Government implements disability-sector emergency law after months-long freeze

The Argentine government officially implemented on Wednesday a law that declares an emergency in the disability sector and sets budget allocations for service providers and healthcare professionals. The law, which was originally passed last July, had been frozen after President Javier Mileis refusal to take the required administrative steps to make it operational. The implementation establishes the framework for the law via a decree published in the Official Gazette. All laws require a legal framework issued by the executive power, which states the ground rules and details of how the policy should be enforced, and allows for it to enter into effect. In this case, it also details how services and welfare funds for disabled people will be organized, and establishes the regulation and audit processes of the funds and policies. Congress had originally approved the bill last July, but Milei vetoed it days later, arguing that it would jeopardize the countrys fiscal surplus. The lower and upper house voted against the veto and insisted on the law, effectively overturning it and ratifying the law in early September. Although Milei enacted the law days after that, he suspended its implementation on the grounds that lawmakers must explain how it would be financed. The law guarantees budget allocations to increase payment to service providers and settle debts for nurses, companions, and transporters. Last December, the judiciary ordered the executive branch to immediately implement the law. The ruling was signed by federal Judge Adrin Gonzlez Charvay, who annulled the governments suspension of the law in response to a lawsuit filed by two families with disabled children. According to the judge, the suspension of the law went against the states constitutional and international obligations, and could put essential medical services for disabled people at risk. At the time, the government appealed the ruling, but the judiciary insisted and established February 4 as the deadline for its implementation. Now, with the legal framework in place, the law has finally been put into effect. The emergency will last until December 31 of this year, and could be extended for another year. The law establishes, among other things, a new welfare service to replace the existing one. The decree set out the requirements for people to request state support and the duration of the benefits. It also states that the health ministrys National Disability Secretariat must establish the regulations to put procedures and controls of the law in place. The secretariat replaced the now extinct National Disability Agency, which was shut down in December amid serious bribe accusations.