[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13785-13798]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ENACTMENT OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 
                                  1990

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 591, which the 
clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 591) recognizing and honoring the 
     20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with 
     Disabilities Act of 1990.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there 
will be 2 hours of debate, with the time equally divided and controlled 
between the Senator from Iowa, Mr. Harkin, and the Senator from 
Wyoming, Mr. Enzi, or their designees.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask 
unanimous consent that the time be equally charged against both sides.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.


                    Small Business Lending Fund Act

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Republicans today will continue to 
look for a way forward on the small business bill. This is an 
opportunity to deliver some real relief to small businesses struggling 
to dig themselves out of the recession.
  Ultimately, Democrats seem to have other priorities. In the middle of 
a debt crisis, Democrats cannot seem to pass trillion-dollar spending 
bills fast enough. In the middle of a jobs crisis, they continue to 
push one bill after another containing job-stifling taxes, new rules 
and regulations, and government intrusion into business.
  Their signature piece of jobs legislation appears to be a bill that 
borrows $34 billion from our grandchildren to

[[Page 13786]]

help folks who cannot find a job in the environment Democrats have 
created over the last year and a half.
  This small business bill gives us an opportunity to have a real jobs 
debate. But Democrats clearly do not want to have that debate. That is 
why they have repeatedly pulled this bill from the floor to move on to 
what they consider more important things or to get together downtown to 
pat themselves on the back after signing another job-killing bill.
  Let's have a real debate about jobs. Let's consider amendments that 
would help small businesses--amendments like the one Senator Johanns 
wants to offer to eliminate a burdensome paperwork mandate and that 
small businesses are pleading with us to approve.
  Our leader on the Small Business Committee, Senator Snowe, is 
fighting to keep a provision out of this bill that amounts to another 
bailout. Members of both sides oppose it.
  There is no evidence this new lending program will work. Even the 
Congressional Oversight Panel has expressed skepticism it will even be 
effective in increasing small business lending. The panel's report is 
skeptical it will improve access to credit. Moreover, the panel says 
this provision looks uncomfortably similar to the TARP bailout.
  The problem banks and small businesses are facing is not that they 
don't have incentive to lend; it is that the government is threatening 
them with a 2,300-page bill full of new rules and regulations while 
their customers--small businesses--are threatened by pending tax hikes 
and more government intrusion.
  For more than a year and a half, the President and his Democratic 
allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an antibusiness, antijobs agenda on 
the American people in the form of one massive government intrusion 
after another. Then there is a celebration. Here is an opportunity to 
have a real debate about job creation. Here is an opportunity to do 
something that might actually make a positive difference.
  Small business owners are already being hammered by the health care 
bill. They are about to get hammered by the financial regulatory bill. 
It is time to do something they actually want for a change.
  The American people are connecting the dots. They don't think the 
financial regulatory bill will solve the problems in the financial 
sector any more than they think the health care bill will be able to 
lower costs or lead to better care; any more than the stimulus lowered 
unemployment.
  Republicans had offered amendments that would create the conditions 
for real private sector job growth. If Democrats shared this priority, 
this bill would have been law by now. Instead, they seem committed to 
the same approach that has led to 3 million lost jobs in the past year 
and a half.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I have come to the floor today--and we 
have a couple hours now--to introduce a Senate resolution which is now 
at the desk recognizing and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 
Americans With Disabilities Act. Twenty years ago, the ADA was a great 
bipartisan legislative initiative. I am pleased this resolution also 
enjoys broad bipartisan support. I am grateful to all those who have 
cosponsored this resolution, including my chief cosponsor, Senator 
Hatch, and 31 other Senators.
  Other Senators who are watching and would like to be added as 
cosponsors, I ask them to please call their respective cloakrooms and 
we will add their names to the list. Right now, I think we are at 22 or 
23.
  The Americans With Disabilities Act--signed into law on January 26, 
1990--has been described as the Emancipation Proclamation for people 
with disabilities. The ADA set four goals for people with disabilities: 
Equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic 
self-sufficiency. But as the chief Senate sponsor of the ADA, I can 
tell my colleagues that at its heart, the ADA is very simple. In the 
words of one disability rights advocate, this landmark law is about 
securing for people with disabilities the most fundamental of rights: 
``The right to live in the world.'' It is about ensuring that people 
with disabilities can go places and do things that other Americans take 
for granted.
  I will always remember a young woman by the name of Danette Crawford 
from Des Moines, IA. In 1990, she was just 14 years old. She used a 
wheelchair. She lived with constant great pain, but she worked and 
campaigned hard for passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. 
When I told her the ADA would mean better educational opportunities, 
prevent discrimination in the workplace, better mobility--I was going 
through all these things the ADA would do--Danette said to me:

       Those things are very important. But, you know, what I 
     really want to do is just be able to go out and buy a pair of 
     shoes like anybody else.

  Well, two decades later, people with disabilities can do that and so 
much more.
  Our society is so dynamic and changes so rapidly that we are often 
oblivious to quiet revolutions taking place in our midst. One such 
revolution has been unfolding for the last 20 years since the signing 
of the Americans With Disabilities Act. How soon we forget that, prior 
to ADA, Americans with disabilities routinely faced prejudice, 
discrimination, and exclusion, not to mention the physical barriers to 
movement and access in their everyday lives. In hearings prior to 
passing the law in 1990, we heard heartbreaking testimony about the 
obstacles and the discrimination that people with disabilities 
encountered every day of their lives. We heard stories of Americans who 
had to crawl on their hands and knees to go up a flight of stairs or to 
gain access to their local swimming pool, who couldn't ride on a bus 
because there was no lift, who couldn't go to a concert or a ball game 
with their families because there was no accessible seating, who 
couldn't even cross the street in a wheelchair because there were no 
curb cuts. In short, we heard thousands of stories about people who 
were denied ``the right to live in the world.''
  The reach and the triumph of the ADA revolution is all around us. It 
has become a part of America. Today, streets, buildings--think about 
this--every building designed and built in America since the passage of 
the ADA is fully accessible--every building. Sports arenas. I just went 
to a sports arena the other day for a ball game and everything is 
accessible. There is seating for people, where they can sit with their 
families--not segregated out someplace, but they can sit with their 
families. The same is true in movie theaters. Transportation systems: 
Every bus delivered in America today is fully accessible. It has a 
lift--every single bus. All our Metro systems today are fully 
accessible. But that is not all. Information is offered in alternative 
formats so it is usable by individuals with visual or hearing 
impairments. New communications and information technologies that are 
accessible to people with disabilities continue to be developed. It is 
hard to imagine we lived in a time without closed captioning on 
television. Think about it. I will talk more about my brother Frank, 
who is deaf and who never could understand what was on TV until we got 
closed captioning. That is what I mean. New technologies, new ways of 
doing things are now making life so much better. Thanks to the 
employment provisions in the ADA, many individuals with disabilities 
can get reasonable accommodations so they can do a job, they can get 
assistive technology, accessible work environments or more flexible 
work schedules.
  But the ADA is more than accessible buildings and books that speak 
and traffic lights that talk to you. It is also hundreds of stories of 
opportunities and hope.
  These changes are all around us. They are so integrated into our 
daily lives that sometimes it is hard to remember how the world was 
before.
  Just as important, we have seen a big change in attitudes--
attitudes--toward people with disabilities. Our expectation is we will 
do what it takes to give individuals with disabilities not just

[[Page 13787]]

