On Friday, May 30, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Budget. The budget is a detailed proposal regarding the administration’s priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning October 1. The final budget proposal was highly anticipated after a previously leaked budget document proposed draconian cuts, including eliminating the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) and Adult Protective Services (APS).
In the budget released Friday, the proposals to eliminate these programs were not included; in fact, the LTCOP received a minor budgetary increase to $22 million. Additionally, the budget document places vital aging and disability programs within the Administration for Children and Families (identified as Administration for Children, Families, and Communities in the budget), unlike the previous proposal to house the programs in separate agencies.
Despite the proposed funding for the LTCOP and other Older Americans Act programs, the budget proposal eliminates other critical programs that serve people with disabilities and older Americans, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Voting Access for People with Disabilities, the White House Conference on Aging, and other programs.
Importantly, the proposed budget is just that: proposed. It is sent to Congress, which ultimately determines fiscal year budgets. Congress can (and often does) ignore proposed presidential budgets. Over the coming months, Congress will hold hearings on the FY 2026 budget and propose its own.
Consumer Voice is heartened by the fact that several of the critical programs originally slated for elimination, including the LTCOP, are included in the final FY 2026 proposed budget. We called on you to let your members of Congress and others know how critical these programs are and sound the alarm about these cuts. Your advocacy helped draw attention to how devastating these cuts would be to older individuals and people with disabilities.
It is critical to note that the FY 2026 budget is separate from the reconciliation process that is occurring right now in Congress. The reconciliation bill recently passed by the House and sent to the Senate proposes to cut Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars, resulting in the loss of health care coverage for at least 13.7 million people. The bill also proposes blocking the implementation of the minimum staffing rule for ten years. We all need to continue the fight to preserve Medicaid and the staffing rule.
Thanks again for your advocacy and for supporting our work. Stay tuned as we continue to share updates about the FY 2026 budget, the reconciliation process, and more.
