Legislative Bulletin: President Biden Signs $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan

March 12, 2021

New Budget One-Pager Urges Lawmakers to Prioritize LTC

We are at a uniquely critical point in the State Fiscal Year 2021-22 State Budget process. As we release this bulletin, the Senate and Assembly are finalizing their one-house budgets and budget bills are expected to be in print over the weekend. This means that Joint Budget Conference Committees and subcommittees may begin to meet and negotiate a final budget as early as next week.

Furthermore, this week we learned that New York will be receiving $23.8 billion in state and local fiscal relief from the American Rescue Plan Act, $12.5 billion of which is direct, unrestricted federal aid to the State. While this is positive news for New York, the Legislature now has the task of discerning how exactly those unrestricted dollars should be allocated.

In light of the budget timing and the newly realized details on federal aid, LeadingAge NY has created a new budget one-pager urging lawmakers to prioritize long-term care for COVID-19 relief and increases in Medicaid funding. LeadingAge NY has shared the new one-pager with legislators and published this corresponding press release.

LeadingAge NY is connecting with lawmakers regularly, but nothing is more impactful than when they hear directly from quality providers in their districts. We need to make sure legislators hear our need for funding loud and clear. Please take a moment to send our one-pager to your State Senator and Assembly Member TODAY! For those members that may have recently met with legislative staff, we encourage you to share the one-pager with those contacts as well. Legislator contact information can be found here.

We are just a few weeks away from the finalization of the SFY 2021-22 State Budget, which is due March 31^st. Thank you for your continued participation in advocacy – it is most impactful for lawmakers and allows us to better advocate for you in Albany. Your voice and hard work are so appreciated!

President Biden Signs $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan – What’s in It?

President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law yesterday, finalizing a policy victory that will send much-needed aid to millions of Americans. The bill is based on his Administration’s own American Rescue Plan (ARP) outline and is replete with funds and programs critical to aging services providers and the older adults they serve as the nation continues to grapple with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Months of advocacy by LeadingAge members successfully secured the bill’s relief for aging services providers. The relief provided by the ARP will now flow through federal, state, and local governments to buoy most every aspect of the American economy and national safety net. LeadingAge National has provided an article with short summaries of key ARP aspects of importance to aging services providers. LeadingAge will continue to analyze the massive bill and provide updates. Meanwhile, LeadingAge New York will be looking closely at the dollars coming to New York, advocating for additional targeted relief funding for long-term care providers and keeping members apprised of the relief they can expect to receive.

Nursing Home and ACF Bills Positioned for Senate Action

As has been the trend for the last several weeks, LeadingAge New York expects that the Legislature will be taking up more nursing home related legislation next week. More specifically, the Senate is poised to act on the following priority issues:

Adult Care Facility (ACF) Penalties Bill - A.196 (Gottfried)/S.1576 (Rivera) – Memo of Opposition; The bill proposes an increase in potential penalties for ACF violations from up to $1,000 per day to $2,000 per violation per day—or $3,000 per day for a repeat violation.
Psychotropic Medications - A.5841 (Gottfried)/S.2103 (Sepulveda) – Memo of Opposition; This bill would require an enhanced level of informed consent before psychotropic medications can be prescribed for residents of nursing facilities (NFs) or adult care facilities (ACFs).
Nursing Home Immunity Repeal - A.3397 (Kim)/S.5177 (Biaggi) – Memo of Opposition; This bill would repeal the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act. LeadingAge NY strongly opposes this bill, as the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act provides health care providers and professionals with reasonable immunity from liability during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

Both the Psychotropic Medication bill and the ACF Penalties bill are on the Senate Floor Calendar and have been flagged for potential action on Monday. Please call your Senator TODAY and urge them to reject these proposals! While you are speaking to your Senator, also mention that the Nursing Home Immunity Repeal bill is on the Senate Health Agenda, and urge them to reject that legislation as well.

The Nursing Home Immunity Repeal legislation has already been passed in the Assembly and is now set on the Senate Health Agenda for next week, meaning it is moving. If your lawmaker sits on the Senate Health Committee, please call them NOW and urge that they reject a repeal of immunity for nursing home providers.

Our memos of opposition linked above will inform your conversations with lawmakers and serve as great talking points on all three of these bils. You can also share the memos directly with lawmakers. Legislator contact info is linked here.