physical access but equal opportunity in our schools, in our 
workplaces, and in all areas of our economy and our society. The 
attitudes are so different today. A lot of it has to do also with the 
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act which preceded the ADA 
because now kids go to school with kids with disabilities. Kids grow up 
with kids with disabilities, so it is no big deal if they work 
alongside them later on. So the whole attitude has changed on how we 
deal in our society with people with disabilities. Perhaps that may be 
one of the biggest changes of all.
  It is important for us to remember also--with all the political 
firefights that go on around here and the partisan bickering that goes 
on around here all the time that we bemoan--it is important to remember 
the passage of the ADA was a bipartisan effort and a bipartisan 
victory. Here in the Senate, I worked shoulder to shoulder with Senator 
Bob Dole and others from both sides of the aisle. We had invaluable 
assistance from Senator Kennedy, Senator Hatch, who will be speaking 
shortly, Senator McCain, and others, including leaders who are no 
longer in this body, people such as Dave Durenberger and Lowell 
Weicker. The final Senate vote on the ADA conference report was 91 yeas 
and only 6 nays.
  I just mentioned Senators Hatch and McCain. I also wish, at this 
point, to mention the other Senators currently serving who voted for 
the ADA conference report on July 13 of 1990. They are Senators Akaka, 
Baucus, Bingaman, Cochran, Conrad, Dodd, Grassley, Inouye, Kerry, Kohl, 
Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Lugar, McConnell, Mikulski, 
Specter, and Reid. That is truly, I believe, a roll of honor.
  As I said, one of those who helped manage the bill when we put it 
through back in 1990 and who has always been there helping to make sure 
we did this in a bipartisan fashion, get the bill through, and get it 
signed is Senator Orrin Hatch. Later, we worked together on the ADA Act 
amendments that we just passed 3 years ago and that President Bush 
signed just 3 years ago. I couldn't ask for a better friend personally, 
but people with disabilities couldn't ask for a better friend either 
than the distinguished Senator from Utah, Mr. Orrin Hatch.
  I yield the floor at this time to Senator Hatch.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I thank my dear colleague for his kind 
remarks. I remember those days we spent on this floor, and the days 
before that, when we had to convince people throughout the Congress 
that this was the right thing to do; that civil rights for persons with 
disabilities were absolutely necessary if we were going to be a 
gracious and understanding country, setting an example for all the rest 
of the world.
  I remember when Senator Harkin and I, after the vote, walked out into 
the anteroom out there, and there were hundreds of persons with 
disabilities in their wheelchairs and crutches, with various forms of 
disability, and both of us stood there and broke down and cried--two 
tough guys. You know that Senator Harkin was a pilot and went through 
the war and has a tremendous reputation. I have been tough--too tough 
for some people around here--from time to time. But we both broke down 
and cried. And they cried. It was such a wonderful day, as far as I am 
concerned.
  I thank my dear colleague from Iowa for his leadership in this 
matter. He mentioned all of the others we both want to recognize today. 
I will not repeat those. I will incorporate that in my remarks today.
  This is a very special anniversary. Twenty years ago last week, we 
stood on the floor of the Senate and voted 91 to 6 to pass the 
Americans with Disabilities Act. Twenty years ago next Monday, 
President George H.W. Bush signed it into law.
  The ADA is landmark civil rights legislation that represents our 
ongoing commitment to equality and opportunity for our fellow citizens 
who suffer with disabilities. The ADA is a special type of civil rights 
statute. On the negative side, it prohibits discrimination and provides 
for remedies when wrongs occur. But more important, on the positive 
side, the ADA requires reasonable accommodation for individuals with 
disabilities in the areas covered by the statute, such as employment. 
This accommodation obligation is what quite literally opens doors and 
keeps them open, improving lives in innumerable practical ways on a 
daily basis.
  The original ADA in 1990 and the revision enacted 2 years ago are 
examples of both how hard legislating can be and the results sticking 
with it can produce. I know of few policy areas in which--on the 
surface, at least--political or ideological interests appear to be more 
at odds. I also know of few policy areas in which the objectives are 
more important and for which a deep and broad consensus is more crucial 
to achieve those objectives. Keeping our eyes on the goal helped keep 
everybody willing to listen, to compromise, and to do what had never 
been done before. The result has been a transformation in attitudes, 
perceptions, and actions throughout our society that have helped make 
countless lives better.
  These two statutes, ADA and the ADA Amendments Act, also demonstrate 
that it is Congress that is responsible for national disability policy. 
Lawsuits, of course, bring the courts into the picture, and the Supreme 
Court was called upon to construe and apply the ADA on some questions 
the ADA itself did not clearly or directly address. I, for one, believe 
the courts must take statutes as they are and may not make or change 
them in order to achieve certain results. But whether or not the Court 
did its part properly, the Constitution gives the power to legislate to 
Congress. That is why, even if the Court had not had any such cases at 
all, we have the authority and the ongoing responsibility to establish, 
revise, and refine laws that help Americans with disabilities. That 
responsibility will never end.
  I am pleased with my role in developing and passing both the ADA and 
the ADA Amendments Act. I am pleased to have been able to partner with 
my friend Senator Harkin from Iowa. I am proud to stand here today with 
that friend, Senator Harkin, without whom these statutes would not have 
been possible. I know these are more than simply statutes, more than 
pieces of legislation; it is what they represent--our ongoing 
commitment to making sure individuals with disabilities can participate 
in the American dream--that makes these statutes so important and this 
anniversary so very special.
  I have seen those who are blind now taken care of, in many cases. I 
have seen those with various disabilities who are able to get jobs and 
show they are capable--not only capable but better than capable--of 
doing some things people never thought they could do. I have seen 
persons with serious disabilities who have become productive members of 
our society because they have been given a chance. I have seen persons 
of courage in this area that I have never seen before, who literally 
live with their disabilities every day with smiles on their face, with 
an ability to be able to encourage others, and with an exemplary 
approach to life that makes all of us better people. I think these 
things have been magnified and blessed by these two acts that my 
colleague and I and others have been able to put through. I am proud of 
what we have done. I believe millions of people are better off because 
of what we have done.
  This is a very appropriate thing to do--to recognize the Americans 
with Disabilities Act, and the other statute as well, so that everybody 
in this country realizes they are part of making these statutes work. I 
am so pleased with all of our American citizens who have pitched in and 
done what they could, from architects, to engineers, to skilled 
tradesmen, as I used to be, who have really made it possible for people 
to not only embrace life but to be a part of life and to be able to 
have the accessibility they never had before, and we are a better 
nation for it. Our people are better for it. Above all, these folks who 
have suffered with disabilities, who are so courageous, are better for 
it.

[[Page 13788]]

  I will never forget, I mentioned when we passed the original ADA that 
I carried my brother-in-law, who was afflicted with both types of polio 
and, of course, lived in an iron lung but went on to get his college 
degree in engineering and a master's degree in electrical engineering--
he worked for Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier in Las Vegas, went to 
work every day and at night got into an iron lung at home. He was a 
member of my Mormon faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints, and I can remember carrying him, with his very light weight, 
through the Los Angeles Temple for church. It was meaningful to both 
him and me. I carried him in my arms all the way through that temple. 
It was a spiritual experience for both of us.
  I have seen so many others who have suffered from disabilities whose 
lives have been improved and are better because of what has been done 
in the Congress of the United States. Again, I pay tribute to my friend 
Senator Harkin. He understands this as well as anybody and has played a 
significant and perfect role in helping to bring these things to pass. 
I have nothing but respect and great love for my colleague and for the 
others who voted for this particular bill. I am glad to be able to 
support this resolution, to cosponsor it, and I hope and pray that all 
of us will continue to help those who may not be as fortunate as are 
we, who suffer from disabilities, and realize that they are just as 
productive in our society, in most ways, as we are.
  I am grateful to be able to stand here today and make these comments.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa is 
recognized.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, let me say to my friend, I was proud to 
stand with the Senator from Utah 20 years ago. We stood here together. 
We got the bill through. I remember so vividly, in my mind's eye, when 
we walked out to that anteroom. I mean, few people are blessed in their 
lifetimes to have that kind of a moment where something so meaningful 
was done and to see so many people whose lives before that were stunted 
because they didn't have the accessibility. Now to see this sort of 
wall come tumbling down--I remember our association so well.
  I know my friend would agree this was not a slam dunk; it was not a 
very easy thing that we brought out on one day and it just happened. 
Senator Hatch and I worked on this for years. It took a long time to 
work out. But through the good faith of people on all sides with whom 
we worked--the disability rights community, all the different 
disability groups, and the chamber of commerce supported the bill--in 
the end, we worked together to bring everybody together. But it was a 
long process, as the Senator remembers.
  Mr. HATCH. It was.
  Mr. HARKIN. I say to my friend from Utah, I cherish those memories. I 
was honored to stand with him 20 years ago. I am honored to stand with 
him again today. I cherish the friendship we have developed over all 
those years. The Senator from Utah is a true friend, not only 
personally but also professionally, and he has always lent his weight 
and his seniority and his expertise in the Senate to making sure people 
with disabilities have that same equal opportunity and equal access. I 
think maybe both of us, because of our brothers who were disabled, were 
affected greatly. I think it imbued us both with a spirit of working 
hard to make sure people with disabilities had all the access and all 
the opportunities everybody else enjoyed. I thank my friend for his 
statement, and, more than that, I thank him for his great support of 
people with disabilities through all of his lifetime.
  Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I thank the Senator for his kind remarks, 
but I also recognize his great leadership. This is a complex set of 
issues. We had complexities among the groups. We had to bring them all 
together and work with them. We had to try to resolve conflicts between 
liberals and conservatives, as usual. We also had to work very 
carefully with various personalities. But we were able to get it done. 
In large measure, it was due to the work of my friend from Iowa. I 
think people in the disability community and really throughout the 
country ought to be very grateful for what he has done. I am grateful 
to have been able to have played a small role in helping him to do it.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, it was not a small role; the Senator 
from Utah played a gigantic role in making sure we got this done. 
Working to get the ADA Amendments Act passed 3 years ago--we worked on 
that for something like 4 years to get it done. We were down at the 
White House, and it is interesting that the first President Bush signed 
the first ADA into law and the second President Bush signed the ADA 
Amendments Act into law. That is an interesting juxtaposition--father 
and son.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mr. HATCH. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I mentioned earlier all of the Members 
of the Senate who have been so helpful.
  On the House side, we prevailed because of outstanding leadership of 
people such as Congressmen Steny Hoyer, Tony Coelho, and Steve 
Bartlett, a Republican leader in the House at that time. The final vote 
was 377 to 27 in the House.
  At the White House, Boyden Grey, counsel to President George H.W. 
Bush, worked with us every step of the way. As I have said so many 
times, without Boyden Grey being there, we could not have gotten this 
done. I am always grateful to him for his leadership, working from the 
White House with us.
  One other person who was with us every step of the way and continues 
to provide so much leadership in the area of disability rights is then-
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh.
  What a champion he was and is. I should not put it in the past tense. 
Dick Thornburgh remains today one of the preeminent people in America 
who keeps focus on what we are doing in society to make sure that 
people with disabilities have full access and opportunity.
  Then there is the disability rights community. This would not have 
happened without the tireless, courageous, and unstoppable work of so 
many activists in the disability community. I think of people such as 
Ed Roberts, now passed on, Bob Williams, Pat Wright, Wade Blank--so 
many others. Of course, everyone recognizes the indispensable 
leadership of the late Justin Dart who was the chairperson of the 
President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Only 
one person's name is specifically mentioned in the resolution on which 
we will be voting this morning, and that name is Justin Dart.
  As I have said many times, I may have been the principal author of 
the ADA, but Justin Dart was the father of the ADA and history will 
recognize and honor his great contribution.
  Here was an individual who used a wheelchair most of his life, who 
was unstoppable. Justin Dart traveled to every single State in this 
Nation more than once, well over 100 different cities and communities, 
to promote the Americans with Disabilities Act for about 2 or 3 years 
prior to us bringing it up, to get that kind of national support for 
it. He was everywhere, and he would never give up. We remember Justin 
Dart as the father of the ADA.
  No listing of those who made the ADA possible would be complete 
without also talking about my disability counsel at the time, Bobby 
Silverstein. Again, he was tireless in his work in both the drafting 
and the revising. As Senator Hatch and I were reminiscing, there was 
not even agreement among disability groups on how to do this. We would 
come up with a draft. We would meet with disability groups. We would 
have to revise it. We would meet with other disability groups. We would 
have to revise it. We would meet with business groups. We would have to 
revise it, and on and on.
  Slowly, methodically, tirelessly, we got it done, and Bobby 
Silverstein was there every step of the way, as I said, drafting, 
revising, making sure we did not lose sight of the goals, making sure 
we had a bill that could muster bipartisan support. No words of mine 
can express the deep gratitude I have to Bobby Silverstein for all he 
did to make this possible.

