The New York Times
June 26, 2008
House Votes to Expand Civil Rights for Disabled
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON – The House passed a major civil rights bill on Wednesday
that would expand protections for people with disabilities and
overturn several Supreme Court decisions issued in the last decade.
The bill, approved 402 to 17, would make it easier for workers to
prove discrimination. It would explicitly relax some stringent
standards set by the court and says that disability is to be
“construed broadly,” to cover more physical and mental impairments.
Supporters of the proposal said it would restore the broad
protections that Congress meant to establish when it passed the
Americans With Disabilities Act that President George Bush signed in
1990.
Lawmakers said Wednesday that people with epilepsy, diabetes, cancer,
cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other ailments had been
improperly denied protection because their conditions could be
controlled by medication or were in remission. In a Texas case, for
example, a federal judge said a worker with epilepsy could not be
considered disabled because he was taking medications that reduced the
frequency of seizures.
In deciding whether a person is disabled, the bill says, courts
should generally not consider the effects of “mitigating measures”
like prescription drugs, hearing aids and artificial limbs. Moreover,
it adds, “an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a
disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when
active.”
The chief sponsor of the bill, the House Democratic leader,
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said the situation was now
bizarre. “An individual may be considered too disabled by an employer
to get a job, but not disabled enough by the courts to be protected by
the A.D.A. from discrimination,” Mr. Hoyer said.
The chief Republican sponsor, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner
Jr. of Wisconsin, said the Supreme Court had “chipped away at the
protections” of the 1990 law, leaving millions of Americans with no
recourse or remedy for discrimination.
His wife, Cheryl Sensenbrenner, has testified in support of the bill
as chairwoman of the American Association of People With Disabilities,
an advocacy group. Mrs. Sensenbrenner suffered a spinal cord injury in
1972, when she was 22, and sometimes uses a wheelchair. In addition,
she noted in an interview, she has a sister with Down syndrome.
Supporters of the bill immediately shifted their attention to the
Senate, which is expected to pass a similar bipartisan measure.
Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat leading the effort, predicted
that the Senate would act “in the near future.”
The White House said that although President Bush “supports the
overall intent” of the House bill, he was concerned that it “could
unduly expand” coverage and significantly increase litigation.
The House bill reflects a deal worked out in months of negotiations
by business groups and advocates for the disabled. The United States
Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers
helped shape the bill and endorsed it as a balanced compromise.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, called the
Supreme Court reading of the 1990 law “cramped and misguided.”
Remedial legislation is needed now more than ever, Mr. Nadler said,
because “thousands of men and women in uniform are returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan with serious injuries, including the loss of limbs and
head trauma.”
The House Republican whip, Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, said
the bill “puts people to work, creates opportunity and makes America a
more productive country” by unlocking new pools of talent.
The 1990 law said “individuals with disabilities are a discrete and
insular minority.” The bill passed Wednesday deletes that phrase,
which the Supreme Court has cited as a reason for limiting the
definition of disability.
The law generally prohibits an employer from discriminating against a
qualified individual who has, or is perceived as having, a disability,
defined as a physical or mental impairment that “substantially limits”
one or more major life activities.
The Supreme Court said in 2002 that “these terms need to be
interpreted strictly to create a demanding standard for qualifying as
disabled.” To meet this test, the court said, a person has to have “an
impairment that prevents or severely restricts the individual from
doing activities that are of central importance to most people’s daily
lives.”
Under the bill passed on Wednesday, Congress would establish a less
stringent standard, saying an impairment qualifies as a disability if
it “materially restricts” a major life activity like seeing, hearing,
eating, walking, reading or thinking.
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