ADA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - September 11, 2008)
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Mr. DODD. Madam President, I rise to support wholeheartedly the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. Nearly 20 years ago Congress passed the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act. Because of its enactment and implementation, our country has made progress in eliminating the historical stigma previously associated with disability and guaranteeing basic civil rights and liberties to people with disabilities. I was a proud supporter of the ADA then, and I am a strong supporter of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 now. In the years since the ADA became law, the courts have inappropriately limited its scope, and many Americans with disabilities have been denied the rights the law was intended to give them. This legislation will serve to ensure that those rights are protected and that people with disabilities are fully protected. It is my hope that this legislation will also help America become more accepting of diversity.
I would like to take a moment to applaud Senator Harkin for his leadership on the ADA. Without his leadership neither the ADA, nor this legislation, would have been possible. I also would like to praise my good friends Senator Kennedy and Senator Hatch, whose commitment to the issue made the passage of this legislation possible.
For decades, we have fought for the civil rights of people with disabilities, combating the antiquated mindsets of segregation, discrimination, and ignorance. Our Nation has come from a time when the exclusion of people with disabilities was the norm. We have come from a time when doctors told parents that their children with disabilities were better left isolated in institutions. We have come from a time when individuals with disabilities were not considered contributing members of society. Those times have thankfully changed. The passage of the ADA in 1990 provided the first step toward that change our country so desperately needed.
Although we have come along way in the past 18 years, the Americans with Disabilities Act has not afforded the full protections that this antidiscrimination statute originally intended to provide. The law has been repeatedly misinterpreted by the courts that have used an extremely narrow definition of disability. This definition is so narrow that many defendants with clear disabilities cannot even get their case heard in a courtroom because they do not qualify as having a disability. People with disabilities excluded from protections under the ADA include those with amputations, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and intellectual disabilities.
Ultimately, a series of Supreme Court rulings established precedents that leave many of our fellow citizens with disabilities little or no protections under current law. These decisions created a platform for future courts to say that a person does not have a disability when they benefit from mitigating measures such as medications, therapies, or other corrective devices. Ironically, this means that people with disabilities who use measures such as assistive technology to help them lead more self-sufficient lives are ultimately not protected from discrimination related to their disability. The Supreme Court decisions further narrowed the definition of disability by imposing a strict and demanding standard to the definition of disability--barring Americans coping with intellectual disabilities from the law's protections.
Equal protection under the law in the United States of America is not a privilege, but rather, it is a fundamental right due every citizen of our Nation, regardless of race, gender, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. It is unacceptable to deny any individual his or her right to those protections because of a misconstrued definition of disability. Our country has an obligation to its citizens to ensure that their fundamental rights are protected, and, if those rights are violated, that the option of recourse is available.
This antidiscrimination legislation would move us forward as one Nation in the direction that was intended 18 years ago. If this bill is signed into law, it will provide much needed clarification on the definition of disability, covering those individuals that rightly need protections under this law. The bill rejects the findings of the Supreme Court cases and specifies that mitigating measures are not to be considered in disability determining and clarifies that the definition should be more broadly interpreted.
Fortunately, we are a changing society, and we have come a long way since those times of segregation and stigma. Recognizing that our society needs to take yet another step to improve the civil rights of our fellow citizens, I urge my colleagues to join with us and pass the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.
I sincerely hope my colleagues will join me in bettering our country by passing the ADA Amendments Act. As we are a just society, I will continue to fight for the rights of my fellow Americans with disabilities so that we all have an equal chance to achieve the American dream. I urge my fellow colleagues to support this essential piece of legislation on behalf of the American people.
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