[[Page 13789]]

  I will never forget the pre-ADA America. I remember how it used to be 
perfectly acceptable to treat people with disabilities as second-class 
citizens, exclude them and marginalize them.
  I will digress a bit and talk about my brother Frank, who was the 
inspiration for all of my work on disabilities both in the House before 
I came to the Senate and in the Senate.
  My brother Frank passed away 10 years ago, a month before the 10th 
anniversary of the ADA. He always said he was sorry the ADA was not 
there for him, but he was glad it is here now for the younger 
generation, for those who are now coming so they would have a better 
future.
  My brother lost his hearing at a very early age. Actually, he was 
about 6 years old. At that time, there were no mainstream schools, so 
he was taken from his family. We lived in a small town. He was taken 
from the family and shipped halfway across the State to the Iowa School 
for the Deaf.
  Think about how traumatic this would be. First of all, you lose your 
hearing. You cannot hear anything because of spinal meningitis. Then 
all of a sudden he is picked up, taken away from home, and sent to a 
school over by Omaha. Think how traumatic that is for a little kid.
  In school--and I remember people always spoke about my brother being 
at the school for the deaf and dumb. Young people do not realize this, 
but it used to be very permissible, when I was the age of the pages, 
for people to speak about people who were deaf as deaf and dumb. 
Schools for the deaf were referred to as schools for the deaf and dumb.
  I will never forget my brother coming home from school once--it was 
later on when he was in high school--and people were referring to that. 
They would actually ask him: How are things going at the school for the 
deaf and dumb?
  My brother would say: I may be deaf but I am not dumb. He refused, he 
stubbornly refused--he was kind of a stubborn guy, my brother was--he 
stubbornly refused to accept the cloak that society put on him.
  In school, he was told he could be one of three things. He could be a 
baker, a printer's assistant, or a shoe cobbler. He said he did not 
want to be any of those things. They said: OK, you are going to be a 
baker then. So they made him into a baker. That is not what he wanted 
to do, but that is what they said.
  He kept fighting. He kept fighting against it. I remember once when I 
was younger--he was now out of school--he went to a store. I will never 
forget this. When the sales person found out he was deaf and could not 
hear, she looked right through him at me and asked me what he wanted. 
How do I know what he wants? Ask him. That is the way people were 
treated.
  He went to get a driver's license. He was told deaf people do not 
drive. He broke that barrier down, too. He got a driver's license and 
bought a car.
  I remember when my brother finally found employment at a plant called 
Delavan Corporation. I got to know Mr. Delavan later on when I was in 
high school and later on when I was in college. He went out of his way 
to hire people who were disabled. It was a manufacturing facility with 
a lot of noise. So he hired a lot of deaf people. They did not care if 
it was noisy.
  My brother got a good job running a very delicate machine that 
drilled tiny little holes in engines for jet engine nozzles. It had to 
be finely made. Later on, when I was a Navy pilot, I found out the 
planes I was flying at the time were using the very nozzles made by my 
brother.
  I came home one time for Christmas--my brother never got married. I 
was not married at the time--I came home for Christmas. Delavan always 
had a big Christmas dinner for all of the workers. I went with my 
brother to the Christmas dinner. Lo and behold, unbeknownst to either 
one of us, they honored him that night because he had worked there 10 
years and in 10 years, he had not missed one day of work or late one 
day. They gave him a nice gold watch. It was very nice. In the 23 years 
my brother worked there, he missed 3 days of work because of a 
blizzard. He could not make it.
  I tell that story for a couple of reasons. One, because I am very 
proud of my brother, but also because so many people I have talked 
with--employers who have employed people with disabilities--will tell 
you that the hardest workers, the most loyal workers, the most 
productive workers they have are many times people with disabilities. 
But they have to get over the hurdle of hiring them in the first place. 
With a little bit of support, some accessibility issues, maybe 
modifying the workplace a little bit, we can get a lot done and they 
can be the best workers.
  I have one more story about my brother I have to relate, since I have 
the floor, and he was such an inspiration to me.
  I was elected to the Senate in 1984. I was sworn in January 1985. No 
one in my family had ever been in politics. First of all, to be a 
Congressman is one thing, but to be a Senator--wow. My whole family 
came for the swearing in, and my brother Frank. I remember I put him in 
this gallery right behind me. This was January 1985. I put him up 
there, and I had gotten an interpreter, a sign language interpreter. I 
had gotten an interpreter for my brother for this gallery right back 
here. I got him seated up there, and I came back down on the floor. I 
looked up and I saw one of my other brothers--one of my hearing 
brothers--motioning to me. So I went back up there.
  My brother John said the guard would not let the interpreter stand up 
there. I went out to see the guard, the doorkeeper. I said: My brother 
needs an interpreter. No, we cannot allow people to stand in the 
gallery and interpret.
  I said: It can't be so.
  Rules are rules.
  I came down to the floor. At that time, Senator Bob Dole was the 
majority leader of the Senate. Senator Dole had a disability himself 
because of his war wounds and his maiden speech on the Senate floor 
when he was first elected was about disability rights. I go to the 
majority leader, the Republican leader. I did not know him that well. I 
said: Mr. Leader, here is the situation. My brother is up there. I am 
being sworn in. He needs an interpreter and they will not let the 
interpreter in.
  Senator Dole said: I will take care of it. He did, and we got the 
interpreter.
  Now we have places for people with disabilities to come and sit with 
their families. We have interpreters. We have closed captioning. No 
longer do we discriminate against people who are deaf or disabled and 
want to come into the Capitol.
  So many changes have been made to the Capitol. We have a full office 
in the Capitol now just for people with disabilities to take tours of 
the Capitol. We have interpreters for people who are blind. We have bas 
relief models of all the floors so as they go through the main Rotunda, 
the Old Senate Chamber, the House Chamber, the old Supreme Court, they 
can feel with their hands what it looks like. It is all accessible now.
  I talk about the things that happened to my brother. It sounds like 
something out of the medieval past. We are hopefully overcoming--I do 
not say we are complete--we are overcoming this false dichotomy between 
disabled and able. We recognize that people with disabilities, like 
everyone, have unique aptitudes, unique abilities, talents. And we know 
America is a better and a fairer and richer nation when we make full 
use of the gifts people have.
  One of the things that ADA has done is it has infused in so many 
people the idea that we should look at people not for their 
disabilities but what are they able to do, what are their abilities. Do 
not tell me what your disabilities are. What are your abilities? That 
is a major step forward.
  The day the ADA passed I can honestly say was the proudest day of my 
legislative career. I also say to the occupant of the Chair, I stood at 
this podium at that time and gave my entire speech in sign language. 
Senator Bob Kerrey, a Senator from Nebraska, was the occupant of the 
chair at the time. He has never forgotten that. I guess maybe I haven't 
either. It was the first time anyone ever gave a long-winded

[[Page 13790]]

speech on the Senate floor and no one ever heard him. Perhaps a lot of 
people wish we would do that more often.
  It was a great day. I think every Senator who was there who voted yes 
can look back 20 years with enormous pride in this achievement. We were 
present at the creation, but it had a robust life of its own. It has 
been integrated into the very fabric of American life. It has changed 
lives and changed our Nation. It has made the American dream possible 
for tens of millions of people who used to be trapped--trapped--in a 
nightmare of prejudice and exclusion.
  I am reluctant in many ways to detract from the joy that we all feel 
about what has happened over the last 20 years and how far we have come 
in our country. But I am obliged to point out, because of my close 
association with so many people in the disability community and so many 
different parts of the disability community, that the promise of the 
Americans with Disabilities Act is not quite complete.
  When we passed the ADA we had four goals: equal opportunity, 
independent living, full participation, economic self-sufficiency. 
There is more work to be done to fulfill those goals. For example, 
every person with a disability deserves the right to live where he or 
she wants to live. You might say everybody has a right to live where 
they want to in America. But think about what I said earlier, people in 
the disability community want the right to live in the world.
  Here is what I am referring to. For years a person with a disability 
who qualifies for care in a nursing home, can get that care in a 
nursing home fully refunded, fully paid for by the Government. If you 
have a disability and you qualify for that level of care and you go to 
a nursing home, Medicaid picks that up. But let's say you don't want to 
go to a nursing home. Let's say you are disabled and you want to live 
in a community. You want to live near your family and your friends and 
you choose to do so. Medicaid doesn't pick up that bill. If you live in 
a nursing home, they will, but not if you live independently, on your 
own. This is something we have been trying to overcome for a long time.
  Finally, 10 years ago, there was a Supreme Court case. It came to the 
Supreme Court. It was called the Olmstead case, a case out of Georgia. 
Listen to this. The Supreme Court held that people with disabilities 
have the right to live in the least restrictive environment and to make 
their own choice to receive their care in the community rather than in 
an institutional setting. In Olmstead, the Court held that the 
unnecessary institutionalization of individuals with disability 
constitutes discrimination under the ADA.
  Listen to what the Court said. The Supreme Court said:

       Recognizing that unjustified institutional isolation of 
     persons with disabilities is a form of discrimination 
     reflects two evident judgments. First, institutional 
     placement of persons who can handle and benefit from 
     community settings perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that 
     persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of 
     participating in community life; secondly, confinement in an 
     institution severely diminishes the everyday life activities 
     of individuals, including family relations, social contacts, 
     work options, economic independence, educational advancement 
     and cultural enrichment.

