What Do the Georgia Election Results Mean for Medicaid Policy?

Despite the attempted coup on January 6, during which far-right extremists and white supremacist groups stormed the Capitol building, Congress successfully certified the results of the 2020 election. Before we proceed with our analysis of the meaning of the Georgia run-off election, ANCOR staff—most of whom live in the Washington, DC, area—wish to extend our gratitude for the dozens of ANCOR members who reached out to express concern for our safety or extend their best wishes for our well-being. We appreciate your kind words as the nation grapples with the ramifications of events last week, and we remain relentless in our pursuit of more inclusive disability policy.

As for the Senate runoffs and Georgia, Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) and Jon Ossoff (D) were elected by narrow margins on Tuesday night, defeating incumbent Senators David Perdue (R) and Kelly Loeffler (R) and leaving a 50-50 split for control of the Senate. As a result, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking votes will give Democrats a razor-thin majority.

With the Democratic Party now in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, President-Elect Joe Biden’s agenda is expected to see a much clearer path to viability, although he will still need some support from congressional Republicans to pass all but his most widely popular legislative initiatives. ANCOR Government Relations (GR) staff are currently pursuing two opportunities for bipartisan legislation:

• We are engaging with Congress on a new COVID-19 relief package, for which there is very strong public support and which congressional Democrats are rumored to be considering advancing through the reconciliation process (learn more in our article on their strategy in the Congressional news section below).
• We are also engaging on legislation to support the Direct Support Professional (DSP) workforce – including but not limited to the re-introduction of a bill from the 116^th Congress that would compel the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to create a Standard Occupational Code for DSPs.

Pleased stay tuned for future announcements from us on opportunities to engage in advocacy with the new Congress as we finalize our 2021 policy priorities. We have rescheduled our Government Relations Committee virtual retreat, originally planned for January 7 and 8, to January 27 and 28. After that retreat, we will share our policy priorities and implementation plan.