National Council on Severe Autism
PO Box 26853
San Jose, CA 95159
info@ncsautism.org
ncsautism.org
February 14, 2019
Senator Bob Menendez
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Mike Enzi
379A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Representative Chris Smith
2373 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Representative Mike Doyle
306 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Re: NCSA support for the reauthorization of The Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support (“CARES”) Act
Dear Senators Menendez and Enzi and Representatives Smith and Doyle:
The National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA) joins Autism Speaks and Autism Society of America in supporting the reauthorization of The Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support Act of 2019 (“Act”), which has been introduced in the Senate as S 427 and in the House of Representatives as H.R. 1058. The Act would continue the activities authorized under the Autism CARES Act of 2014, placing a new emphasis on improving lifespan services and reducing disparities.
Over the past 30 years, our country has experienced a staggering, if inexplicable, increase in serious neurodevelopmental disorders that fall under the umbrella of autism. Based on California developmental services data, the population of adults with developmental disability-type autism will nearly quintuple over the next 20 years. And our country is woefully unprepared to meet their needs. Though we may wish otherwise, we cannot alter the fact that these individuals will have limited means to care for themselves or earn a living, and will depend in large part on public programs for long-term supports and services.
The Act will serve as a precursor to needed system reform to properly and humanely address the needs of this unprecedented population of disabled adults with severe cognitive and functional limitations. It is our hope that the groundwork laid by CARES research and reporting on lifespan needs will help enable the crafting of legislation to open the floodgates to the wide array of programs, services and residential options that will be needed for many decades to come to support this vulnerable population.
The steep increase in autism, now affecting nearly 2% of our children, represents one of our country’s greatest public health and social services challenges. We thank you for your continued attention to America’s escalating autism crisis. It is urgent that, now 30 years into this crisis we finally identify causes of autism, find therapeutics to improve the well-being of individuals disabled by autism, and provide adequate long-term supports for those too disabled to care for themselves. This is why we strongly support your legislation.
NCSA represents the needs of growing population of individuals with autism and related disorders who cannot speak for themselves, and their families and caregivers. We support your efforts to address the needs of this community and hope that as new policy takes shape that we can be included in background discussions, to ensure the voiceless have a voice in the issues that affect them most deeply.
We thank you for your support of CARES and look forward to working with you on system reforms that respond to the growing and acute community needs.
Very truly yours,
Jill Escher
President