[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13625-13626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                ABLE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Crenshaw) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, this morning, I want to bring attention to 
proposed legislation known as the ABLE Act, or Achieving a Better Life 
Experience. It is something that is important to me and to a lot of 
Members of the House.
  I first filed this legislation 7 years ago. Since then, we have come 
a long way. Today, 377 Members of the House and 74 United States 
Senators are cosponsors of this legislation. There is no piece of 
legislation in the Congress today that enjoys more bipartisan, 
bicameral support than the ABLE Act. Tomorrow, the Ways and Means 
Committee in the House will take up this legislation, and I hope that 
they will pass it with a favorable vote.
  Just what is the ABLE Act? It is a piece of legislation that attempts 
to help those individuals with disabilities

[[Page 13626]]

achieve their full potential. How does it do that? Well, it allows 
individuals with disabilities to set up a tax-free savings account. 
They take that account, it grows tax free, and they can use the 
proceeds, as long as they meet qualified expenses.
  Those individuals face challenges that you and I can sometimes hardly 
imagine. They might be medical, transportation, education, or housing 
needs. We already allow other individuals to use tax-exempt savings 
accounts to help them.
  If you want to save for retirement, you can set up a tax-free savings 
account called a 401(k). If you want to set up a tax-free savings 
account to help you go to college, you can do that through what is 
called a 529. If you want to help with your health care, you can set up 
a health savings account. It seems only fair that we level the playing 
field and allow those individuals the same opportunity.
  Let me introduce you to someone by the name of Sydney Leach. She 
lives in Jacksonville, Florida. Today, she is a fifth-grader at Crown 
Point Elementary School. She has Down syndrome. When she was born, her 
proud mom and dad, Stacy and Jeff Leach, made a commitment to make sure 
that she would not only have a happy life, but that she would be able 
to realize her hopes and her dreams and her full potential.
  Soon they realized that when you raise a child with Down syndrome, 
you face challenges that a lot of people can't imagine. Unlike her 
classmates, she had to have special behavioral counseling. She had to 
have special medical care. She needed individual counseling. So it was 
difficult.
  Her parents then found out that if you have Medicaid, you are limited 
to $2,000 for the amount of assets that you can have in your name. If 
her parents or loved ones wanted to give her a gift, they jeopardized 
the care that she needed.
  So the ABLE Act seeks to correct those inequities. It says that you 
can, number one, set up a tax-free savings account and let those 
proceeds grow. Number two, it won't count against your $2,000 
limitation on assets.
  This is America, home of the American Dream. Individuals with 
disabilities ought to be able to live the American Dream, just like you 
and I. They ought to be able to have an education and work on their 
own, if they can. They ought to be able to save for the future. The 
ABLE Act allows them to do just that.
  We live in a great, prosperous country. Sometimes, we are called upon 
to speak out for the people that can't speak out, to stand up and seek 
justice for those that can't seek justice on their own.
  The ABLE Act will have a positive impact on millions of people with 
disabilities all across this land. That is worth fighting for. I hope 
soon the ABLE Act will become the law of the land.

                          ____________________