisions I will have to make around the holidays,” he said.
Meanwhile, other protection and advocacy organizations, or P&As, said they are being more judicious about how they use their resources.
Gwen Orlowski, executive director at Disability Rights New Jersey, said her group is accepting all calls through their intake process, but prioritizing whether to provide information and referral or to take more action based on the organization’s goals and objectives and available funding.
Polly Tribble, executive director at Disability Rights Mississippi, said she doesn’t have any immediate plans to pause intake or furlough staff, but that could change.
“If the shutdown lasts another month, DRMS will be forced to make some tough decisions as our fiscal year 2025 is being spent on current cases and monitoring,” Tribble said. “We’re running on fumes now.”
There’s also growing concern about what’s to come, said Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food aid and is disproportionately relied on by people with disabilities, is set to run out by the end of the month and new Section 8 housing vouchers will not be issued after November if a deal isn’t reached, she said.
“Given how many people with disabilities rely on benefits from government programs, this shutdown is especially harmful for the disability community,” Town said. “We know that the longer the shutdown lasts, the more we can expect disruptions in administrative work and delays in services, including the processing of disability benefits applications and Medicaid/Medicare claims. It is crucial for lawmakers to reach a deal to fund the government.”
