By a vote of 225-192, House Republicans have voted to gut the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and stri[e equal rights away from 56.7 million Americans.
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The vote:
*BREAKING*
🚨HR 620 PASSED the House 225-192🚨
We ALL must â˜Žï¸ our 2 Senators & say NO to a bill that would roll back protections of the American Disabilities Act (ADA)
Please call. We can STOP this. ðŸ”¥â¬†ï¸ the ☎ï¸â˜Žï¸
202-224-3121 https://t.co/aaVvpvLcy0
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) February 15, 2018
Democrats and advocacy groups are blasting HR 620
Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on the House floor, “Now we have on the Floor a bill that would undermine the central tenet of the ADA, the right of victims of discrimination to seek redress for exclusion. Requiring victims of discrimination to provide notice of a violation before bringing a lawsuit is an improper shift of the burden of compliance onto victims – one not required of any other group by any other civil rights law. Not a single civil rights law gives this kind of provision.”
The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jarrold Nadler (D-NY) warned, The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017, would undermine the civil rights of Americans with disabilities by significantly weakening the key enforcement tool of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which is the filing of private lawsuits by discrimination victims. Congress passed the ADA 28 years ago with the goals of fully integrating persons with disabilities into the mainstream of American life and counteracting discriminatory social attitudes towards the disabled. By making it harder for persons facing such discrimination to vindicate their rights in court, H.R. 620 ultimately undermines these goals.”
The Alliance For Retired Americans said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, “The bill removes the incentives for businesses to comply with the law and imposes significant burdens on Americans with disabilities. Currently, the law provides legal recourse to disabled individuals to ensure that business and other establishments comply with the ADA law. We must not take that away. By providing businesses a 120-day waiting period before the person reporting a violation can take the case to court, this bill weakens the ADA. During this time, businesses would not be penalized as long as they are making ‘substantial progress’ towards becoming ADA-compliant. However, ‘substantial progress’ is not defined and would be left to the courts.”
HR 620 is intended to undermine the civil rights of Americans with disabilities
HR 620 has one goal, and that it to make it more difficult for disabled Americans to get equal access to businesses and establishments. It has been a goal of Republicans for more than a decade to undermine the ADA. If a person with a disability can’t gain access to a business or establishment, that’s their problem. We already know how Trump feels about differently abled people, so if the bill passes the Senate, it is certain to become law.
Civil rights are under assault, and only a united wall of Americans can keep this country equal and free for all.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
