Joe Holleman | Post-Dispatch
Political correspondent/columnist
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri.
People with developmental disabilities could benefit from better service under legislation proposed by U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt.
Missouri’s junior GOP senator recently introduced a bill that would expand federally funded home and community-based care for the developmentally challenged.
The bill aims to give states the option to expand service to more individuals while ensuring it doesn’t negatively impact those already eligible.
It also would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to allow states to provide up to 60 days of interim care for the newly eligible while their full care plan is developed.
States would be required to prove that adding new recipients would not increase wait times for those already being served by programs.
Schmitt, whose adult son is nonverbal and has tuberous sclerosis, epilepsy and autism, has emerged as a leading advocate in Congress for people with disabilities, .Ìý
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