[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16487-16488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to comment this evening to 
this body on the 10th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities 
Act.
  I want to make a quote: ``I now lift my pen to sign the Americans 
With Disabilities Act and say, let the shameful wall of exclusion 
finally come tumbling down.''
  That was spoken by President Bush on July 26, 1990. Mr. Speaker, I 
rise today to reflect on how far we as a Nation have come since that 
summer day 10 years ago when I was honored to be an original cosponsor 
of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
  Today, I joined another President and disability advocates at the 
F.D.R. Memorial, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, to 
commemorate this landmark law.
  I want to discuss a little bit what has happened in the decade since 
its enactment, but I would like to recognize for about 40 seconds the 
distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas), who would like 
to make a comment.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I join with the gentlewoman in the 
celebration of the moment of the 10 years of good times spent in 
developing the Americans With Disabilities Act. I was on the committee, 
as I still am, on the Committee on the Judiciary, when we had the first 
hearing; and one of the principal witnesses, some may remember, was 
Attorney General, then Attorney General Dick Thornberg in the Bush 
administration, speaking for the Bush administration, endorsing the 
Americans With Disabilities Act, and bringing into play not only his 
personal and professional endorsement of it for the Bush 
administration, but also because he himself as a father has undergone 
problems in the family with people with disabilities.
  So we had a merging, during that committee, of all of the elements 
that are necessary to make the Americans With Disabilities Act work, 
namely, that the administration, whatever administration it is, always 
is behind it; number two, that spokesmen for the administration now and 
in the future will be developing programs with the Americans With 
Disabilities Act; and, third, to recognize that members of our own 
families and neighbors and friends are all subject to the benefits of 
the Americans With Disabilities Act.
  I thank the gentlewoman.

                              {time}  1730

  Mrs. MORELLA. Yes, Mr. Speaker, in the decade since its enactment, 
the ADA has changed the social fabric of our Nation. It has brought the 
principle of disability civil rights into the mainstream of public 
policy. In fact, the law, coupled with the disability rights movement, 
has fundamentally changed the way Americans perceive disability.
  ADA placed disability discrimination alongside race gender 
discrimination, and exposed the common experiences of prejudice and 
segregation, and provided a cornerstone for the elimination of 
disability discrimination in this country.
  The passage of ADA resulted from a long struggle by Americans with 
disabilities to bring an end to their inferior status and unequal 
protection under law. It is well documented the severe social, 
vocational, economic, and educational disadvantages of people with 
disabilities.
  Besides widespread discrimination in employment, housing and public 
accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, I 
could go on, institutionalization, health services, voting, and access 
to public services, people with disabilities faced the additional 
burden of having little or no legal recourse to redress their 
exclusion.
  Mr. Speaker, over the past decade, ADA has become a symbol of the 
promise of human and civil rights. It has brought change and access to 
the architectural and telecommunications landscape of the United 
States. It has created increased recognition and understanding of the 
manner in which the physical and social environment can pose 
discriminatory barriers to people with disabilities.
  I want to point out that we have been making some strides. My 
Subcommittee on Technology passed and allows Congress significant 
assistive technology which was included in the budget. Just last week, 
a commission on the advancement of women, minorities, and persons with 
disabilities in science, engineering, and technology established under 
my legislation in the last Congress did a roll-out of their 
recommendations. We are hoping to pull together a public-private 
partnership so that we can give more access and opportunity to persons 
with disabilities.
  ADA is not self-acting in ensuring its provisions are fully enforced.
  The Federal Government commitment to the full implementation of ADA 
and its effective enforcement is essential to fulfill the law's 
promises. Although this country has consistently asserted its strong 
support for the civil rights of people with disabilities, many of the 
Federal agencies charged with enforcement and policy development under 
ADA, to varying degrees, have been overly cautious, reactive and 
lacking any coherent and unifying national strategy.
  Enforcement efforts are largely shaped by a case-by-case approach 
based on individual complaints rather than an approach based on 
compliance monitoring and a cohesive, proactive enforcement strategy.
  In addition, enforcement agencies have not consistently taken 
leadership roles in clarifying frontier or emergent issues, issues 
that, even after nearly 10 years of enforcement, continue to be 
controversial, complex, unexpected, and challenging.
  Mr. Speaker, for ADA to be effective, this needs to be changed.
  There is something ADA cannot legislate, and that is attitude. There 
is a saying with the disability community: ``Attitude is the real 
disability.'' The attitude toward employment of people with 
disabilities has to change.

[[Page 16488]]

  In closing, President Bush said it best at the signing of the ADA. He 
said, ``This Act is powerful in its simplicity. It will ensure that 
people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for which they 
have worked so long and so hard. Independence, freedom of choice, 
control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into 
the right mosaic of the American mainstream.'' Let us remember that.

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