[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 20 (Friday, March 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1390-S1391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             EQUAL PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2001

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I would like to clarify some issues 
related to my amendment that passed the Senate earlier this week 
regarding the establishment of a protection and advocacy system to 
ensure that people with disabilities have full and equal access to the 
election process. Among other provisions, my amendment states that 
protection and advocacy systems under S. 565 may not resort to 
litigation when representing persons with disabilities who have been 
denied equal access to the polling place or to the voting process.
  I agreed to this provision with some trepidation, since the 
protection and advocacy system has a long and well established 
authority under several federal laws to pursue litigation to enforce 
the rights of people with disabilities. The protection and advocacy 
system has proven themselves to be responsible stewards of the public 
trust we as members of Congress have placed in them in regard to 
litigation. The protection and advocacy system is known for exhausting 
all other remedies before resorting to litigation, and in fact less 
than 5 percent of all cases handled by protection and advocacy systems 
nationally result in litigation. The vast majority of people with 
disabilities helped by the protection and advocacy system have their 
issues resolved through alternative means of dispute resolution such as 
negotiation and mediation.
  And yet the authority to pursue litigation when necessary and when 
warranted is an essential component of our nation's disability rights 
system. If we take away the ability of people with disabilities to 
obtain due process through the courts, we take away the level playing 
field created by laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 
Fair Housing Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the 
Rehabilitation Act, the Developmental Disabilities Act, and others. 
Because of that, it is essential that protection and advocacy systems 
retain their current authority to utilize a full array of approaches, 
including litigation, to carry

[[Page S1391]]

out their important work as defenders of the rights of people with 
disabilities. Nothing in my amendment today is intended to undermine 
that important authority in any other federal laws affecting the 
protection and advocacy system.
  I look forward to continuing in my role as a champion of the 
protection and advocacy system, and of the rights of people with 
disabilities.

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