The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a proposed rule "Discrimination on the Basis of Disability in Health and Human Service Programs or Activities", intended to update, clarify, and strengthen the implementing regulation for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

VOR contends that the policies of HHS, notably the actions taken over the years by the Administration for Community Living and several of the organizations they subsidize (including State P&As and DD Councils, University Centers for Excellence, and the National Disability Rights Network) have regularly committed acts of discrimination against those with the most severe and profound intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

VOR has recently started our second Legislative Initiative, sending documents outlining our families' concerns for the ongoing critical shortage of Direct Support Professionals and voicing our opposition to the movement to eliminate Section 14(c) employment opportunities.

Two states have come to the realization that their state Protection and Advocacy Agencies (P&As) have not been acting in the interests of all people with I/DD and autism. Instead, they have been following their own agenda of closing Intermediate care facilities while promoting Home and Community-Based Services. In short, not protecting, only advocating for their own agenda.

Ohio and now North Carolina have passed laws to hold them to account to their state legislators.