  Ten years ago the Supreme Court said that. I am obliged to stand here 
and say, 10 years later, we have not gotten there. Ten years ago the 
Supreme Court said that putting people in institutions against their 
will when they want to live in the community is discrimination. Yet it 
is still going on. Under current law, Medicaid is required--required--
to pay for nursing home care for a person with a disability who is 
financially eligible. But there is no similar obligation to pay for the 
same person to receive their care at home. This makes the promise of 
the Olmstead decision hollow for many residents of many States.
  I will have more to say about this later but I see another champion 
who, during his career in the House and even before that in his own 
State of Ohio, but for all of his life and his career, has been one of 
our stalwarts in fighting for the rights of people with disabilities. 
Senator Brown could not be harder working and more devoted to making 
sure that the ADA actually works and is not put on the shelf someplace.
  I thank the Senator from Ohio for all of his support over all the 
years, for support of the ADA, the ADA Act Amendments which he was here 
for and helped us get through, and for all the things we do to try to 
make life better, more fair, and more just for people with 
disabilities.
  I yield the floor to the Senator from Ohio.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I thank Senator Harkin.
  Before I was in the Senate, for several years in the House I watched 
from afar the work Senator Harkin did. No one, and I mean no one--we 
hear a lot of accolades here; not always as genuine, perhaps, as they 
should be, but this one absolutely is--no one has worked as hard or as 
effectively as Senator Harkin has on issues affecting people with 
disabilities. It is personal for him, but Senator Harkin has taken up 
what was a personal issue for him growing up, about his brother and now 
about his nephew, and the impact it has had on him and the impact it 
has had on America is terrific and is unmatched.
  I know Senator Kennedy, about whom we still think so often, was a 
major driver of this and other civil rights issues. But I would say 
Senator Harkin has been second to none, advocating for his brother, for 
his nephew, but for Iowans and Ohioans and Californians and North 
Dakotans--all over this country, New Yorkers--everyone, those Americans 
with disabilities who typically make less money or are less likely to 
be employed because of discrimination and because of biases that we all 
probably too often too much hold.
  Senator Harkin has always risen above that and challenged people to 
do the right thing on this civil rights issue and on so many other 
civil rights issues. For that I am grateful, as a protege, to Tom 
Harkin, as a mentor and well beyond that.
  We know this coming month marks the 20th anniversary of the passage 
of one of our Nation's most important civil rights laws. It is always 
important to reiterate this is a civil rights issue. It does not always 
get as much attention as a civil rights issue, but it absolutely is a 
civil rights issue that affects the human right and civil right of all 
Americans, especially those people with disability. For the last 20 
years the Americans With Disabilities Act has helped educate a child 
with cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis. It has broken down 
employment barriers for all kinds of people with disabilities--those 
who are blind, those who are deaf--so many Americans. Places of work 
and recreation, from a courthouse to a ball park, because of this 
Americans With Disabilities Act, are more accessible to the wheelchair 
bound. So, too, are public accommodations and public transportation.
  Those in this body who are as old or older than I can remember how 
different the world looked in terms of curbs, in terms of stairs, in 
terms of access, just physical access to all kinds of public 
facilities, let alone private facilities; how different things were 
before 1990 when the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into 
law by the first President Bush.
  Modern conveniences from the telephone to the Internet are not 
technological barriers but means, now, of social inclusiveness and 
economic opportunity. The ADA has increased graduation rates for 
Americans with disabilities, and it has increased public safety on our 
streets and in our hospitals. Simply put, since the ADA passed 20 years 
ago, more than 50 million--1 out of 6 of our 300 million citizens in 
this country--more than 50 million Americans in this country have had a 
greater opportunity to enjoy basic rights and privileges afforded to 
every American. That is due in large part to Senator Harkin's 
leadership on this bill.
  He speaks about the lack of opportunities his deaf brother Frank had 
in school and in the workplace. At the same time he speaks about his 
nephew, a quadriplegic veteran, who used the GI Bill to go to school, 
used a wheelchair

[[Page 13791]]

and accessible van to live a self-sufficient life. That is the 
difference when government chooses to assert its responsibility to 
extend equal opportunity to all its citizens. I understand Senator 
Harkin's office is currently conducting a tour of 99 counties to 
collect the stories of Iowans who have benefited from the ADA. In many 
ways, these stories also honor the activists in the community, 
advocates in the courtroom, the physicians and nurses' aides and 
physical therapists and occupational therapists in hospitals, who 
pushed for change decades before the ADA.
  The ADA was not the culmination of our work because it continues. But 
understand how many people worked so many years, working side by side 
with the Senator Harkins of this body and others, to bring forward that 
legislation 20 years ago.
  In my State, in Ohio, independent living centers and ability centers 
across the State have long provided the support services for Ohioans 
with disabilities that the law had failed to do. Ohio's school for the 
deaf was established in 1829 in a small house across from what is now 
the Capitol on Broad and High Streets in downtown Columbus. It provided 
the education the law did not require, in those days, of all education 
institutions. Through much of the last century, the 20th century, 
friends and families of Americans with disabilities were forced, day in 
and day out, to overcome daily obstacles because there was no law to 
help.
  In the absence of a law remained the incessant bias and the chilling 
stigma that held back our Nation's progress--as it did with voting, 
with gender discrimination, as it did with racial discrimination. 
Passage of the ADA teaches us that wisdom and goodness persist in each 
of us, despite efforts to marginalize and discriminate by some of us.
  Across Ohio on Monday--at the Statehouse in Columbus, independent 
living centers in Dayton and Cincinnati, and at the Great Lakes ADA 
Center in Cleveland--Ohioans will celebrate the importance of the ADA 
with friends and family.
  In Toledo, the ability center will celebrate its 90th anniversary 
with an ADA celebration at the Toledo zoo, bringing together children 
and families to celebrate a ``Journey Together--Justice, Equality and 
Community.'' Such demonstrations celebrate how far laws protecting 
those with disabilities have come and how much work we still need to 
do.
  We know that Americans with disabilities continue to face employment 
barriers, sometime legal, more often not, but based often on bias and 
prejudice and stigma and all the mix of human emotions that are not 
always so admirable in all of us. Americans with disabilities are twice 
more likely to live in poverty than their fellow citizens, with higher 
rates of unemployment and, don't forget, higher rates of 
underemployment. We know like all progress in our Nation the march for 
justice and equality for the disabled was not easy. Passage of civil 
rights, voting rights, labor rights is not ever easy. The fight for 
women's rights and fair pay was not easy. The passage of Medicare and 
Medicaid, recent health insurance reform was not easy. The fight is 
always worth it.
  I wear in my lapel a pin depicting a canary in a birdcage. It was 
given to me 10 years ago at a workers Memorial Day rally celebrating 
those workers who had lost a limb or even their lives on the job. The 
canary says to me 100 years ago workers in this country who went down 
in our mines had no union strong enough or government that cared enough 
to protect them. They were on their own. That is why they took the 
canary down in the mine. If the canary died from toxic gas or lack of 
oxygen, the mine worker on his own had to get out of that mine.
  We know what has happened in the hundred years since--mine safety 
laws, although obviously not quite good enough and not enforced often 
enough and effectively enough. We know what else happened: Medicare/
Medicaid, civil rights, Social Security, ban on child labor, safe 
drinking water, clean air, seatbelts, airbags--all the kinds of things 
that have made our lives richer and better and longer in a way that no 
country on Earth before us had ever achieved.
  Add the Americans With Disabilities Act to that long line of success, 
of a fight for justice in human rights that was not easy. Every one of 
those whom this canary pin represents, every one of those pieces of 
progress, whether it is the Food and Drug Administration, safe food, 
clean air, safe drinking water, Americans With Disabilities Act, civil 
rights, prohibition on child labor--every one of those victories came 
at great cost and with great effort. That is the story of the Americans 
With Disabilities Act. It is part of that lineage of government 
stepping in to extend equality and opportunity to all Americans, 
understanding some number of people in this body and in this country 
think there is not much of a role of government for a lot of things, 
but they need to think about that canary in the cage.
  They need to think that 90 percent of this country thinks there 
should be strong mine safety laws, there should be strong civil rights 
laws, there should be strong labor laws, there should be strong pure 
food laws and safe drinking water and clean air and auto safety and all 
those things we do.
  On April 4, 1864, President Lincoln signed into Federal law the 
authorization to confer collegiate degrees to the deaf and hard of 
hearing at a campus here in Washington, DC. To this day, Gallaudet 
University is the only liberal arts university in the world dedicated 
to the pursuit of access to higher education for deaf and hard-of-
hearing people.
  For the past year, I have had the honor to serve on the Board of 
Trustees at Gallaudet University. I did so at the behest of Senator 
Harkin, who has reinforced for me the responsibility we all have to 
serving the public good. A visit to Gallaudet University is a visit to 
an institution that is a model for what we should be doing in this 
country in civil rights and rights for Americans with disabilities.
  Three years before signing Gallaudet's charter, President Lincoln 
celebrated our Nation's 85th year of independence, in 1861, by 
declaring to the Congress:

       The principal aim of the US government should be--

  These are Lincoln's words--

       The principal aim of the US government should be to elevate 
     the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all 
     shoulders--to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all--
     and to afford all, an unfettered start and a fair chance in 
     the race of life.

  As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ADA, let's work so each 
American has that unfettered start and that each American has that fair 
chance, just a fair chance, not a guaranteed result but a fair chance, 
to achieve the American dream, that our Nation be free of prejudice and 
bias and, instead, full of opportunity and access.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. First, let me thank the Senator from Ohio for his kind 
words. But more than that, more meaningfully, to thank him for all his 
help and support on so many broad issues that deal with working people 
in America and, especially now at this time, people with disabilities.
  I thank him for his service on the board for Gallaudet University. It 
is a great institution. I would hope everybody could pay a visit to 
Gallaudet. It is one of the ``crown jewels'' of our government. As 
Senator Brown said, it is the only place in the world where a student 
who is deaf can go and get a liberal arts education. Quite frankly, as 
the Senator knows, we do bring students from other countries over here 
who go to Gallaudet and then go to their home countries after 
graduating. I thank the Senator for his service on the board of 
Gallaudet University.

