On Dec. 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014. The ABLE Act allows people who were disabled before their 26th birthday to save money for qualified expenses in tax-exempt ABLE accounts without losing their Medicaid eligibility and Supplemental Security Income — a goal disability advocates have fought for since the legislation was first introduced in 2006. The president’s signing was the culmination of more than nine years of hard work and proof there is a light at the end of a legislative process that can seem endless.

Since 2006, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have been advocating for improvements to personal savings and tax-exempt savings accounts by introducing the ABLE Act. The Act adjusts the Internal Revenue Code to establish tax-exempt ABLE accounts to allow people with disabilities to save private funds to pay for qualified disability expenses such as education, housing, transportation, employment support and other personal support expenses. An ABLE program is established and maintained by a state agency or educational institution and a person makes contributions to an ABLE account to pay for those qualified expenses. An ABLE account is treated the same way as a 529 college savings account for income tax purposes (i.e., allowing a tax exemption).

ABLE accounts are available for individuals who receive SSI or disability benefits and for those who have medically determined physical or mental impairment with significant functional limitations. There are 58 million individuals with disabilities in the United States, many of whom may seek to establish ABLE Accounts.

That the ABLE Act passed with record numbers, with 380 co-sponsors on the House bill and 78 co-sponsors on the companion bill in the Senate, is testament to the work of legislators and advocates who continued to fight for what they knew was needed. Thanks must also go to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who made an impassioned speech in support of the passage of the ABLE Act at a Capitol Hill hearing in the fall, as well as various key committees. Rep. McMorris Rodgers was the recipient of the 2014 Roll on Capitol Hill Junius A. Kellogg Outstanding Congressional Leadership Award, in part, because of her leadership on the ABLE Act.

The ABLE Act is important legislation that can improve the independence and self-sufficiency of many of our members and the broader disability community. However, United Spinal is concerned with the version of the ABLE Act that passed into law with two provisions that limit who the law can help. The first provision limits eligibility for an ABLE account to those who are incapable of engaging in substantial gainful work activity. The addition of this provision will discourage some from working to their full extent and runs contrary to the views of the disability community and the intent of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which was signed into law last July. The second provision limits eligibility for an ABLE account to people whose disability occurred before they turned 26. We don’t understand why 26 was chosen as the cutoff. Why should there be a distinction between people under or over 26 when it comes to savings for their future?

Be assured that United Spinal continues to advocate for policy and legislation improvements on your behalf. We could not be as successful as we are without your support and advocacy efforts. Together we can keep working to fix legislation like the ABLE Act and pass more legislation that improves people’s lives. Thank you.