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A variety of services in Minnesota exist to support people with disabilities so they can live independently and participate fully in the communities where they live. Now those programs are potentially on the chopping block. 

“We're all very afraid,” said Amy Hewitt, director of the 

 at the University of Minnesota. She said the outcome of losing these services would be re-institutionalization. “And we know people have very difficult lives in institutional settings,” she said.

, includes enormous cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, 

 of the little-known Administration of Community Living. The administration oversees funding distributed to many state disability programs, including here in Minnesota.

The programs in Minnesota to be hit the hardest by a sacking of the administration are Minnesota’s Disability Law Center, the Governor’s Council on Disabilities, and the Institute on Community Integration, where Hewitt works. These programs don’t really have other sources for funding, she said. 

Related coverage:

Minnesotans, lawmakers protest federal cuts to disability funding

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Three programs that help Minnesotans with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live independently rely heavily on federal dollars. Those funds are on the chopping block.  

Three programs that help make it possible for Minnesotans with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live independently rely heavily on federal dollars that are on the chopping block.  

Federal cuts could effectively end programs for Minnesotans with intellectual disabilities

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