Dear Community,

Let me be absolutely clear: Congress’s passage of Donald Trump’s budget-busting, Medicaid-shattering, shafting-disabled-poor-seniors and working-class, making-the-rich-even-richer megabill is a catastrophic assault on the very people our movement exists to serve. 

This is not just a policy disagreement—it is a dangerous, calculated attack on every independent living center, every disabled person, every senior, and every working-class family in this country.

This bill should be seen as a declaration of war on our communities.

• 17 million people will lose their health care.
• Over 40 million—nearly half of them children—will see their food assistance slashed.
• Emergency response for people with disabilities will be gutted.
• All of this to hand trillions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and supercharge a lawless, violent deportation regime, and war and genocide machine.

This is not fiscal responsibility. This is cruelty, plain and simple, and it is ableist, racist, and classist. It is a betrayal of the most basic values of fairness, dignity, and community. It is a direct attack on the independence, safety, and well-being of disabled people and seniors—people who have fought for decades to be recognized and for their autonomy and dignity to be respected.

Our communities will not be silent. We will not stand by.

The Center for Independent Living is launching an emergency campaign to fight back. The midterm elections start now, and we will make sure every person harmed by this bill knows exactly who is to blame. Among other actions, we will mobilize voters, organize resistance, and make sure Congress hears us loud and clear.

Our founders Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts knew that disabled people are experts at this. 

We know how to win hearts, change minds, and hold the powerful accountable.

But we cannot do it alone. If you are outraged—if you refuse to let this country be hijacked by greed and cruelty—stand with us.

Help us make sure the voices of disabled people, seniors, and working families are not just heard, but impossible to ignore.

There are many important ways to respond and resist in this moment–investing in mutual aid networks, volunteering time and resources to non-profits and grassroots organizations working to meet life-giving needs of our communities, joining a progressive political organization, building the fight to take back control of Congress. The time to act is now.

We are angry. We are organized. And we will not back down.

Dr. Victor Pineda