Congressional Attempt to Water Down and Gut ADA
Americans With Disabilities Act
ADA was easily passed by Congress in 1990. The bill was sponsored by Tom Harkin (Iowa) and the vote in the house was 377 Aye and 28 Nay. The vote in the Senate was 91 Aye and 6 Nay. The ADA mandated accessibility for the disabled and other civil rights enjoyed by other Americans. There are several parts to ADA but the one Congress is currently going after is Title III. Title III of the ADA mandates accessibility in various for public accommodations (generally referred to as businesses). It should be noted that ADA has never been consistently implemented and it has been extremely difficult to enforce. Based on my observations and those of other advocates, ADA has never been significantly implemented or enforced. In most areas, it is impossible or nearly impossible to motivate the government to enforce the ADA laws they are charged to enforce. The US Dept of Justice has long since abandoned any serious attempt to enforce Title III issues among others. Because of this fact, the only alternative for most people is to litigate. Contrary to the claims of some government officials, it is often impossible to find an attorney to represent a person with disabilities whose rights have been violated. In addition, the most knowledgeable lawyers are Disability Attorneys and few exist in many parts of the country. In north central Indiana for example there are none of which we are aware.
ADA Education and Reform Act:
In 2016 a bill was introduced by Ted Poe of Texas to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives. This bill never made it to the US House floor for a vote.
In January, 2017 the ADA Education and Reform Act was again brought to the Judiciary Committee by Ted Poe(Texas). The bill once again languished in the House Judiciary Committee, this time until February 15, 2018 when it was brought to the floor of the House for a vote.
Some of what the bill included are as follows:
- Even though the original laws were passed in 1990, this bill would require notification of a business of the specific problems. The bill required the individual to specify legally and exactly what part of ADA was violated and make that case. ADA is a complex law and most people are simply unable to do this. This provision along would eliminate almost all complaints against businesses regarding ADA law. Forcing individuals to become experts in ADA law is a way to prevent complaints and law suits from being filed.
- This bill would allow the business 60 days just to acknowledge the complaint. Keep in mind the ADA laws were passed more than 1 and 1/2 decades before this bill was introduced.
- The business entity according to this bill would then have another 120 days to remedy the problem before litigation could be launched. This feature is the same in the current bill so Congress wants to grant businesses another 140 days to comply with a law that was passed 18 years ago.
- The original bill in 2016 also included a fine which could be levied against the person making the complaint for failing to follow the correct procedures, thus criminalizing filing a disability discrimination complaint. While this sections seems to be absent from the 2017 bill, it could easily be added by the Senate or during hearings between the Senate and House to reconcile the bill. Do not assume this will not end up back in the current bill making its way to the Senate.
The forced delay in filing litigation is referred to as the "Notice and Cure" period. No other civil rights bill has this clause in any law.
Some of those against the bill used the phrase "justice delayed is justice denied." That is true but this bill does much more than delay enforcement of rights. Because the bill mandates expertise of ADA that most lawyers don't have, it makes litigation almost totally impossible. It is my view that the goal of the bill is to spare corporations the burden of costs to accommodate the disabled. Of course that means the disabled are deprived of their rights of due process.
The Vote:
The US House voted on the ADA Education and Reform Bill on February 15, 2018 with the following results: 225 - Aye and 192 - Nay The votes according to party lines for the bill were 192 Aye votes by the Republicans and 12 Aye votes by the Democrats. 13 US House members did not vote - Republicans - 5 and Democrats - 8. The bill itself had 108 co-sponsors including 97 Republicans and 11 Democrats. 10% of the sponsors who helped get the bill to the floor were Democrats.
For more specifics on the vote - see below:
Where were the votes against the anti-ADA Bill?
Nay votes on this bill were the votes against watering down or gutting ADA. If you want to get a feel of which states were more business friendly or people friendly take a look at the link below. The list goes from high percentages of nay votes to low. The percentages represent votes against the bill. One can tell a lot by going through the list of states and the voting percentages on the bill from their US House Representatives. Personally, I would look at the top states on the list friendly to the disabled and bottom not so much. When looking for where to live, consider it. It is noteworthy for those of us from Indiana that Indiana was 34th on the list with barely over 20% of the Representatives voting against the regressive bill. Jackie Walorski, US Rep in District 2 of Indiana of course voted for business and against the disabled. She has a long history of voting against the interests of the average Americans and minorities. I hope to help unseat her in the upcoming election. You can find the rankings by clicking on the link below:
Another fascinating aspect of the vote is the geographic trends. They are extremely obvious. The image below (from GovTrack) says volumes.
The red hexagons represent the votes for the anti-ADA bill and the blue hexagons represent votes for the rights of the disabled.
Conclusions:
My opinion and that of most disabled persons and civil rights advocates in a multitude of areas view this bill as a step in gutting the ADA law which gives the disabled recourse when our rights our violated. Violations of ADA by businesses and others are rampant and we are going to demonstrate it for you. We will be producing some videos of ADA violations to make our point. There are thousands. If you have a video you want to send to us, send an
email and we will get right back to you.
Right now is the time to protest this law in the making. It has been passed by the US House and is now in the hands of the Senate whose committees are reviewing the bill according to protocol. NOW IS THE TIME TO HIT THE STREETS AND PROTEST THIS BILL. A good place to protest is at the office of your local Senator. You can find information about how to find your Senators by looking it up at the following link:
ContactMySenator
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