John Braun: State needs to make vulnerable individuals a priority again
Friday, June 27, 2025
Ideally, legislators would have to respond to most needs only once. Our branch of government makes the appropriate change in law, the executive branch implements it, and away we go.
Back in 2014, we made great strides in improving the system that serves Washingtonians with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) through the passage of the “Vulnerable Individuals Priority” Act — VIP for short.
To this day, it is one of the bills I am most proud to have cosponsored. And even though the majority Democrats have fallen short when it comes to ensuring I/DD services get the budgetary support they deserve, the law’s very important goal is still within reach.
The VIP Act was passed when Republicans led the state Senate through a bipartisan coalition. The timing was no surprise, as Republicans in our Legislature have a long and unbroken history of standing with the I/DD residents of our state and their families.
The law was aimed squarely at fixing the most significant flaw in the system that serves those with I/DD: a lack of access to the services available through Washington's Developmental Disabilities Program.
At the time the bill was passed, the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) was providing services to over 20,000 people with I/DD. However, a shortage of capacity meant around 5,300 more, many of them children, were stuck on a waitlist despite being eligible.
The late Sen. Andy Hill, prime sponsor of the VIP Act, called it “simple but profound.” It was simple because the new law focused on just two things: making “respite care” available to an additional 4,000 families and extending employment support services to an additional 1,000 working-age Washingtonians.
It was profound because of how the expanded access to services would keep families together, rather than force a family member with I/DD into an institutional setting due to lack of community support. The new law also enabled those with I/DD of working age to have the sense of self-worth that comes from gainful employment.
To fund these additional slots, Senator Hill, who was then Senate Republican budget leader, leveraged a federal funding source that would pay more for certain Medicaid services provided in a community setting.
His dream of eliminating the waitlist was largely realized by mid-2017, which had been the target all along. Sadly, he never got to see it. We lost him in late 2016 to the return of the cancer he had beaten once, years before.
Unfortunately, demand for these services eventually outstripped the funding appropriated by the majority, and after a few years a waitlist reemerged. We responded to that through the budget adopted in 2021, and better yet, made significant changes in the law during the 2022 session to reduce the chances of a repeat.
Those changes stemmed from the recommendations of a workgroup on which I served for nearly two years, looking at how our state could transform the spectrum of care for people with I/DD.
They were made through a bill I co-sponsored with the workgroup’s other senator. It did two important things involving two categories of community- and home-based services, including what’s known as individual and family services (IFS).
First, the 2022 law added these two categories to what’s known as the “caseload” forecast, which already tracks the demand for education services, children’s services, public assistance, long-term care and more.
Doing that created a sort of early-warning system that lets lawmakers more easily see if and when the state-level funding isn’t keeping up.
Second, it requires DSHS to make a request for funding based on the number of people expected to fall into the two categories.
Since this reform took effect, the funding has met the demand, meaning no waitlist – until now.
As of this month the council that handles the caseload forecasts is projecting the return of a waitlist specifically in the IFS category, which offers a long list of services meant to help individuals with I/DD remain in their family homes.
If the Legislature does nothing, it’s projected that more than 400 people will be on the IFS waitlist by mid-2027. That’s 400 people – and their families – too many.
Agencies have until Sept. 15 to submit their funding requests for the supplemental budget to be adopted in 2026. Under the 2022 reform, I expect the DSHS package of funding requests will include enough money to add at least enough slots to meet the increase in demand.
If DSHS follows through, the question then falls to Gov. Bob Ferguson. Will the necessary funding be in the budget he proposes to the Legislature in December?
Consider the governor’s recent veto of $200,000 for a pediatric interim care center in King County. The appropriation would have supported residential care for up to 13 children through two years of age, with nine of those infants and toddlers being – to quote from the budget – “in need of special care as a result of substance abuse by their mothers.”
His veto rightfully made news, prompting headlines like “Governor's cut to funding for drug-exposed newborns a shame.”
Now factor in the state’s second-quarter revenue forecast, released June 24. It shows that the record-spending, record-taxing budget the governor signed – minus things like the support for the pediatric care center – is in big trouble. The agencies under his control have already been told to look for places to cut.
Between those two things alone, you have to wonder what the governor’s priorities will be in the supplemental-budget proposal he submits less than six months from now.
If Republicans were in charge, state government wouldn’t be in this situation. But either way, we can’t go back to the days before the VIP Act became law, when misguided priorities had created a system of “haves”' and “have-nots,” and parents felt they had to rely on luck to get services for their I/DD children.
These vulnerable individuals – our family members, friends and neighbors who are in this position through no fault of their own – need to be a priority, again. We can and must do better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.