Two weeks ago, the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House of Representatives held the promised oversight hearing on "The Americans with Disabilities Act: Sixteen Years Later." The URL for the hearing is: http://judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=259. On the webpage is also a link for the video webcast of the event. A number of disability organizations submitted testimony, including ACB. ACB also worked on the language of the oral testimony of some of the chosen witnesses. The hearing went quite well and encompassed a broad range of issues, even broader and more positive than expected including not just “legislative language” but discussions on real problems around transportation, voting, housing and even access to the Internet. Such support on the last of these items was an unexpected coup for ACB. The goal was to discuss the importance of the ADA, its successes, and also its problems.
More recently, on September 29th, House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) introduced a bill to restore the Americans with Disabilities Act Protections. ACB has been monitoring and kept a close eye on any discussions and legislation involving any ADA Restoration activities. The introduction of the actual bill came as something of a surprise. We, along with a number of other disability groups received a copy of the actual draft only a few hours before it was to be submitted, with what many feel was very little time to adequately study the language and offer changes. Although the language of the bill is generally positive, the timing of the events leading up to its introduction does give one pause for thought.
ACB will continue to closely monitor the bill and track the movement within the disability community as a whole on this issue. A follow-up Connection will include ACB’s testimony.