ABLE savings accounts bill for people with disabilities moves to Idaho Senate
The Idaho House of Representatives debate from the House floor on Feb. 10, 2025,, at the Statehouse in Boise. (Ruth Brown/Idaho Reports)
On Monday the Idaho House of Representatives moved forward a bill that allows Idahoans with disabilities to set up an account to save money additional money for their care.
ABLE accounts — an acronym for Achieving a Better Life Experience – allow people with disabilities who collect Social Security Income to save money for future qualifying needs, such as transportation, housing or medical expenses.
Under current law, Idahoans are in jeopardy of no longer qualifying for Social Security Income if they have more than $2,000 in their accounts, which discourages them from saving for expenses like car repair, or medical care that isn't covered by insurance. The money in ABLE accounts doesn't count against the $2,000. Only people whose disability began before the age of 26 are eligible for ABLE accounts.
Idaho is one of only three states in the country that does not yet have ABLE accounts. There is no cost to the state for setting up the accounts through the national consortium.
'It helps us all, if somebody that has a disabled person in their house, if they have savings to take care of those emergency bills or take care of things, rather than going to the state or different resources that come out of our tax dollars,' said bill sponsor Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa.
Should it pass the Senate, the bill would establish an Idaho ABLE Account Advisory Council to advise the Idaho state treasurer and the executive director of the Idaho State Independent Living Council regarding policies and action that enhance the outreach, marketing and education of the Idaho ABLE Account Program.
Rep. Kent Marmon, R-Caldwell, voted against the bill.
'I'm not in favor of creating an advisory board that's gonna cost the taxpayers money,' Marmon said.
Rep. James Petzke, R-Meridian, noted in his debate that members of that advisory council are unpaid, so that's not an expense to the state.
'I think it's a fantastic thing we should have done it a long time ago,' Petzke said.
The bill passed 56-13 and now heads to the Senate.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan arrives at federal court for sentencing in corruption case
CHICAGO — Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan arrived Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago for his historic sentencing in a long-running corruption case that shook the state's political world to the core. Madigan, 83, who for years was widely hailed as the most powerful politician in the state, gave a slight smile as he strode past a horde of television news cameras with his lawyers and family members without comment. Carrying a briefcase and umbrella, he then headed to the 12th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, who is scheduled to begin the hearing at 1 p.m. The hearing is expected to last two hours or more. With seating limited in Blakey's courtroom, an overflow courtroom has been set up on the courthouse's 17th floor. Before hearing arguments, Blakey must first determine the sentencing guidelines in the case, though it's no longer mandatory for him to follow them. It's unclear whether Madigan's team intends to call live witnesses on his behalf, but before the judge imposes the sentence, the famously taciturn former speaker will be given a chance to make a statement of his own. It's the most highly anticipated sentencing in a Chicago public corruption case since former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich more than a decade ago, and U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has a wide range of options at his disposal. The difference between the recommendations of the two sides is stark. Prosecutors have asked for 12 ½ years in prison, while the ex-speaker's team requested five years of probation, with the first year on home confinement. One big question is whether the letters Blakey received on Madigan's behalf will help persuade him to go easy on the longest-serving speaker in American history. Under the federal rules, the judge must also balance the seriousness of the crime and the need for deterrence, both for Madigan and others who might be tempted to commit similar acts, with the ex-speaker's background, personal traits, family history and other good works. In justifying a lengthy prison sentence, prosecutors have argued Madigan used his public office to increase his power, line his own pockets and enrich a small circle of his most loyal associates. Madigan's legal team, meanwhile, have stressed his age and lifetime of public service, saying that he is a good man whose name was dragged through the mud and will forever be branded as a felon. After a trial that stretched nearly four months, Madigan was convicted by a jury Feb. 12 on bribery conspiracy and other corruption charges The jury found him guilty on 10 of 23 counts, including one count of conspiracy related to a multipronged scheme to accept and solicit bribes from utility giant Commonwealth Edison. Jurors also convicted him on two counts of bribery and one Travel Act violation related to payments funneled to Madigan associates for do-nothing ComEd subcontracts. Madigan also was convicted on six out of seven counts — including wire fraud and Travel Act violations — regarding a plan to get ex-Ald. Daniel Solis, a key FBI mole who testified at length in the trial, appointed to a state board. But after 11 days of deliberation, the jury's final verdict was mixed, deadlocking on several counts — including the marquee racketeering conspiracy charge — and acquitting Madigan on numerous others. Jurors also deadlocked on all six counts related to Madigan's co-defendant, Michael McClain. The verdict capped one of the most significant political corruption investigations in Chicago's sordid history. It also cemented an extraordinary personal fall for Madigan, the longest-serving state legislative leader in the nation's history, who for decades held an iron-tight grip on the House as well as the state Democratic Party. It was a case many thought would never be made. Madigan, a savvy lawyer and old-school practitioner of Democratic machine politics, famously eschewed cell phones and email, and stayed largely above the fray while dozens of his colleagues were hauled off to prison over the years. Ultimately, it took Solis's extraordinary cooperation, including wearing a hidden wire in meetings with Madigan, along with an FBI wiretap on Madigan's longtime confidant, Michael McClain, to break the case open, leading to a series of indictments and pay-to-play allegations against two major utilities, Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois, and more than a dozen other individuals. Madigan