Up This Week: A Bill to Weaken ADA
From the Autism Society
Next week the House of Representatives may consider a bill, the ADA Education and Reform Act (H.R. 620), that would severely weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). H.R. 620 is a thinly veiled attempt to absolve businesses and organizations from complying with the ADA provision requiring access to public accommodations by shifting the burden to inform and educate to those whose rights are violated.
Please call your Representative today and the rest of this week and urge them to protect the rights of people with disabilities by voting NO on H.R. 620. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask for your Member of Congress.
Talking Points
HR 620 would do the following:
Eliminate the need for businesses and other entities that offer services to the public to meet accessibility requirements until a complaint is filed against them
Limit the ability to file a complaint unless it is in writing, specifies the exact part of the law that is being violated, whether the person complaining has made a direct complaint to the business, and whether the barrier or lack of access is permanent or temporary
The person with a disability must then wait up to 180 days for the business to “fix” the complaint; therefore denying the person with a disability access to the services for the waiting period
Also, a business could have more than 180 days to fix the complaint if they are making “substantial progress” to fix the complaint
This bill attacks the rights of people with disabilities because of “frivolous” law suits being brought by lawyers against businesses. This “problem” is about lawyers who are bad actors and should not be “solved” by gutting the rights of people with disabilities.
For more information and talking points, see the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities’ ADA website.
Targets
California delegation
Illinois delegation
Florida delegation
Colorado delegation
Texas delegation
New Mexico delegation
Arizona delegation
Nevada delegation
Oregon delegation
Collin Peterson (D-MN)
Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
Daniel Lipinski ( D-IL)
Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Jim Cooper (D-TN)
Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)
Jared Polis (D-CO)
Dwight Evans (D-PA)
Mike Doyle (D-PA)
Kathleen Rice (D-NY)
Terri Sewell (D-AL)
Bill Foster (D-IL)
Jim Costa (D-CA)
Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Ami Bera (D-CA)
Luis Correa (D-CA)
Pete Aguilar (D-CA)
Scott Peters (D-CA)
Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)
