Transcript of “Rights Here, Rights Now - Episode 3: Pre-General Assembly with Colleen Miller.” produced by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia. NARRATOR: The information provided on this podcast does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead, all information content in materials available are for general informational purposes only. [REN]: Welcome to "Rights Here, Rights Now," the podcast about disability advocacy and activism. I'm your advocate host Ren Faszewski. [VIRGINIA]: and I'm your advocate host, Virginia Pharis. [REN]: Every two weeks we dig into relevant issues, current events and avenues for self advocacy. [COLLEEN]: Someone has to. [COLLEEN]: and it might as well be us! [VIRGINIA]: This podcast is produced by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, the Commonwealth’s protection and advocacy agency for disability rights. Find out more at dlcv.org. [REN]: How are you doing today Virginia? [VIRGINIA]: I'm good. I'm excited for today's discussion. [REN]: It is a pretty special one. This is ah, this is very exciting. [VIRGINIA]: We got to sit down with the big boss. [REN]: Yes. We'll be sitting down with Colleen Miller herself. [VIRGINIA]: Yes. The Executive Director [disAbility Law Center of Virginia]. [REN]: Yeah. And we're going to be talking about, uh, the General Assembly that's going to be coming up in just a few weeks, I believe. [VIRGINIA]: Yeah. Generally runs for, uh, most of January and maybe a couple of weeks of February. [REN]: We'll be speaking with her about the upcoming legislative session, talking about what dLCV does at the General Assembly and maybe some ways for people to get involved. [VIRGINIA]: Yeah, and uh, if you'd like today's episode, uh, rest assured we will be talking with Colleen again in a few weeks to find out how the General Assembly actually went. I think this is going to be a good primer. [REN]: Well, I'm really excited but before we jump in, let's check out Disability in the news. [REN]: The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that it is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to its Air Carrier Access Act regulations regarding the accessibility of bathrooms on single-aisle aircraft. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or NPRM, is intended to improve the accessibility of single-aisle aircraft as such aircraft with a seating capacity of 125 or more seats are increasingly being used by airlines for long-haul flights. At present, there are no requirements that airlines provide accessible bathrooms on single-aisle aircraft. This NPRM would require airlines to ensure the accessibility of features within the aircraft bathroom, which would include but is not limited to toilet seats, assist handles, faucets, attendant call buttons, and door locks. The NPRM can be found at regulations.gov, docket number DOT-OST-2019-0180. Find out more at Transportation.gov. [VIRGINIA]: Okay, so today we are joined in the studio by our esteemed Executive Director. [COLLEEN]: and it better be esteem (laughs). [VIRGINIA]: This is Colleen Miller in the studio with us today. Thank you, Colleen, for taking the time away from your hectic, hectic schedule. [COLLEEN]: I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for having me. [REN]: We're very happy to have you. It's just, it's just such a pleasure. [COLLEEN]: That's the right answer! (laughs.). [REN]: And we're going to be talking about something I know you enjoy every year, like your favorite. [COLLEEN]: It is my favorite thing. [VIRGINIA]: The most wonderful time to legislate, to legislate. [REN]: So we're going to be talking about sort of the road to the General Assembly. What is the General Assembly? [COLLEEN]: The General Assembly is Virginia's legislative body. It's the equivalent of what Congress would be for the United States. Um, in the, the difference, many differences are of course it's dealing just with state code. It doesn't change the federal law. Um, and it's also part time. Uh, Congress is a full time body and our state legislature just meets for uh, either 45 days every year or 60 days every year. [VIRGINIA]: They kept their day jobs. [COLLEEN]: They kept their day jobs. So that's actually an important thing to keep in mind as we deal with them because they've got other things going on most of the year. [REN]: Yeah, that's a pretty limited amount of time to make legislative decisions. [COLLEEN]: It is, it is. Um, they do have committees and councils and commissions that meet during the year to consider proposals. Um, the one that we deal with the most perhaps is, uh, what's sometimes called the Deeds Commission. It's the joint commission to consider the mental health needs in the 21st century. And so throughout the year they hear testimony and gather information and try to figure out what kind of changes we need to our state code to improve services for people with mental illness. [REN]: Okay. I mean, so like you said, they're, they're part time, so they meet this, you know, for this one time a year, 40 to 60 days to really bring out all this legislation or at