[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 110 (Monday, July 26, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H6021-H6023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COMMEMORATING 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ADA AND RECOGNIZING SPEAKER PRO 
                            TEMPORE LANGEVIN

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call to the attention of our 
colleagues the historic moment that we are all enjoying right now. 
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
What better way for us to observe that important legislation's 
anniversary than to have this be the day that, for the first time in 
our country's history, a gentleman with the challenges that Mr. 
Langevin faces is presiding as Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Congratulations to you, Mr. Speaker.
  It is appropriate for us to address our remarks to the Speaker and, 
in this case, the outpouring of appreciation for this special occasion 
is marked, not just because you are a person with disabilities, but 
because you are Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, who it is an honor for 
all of us to call colleague.
  It's important that you are the first, because when you came to the 
Congress, you inspired us, you transformed our thinking about 
respecting people for what they can do without hesitating about any 
limitations they may have.
  My colleagues, many of you were present when I took the gavel from 
Mr. Boehner as the first woman Speaker of the House, and it was a 
highly emotional day for some of us.
  Today is a similar day. It is a day when we are making history in 
this body. Thanks to the work of the Architect of the Capitol, but 
practically invisible to the eye, a system has been developed so that 
Mr. Langevin, with great dignity, can take the chair to preside.
  Any one of us in our families or in this body is one phone call away 
from, or a diagnosis, news of an accident, whatever it may be that may 
physically limit our participation here. But that should not deprive 
anyone of the honor and the prestige of presiding over the House. And 
from this day forward, this House will be an example to the rest of the 
country that these physical obstacles of three stairs, and to the 
extent that you may be interested in the engineering of it all, it's 
very interesting.
  But not to take away from the fact that the person who is the first 
to do so is Mr. Langevin. His leadership in the Congress is recognized. 
And so it is

[[Page H6022]]

with great emotion, with great pride, with a great sense of history 
that today we are making history and making progress for the American 
people.
  I am pleased to yield to the distinguished Republican leader, the 
gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank the Speaker for yielding.
  On this day 20 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act became 
law. And to the majority leader, who played a big role in making that 
happen, and Mr. Sensenbrenner and other Members, I want to say 
congratulations to all of you.
  And congratulations to those who, through no fault of their own, have 
had their capacities limited.
  And to our colleague from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), it's on behalf 
of the millions of Americans who have been helped by the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, we too want to congratulate you for the great honor 
that you have the ability today to be the first person with 
disabilities to sit in the Speaker's chair. Congratulations.
  Ms. PELOSI. Reclaiming my time, I want to concur with the sentiments 
of the distinguished Republican leader in acknowledging the bipartisan 
support that the Americans with Disabilities Act received in the House. 
Mr. Sensenbrenner, a champion for civil rights across the board, a 
champion on this issue, inspired by his wife, Cheryl; in the Senate, 
Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Robert Dole in the leadership of the 
Senate was such. So it has been bipartisan in both Houses. Senator 
Harkin was with us earlier today. Patrick Kennedy acknowledged his and 
his father's participation.
  But our champion on this side of the aisle and, I think, really in 
the entire Congress, has been our majority leader, Steny Hoyer, who not 
only was instrumental in passing the legislation, he was instrumental 
in its enforcement and implementation of the amendments to correct 
misunderstandings that the Supreme Court may have had about it.
  He has been a champion. And it is appropriate on this, the 20th 
anniversary, that we acknowledge his tremendous leadership as well.
  And if I may, because he won't say it, and Mr. Langevin is in the 
chair, so he can't say it. But earlier today at a reception, Mr. 
Langevin said, because of the leadership of Mr. Hoyer, Mr. 
Sensenbrenner and others, but he pointed out Mr. Hoyer, on this ADA 
legislation, well, that legislation enabled Mr. Langevin to be 
successful in what he did and to be our colleague, and now preside over 
the Congress today.
  I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Maryland, the 
distinguished majority leader.

