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[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 113 (Thursday, July 26, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5472-S5474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

        22ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, July 26, 1990--22 years ago today was a 
great day in our Nation's history. When President George Herbert Walker 
Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, we could see the 
future before us, full of possibility and opportunity for people with 
disabilities. It was one of the proudest days of my legislative career.
  The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the landmark civil 
rights laws of the 20th century--a long-overdue emancipation 
proclamation for Americans with disabilities. The ADA has played a huge 
role in making our country more accessible, in raising the expectations 
of people with disabilities about what they can hope to achieve at work 
and in life, and in inspiring the world to view disability issues 
through the lens of equality and opportunity.
  In these times, it is valuable to remember that passage of the 
original Americans with Disabilities Act was a robustly bipartisan 
effort. As chief sponsor of the ADA in the Senate, I worked very 
closely with Senator Bob Dole and others on both sides of the aisle. We 
received invaluable support from President George Herbert Walker Bush 
and key members of his administration, including White House Counsel 
Boyden Gray, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and Transportation 
Secretary Sam Skinner. Other Members of Congress also played critical 
roles in passing the ADA first and foremost, Senator Ted Kennedy; but 
also Senator Orrin Hatch, and Representatives Tony Coelho, Steny Hoyer, 
Major Owens, and Steve Bartlett.
  Before the ADA, life was very different for folks with disabilities 
in Iowa and across the country. Being an American with a disability 
meant not being able to ride on a bus because there was no lift, not 
being able to attend a concert or ball game because there was no 
accessible seating, and not being able to cross the street in a 
wheelchair because there were no curb cuts. In short, it meant not 
being able to work or participate in community life. Discrimination was 
both commonplace and accepted.
  Since then, we have seen amazing progress. The ADA literally 
transformed the American landscape by requiring that architectural and 
communications barriers be removed and replaced with accessible 
features such as ramps, lifts, curb cuts, widening doorways, and closed 
captioning. More importantly, the ADA gave millions of Americans the 
opportunity to participate in their communities. We have made 
substantial progress in advancing the four goals of the ADA--equality 
of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic 
self-sufficiency.
  But despite this progress, we still have more work to do. Last month 
marked the 13th anniversary of the

[[Page S5473]]