least discuss and then go through these proposals. How is disAbility Law Center involved in this process? [COLLEEN]: Well, we are limited in some ways in that we really can't spend a significant amount of time lobbying. We are a nonprofit organization. So lobbying would not be something that we can do much of. We can do some, but not much. Um, but we also had this kind of competing, uh, mandate to educate policymakers. And that's what we spend most of our time at the legislature doing is, is helping, uh, the, the decision makers to understand how the things they're considering will have an impact on people with disabilities. [REN]: I imagine that, you know, like you said, this is their part time job. Their full time jobs might have absolutely nothing to do with advocacy for disabilities at all. [COLLEEN]: That's exactly right. Or disability at all. Right. Um, yeah. Many of them have jobs that um, are more related to sort of policy. Generally they may be lawyers or uh, administrators or something like that, but very few of them have actual uh, relationships, professional relationships with people with disabilities. There are some who do but not all of them. [REN]: And it sounds like, you know, when we educate these policy makers, we are working with specific, um, groups and committees in the General Assembly. [COLLEEN]: That's right. That's right. There are, um, there are some, uh, committees that deal with more disability issues than other ones do. In the House there's a committee called, um, Health Welfare and Institutions. Um, also on the, on the Senate side, there's the Senate, uh, Rehabilitation committee. Um, and, um, there are committees that deal with educational issues where Special Ed issues, Special Education issues are likely to come up. Um, oddly in the last few years, we have dealt a lot with a committee called the Courts of Justice, which is where many of the mental health issues are dealt with. And that's because, uh, especially the, the issues that we're concerned about have to do with involuntary commitment of people with disabilities. So that goes through the Courts of Justice committees. [VIRGINIA]: So, that's more about people with disabilities coming into contact with law enforcement and what is going to happen as a result. [COLLEEN]: That's right. That's right. [VIRGINIA]: So I know that there are, uh, essentially there's three of you there is, um, there's you and, um, two of our trustee colleagues that are usually going down, um, and doing the education policymakers and sitting in on, um, meetings of commissions, or... I'm honestly not sure what they do down there. This is why you don't ask me to do it. But, how do you guys know where you need to be in a given day? [COLLEEN]: So kind of like, uh, important to understand, I think how legislation gets developed. You remember the little show on TV about... [VIRGINIA]: I’m just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill (laughs). , [COLLEEN]: Yes, yes. Yeah. Well that has actually nothing to do with how legislation is developed! [VIRGINIA]: Oh no, I was depending... That was my entire basis for civics. I went to public school. [COLLEEN]: The way the way legislation is typically developed is that that an ordinary, a constituent will write to their state Senator or their state delegate and say, here's a problem that I'm having. Can you fix it? And sometimes they are issues that really can't be fixed with legislation, but that doesn't mean that the Senator or delegate won't try to fix it with legislation. So they will, uh, they'll kind of come up with some idea of what part of the code needs to be fixed. Um, and they send it off to a part of the legislature that's called legislative services. They will then write a bill to try to solve problem that the legislature is addressing and that bill will ultimately be assigned to a committee of the legislature. And that's the work that starts on January 8th, the, the committee meetings, uh, to, to hear this legislation. The committees will often rewrite and revise and edit or just, uh, find flaws in the legislation. All of that has to be heard by a committee and approved by committee, then heard by the larger body and approved by that body. Um, by the halfway mark of that and that's what we call the crossover. [REN]: Okay. I mean I imagine that like when like you said, it goes to these legislative services and they write up, you know, legislation. That committee is really trying to dive into the logistics of how this would actually be about in practice. Because I know that we as an agency have talked a lot about specific legislation that had been put forward and then the fallout of that legislation has been pretty significant. And so that's part of this process is being like well what are, what is actually going to happen? [COLLEEN]: The legislature actually has quite a few attorneys who work with them in legislative services. And so what a legislature, what a legislator will do is tell this staff here's the problem I want to fix. And then it's up to that lawyer that works for legislative services to find the part