[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6391-S6392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I rise to highlight the significance of the 
many events and announcements occurring around the country to celebrate 
the enactment of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. This week in 
Wisconsin, disability advocates are holding multiple events around the 
State to commemorate the signing of the law on July 26, 1990, at a 
White House ceremony by President George H.W. Bush.
  Disability advocates, employers, State and local officials, and 
policymakers are speaking about and reflecting on how they have worked 
together and joined forces during the last two decades to make major 
changes in housing, in transportation, and in health and social 
services.
  There is much discussion in the news and online about the ADA as 
well. In an online video entitled ``We Came Together: Wisconsin 
Reflects on the ADA's 20th Anniversary,'' one Wisconsin disability 
rights advocate, Dick Pomo, observes that ``disability today is simply 
a fact of life--not a way of life.'' This statement is testament to the 
hard work of millions of Americans who have come together over the last 
several decades, and who have journeyed to State capitals and 
Washington, DC, to deliver the message that they wanted to participate 
fully in society. Simply put, they did not take ``no'' for an answer.
  I am also reminded that in the Senate the ADA is one of the legacies 
of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, with whom I worked to see that this 
civil rights bill became the law of the land. The House of 
Representatives experienced a milestone this week when Representative 
Jim Langevin of Rhode Island was able to preside over the House because 
the Speaker's rostrum--a raised platform--had been made wheelchair 
accessible. This is a wonderful and public symbol of accessibility, a 
core principle of the ADA.
  There are many other concrete, visible gains: kneeling buses, 
sidewalks and driveways with curb cuts, crosswalks with traffic lights 
that make audible noises to signal when it is safe to walk, and 
elevators and ramps that have been artfully worked into the structure 
of new buildings and even many historic ones. For all this and much 
more, I salute the tirelessness and tenacity of disability advocates 
across the country who have joined forces to make American society far 
more open and accessible to all.
  As chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, I know that many of 
these changes will also be of enormous benefit to our now rapidly aging 
society. Equally important are a series of changes that are now 
transforming the way health and social services are delivered to those 
with lifelong disabilities, as well as to older Americans whose 
disabilities are age related.
  One such key program, known as Money Follows the Person, is a 
Medicaid demonstration initiative in which Wisconsin has participated 
since 2003. This program allows States to transition beneficiaries in 
nursing homes to community-based living situations if they wish to do 
so. Funds are used for various purposes--for example, for ramps, 
clothes, equipment and furniture. In Wisconsin, funds have been used to 
reduce the number of nursing facility beds and to track spending on 
long-term care services and supports on an individual level. The State 
has also applied for additional funding under the health reform law's 
expansion of Money Follows the Person, which is slated to provide $2.25 
billion in new funding through 2016.
  Another program that has been central to Wisconsin's growing success 
in making long-term services both more available and more focused on 
each person's individual needs is its Aging and Disability Resource 
Center initiative. State officials started ADRCs in 1998 in 8 of the 
State's 72 counties, and they have been gradually spreading and opening 
in new counties ever since. The goal is to have a statewide network of 
ADRCs in place by 2012, operated either by county government or 
nonprofit organizations. Often called the ``front door'' of long-term 
care, ADRCs are charged with serving all State residents by providing 
them with unbiased, comprehensive information about what services and 
options are available to them, and, where appropriate, with eligibility 
and enrollment information for the Medicaid Family Care managed long-
term care program.
  I am pleased that the Obama administration has made ADRCs--which were 
pioneered in Wisconsin--an important part of their efforts to make 
long-term services and supports a much more well-defined and well-
understood part of our health care system. This is consistent with the 
intent and language of the ADA, and also with the Supreme Court's 
Olmstead v. L.C. decision of a decade ago, asserting that involuntary 
institutionalization of people with disabilities was discriminatory 
under the ADA. I commend U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services 
Kathleen Sebelius for her efforts to engage States in the complex and 
critical tasks of improving the availability of community-based long-
term services and supports, while simultaneously improving the quality 
and accountability of services that are provided in nursing homes.
  One of my constituents recently shared with me a story that 
demonstrates both how important the ADA has been to people with 
disabilities, and also how far we still have to work toward a more 
inclusive and accessible society. Steve Verriden has been a 
quadriplegic for 35 years, the result of a dive into a lake when he was 
just 23 years old. Following his life-changing accident, he spent years 
in a nursing home before he was able to use a community integration 
waiver to transition to home-based assistance. With his new 
independence, Steve was also able to go back to school to complete a 
degree in journalism.
  Steve has experienced how the ADA has changed the lives of people 
with disabilities, literally opening doors that were before 
inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and with severe disabilities. As 
Steve transitioned out of facility living and returned to school before 
the ADA was passed, he knows what it was like to have to wait in the 
cold for someone to open a door for

[[Page S6392]]

him, hope the classes he needed to take would be offered on a 
wheelchair-accessible building, and rely on friends to drive him and 
his wheelchair around before kneeling buses came along. Steve has since 
worked with an Independent Living Center, recruiting and helping people 
with disabilities transition from nursing homes back into the 
community, and sharing his personal insights with others in order to 
help them live more fulfilling and independent lives.
  At the ADA's 20-year mark, it is clear that while we have 
accomplished a great deal, much change still lies ahead. The Aging 
Committee will continue to monitor implementation of health care reform 
initiatives that are designed to improve the quality of life for older 
adults, and will examine and explore new best practices and other 
efforts that can create better services, housing, and employment 
opportunities for the millions of Americans with disabilities.

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