Assembly Passes Direct Care Spending Bill

As was anticipated in last week’s Legislative Bulletin, this week the Assembly passed their version of the direct care spending legislation A.5685-A (Gottfried). Importantly, the legislation does not have a Same-As. Rather, the bill is the Assembly’s take on similar legislation that was passed in the Senate S.4336-A (Rivera) and the Governor’s nursing home staffing proposal that was included in the 30-day amendments. Both the Senate and Assembly bills would establish a resident care spending ratio for nursing home expenditures, requiring at least 70 percent of operating revenue to be spent on resident care. LeadingAge NY memo of opposition on the Assembly bill is linked here and the Senate bill is linked here.

At this point, it is abundantly clear that the Legislature and the Governor will continue to move forward with a direct care spending proposal to address staffing in nursing homes. However, the differences in the three proposals will need to be reconciled. LeadingAge NY expects that an agreement will be made predominantly between the Senate and the Assembly. Additionally, it is still unclear if the Legislature will advance an agreed-upon direct-care spending measure legislatively or through the state budget process.

The release of the one-house budgets expected this weekend will provide valuable insight on the strategy for both the direct care spending legislation and proposed increases to penalties for nursing homes and adult care facilities. It is possible that both of these proposals, which were initially included in the Governor’s 30-day amendments, may come to be handled legislatively, outside of the budget process.

Governor Cuomo Faces Threat of Impeachment

A committee to investigate the potential impeachment of Governor Andrew Cuomo was announced Thursday by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie amid persistent calls for the governor to resign or be removed from office. Cuomo's resignation has the backing of lawmakers from both parties amid an escalating series of sexual harassment allegations or claims of inappropriate behavior by a half-dozen women.

"The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious," said Assembly Majority Leader Carl Heastie in a statement. "The committee will have the authority to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence, as is allowed by the New York State Constitution. I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and the members of the committee will conduct an expeditious, full and thorough investigation." The Speaker also assured that the Assembly's review will not interfere with the separate investigation being conducted by the office of Attorney General Letitia James.

The governor’s situation is continually evolving. In this afternoon’s press conference, he reiterated that he will not resign among additional calls to do so from House Democrats. Should the legislature move forward with impeachment, it would require a majority of 76 lawmakers in the Assembly. A trial overseen by the state Senate and state Court of Appeals would then be conducted. Cuomo would be required to relinquish power temporarily, with Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul taking the role of acting governor.

Connect with your Lawmakers on Social Media!

Social media is an effective way to amplify our advocacy message. Its public nature also encourages lawmakers to engage and holds them accountable to listen to the issues affecting providers in their districts. At this critical point in our budget advocacy, it is a great time to engage with lawmakers on Twitter, Facebook, or even Instagram!

Please take a moment to Tweet or post on Facebook, tagging your lawmakers with the following message. Feel free to include a photo to draw added attention:

“.@Legislator The COVID pandemic has exacerbated the effects of chronic under-funding of long-term care. Providers continue to shoulder excessive, unreimbursed added costs of COVID, on top of already inadequate reimbursement. Seniors deserve more. Support LTC in one-house budgets!”

Legislator’s social media accounts can easily be found with our Find My Legislator tool.

Send Budget Letters to Lawmakers TODAY!

LeadingAge NY members have sent over 2,800 service-line specific budget letters to lawmakers! This is a fantastic turn-out in advocacy, but we need to keep up the pressure as final decisions on one-house budgets are being made.

If you have not already done so, please use the below links to contact your legislators and the Governor TODAY!

LeadingAge & LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources

LeadingAge NY continues to closely follow all COVID-19 news and we are doing our best to keep members informed of updates, recommendations and guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH).

LeadingAge NY and LeadingAge National Member resources are linked below.

LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources

LeadingAge NY COVID-19 Weekly Update calls – Mondays at 11 a.m. Click here to join the call from your computer, android or apple device. Or you can join the call by dialing in: 877 853 5257 (Toll Free); Webinar ID: 852 964 255.

LeadingAge National Coronavirus Resources Page

LeadingAge National Pandemic Playbook

COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community

Coronavirus Daily Member Update calls – Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.

Contact: Ami Schnauber; 518.867.8854; aschnauber@leadingageny.org

Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org