[[Page 13792]]

  Before Senator Brown spoke, I was talking a little bit about one of 
the unfulfilled promises of ADA; that is, independent living, the idea 
that people should not be forced to go into a nursing home just to get 
support so they can live.
  I mentioned the Olmstead decision of 10 years ago by the Supreme 
Court, which basically said that mandating that people have to live in 
a nursing home in order to get Medicaid support is discrimination under 
the ADA, but 10 years later it is still going on. Some States have 
moved ahead in this regard and have provided the wherewithal to help 
people with disabilities to live independently.
  The problem is, most States still limit, they limit people with 
disabilities who can get this kind of assistance. They either do it 
through a waiver program or other exceptions. They include only certain 
particular types of disabilities, they have cost caps or they just 
simply limit the number of individuals who can be served. So it kind of 
is almost adding insult to injury. It is sort of the luck of the draw, 
sort of like a lottery. If you fall into a certain group, if you happen 
to have applied before they filled their quota, you can live in the 
community and get support. If you did not, you are out of luck.
  So this has built up all kinds of tensions within the disabled 
community and among different groups of disabilities because States 
sometimes identify by disability who can get support in the community 
and who cannot.
  So ever since the passage of ADA, and I can remember shortly after 
the passage of ADA I took to the floor and I said: Now that we have the 
ADA passed, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the next big hurdle is 
to make sure two things: People can live independently in the 
community, and they can get the supportive services they need in order 
to do that and to get employment.
  So we have been trying to do that now for 16, 17 years. At first, 
there was a bill called MICASSA. Do not ask me what it stands for, I 
forgot. But it was a bill that would provide for people to be able to 
get the same support, whether they lived in an institution or they 
lived on their own in a community.
  Well, we could never get that bill passed. CBO gave it all these 
horrendous costs. It was going to cost so much money. I always thought 
that was spurious; that the cost estimates were not right. Then we 
followed up with a bill called the Community Choice Act. Well, we did 
not get that. We have not gotten that done either, but we did get a 
couple of promises in money follows the person. In the recently passed 
health care bill, we saw our opportunity to do something, to help, to 
try to fulfill the mandate of the Supreme Court, a constitutional 
mandate that people should be able to live where they want to live.
  So what we have now in the health care bill is we have expanded the 
Money Follows the Person Program; that is, the money to States to 
follow the person. Rather than money going to a State to go to an 
institution to pay for a person, why not the money go to the State to 
go to the person and let the person decide where he or she wants to 
live?
  So that has been extended to 2016 in the health care bill. The other 
part of this, of making sure people can live independently and can have 
economic self-sufficiency, is personal attendant services. Again, right 
after the passage of the ADA, I spoke about that. I said: You can have 
all the wonderful accessibilities in your job, you can have transit 
systems and buses that will take you to your job and back or subways or 
whatever, and you can have the most enlightened employer that can 
provide accessible work spaces.
  But what if you cannot even get out the door in the morning? What if 
you cannot even get from your bed to the door to get to work? Herein, 
again, I speak of my own family. My nephew Kelly was only 19, about 20 
years old, when he was severely injured. He became almost a 
quadriplegic, severe paraplegic.
  Well, he is a big strapping kid. Kelly, again, was not going to give 
up. So he went back to school, got his education, and then he wanted to 
live by himself. He did. Well, he lived at home for a while with my 
sister and her husband, my brother-in-law. But then he wanted to strike 
out on his own. So he got his own independent place to live.
  Here is what happened to my nephew Kelly. Every morning he would have 
a nurse come in. He lived by himself. A nurse came into his house, got 
him out of bed, got him going in the morning, took care of certain 
functions, got him ready to go.
  Kelly would make his own breakfast, roll his wheelchair out. He had a 
lift on his van. Lift it up, put him in the van. Drive to work. He 
became so independent he started his own small business.
  Then, at night when he would come home, a lot of times he would stop, 
shop in a grocery store or something like that, get in his van, come 
home. Every evening he would have, again, a personal attendant who 
would come into his house and do his exercises. He was so determined to 
keep his muscle activity alive. So he would have a person come in, do 
all his exercises, put him through his routines every day, and then get 
him ready so he could go to bed. This happened every day.
  But it enabled him to get up and get out the door and go to work, 
become a tax-paying, income-earning citizen. So how was he able to 
afford this? Were my sister and her husband wealthy? Not at all, had no 
money whatsoever. So how was Kelly able to afford someone to come in 
every day and take care of him like that and give him these personal 
attendant services?
  He was able to afford it because he was injured in the military. He 
was injured while serving on an aircraft carrier. So the VA--thank God 
for the VA--the VA paid for this. They paid to have his home modified 
so he could live by himself. Now, for 30 years, the Veterans' 
Administration has paid for Kelly to have personal attendant services 
so he can go to work, earn a living, pay taxes.
  But what about people who were not injured in the military? What 
about people who just got injured in an accident or were born with a 
disability who do not have the Veterans' Administration to pay for 
this? Well, they are out of luck. They are just out of luck.
  So they may want to get a job. They can be very capable of doing a 
job. They can be well educated, know how to run Microsoft and Word and 
all that kind of stuff. They may be qualified for a job. But if they do 
not have some support during the day to get out the door, how are they 
going to get down to that bus stop to get on that accessible bus to go 
to a place of business that is accessible, that has an employer that 
has made the workplace accessible so they can have a job? Very 
shortsighted. Very shortsighted, to say: No, we will do all those other 
things, but if you cannot get out the door in the morning, tough luck, 
or if you need something during the day, maybe you need someone to come 
in during the middle of the day to help you with something you may 
need, whether it is eating or grooming or bathing or toilet activities 
or whatever it may be, maybe you need that once or twice during the day 
just so you can work, they do not have that.
  That is our next big challenge. That is our next big challenge, to 
help with these everyday tasks that most people take for granted. It 
makes the crucial difference between whether a person can live an 
independent inclusive life in the community or they have to be sent to 
a nursing home to live in isolation.
  So when people tell me this costs a lot of money, I say: Wait a 
second. Wait a second. Let's have this again. It costs a lot of money? 
What about all these people who are in nursing homes now that could be 
living by themselves? What about all those people who are living by 
themselves now, out there but are not getting any support, but they are 
not working. They want to work. They are capable of working. What if 
they go to work and become taxpayers, income earners?
  That is not taken into account, you see. Only the outlay is taken 
into account. That is why I have always said the cost that we see of 
personal attendant services is skewed because we do

[[Page 13793]]

not take into account the other side of the ledger. But we know, we 
know from personal experience, that people with disabilities, as I have 
said, can be the most productive, hardest workers in our society, if 
they are just given a chance.
  Again, these services, these supports, allow them to fulfill the 
promise of the ADA, to have jobs, participate in the community, to make 
their own choices, not having the State or the government or someone 
else tell them how they have to live.
  Let people make their own choices. Let them govern their own lives. 
That is why the Community First Choice option that is in the health 
care bill is so important. So we are starting to move in that 
direction. We should have done it a long time ago, but we could not, 
but we got it in the health care bill. So beginning in October of next 
year, 2011, in the health care reform bill we passed, that we will have 
available to States, if a State selects and chooses to implement the 
Olmstead decision and to support people with disabilities to live in 
the community on their own, they will get a bump up in their Federal 
matching funds.
  Specifically, the community first choice option in the health care 
bill will cover the provision of personal care services and will also 
help support people who live independently, personal care services so 
people can live independently. For the first time in the health care 
reform bill we passed, the community first choice option will require a 
State to provide all eligible individuals with personal care services 
rather than only serving a small proportion, maybe just certain people 
with certain disabilities or waiting lists or caps on costs. This bill 
will require a State to provide all eligible individuals with personal 
care services rather than serving a small slice, as now, or keeping 
long and slow moving waiting lists. Some people are on waiting lists 
for 10, 15 years before the State comes up with the money so they may 
live on their own and have personal care services.
  The community first choice option is one that starts next year, but 
it will grow every year. A State that moves in that direction will get 
a bump up of 6 percent in their Federal matching funds. That is a big 
deal. A State that wants to do this says: If we do it, we will get more 
money for the FMAP. Without getting into details, what that means is 
the State will get more Federal money, if it provides for the 
independent living of people with disabilities in the State. We have 
made significant progress in increasing home and community-based 
options; the big step being in the health care bill as it unfolds. But 
we are still a long way from having a comprehensive and equitable 
system for providing personal care services to all Americans who are 
eligible for nursing home care.
  Let's talk a little bit about the issue of employment, perhaps my 
biggest disappointment in the 20 years since ADA has been in 
employment. Data surveys show that right now 60 percent or more of 
people with disabilities who want to work and are able to work are 
unemployed.
  We hear about all the unemployment figures all the time. We hear 
about 9 percent unemployment or 18 percent unemployment. Think about 
people in the disability community, 60 percent unemployment. This is 
shameful, this many years after the ADA was passed, 10 years after the 
Olmstead decision. There are a variety of reasons. Again, one of the 
biggest is lack of support services. Some employers don't provide 
enough reasonable accommodations. Some people are just reluctant to 
hire people with disabilities. That kind of subtle discrimination still 
goes on.
  In the bill, we said employers must provide reasonable 
accommodations. I remember so many stories in the unfolding after we 
passed ADA. I remember the story of one woman who had a big skill set 
in terms of what was then computers, the early 1990s. She had a great 
skill set in that. She had answered an ad for employment, went down and 
interviewed. She clearly was qualified. Because the job required her to 
work at different stations, different desks, the employer said he 
couldn't do that because she used a wheelchair. She had been born with 
a disability. She couldn't get under the desks because of the height of 
the wheelchair.
  The employer said: I would have to replace all these desks. That 
costs a lot of money. It is not a reasonable accommodation. So she went 
home, told her father this. Her father, who was somewhat of a 
reasonable carpenter, had a bright idea. He went down to the workshop 
and cut a bunch of wood blocks about 3 inches high. He took them to the 
employer and said: If you just put one of these under every leg of the 
desk, it would not cost very much. Then it will be accessible--simple 
things like that.
  I remember the story of a school. The school board was very upset 
because they had to make the drinking fountains available. If we have 
kids in school with disabilities, we will have to lower all the 
drinking fountains or something like that. It will cost a lot of money. 
Someone pointed out, if they just put a wastebasket and a paper cup 
dispenser by the water fountain, they solve the problem--simple things 
like that that don't cost much money at all.
  It took a while for people to start thinking about it. How do we do 
things in a simple, straightforward manner so that people can go to 
school or work and we can make reasonable accommodations?
  Employers I talk to who have employees with disabilities say they are 
the most exemplary of workers. All they need is an opportunity and 
reasonable accommodations, maybe supportive services. Yet we just 
haven't made as much progress as I had hoped over the last 20 years. We 
need to do a better job of ensuring that people with disabilities have 
job opportunities, not just any job but one that is equal to their 
interests and their talents and pays accordingly. We need to ensure 
that persons with disabilities have access to the training and supports 
necessary to be successful.
  So many times I have heard: I don't have a job in the disability 
area, for a person with a disability. A lot of people think people with 
disabilities have to work on disability issues. That is not it at all.
  I always talk about my brother Frank. He didn't do a job that had 
anything to do with being disabled. But he had a talent, and he could 
do something else. It is time to quit looking at people and focusing on 
the disability. Look at people and focus on their abilities, what they 
are capable of doing, what their talents are, what they can do. Don't 
talk to me about disabilities. We can overcome that. What are their 
talents and abilities? That is why we need the training and support 
activities, so we can bring that shameful unemployment rate of 60 
percent down.
  The ADA is to people with disabilities what the Emancipation 
Proclamation was to African Americans. One of the great shames of 
American history is that it was more than a century after the 
Emancipation Proclamation that the Civil Rights Act actually made good 
on Lincoln's promise. That is too far and too long to wait. I can't 
think of a better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ADA than by 
rededicating ourselves to completing the promise of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. This means giving people with disabilities not only 
the right to be independent or the right to have a job but the 
wherewithal to be independent and to hold a job.
  I don't want to forget all the progress and accomplishments we have 
achieved over the last 20 years. It has been wonderful, monumental. To 
activists and advocates in the disability community who are out there 
in the States and here in the Nation's Capital, I salute them. I thank 
them for all the progress they have worked so hard to bring about 
through their dedication and tireless efforts. On this day, as on 
Monday, they can be proud of the great things they have accomplished. 
We all know there is much more work to be done.
  When I spoke on the Senate floor 20 years ago, I did it all in sign 
language. I have neglected to do so today. I think since my brother 
passed on, I don't speak with sign language very often. I don't 
practice much anymore. I have forgotten many signs. But there is one