U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that the 
ADA requires that people with significant disabilities be given a 
meaningful opportunity to live and remain in their communities, with 
the appropriate supports and services, rather than having to live in an 
institution or nursing home in order to receive the services they need. 
Yet too many people with significant disabilities still do not have 
access to these home and community-based long-term services and 
supports--and we must do more. Last month, following a hearing I 
chaired to assess the progress we have made on this issue in the 
various States, I sent a letter to the Governor of each State with 
information about the variety of new tools available through the 
Medicaid Program to make it easier to provide community-based services, 
including the Community First Choice Option and the Money Follows the 
Person Program. I asked each Governor to let me know by September 7 
what they are doing within their State to ensure that the promise of 
the ADA and Olmstead is being met.
  We have made significant progress in the last 22 years in making sure 
that public transportation options, such as buses, are fully accessible 
to people with disabilities. But we have not made similar progress on 
the accessibility of taxicabs. During the past year, there have been 
major advances in New York City on this issue, and I commend Governor 
Cuomo and the disability advocates. However, we still have a lot of 
work to do here in Washington, DC, and in other major metropolitan 
areas of this country. When I was in London last year, every taxicab 
was accessible to people with disabilities, through universal design. 
There is no reason that we cannot work toward this same goal here in 
the United States.
  Yet the most critical challenge we still need to address is the 
persistently low employment rates among Americans with disabilities.
  More than two-thirds of working-age adults with disabilities are not 
part of the labor force. This is shameful, and we need to do better.
  Sometimes a picture is more powerful than any words, so I ask you to 
look at the chart that I have here. This chart compares the labor force 
participation rates of working-age Americans in the general population, 
with the participation rates among women, African Americans, Latinos, 
and people with disabilities between 1990 and 2011.
  Less than 35 percent of American adults with disabilities were in the 
workforce when we passed the ADA in 1990, and less than 20 percent of 
this population was in the workforce in 2011. Although our country 
continues to have employment gaps for women, African Americans, and 
Latinos, the gap for workers with disabilities is many times the gap 
for these other groups.
  The other noteworthy trend this chart shows is that workers with 
disabilities often don't benefit even when our economy is doing well. 
Between 1994 and 2000 and between 2005 and 2007 you can see that while 
labor participation rates went up for other groups, they were either 
flat or declining for workers with disabilities.
  Since the passage of the ADA we have not made a lot of progress on 
increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities. This was 
partly due to the confusion about the requirements of the ADA's 
employment provisions caused by the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in 
the Sutton trilogy in 1999 and the Toyota case in 2002. But in 2008, we 
passed the ADA Amendments Act which once and for all clarified the 
definition of ``disability'' and started the clock anew on our efforts 
to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
  But I believe our country is on the verge of major progress on the 
issue of disability employment. I released a report last week calling 
on the country to finally make this issue a national priority, because 
I believe in my heart that we can make substantial progress in the next 
3 years. A copy of that report, entitled ``Unfinished Business: Making 
Employment of People with Disabilities a National Priority,'' is 
available on the HELP Committee Web site.
  I think we are on the cusp of making real progress on this issue for 
a number of reasons.
  First, we have a new generation of young adults with disabilities who 
grew up since the passage of the ADA, sometimes referred to as the 
``ADA Generation.'' These young people have high expectations for 
themselves. This generation sees disability as a natural part of human 
experience and does not carry the fears, myths, and stereotypes that 
lowered expectations for individuals with disabilities in earlier 
generations.
  Along with the ADA generation, we have hundreds of thousands of 
returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan who do not want their 
visible and invisible war injuries to prevent them from having a career 
and supporting their families. These veterans are demonstrating their 
leadership in our civilian workforce just as they did in service to our 
country.
  In part, to seize on these demographic advantages, I worked with the 
U.S. Chamber of Commerce to set a goal last year that we increase the 
size of the disability labor force by over 20 percent by 2015. With the 
leadership of people with disabilities, the Chamber of Commerce, along 
with elected officials and businesses like Walgreens and Lowes who have 
also made this a priority, I think we are at a real tipping point.
  In particular, Walgreens has been a leader in employing people with 
disabilities. I attended a CEO Summit on disability employment at 
Walgreens' distribution center in Windsor, CT, last month, and saw 
firsthand how Walgreens built a distribution center designed for a 
diverse workforce, a distribution center with about half of its 
employees being people with disabilities, a distribution center that is 
just as productive as the other Walgreens distribution centers, and is 
in fact outperforming all of Walgreens' other distribution centers on 
key indicators like time away from work, turnover, and workplace 
safety.
  Today I hosted a roundtable with many different stakeholders, 
including Members of the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis, 
Federal and State government officials, people with disabilities, 
business leaders, and foundations--all committed to increasing 
employment opportunities for people with disabilities in competitive 
employment.
  If all of us--Members of Congress, business leaders, employers, and 
people with disabilities--work together, I believe that we can meet the 
goal of 1 million new workers with disabilities--and ensure that all 
individuals with disabilities have real opportunities for employment 
that meet their goals, interests, and high expectations.
  So as we celebrate the anniversary of this great civil rights law, we 
take time to remember the remarkable progress that we have made in the 
past 22 years, as well as the progress that we will continue to make--
including today.
  Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee marked up the 
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, and 
approved the treaty on a bipartisan vote of 13 to 6. This brings us one 
step closer to bringing the convention before the full Senate. I would 
like to thank my colleague, Chairman Kerry, for considering this 
convention in such a timely manner, and also Senator McCain for his 
commitment to this issue. I am proud to support the convention's goal 
to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and 
opportunities as everyone else.
  Americans with disabilities already enjoy these rights at home. 
However, U.S. citizens with disabilities, including our veterans, 
frequently face barriers when they travel, conduct business, study, or 
reside overseas. Ratification of the convention would underscore the 
enduring U.S. commitment to disability rights and enhance the ability 
of the United States to promote these rights overseas.
  American ratification of the convention would not require us to 
change any U.S. laws, and the amendments adopted today in committee 
make this abundantly, explicitly clear. The ADA and disability rights 
issues have always enjoyed bipartisan support, and passage of the 
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should as well. I 
am pleased to note the convention is supported by former Senator Dole, 
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 21 veterans groups and countless 
disability rights advocates.

[[Page S5474]]

  On July 26, 1990, when he signed ADA into law, President George 
Herbert Walker Bush spoke with great eloquence. And I will never forget 
his final words before taking up his pen. He said, ``Let the shameful 
wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.''
  Mr. President, today, that wall is indeed falling. And we must join 
together, on a bipartisan basis, to continue this progress.

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