of the code that applies and that can be adjusted to fix that. The legislative services staff is not supposed to tell the legislator whether it's a good idea or not. Whether it's a good, a good way to try to fix the problem. They're supposed to just simply say, here's one way you can approach it. [VIRGINIA]: That's the committee's job. [COLLEEN]: Yeah. It's the committee's job and ultimately it may be the Governor's job. Because sometimes some ideas that are not all that great get all the way through the legislature and it's up to the Governor to veto it. Um, but yes, it's the committee's jobs to figure out whether it's a good idea or not. [REN]: What kind of, what kind of things do we as an agency, obviously there's so much to be educated on. Are there any specific things that we've worked on in the last few years to really educate policy makers about when we discussed disability? [COLLEEN]: Almost every year there's some kind of legislation that's going to impact people's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And the Americans with disabilities act is a federal law. So trying to make adjustments to it using state law is almost never going to work. But, but that does not really stop the legislature from trying. So we often have to meet with the legislators one-on-one and explain how the federal law operates on this issue and how state law cannot change federal law. [REN]: That's a good thing to be educated about. Because I imagine if things like that that went through it would end up badly! [COLLEEN]: It would, it would. Um, and uh, you know, ultimately if something went through to try to change federal law and it became state law, we would probably have to challenge it in court. dLCV would have to challenge it in court. [VIRGINIA]: So I know that we, um, going off of our outline a little bit, we just had an election earlier this month. We're recording this, in late November. And um, you know, the makeup of the state legislature has changed some. Do you have any expectations about how that's going to impact people with disabilities? [COLLEEN]: The first thing that is, um, uh, of concern I guess is that all of the leadership is going to change. Yeah. So this is the first time since the 90s, since the mid nineties, that the, both the House and the Senate had been controlled by, um, the Democrats and, uh, that means that there's going to be all new committee chairs and every committee chair, uh, runs their committee a little bit differently. So, we really have no idea what to expect from the committees on either side, um, on either the house or the Senate. Um, and that'll be the part that will be a while for us to understand what the new rules are. And it's also going to be challenging for the new members of the House of Delegates and for the Senate because they're not going to know how things work right away either. [REN]: And there's going to be a lot more people to educate. [COLLEEN]: That's right. That's right. Yeah. A lot of new players down there. [VIRGINIA]: Are there any, um, specific throughout the system areas of improvement that you hope to see after this legislature? Or is it just kind of a hang on by the seat of your pants? [COLLEEN]: The new leadership has already announced, uh, some initiatives that they intend to take on. We know that they intend to address gun violence, um, because that was something that they campaigned on. Um, and, uh, we will certainly be looking for some improvements in that area. We're always concerned that they don't make people with mental illness. Um, sorta the, the straw man in that kind of a situation make, make it, uh, people with mental illness to blame for gun violence. People with mental illness are much more likely to be victims of gun violence than they are to perpetrate gun violence. So, um, we will be on guard to make sure that they're not, um, in a sort of careless solutions that are crafted there. Um, the, the, uh, leadership has announced that they intend to make some changes with respect to voting rights and, um, we believe that those changes will be enormously beneficial to, uh, people with disabilities. Uh, recent years, the legislature put very strict, um, identification requirements, um, prior to voting and, um, that impacts people disabilities who do not drive and do not have driver's licenses or do not have, um, access to, um, to polling places easily. And so, um, you know, have really in many ways been deprived of the right to vote. [REN]: Yeah. I know that that's an initiative that we'll be talking about is disability law. We've been doing, you know, voting surveys, a polling place, right. This and kind of seeing the impact, um, that these kinds of, these kinds of laws and just the knowledge of what should be accessible. I also know that there has been, um, some talk in the news regarding overcrowding in our state institutions, um, about some of the issues they're having with census, but also, uh, there was a really great article in the Virginia pilot stating that, um, the, the budget that Virginia has for mental health services in the community is much lower