[[Page 13794]]

final thought I have. In American sign language, there is a wonderful 
sign for America. I want to teach it to all these pages and everybody. 
It is a wonderful sign for America.
  You put your fingers together like this, kind of make an A for 
America, and it goes around like this. That is the sign for America. 
Think about it. Not separated, everyone together, one family, no one is 
excluded. No one is here; no one is there. We are all together. We are 
in this circle, the circle of life. A beautiful sign for America.
  That is what I think about when I think about the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. It brought people into the circle. It made everybody 
part of a family. It made our family much more complete.
  That is the historic achievement we celebrate in the Senate 
resolution before us today. It is the historic achievement we must 
safeguard for generations to come. One America, one inclusive American 
family that respects the dignity, the value, and the civil rights of 
all, including Americans with disabilities.
  When he signed the ADA into law, President Bush spoke with great 
eloquence. Just before taking up his pen, he said:

       Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling 
     down.

  Twenty years later, that wall is indeed falling. The ADA has broken 
down barriers, created opportunities, transformed lives. This great law 
is America at its very best. So it is fitting for the Senate to 
commemorate its great achievement 20 years ago in passing the ADA with 
an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 91 to 6. I urge all colleagues to 
join with the many bipartisan cosponsors in voting for this Senate 
resolution.
  Mr. JOHNSON. Madam President, I rise today to recognize the 20th 
anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
This legislation, signed into law on July 26, 1990, marked a historic 
affirmation of the principles of equality and inclusion upon which our 
country was founded. I was proud to cosponsor this legislation as a 
Member of the House of Representatives, and I am proud of the strides 
made since that time in protecting and defending the civil rights of 
citizens with disabilities.
  When the law was enacted, many Americans believed that it was an 
impossible dream that all street crosswalks should be wheelchair 
accessible. Employers feared the prospect of having to make 
``reasonable accommodation'' for their employees and customers with 
disabilities. Frankly, some people found it unthinkable that disabled 
people would be able to fully participate in our society. I am pleased 
to report that the past 20 years have proven them wrong.
  Thanks to the ADA, disabled people across the Nation are better able 
to engage in their community, contribute to their workplace, and 
achieve their educational goals. While the ADA increased accessibility 
to public places and addressed physical barriers, it also changed the 
landscape of opportunities available to Americans of all abilities. 
Attitudes have shifted to recognize people for their abilities and 
talents, rather than their differences.
  These advances have contributed to the growth of productivity in our 
Nation and have brought an entirely new realm of perspectives and ideas 
into the workplace. As millions of Americans have received fair 
treatment because of these laws, so has our Nation benefitted through 
increased growth and productivity in our workforce.
  Last Congress, I was pleased to cosponsor and support the passage of 
the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 to ensure the intent and protections of 
the ADA were realized. This law extends protections from workplace 
discrimination to cover a broader universe of persons living with 
disabilities. I have supported efforts to expand home and community-
based services to ensure individuals can access the necessary health 
and assistive services while still living in their homes. I am pleased 
the health reform bill included these efforts, as well as other 
provisions to increase long-term care choices.
  And yet with all this progress, there is still work left to be done. 
The disabled community still faces barriers in accessing quality health 
care, obtaining appropriate education, finding meaningful employment 
opportunities, and securing financial independence. The rising price of 
health care has placed financial pressure on all Americans. These 
increased costs put additional strain on disabled working Americans 
when their earnings become a liability rather than an asset. 
Individuals should have the opportunity to contribute their time and 
talents without jeopardizing their health insurance benefits and 
challenging their incentive to work. Our policies should encourage 
vocational promotion, self-sufficiency, and financial independence.
  Many areas of our country lack reliable and accessible transportation 
for individuals with a disability. As we all know, without reliable 
transportation it is difficult to commute to work, the local grocery 
store, or even the doctor's office. Other obstacles in education, 
telecommunication, and accessible and affordable housing prevent 
individuals with a disability from contributing fully to their 
community. As our attitudes and environments continue evolving, we must 
work to ensure the advances made over the last 20 years continue to 
move us forward.
  Mr. ENZI. Madam President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
marking the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. As the ranking member of the Senate Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, I am particularly proud of this 
legislation and the impact it has had on addressing the rights and 
needs of people with disabilities all across the country for the past 
20 years. As we mark this great anniversary, I also want to express my 
great appreciation for the hard work and determined effort those with a 
vision of equality and justice put into seeing this bill through the 
legislative process. It was a courageous and heroic cause and it has 
made a difference in more lives than we will ever know.
  Just 20 years ago this month, on July 26, 1990, President George Bush 
signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. It is without 
question the most important civil rights legislation that has been 
passed by the Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was such 
a great achievement because it reflected our fundamental and growing 
concern for human rights by extending civil rights protections to all 
Americans with disabilities.
  Prior to the passage of the ADA, far too many of our fellow Americans 
with disabilities led isolated lives, artificially separated from the 
mainstream of society, denied the basic opportunity to pursue the 
American dream. Things had to change if we were to remain true to the 
ideals and principles upon which our Nation was founded that are 
enumerated so well in the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution. By any standard, those with disabilities did not have the 
chance to engage in all that life has to offer including their own 
pursuit of happiness.
  Fortunately, things are different now. Although there is still more 
to do we have every reason to be proud of what the ADA has been able to 
achieve thus far. We can see the vision of the ADA being carried out 
before our eyes as it enables our family members, friends, and 
neighbors to go about their daily lives, praying, going to school, and 
pursuing their goals in every area of their lives--on every level--in 
large part because of what the Americans with Disabilities Act has made 
possible.
  Twenty years ago, before the passage of this legislation, our country 
was a much different place for those with disabilities. It was 
difficult, if not impossible, for them to access the resources in their 
communities that we all take for granted. Minor barriers most of us 
could easily navigate had long been major obstacles for people with 
disabilities. We needed to do something to make it easier to access the 
places we all had long enjoyed with our friends. It wouldn't take a 
lot--just simple accommodations like curb cuts, ramps instead of 
stairs, more accessible stadium features, and better equipped 
telecommunications devices. Just these few simple changes would have 
made all the difference. Unfortunately,

[[Page 13795]]