                              {time}  1850

  Mr. HOYER. I thank the Speaker for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, thank you. Thank you for 
the courage that you have shown.
  I don't know how many of you know Jim Langevin's story. Involved in 
the police boys club, 16 years of age, at a police station in Rhode 
Island. Someone was cleaning his gun. It went off by mistake, 
accidentally, ricocheted off the wall, and went into Mr. Langevin's 
spine. At 16 years of age, he was rendered unable to walk.
  Some people could have given up. Some people could have lamented that 
accident which rendered them unable to walk and have limited mobility. 
Jim Langevin, of course, as we all see, did not do that. Jim Langevin 
decided that he was going to succeed and persevere and overcome. And 
Jim Langevin sits in the chair today presiding over the people's House.
  Think of what an extraordinary example that is to every person of 
whatever age who has a mobility impairment for whatever reasons, 
injured in Iraq, Afghanistan, or someplace at the point of the spear, 
comes back to this country.
  My friend Walt Minnick and Mike Simpson just introduced me to a young 
fellow who in May was injured in Afghanistan and lost both his legs. 
What an example Jim Langevin must be to him and to millions of others 
who are similarly situated.
  The promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July of 1990 
was that we would open up the doors of opportunity in a country that 
prides itself on being the land of opportunity. As I have said a number 
of times this week, Thomas Jefferson indicated that the pursuit of 
happiness was a God-given right. But Thomas Jefferson, in his time, had 
a limited view. And we have found, in generation after generation, that 
we had to perfect that view.
  African Americans, of course, were not given the land of 
opportunity's opportunities. We fought a Civil War, and we adopted the 
13th and 14th and 15th Amendments. Notwithstanding that, however, we 
did not, at that point in time, realize the full scope of the 
opportunity that we provided in that Declaration of Independence and, 
theoretically, in that beloved document of ours, the pride of our 
country, the United States Constitution.
  So again we perfected it, and in the early part of the last century 
we said to those who are women in this body and around the country, no, 
what we really should have said is men and women are created equal and 
endowed by their Creator, and we want to include you and give you the 
right to vote. It's almost amazing that 90 years ago, or some 100 years 
ago that women didn't have the right to vote in this country. And we 
perfected our country by amending our Constitution to expand, further, 
the opportunities.
  And then in 1964 and 1965 and 1957 and further, we passed acts which 
have said, look, we said that African Americans were equal, but we 
still see discrimination. And Martin Luther King, Jr., called our 
attention to the fact that this was not yet a perfect Union and that 
work needed to be done.
  And 25 years after the 1965 act, we saw a large group of people--we 
then said 45 million; we now use the figure 50 million people--who have 
a disability, and because of that disability are excluded, are shut 
out, are not welcomed in, are not given what this lift is, a reasonable 
accommodation in the Americans with Disabilities Act. It simply says 
there are some things we can do to enhance somebody who is challenged 
with a disability to fully participate. We know that.
  Ed Markey is right next to me. We are going to pass a bill that we 
know that technology now is providing greater access to people who 
can't hear, and indeed to people who can't see, to fully participate in 
our society.

  Jim Langevin is the example of the realization of the promise of the 
July 26, 1990, signing by George Herbert Walker Bush that said that 
we're going to knock down the walls of discrimination that confront the 
disabled. But what we were talking about was not the disability. We 
were talking about the discrimination. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court 
missed that. But fortunately for our country and those with 
disabilities, the Congress did not.
  In every step of the way, this has been a bipartisan effort, led by a 
Republican President, made better by another Republican President, his 
son, George W. Bush. Jim Sensenbrenner. But let me mention someone that 
many of you may not know who are recently here. Steve Bartlett, 
Congressman from Texas, became the mayor of Dallas, worked with me 
almost every day for almost a full year in making sure that when we 
adopted the Americans with Disabilities Act it would be workable, 
affordable, and effective.
  Jim Langevin, you are an example of that effectiveness. So I thank 
you, as I said at the beginning, because you are a representative of 
literally millions of Americans who had the courage, the tenacity, and 
the vision to come to Washington or to come to town meetings, to see 
people in their districts and talk to them about the challenges that 
they confronted.
  So this is a great day to recognize what 20 years ago we, who had the 
privilege of being here, working with President George Herbert Walker 
Bush, had the opportunity to do.
  The young man to which I referred was just brought in--you are his 
Congressman, or is Mike? In any event, Mike and Walt Minnick represent 
this young man.
  Jim Sensenbrenner and I and Jim Langevin were with the President a 
little earlier today. And I took out my cell phone and I punched ``D'' 
on my phone, and I dialed the phone and I said, ``Hello, Bob,'' because 
Senator Dole was a critical person in passing this legislation. I 
passed the phone to President Obama, and President Obama said, ``We're 
keeping the faith. What you wrought, we're going to continue to make 
even better.''

[[Page H6023]]

  Thank you, Jim Langevin. Thank all of those who have a disability who 
made this happen. God bless you.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, our distinguished majority leader referenced 
that we had a special guest here today. I want to acknowledge the 
presence of Mr. Minnick's guest, Corporal Randal Wright. He lost both 
legs and a hand in Afghanistan.
  I think it's important that we have this juxtapositioning. As Mr. 
Patrick Kennedy said today in his remarks, we have many of our brave 
men and women in uniform who are fighting the fight for our country. 
They come home, many of them, with physical disabilities. We want them 
all to think about serving in Congress.
  So this, Corporal Randal Wright, is about you and your colleagues as 
well. Mr. Langevin has led the way. We want to take this opportunity to 
thank you for your patriotism, your courage, and your sacrifice for our 
country.

                              {time}  1900

  I want to thank Mr. Minnick and Mr. Marshall, the author of the 
Veterans Disabilities Act, for bringing Corporal Wright here. And Steny 
tells me that Corporal Wright got married this week as well.
  So, my colleagues, once again let us congratulate Mr. Langevin for 
presiding with such dignity over the House on this historic day. 
Congratulations and thank you.

                          ____________________