held the speakership for all but two years from 1983 until 2021. Along with ruling the House, Madigan chaired the Illinois Democratic Party from 1998 until 2021, resigning both his House seat and the party post after he lost the speakership. Madigan's hold on the House Democratic caucus started loosening in the wake of a series of explosive sexual harassment cases involving misbehaving aides in 2018, including longtime chief of staff Tim Mapes. But the momentum picked up speed in July 2020 when the U.S. attorney's office reached a deferred prosecution agreement with ComEd, which acknowledged trying to influence Madigan by showering his pals and associates with do-nothing contracts, legal work and a seat on the ComEd board of directors. While ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine, the biggest political marker in the agreement was that Madigan was referenced clearly when the court document called the speaker of the House 'Public Official A.' McClain and three others were indicted in the separate ComEd Four case four months later. Sentencings in that case, which have been delayed for more than a year due to fallout from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the federal bribery statute, are now expected to unfold in July and August. ______
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US Senate Republicans seek to limit judges' power via Trump's tax-cut bill
By Nate Raymond (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans have added language to President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending bill that would restrict the ability of judges to block government policies they conclude are unlawful. Text of the Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's contribution to the bill released by its chair, Senator Chuck Grassley, late on Thursday would limit the ability of judges to issue preliminary injunctions blocking federal policies unless the party suing posts a bond to cover the government's costs if the ruling is later overturned. The bond requirement in the Senate's version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is different from the provision the Republican-controlled House of Representatives included when it passed the bill last month that would curb courts' power in a different way. The House version curtails the ability of judges to enforce orders holding officials in contempt if they violate injunctions. Judges use contempt orders to bring parties into compliance, usually by ratcheting up measures from fines to jail time. Some judges who have blocked Trump administration actions have said officials are at risk of being held in contempt for not complying with their orders. Congressional Republicans have called for banning or curtailing nationwide injunctions blocking government policies after key parts of Trump's agenda have been stymied by such court rulings. The House in April voted 219-213 along largely party lines in favor of the No Rogue Rulings Act to do so, but the Senate has not yet taken up the measure. A White House memo in March directed heads of government agencies to request that plaintiffs post bonds if they are seeking an injunction against an agency policy. Such bonds can make obtaining an injunction a cost-prohibitive option in cases concerning multi-billion-dollar agenda items. Grassley's office said in a statement the language the Judiciary Committee proposed would ensure judges enforce an existing requirement that they make a party seeking a preliminary injunction provide a security bond to cover costs incurred by a defendant if a judge's ruling is later overturned. Judges rarely require such bonds when a lawsuit is not pitting two private parties against each other but instead challenging an alleged unlawful or unconstitutional government action. Several judges have denied the Trump administration's requests for bonds or issued nominal ones. Republicans, who control the Senate 53-47, are using complex budget rules to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with a simple majority vote, rather than the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber. The Senate Judiciary Committee's piece of the bill would also provide the judiciary funding to study the costs to taxpayers associated with such injunctions and provide training for judges about the problems associated with them. A spokesperson for Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, criticized the Republican-drafted legislative text, saying "Republicans are targeting nationwide injunctions because they're beholden to a president who is breaking the law — but the courts are not."
Los Angeles Times
35 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Charles Rangel's funeral mass draws big names who celebrated the late congressman's life
NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton, Gov. Kathy Hochul and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries remembered former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel's sharp wit, relentless advocacy for Harlem and extraordinary life of public service during a funeral mass for the late congressman in Manhattan on Friday. Rangel, a pioneering congressman and veteran of the Korean War, died on May 26 the age of 94. The mass, held at the historic St. Patrick's Cathedral, came a day after Rangel's body lay in state at New York City Hall, an honor bestowed to only a handful of political figures, including U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. Clinton, who called Rangel one of the most effective members to ever serve in Congress, recalled the congressman's insistence on steering a critical economic program to his Harlem district when Clinton was president, helping to lower unemployment there. 'I don't think I ever knew a happier warrior than Charlie Rangel,' Clinton said. Rangel served in Congress for nearly five decades, becoming a dean of the New York congressional delegation and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as being the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Before his time on Capitol Hill, he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his military service in the Korean War. Jeffries told the crowd at the mass that 'America is better off today because of his service' and said, as a young congressman, that the legendary Rangel would simply call him Jeff. 'Now, Charlie Rangel would often call me Jeff. I believe it was short for Jeffries. But I never confirmed that. 'Cause this was Charlie Rangel, and so you go with the flow,' Jeffries said, smiling. Hochul called Rangel 'a giant in American life' and said she would move to rename a street in Harlem after the late congressman, who was sometimes called 'Lion of Lenox Avenue.' She thanked the attendees who came to the mass 'not to mourn Charlie, but to celebrate an extraordinary life.'