although easily done they were all too scarce and all too often 
impossible to find. Then the ADA came to pass and it raised our 
awareness of what needed to be done and our resolve to do it.
  When the ADA changed everything it meant a lot to people like 
Ellington Herring, a young man from Germantown, MD, who has an 
intellectual disability and uses a wheelchair. Thanks to the ADA and 
the efforts of people to get it implemented across the Nation, he has 
full access to all the resources of his community. Without the ADA 
Ellington wouldn't be able to spend the day doing what he enjoys most--
going to the mall, going places with his family and friends, getting 
his hair cut at the local barber shop, taking in a movie, and going to 
church.
  Twenty years ago while students with disabilities had to be included 
in the same school those without disabilities attended, they did not 
have to be placed with the others in a general education classroom. It 
was the ADA along with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 
and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that has subsequently 
guaranteed them access to the general education curriculum and we are 
all the beneficiaries of that.
  Let me introduce you to someone else--Ted Dawson of Buffalo, WY. 
Thanks to the ADA, he was able to graduate with a high school diploma--
not a certificate of achievement--but a high school diploma. There is a 
difference and it meant a lot to him and his parents, teachers, school 
administrators, and his friends. They all had high expectations for 
him--and he delivered! It wasn't easy. In Wyoming you have to be 
proficient in at least 5 of 9 common core areas in order to graduate. 
Ted, who has Down's syndrome, stepped up and met the challenge because 
that was what was expected of him. More importantly--it was what he 
expected from himself. He is an important example of what can happen if 
people are valued and included instead of being segregated into special 
classrooms and regarded as less capable. Thanks to the ADA, Ted is 24 
now and living and working in his community.
  Twenty years ago it was not well understood that people with 
disabilities wanted to work and pursue a career, go to school, be a 
part of the activities in their communities, and be treated just like 
everyone else. Let me introduce you to George Garcia of Cheyenne, WY. 
He is a 53-year-old gentleman who works part time at a meaningful job, 
sits on multiple boards, volunteers with several organizations and just 
so happens to have an intellectual disability. Mr. Garcia, as the 
Governor of Wyoming calls him, knows everything about the city he calls 
home and the State of Wyoming. In fact, he knows just about everyone 
who lives in Wyoming because he has spent years traveling the roads of 
our State sharing his story and his message about the importance of 
choice, freedom and independence. Without the ADA George, and thousands 
of people just like him, would not have had the opportunity to hold 
meaningful jobs, live where they choose, and go anywhere they want to 
in their communities.
  That was so because 20 years ago people with disabilities were 
destined to live in an institution--community based services and 
support were not an option. Now families have choices and many of them 
have chosen community living. That brings me to Owen Johnson. Let me 
share Owen's story with you. He was born with spinal muscular atrophy 
in January of 2008 at Primary Children's Hospital in Utah. When he was 
born doctors told his dad, Lenn and his mom, Gayle, that Owen's life 
expectancy would be a mere 2 years. Lenn and Gayle wanted to bring Owen 
home to Wyoming to be with his family. Unfortunately they were informed 
that Cokeville, WY, was ``too rural'' and they would not be able to 
find the services and support they would need to do so. Some doctors 
were even suggesting they place Owen in a nursing home in Utah. With 
the support of multiple State agencies and local organizations, after 6 
months Owen Johnson went home to live with his parents on their rural 
ranch. Today he is 2\1/2\ and he and his family are thriving in their 
community and Owen is going strong--defying the odds of his doctors who 
are amazed and thrilled by his progress.
  While it is true that we all have our own struggles in life to deal 
with, it is also true that some face more difficult challenges that 
they have to work to overcome just to do the things that are part of 
our own daily routine. Such an individual is Cindy Bentley from 
Milwaukee, WI. Cindy is an articulate, engaging, upbeat, and 
charismatic individual. She is a world traveler, and a national speaker 
and spokesperson for millions of people with disabilities. People have 
no idea about her history. Cindy was born with fetal alcohol syndrome 
with cocaine, alcohol, and heroin in her bloodstream, resulting in 
lifelong intellectual disabilities, seizures, and some motor control 
problems. She then received severe burns when she was placed in foster 
care at the age of 2\1/2\ and her foster mother set her shirt on fire. 
Shortly thereafter she was placed in the Southern Wisconsin Center for 
people with developmental disabilities. Cindy now lives independently 
in her own apartment in Glendale, WI. She was chosen as 1 of 12 Special 
Olympics Global Messengers from 2000-2002, and she is an active member 
of two statewide Governor-appointed councils.
  Twenty years ago people with disabilities could not access public 
transportation and those that lived in the community couldn't go 
anywhere because they lacked the means to easily travel on their own. 
The ADA changed all that by removing the barriers that faced those with 
disabilities when they tried to travel. Such was the case for Richard 
Leslie, the founder and executive director of the Wyoming Epilepsy 
Association that is located in Cheyenne, WY. Richard himself has 
epilepsy and he does not have the ability to drive because of his 
disability. He has used his disability to empower himself and others by 
becoming an advocate for people with disabilities. The ADA has assisted 
him and others like him by creating public transit systems that are 
usable and accessible, much like the Cheyenne Transit Program. The 
Cheyenne Transit Program offers accessible bus rides at reasonable 
fares as well as curb-to-curb services which not only allows for 
mobility within the city but makes the opportunity for employment 
better as well because the service is tailored to the individual's 
needs.
  These are just a few of the remarkable stories that can be told 
because of the Americans with Disabilities Act which is still making a 
difference throughout the United States. While no one would ever say 
that the lives of these people has been easy, the Americans with 
Disabilities Act has helped to make things easier by making the things 
people with disabilities do every day a somewhat smaller mountain for 
them to climb.
  The ADA opened the world to people with disabilities by guaranteeing 
their independence, freedom of choice, ability to control their lives, 
and the opportunity to completely, fully, and equally participate in 
the American mainstream.
  No law is perfect and some problems still arise with this one. As 
recently as 2008 Congress had to revisit the ADA. After negotiating 
together through the committee process in the Senate, we acted with 
overwhelming bipartisan support to pass the ADA Amendments Act, which 
restored ADA protections that had been complicated by judicial 
decisions narrowing the scope of the law.
  While Congress has continued to address the issue the Capitol complex 
is not fully accessible yet. When I served as the chairman of the 
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions I routinely 
heard from people with disabilities about inaccessible hearing and 
conference rooms on Capitol Hill, the use of offensive terminology by 
Members and staff and a lack of understanding and awareness about 
disability issues.
  That was when I took it upon myself to write a manual to help 
congressional offices prepare for visitors, interns, and staff who may 
have accessibility needs. As elected officials it is our role to ensure 
that everyone who

[[Page 13796]]

comes to visit the Nation's Capitol or our home offices, including 
people with accessibility needs, are included in our daily dialogue. 
The manual contains all disability specific resources offered by the 
Office of Congressional Accessibility Services, the Sergeant at Arms, 
the Capitol Police, the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, 
the Architect of the Capitol, and other offices in the Capitol Hill 
complex in an easily available and easy to read format so that if a 
constituent who is deaf arrives at a meeting and a sign language 
interpreter was not reserved the office can easily determine who to 
call for assistance.
  Just as the Architect of the Capitol is improving signage for people 
who are blind, and ensuring that all restrooms are accessible by 
wheelchair users I am currently updating the manual to account for such 
changes and the addition of the Capitol Visitor Center.
  Today, we recognize and celebrate the anniversary of a law that 
brought freedom, choice, and independence to many Americans. It is a 
constant reminder of who we are as a people, and what we stand for as a 
nation. As President Bush noted when he signed the ADA into law: ``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 rich mosaic 
of the American mainstream.'' This law makes it clear that all 
Americans are entitled to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. As we continue to make this law more responsive to the 
needs of those with disabilities, we will continue to ensure that the 
chance to live the American dream is an avenue of opportunity that is 
available to everyone--without exception.
  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, my friend Senator Tom Harkin has been 
championing the rights of Americans with disabilities his whole life. 
He witnessed the challenges and discriminations of people with 
disabilities first hand. His brother Frank lost his hearing at a very 
young age and he has witnessed the many ways that people with 
disabilities are prevented from fully participating in activities that 
most Americans take for granted.
  Senator Harkin has said that the 1990 signing of his bill, Americans 
with Disabilities Act remains one of the proudest days of his life. The 
vote I cast for Americans with Disabilities Act was one of my proudest 
days as a U.S. Senator.
  This month will mark two decades since the landmark passage of the 
Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA. This important civil 
rights law seeks to ensure equality rights and opportunities for the 
more than 54 million Americans with physical and mental disabilities.
  Prior to the passage of the ADA, people with disabilities faced 
significantly lower employment rates, lower graduation rates, and 
higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities, and were too 
often denied the opportunity to fully participate in society due to 
intolerance and unfair stereotypes.
  The ADA sought to eliminate the indignities and prejudice faced by 
individuals with disabilities on a daily basis. Before passage of this 
law, individuals with disabilities were prevented from attending 
schools, subject to discriminatory hiring practices, and were unable to 
enter public buildings, safely cross a street, or ride a public bus.
  On July 26, 1990, the ADA was signed into law signed into law by 
President George H.W. Bush with the promise of fostering full and equal 
access to civic, economic and social life for individuals with 
disabilities.
  Upon its passage Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who played an important 
role in the enactment of this legislation, said:

       The act has the potential to become one of the great civil 
     rights laws of our generation. This legislation is a bill of 
     rights for the disabled, and America will be a better and 
     fairer nation because of it.

  Indeed, over the last 20 years, the ADA has become one of our 
country's most important and treasured civil rights laws.
  The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in 
employment, public accommodations, commercial facilities, 
transportation and telecommunications, as well as federal, state and 
local government programs.
  It has been a critical part of our efforts to fulfill the Nation's 
goals of equality of opportunity, independent living, economic self-
sufficiency, and full participation for Americans with disabilities.
  It has played an historic role in allowing over 50 million Americans 
with disabilities to participate more fully in national life by 
removing barriers to employment, transportation, public services, 
telecommunications, and public accommodations.
  Specifically, it prohibits employers from discriminating against 
qualified individuals with disabilities and it requires that State and 
local governmental entities accommodate qualified individuals with 
disabilities. Because of the ADA, places of public accommodation must 
take reasonable steps to make their goods and services accessible to 
individuals with disabilities. And new trains and buses must be 
accessible to individuals with disabilities.
  All Americans, not just those with disabilities, benefit from the 
accommodations that have become commonplace since the passage of the 
Americans with Disabilities Act like curb cuts at street intersections, 
ramps for access to buildings, greater access to public transportation, 
stadiums, telecommunications, voting machines, and Web sites benefit 
all Americans.
  The ADA has been one of the most significant and effective civil 
rights laws passed by Congress. We have come a long way in the 20 years 
since enactment with of the ADA, but children and adults with 
disabilities continue to experience barriers that interfere with their 
full participation in mainstream American life.
  People with disabilities are still twice as likely to live in poverty 
as their fellow citizens and continue to experience high rates of 
unemployment and underemployment. And many people with disabilities 
still live in segregated institutional settings because of a lack of 
support services that would allow them to live in the community.
  While technology and the Internet have broken down barriers, new 
technologies are still not accessible to all Americans. I have 
cosponsored the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act by 
Senator Mark Pryor to improve internet technology access for the blind 
and deaf communities. If passed, this legislation would make it easier 
for deaf and hard of hearing Americans to access the same technologies 
that hearing people take for granted. In particular, it would require 
all devices to be capable of captioning video and it would require all 
Internet videos to be captioned. No one should be or has to be excluded 
from modern communications and the new economy because of a disability.
  For all these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting 
Senator Harkin's Senate resolution that recognizes and honors the 20th 
anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 
1990. This resolution not only honors passage of the ADA, it also 
pledges to continue to work on a bipartisan basis to identify and 
address the remaining barriers that undermine the Nation's goals of 
equality of opportunity, independent living, economic self-sufficiency, 
and full participation for Americans with disabilities.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I am proud to be an original 
cosponsor of Senate Resolution 591 recognizing and honoring the 20th 
anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  In 1990, congressional members from both sides of the aisle joined 
together to denounce disability-based discrimination and demand equal 
rights for the disabled through the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 
the 20 years since, this landmark law has stood as a proud marker of 
our Nation's collective belief that disabled Americans can and should 
be full participants in our Nation's civic, economic, and social life.

