Advocacy Updates

The Trump administration is attempting to eliminate important civil rights protections contained in federal regulations, and CPR is working to push back and delay these efforts by drafting, and joining allied groups’, comments in response to proposed regulatory changes.

CPR’s work nationally, and in Massachusetts, continues to focus on expanding the legal rights of people with disabilities to make choices in their own lives, including the right of persons subject to guardianship and conservatorship proceedings to choose, retain and, in appropriate circumstances, discharge their own counsel. 

In October 2024, CPR and Disability Rights Connecticut (DRCT) filed a complaint  with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).  The complaint alleged that Connecticut state laws discriminate against institutionalized voters.

On August 7, APM published an article titled “‘We did not want to take this guy’: Abuse rates higher at nursing homes with more mental illness,” which highlights the systemic challenges faced by people with disabilities—particularly those with serious mental illness—when institutionalized in nursing facilities.

On June 16, 2025, CPR submitted comments opposing the Trump Administration’s planned recission of regulations implementing Section 504 that ensure that facilities that receive funding from the Department of Energy (DoE) are accessible to people with disabilities.

On July 24, 2025, CPR and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) filed a friend of the court brief in support of litigation challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Final Rule titled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Marketplace Integrity and Affordability” (June 25, 2025).

For decades CPR has worked tirelessly to ensure that people with mental illness can live, work, and participate in the community, free from coercion and forced treatment. This Executive Order is exactly wrong, and seeks to undo both the constitutional rights as well as the voluntary services that people need and deserve.  CPR is committed to defend those rights, oppose this Executive Order and stand with people with disabilities who want to control their own lives without government interference. 

Under the auspices of the federal Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center (DETAC), Steven Schwartz, CPR’s Special Counsel, just published a paper outlining the 14 components of an employment system transformation plan, and previously authored three seminal papers for DETAC on advocacy strategies for replacing segregated employment with CIE.   

July 23rd marked the 35th anniversary of the ADA.  It is a time for reflecting on the amazing accomplishments of the disability community and the stark threats to these recent gains.  As Steven Schwartz, CPR Special Counsel noted in a PBS news story.

This paper, prepared by CPR, the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and the Disability Law Center, addresses key problems with involuntary outpatient commitment laws.