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Advocate warns S.2 must address Olmstead implementation and alleged diversion of DDSN funds
Summary
A longtime disability advocate and attorney told the subcommittee that people with disabilities have fallen through service gaps for years and raised concerns about federal recoupments and apparent reallocation of appropriated DDSN funds.
Patricia Logan Harrison, an attorney who represents families of people with disabilities, told the Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee that S.2’s restructuring discussion should not obscure longstanding problems with services and fiscal accountability for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Harrison praised the committee’s effort to address coordination between agencies but asked for more attention to Olmstead compliance and oversight. She said the state received an Olmstead plan that should have been acted on previously and cautioned the committee against treating Olmstead implementation as a cursory item.
Harrison also described financial problems at DDSN. She said the agency failed to complete federally mandated cost reports from about 2012 to 2019, and that federal recoupments during that period have been “somewhere between $20,000,000 and $40,000,000,” a figure she said is not precisely known to legislators. Harrison said appropriations for regional centers and in‑home services have not always been spent in the line items intended and warned that money appears to have been diverted to pay past debts instead of current services.
When a senator asked whether making the agencies cabinet agencies would increase accountability, Harrison said the legislature “needs to keep their finger on it” and emphasized enforcement of existing state law that limits an agency’s ability to move appropriated funds between line items without legislative approval.
Ending: The committee paused the hearing for a separate session and asked Harrison to continue the conversation after adjournment. No formal action or findings were recorded at the time.