[[Page 13797]]

That, as one national disability organization proclaims, ``It's 
ability, not disability that counts.''
  The Americans with Disabilities Act has had profound effects on the 
lives of over 50 million disabled Americans from curb cuts to 
elevators, Braille displays to voice recognition technology, and voting 
assistance to expanded employment opportunities, to name just a few 
examples.
  Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Americans who are 
deaf or hard of hearing are now guaranteed the same services that law 
enforcement provides to anyone else. Law enforcement agencies may not 
exclude hearing impaired Americans from their services and must make 
efforts to ensure that their personnel communicate effectively with 
people whose disability affects their hearing.
  Thanks to this landmark law, buses are now equipped with reliable 
lifts for wheelchair access; drivers announce stops to inform the 
seeing-impaired of arrival; and paratransit services provide door-to-
destination transportation. This increased mobility enables disabled 
Americans to hold jobs and pursue educational opportunities, to perform 
day-to-day errands independently, and to access medical and social 
services.
  As one San Francisco resident said, ``We no longer have to rely on 
the kindness of strangers to shop for us or feel that we can only 
experience other cities through films, videos and books.''
  The Americans with Disabilities Act has enabled disabled Americans to 
visit and enjoy the grounds of our Nation's cultural and historical 
treasures such as Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.
  This important law has also improved the quality of life for 
Americans with impaired sight, by requiring stores and businesses 
across the country to accommodate the service animals that guide and 
assist them. And progress is being made to ensure that the Web sites 
and online stores that make up the world of e-commerce are accessible 
as well.
  Let me offer yet another example: a veteran fireman like Dennis Bell 
does not have to quit his job when he loses his leg during a rescue 
attempt, because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead, his 
employer must provide him with the opportunity to be reassigned. In Mr. 
Bell's case, he has been given an opportunity to work in a new division 
instructing children about fire safety.
  And because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a gifted man like 
Chris Lenart, who is unable to talk or walk, can pursue a successful 
career as a computer programmer and remain economically self-
sufficient. Employers can no longer deny a job to a qualified applicant 
because of a disability.
  At least 12 percent of Americans live with a disability, but each and 
every one of us benefits from the skills and talents of disabled 
Americans who can now contribute to our country's workforce and public 
life, and whose abilities are not lost for want of an opportunity to 
demonstrate them.
  I believe that our country has become a stronger and fairer place 
over the past 20 years because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
As the 20th anniversary approaches, I am proud to reflect with my 
colleagues on the progress that has been made as a result of this law, 
as well as to acknowledge that there is more work still to be done.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, next Monday marks the 20th anniversary 
of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA is one 
of America's great civil rights achievements. In its scope and 
intentions, it ranks alongside major victories for equal justice, like 
the 15th and 19th amendments, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting 
Rights Act.
  I would like to recognize and congratulate my friend and colleague 
Tom Harkin for his instrumental role in authoring this legislation 20 
years ago. He has been a steadfast advocate for people with 
disabilities, and with his leadership last Congress we passed the ADA 
Amendments Act of 2008 to restore the full promise of the ADA after it 
been distorted and diluted by a series of bad Federal court decisions.
  I am deeply proud to have voted for the ADA in 1990 because this law 
produced changes in society--removing physical barriers, prohibiting 
discrimination, and changing attitudes--that we might take for granted 
today.
  Before passage of this law, people with disabilities were too often 
denied the opportunity to fully participate in society. Back then, if 
you needed a haircut, if you had to see a doctor, if you just wanted to 
meet a friend for a cup of coffee, you probably had to rely on family, 
friends, or a social service agency. Very few transit systems in this 
country had buses or trains that were accessible to people using 
wheelchairs.
  We passed the ADA to fulfill the Nation's goals of equality of 
opportunity, independent living, economic self sufficiency, and full 
participation for Americans with disabilities. Twenty years later, it 
is clear that this pioneering law is fulfilling its promise in many 
ways.
  You can see it right outside on the sidewalk with curb cuts, ramps, 
Braille signs, and assistive listening devices. The physical changes 
the ADA has brought about benefit all Americans, not just those with 
disabilities. We have seen progress in public transportation and public 
accommodations. Because of the ADA and IDEA together, thousands of 
Americans with disabilities have gone to good schools, received good 
educations, and entered the workforce.
  The Americans with Disabilities Act does not grant people with 
disabilities any special status or position. To the contrary, it simply 
removes certain barriers that for too long had made it difficult--if 
not impossible for people with disabilities to make the most of their 
God-given skills and abilities, and to participate fully in their 
communities and in the workplace.
  Despite the important changes made by the ADA, we still have work to 
do to ensure that people with disabilities achieve the full promise of 
the law. Twenty years after enactment, people with disabilities still 
experience barriers that interfere with their full participation in 
mainstream American life.
  The promise of equal employment opportunity for people with 
disabilities remains largely unfulfilled.
  More than 60 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities are 
unemployed. Americans with disabilities who do work tend to be 
concentrated in lower paying jobs. As a result, individuals with 
disabilities are three times as likely to live in poverty as 
individuals without disabilities. That has to change. Most people with 
disabilities want to work, and have to work.
  Many people with disabilities continue to live in segregated 
institutional settings because the support services they need to live 
in the community don't exist or aren't affordable. And many public and 
private buildings still aren't accessible to people with disabilities.
  It is important to take the time today to recognize the barriers we 
have eliminated for people with disabilities, and recognize that we 
still have work to do. We need to continue tearing down the subtler 
barriers that prevent far too many people with disabilities from 
participating fully in our economy, not just because it is the right 
thing to do, but because it is the smart thing to do.
  When President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA in 1990, people on 
both sides of the aisle cheered and the President proclaimed: ``With 
today's signing of the landmark ADA, every man, woman and child with a 
disability can now pass through once-closed doors into a bright new era 
of equality, independence and freedom.''
  That remains our vision, and I look forward to working with my 
colleagues to widen that door even further so more Americans can pass 
through.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page 13798]]

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, we are rapidly approaching the time when 
we will yield the floor to a different resolution, and I guess the vote 
will be held at around noon on the resolution commemorating the 20th 
anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I didn't say this 
before, but there are a lot of activities going on all over this 
country this weekend. In every State, certain activities are taking 
place, although not the same thing. Different States do different 
things. Senator Brown mentioned that in Iowa we are collecting stories 
from all of our 99 counties from people with disabilities, from 
families and friends who know of what has happened in the life of a 
person with a disability and has been affected by the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. I am participating this weekend in several events in 
Iowa commemorating the ADA. In every State we are doing this. It is 
happening all over the country. Of course, it is happening in 
Washington, DC, as well.
  Next Monday there will be a series of events. At 10 a.m. there will 
be a panel discussion that will take place in the Kennedy Caucus Room 
in the Russell Building. That is from 10 to 12 noon. Everyone is 
invited. It will be a discussion, interestingly enough, among a lot of 
people who were there at the creation, including Steve Bartlett, whom I 
mentioned, Boyden Gray, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, Bobby 
Silverstein, Pat Wright--a number of people who were there in the 
beginning--to talk about how this happened but then to also have the 
audience participate in a discussion about what needs to be done and 
where we go from here. So that is from 10 to 12 in the Kennedy Caucus 
Room in the Russell Building.
  Then at 1 p.m. there is an ADA reception on the House side in 
Statuary Hall. That will start at 1 p.m. Then a very interesting thing 
is going to happen on the House side. At 2 p.m. the House will come 
into session. The Presiding Officer in the House at that time will be 
Representative Jim Langevin from Rhode Island. Congressman Langevin is 
a severe paraplegic. I have known Jim for many years. He uses a 
wheelchair. Congressman Langevin has never been able to preside over 
the House because, like our podium here, one has to go up a number of 
steps to get to it. There is no way he could get his wheelchair up 
there. I understand the House is in the process now of developing a 
system so that individuals who use wheelchairs can now get to the 
podium.
  So for the first time, a Congressperson using a wheelchair will 
preside over the House of Representatives. I intend to be there. As a 
former House Member, I have privileges of the floor. I want to see that 
historic event. That will take place at 2 p.m. on the House side.
  Then, at 4 p.m., from 4 to 6, President Obama is opening the White 
House lawn for a celebration. There will be several hundred people 
there--people with disabilities and their families and friends, people 
who have been involved in this. As I understand it, the White House 
will be making a proclamation at that time. That will be from 4 to 6.
  At 7 p.m. there will be an ADA anniversary gala at the National Press 
Club from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. thrown by a coalition of disability 
advocates. So a full day of celebration and remembrance and a day of 
commitment to moving further and making sure the promise of the ADA is 
fulfilled--not in 100 years but a much shorter time period than that.
  As I mentioned earlier, it took 100 years, from Lincoln's 
Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, before the 
Emancipation Proclamation promise was actually put into law. I hope and 
trust and will work hard to make sure it doesn't take 100 years to make 
the promise of the ADA complete throughout our society. We have come a 
long way. We have some more things to do. We are at it and we are going 
to keep at it. We are going to keep doing whatever we can to make sure 
the four goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act are realized in 
as short of a timeframe as possible.
  So with that, I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, first of all, I ask for the yeas and 
nays on the resolution.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield back whatever time remains on our side on this resolution.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. Again, I note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

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