on average than it is in other states. And I know the budget is a big thing that the General Assembly deals with as far as you know, figuring out where that money goes. [COLLEEN]: One of the issues of concern for us is that we know that the Department of Behavioral Health is going to be seeking capital dollars, um, which are dollars to build things. They're going to be seeking capital dollars to increase the bed space in the state hospitals. And, and we know that the state hospitals are at crisis, that they are at full capacity. But the problem is not that there's not enough bed space. The problem is that there are people in those hospitals who are ready to move to the community, have been declared ready to move to the community by professionals who work there. And still they cannot move to the community because the community is so under-resourced. [VIRGINIA]: And when we say that there are people waiting in state hospitals, we don't mean, you know, there are 15 or 20 beds that could be free to us. [COLLEEN] More than 200! There are more than 200 beds that are occupied by people who do not need to be there. [REN]: Yeah. And, and I think again, that's part of the education portion that we do as an agency when we talk to the General Assembly is, is, you know, it's really easy I think with these kinds of issues to see sort of the vague picture but not the actual details. [COLLEEN]: Right, right, right. Well and build more beds, build more hospital spaces, just kind of an easy bumper sticker way to approach the problem where it's really a much more complicated problem than that. [REN]: Are there any specific bills or initiatives that you'll be, and we know we've talked/brushed over gun violence, but there's any specific bills already that you're kind of keeping an eye on? [COLLEEN]: The deadline for pre-filing bills is December 5th. So, um, legislators are currently, um, giving legislative services their ideas for bills and there's not a whole lot of them that appeared publicly yet. So there are sort of general issues that I know to be looking out for, but no specific bills with numbers attached to them yet. [VIRGINIA]: So for anybody out there who is interested in the General Assembly wants to get involved, um, what would you say to those people? How can people get involved? [COLLEEN]: Run, don’t do it! (laughs) Um, there are a number of ways people with disabilities can be uh, and, and our friends and allies can be involved in the legislature. Um, when bills are being heard by a committee, anybody can go speak to that bill and see whether they think it is a good idea or bad idea. Um, I will say that if you intend to go to the General Assembly to speak about a bill, um, there are impediments for people with disabilities. Uh, there are not, um, uh, sign language interpreters on standby. So if you are somebody who needs a sign language interpreter, you've really got to give the committee chairperson or, uh, legislative services some heads up that they're going to need to have an interpreter there. Lots of times you are speaking to the committees from a podium. And so if you're using a wheelchair, there may not be a microphone that is at your height, um, for uh, being able to speak. There's um, really intensive security that you have to go through to get there. So, you know, if you are using, um, any kind of metallic devices of some sort for, um, uh, mobility or anything like that, just leave lots of time to get through security down there. There are lots of, and, and it's crowded. So you know, if you need any kind of maneuverability room or anything like that, you're going to have some challenges down there. [VIRGINIA]: Out of curiosity, if anybody, um, asks for accommodations to be able to speak or to be able to understand, at the General Assembly and they’re denied, should they call dLCV? [COLLEEN]: They should, um, the chances that we would be able to get a resolution in time to actually show up for a hearing are probably not great. But we can try. We can try. The problem with any of this kind of activity by, um, the ordinary citizen is that committees announce which bills they're going to hear about 24 hours before they hear it. So if there's going to be a bill up that you are concerned about and you need some kind of accommodation, there's not a lot of time to request it. [REN]: So, you know, uh, where would a person find sort of the information on these bills? [COLLEEN]: There's a couple of good resources that are available to people. One of them right on Legislative Services is a service called, "lobbyist in a box" where you as a citizen can track up to five bills for free and you can put in search terms in order to find those bills. Um, it's a pretty good tool but it is limited. There's only five bills you can track. Uh, another one is Richmond sunlight and um, I don't know, can we put something on our, our podcast website with these links? Okay. So Richmond sunlight is, uh, is a little bit more um, intuitive to the average person. It's not a service that I use cause I'm just used to using the lobbyist in a box. But most people say