U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt is trying to get more Americans with disabilities linked with savings accounts that could help them pay for key living expenses.
Schmitt, R-Missouri, was in St. Louis on Thursday to promote Achieving a Better Life Experience accounts, which disabled people can use to pay for housing, transportation, medical expenses and for educational purposes. The program has been available since the mid-2010s, but Schmitt noted that a lot of people who could benefit from it haven't signed up.
"If you're an individual with a disability, you can't have more than $2,000 in savings to continue to qualify for federal benefits," Schmitt said. "And so I think the point here is this is now a vehicle that you can have assets outside of that $2,000 limit. And have a productive life to save for things that you would never be able to save for."
One of the ways that the President Donald Trump's administration plans to promote ABLE accounts is through Cheryl Hines, an actress who gained fame on the show "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She's married to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Hines was at Schmitt's event on Thursday along with her sister, Commissioner of Administration on Disabilities Rebecca Hines. Cheryl Hines helped unveil her new public service announcement aimed at getting people to sign up for ABLE accounts.
"ABLE is one important tool … that makes independence and greater financial security possible for millions of American families," Cheryl Hines said. "I want to do everything I can. And believe me, the commissioner will have lots of chores for me in this that I'm happy to lend my voice to."
Trump panned on disability policy
Disability advocates have widely criticized how Trump and Kennedy have talked about people with disabilities and implemented policies that could affect disabled Americans.
Last September, Trump had a press conference where he called autism a "horrible, horrible tragedy" – and promoted disputed findings linking the development disorder to Tylenol use. Kennedy faced a backlash for a speech in which he claimed that autism "destroys families" and that autistic people will never date or write a poem.
Trump has also faced criticism for signing off on cuts in the medical provider tax, which could ultimately end up requiring states to cut services to people with disabilities.
When asked whether Trump and Kennedy were wrong to focus on the cause of autism rather than programs like ABLE that could foster financial independence for disabled people, Schmitt replied that the administration can do both.
"I talk to a lot of parents of individuals who have been diagnosed with autism who don't feel like there have been adequate answers over the years," Schmitt said. "This idea of like settled science, like that's the scientific method. You're always questioning assumptions."
Kennedy and Trump have been some of the most prominent amplifiers of widely discredited theories about vaccines causing autism. And while Trump declared last year that "the meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history," he didn't mention that the rise in diagnoses correlated with more widespread screening and changes in the diagnostic criteria.
Schmitt said, "I appreciate that there's some intellectual curiosity on these fronts, and I don't think the answers have been satisfying to a lot of parents over the years."
"Do I think we should focus on these things? Absolutely," he said. "I think this impacts people's lives. And so, I'm not going to get into debate on the causes. I'm just saying … I think we should all want people in leadership to question assumptions."
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