Richmond Sunlight is a really good service. [REN]: Okay. Well, um, I know that again, you know, we'll, we'll keep talking about these issues. I think that through our social media we'll be highlighting any specific bills that come up that pique our particular interests. Um, I know that as with any political issue, it's good to know your local representative! Know their phone number and just give them a call or if you need to. [COLLEEN]: You can get on the legislative services website as well. And there's a service called, "who's my legislator" and you can just put in your zip code or your street address and it will tell you exactly who your Legislator is if you don't know. [VIRGINIA]: Technology! [COLLEEN]: It is amazing. It is amazing. [REN]: Do you have any final thoughts with us, Colleen? Any last things that you want to talk about? You know, again, dLCV's work in the General Assembly and how people can get involved? [COLLEEN]: If people want to follow bills that are of interest to uh, the disability community. Um, dLCV does post almost daily something called "Legislative Highlights"and it will list generally by subject matter, um, interesting bills that we're following and we'll let you know what's happening next so that if it is something that you want to get involved in, you'll have a way of figuring out how to do that. The Virginia Board for People with Disabilities also posts a very comprehensive digest of disability related bills and I think they update that weekly. So those are a couple of good services to pay attention to. [VIRGINIA]: All right, well thank you so much for taking time to teach us how a bill becomes a law because school house rock, just, just a bill on this. I know, I feel, I feel so misled some things. Um, but again, thank you so much for your time and uh, hopefully we will talk to you again after the General Assembly to hear how it went. [COLLEEN]: I can even check in with you during the General Assembly if you would like. [VIRGINIA]: We could do that too, that would be delightful, the world is our oyster! Thank you so much. [REN]: And here are some dLCV highlights! [VIRGINIA]: The number of individuals stuck in Virginia’s State Psychiatric Hospitals, despite being ready for discharge, has topped 200 for the 6th month in a row. This unique population is tracked monthly in the State’s Extraordinary Barriers to discharge list. The most recent of these lists, from October 31st, lists the number of individuals waiting two or more weeks for discharge as 212. The average amount of time these individuals have been waiting for discharge is over 170 days—nearly 6 months. dLCV first raised concerns about the number of individuals awaiting discharge this summer when the May list included 246 individuals. While about 16% of their existing beds are currently occupied by people who don’t need to be there, Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services still plans to add about 100 State Hospital Beds. These new beds—half of which are considered “temporary”—are estimated to cost taxpayers upwards of $40 million. [VIRGINIA]: Kevin called dLCV recently because the wellness center he has used for several years now was barring him from using the swimming pool anymore after he had a seizure. He had had his attendant with him in the pool and his seizure was managed but out of fear, the wellness center revoked his rights to use the pool stating it was unsafe for him and other wellness center members. Kevin’s seizures are controlled by medications and his personal attendant is equipped to handle any seizure he may have. The wellness center attorney requested documentation from Kevin’s doctors stating that he was not a safety risk. dLCV was able to work with Kevin and his doctors to get the proper documentation submitted to the wellness center attorney. Kevin has been missing using the pool for therapeutic purposes and being barred was a huge detriment to his health. The documents were all submitted and after review the wellness center reinstated Kevin’s rights to use the pool with his attendant. Kevin was so thrilled to be back in the pool and is feeling better already! And those are the dLCV highlights. Tune in next time to hear more about what dLCV is doing on behalf of people with disabilities. [REN]: So again, that was the esteemed Colleen Miller. [VIRGINIA]: Yeah. And we will be having her back in a couple of weeks to uh, to do the spoiler alert portion of the podcast, uh, and find out what actually happened with the General Assembly this year. [REN]: Well, thank you all for listening to this episode of Rights Here, Rights Now brought to you by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia. We're available on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. [VIRGINIA]: If you need assistance or want more information about dLCV and what we do, visit us online at dlcv.org. [REN]: You can also follow us on Twitter at disabilitylawVa and share us with your friends. [VIRGINIA]: Until next time, I'm Virginia Pharis... [REN]: And I'm Ren Faszewski. And this has been [VIRGINIA & REN]: Rights Here, Rights Now!