The Mid-Atlantic Regional Group
Blinded Veterans Association
Legislative News
September 16, 2008
Early this spring when some
thought that the attempt at passage of a new American Disabilities Restoration
Act would fail, several of the veteran service organizations had meetings with
other disability organizations, and added our collective efforts to passage of
this legislation. The House version of the bill passed last summer (H.R. 3195),
and then we put forth efforts on the Senate side, with Senator Harkin and
Senator Hatch who introduced S 3406. Again, with the efforts of the various
veteran service organizations along with the disability community at large, the
ADA
bill passed last week. Many of the other disability groups credit the work of
the veteran service organizations in bringing this bill quickly to the floor on
both the house and senate side, especially after it had initially stalled for
most of last year in the first session of 110th Congress.
Below is copy of letter that
was signed and sent to the two members of the senate who worked on this issue
all year and the Blinded Veterans Association was on board from the start of
this effort last March.
Re: Support for new ADA
Amendments Act of 2008. S. 3604
Dear Senators Harkin and
Hatch:
When a disabled veteran
recovers enough to return to the workforce, it’s a slap in the face to run into
employment discrimination. That is why we salute you for your leadership in
sponsoring S. 3406 to restore the protections of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) that have been eroded by the courts.
As leaders of organizations
that represent men and women who have served honorably in our nation’s military,
we are proud to support the Senate version of the
ADA
Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 3406).
This revised
ADA
bill has broad bipartisan support and the support of an unusual coalition of
business, disabilities, civil rights and veterans/military groups who are
working together to reverse narrow court interpretations of the
ADA
that had deprived people with many kinds of disabilities from
ADA
protection.
It confirms that veterans and
other people with disabilities should not lose their civil rights because their
conditions can be managed with mitigating measures such as medication,
prosthetics and therapy, and assistive technology.
The honorable men and women who
have become disabled in the service of our country deserve our support in every
way. Often the best healing agent for both mind and body is to return to the
workforce with a decent job at a living wage. This bill will help make sure
they are protected from unlawful discrimination.
Air Force Association Air
Force Sergeants Association Air Force Women Officers Associated American
Federation of Government Employees American GI Forum of the
U.S. AMVETS Blinded Veterans Association
Disabled American Veterans Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the
United States
Iraq
& Afghanistan Veterans of
America Jewish War Veterans
of the USA Military
Officers Association of
America Military Order of the Purple Heart
National Association for Black Veterans National Association for Uniformed
Services Naval Reserve Association Non-Commissioned Officers Association
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Reserve Enlisted Association United Spinal Association
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Vietnam Veterans of
America Veterans of Modern Warfare
For those interested in
tracking the original house bill, below is the bill number and the two members
who introduced the house bill last year.
Re: Support for new ADA
Amendments Act of 2008, H.R. 3195
Dear Majority Leader Hoyer and
Congressman Sensenbrenner:
The veteran service
organizations commend you for your leadership in sponsoring H.R. 3195 to restore
the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
that have been eroded by the courts and we appreciate your joint efforts at
having this bill pass in the House of Representatives.
There were some differences
between the house version and senate version that have been corrected, but will
require final vote on house side.
United Spinal Association
believes that both H.R. 3195 and S. 3406 are a sufficient improvement over
existing law to merit our strong support.
Both bills clearly state that
courts have too narrowly interpreted the definition of disability under the
ADA. Both also clarify the definition of disability by
including a useful list of major life activities and major bodily functions that
will make it easier for people to show that they have a disability that merits
ADA
protection.
Without these bills, people who
use prosthetics or medication to help deal with their disabilities are often
shut out of ADA
protection. With these bills, they should be protected by the
ADA. For example, in one case, an employee with diabetes
was fired because he needed to take a 30 minute lunch at the same time every day
in order to take his medication and control his blood sugar by eating at a
regular time. The court held that he could be fired because of his diabetes but
because he could control his condition with medication and diet, he was not
disabled under the ADA
and had no remedy.
Without these bills, people
with conditions that are recurring or episodic are often shut of out
ADA
protection. With these bills, they should be protected by the
ADA. For example, a court held that because a person with
epilepsy had grand mal seizures that only lasted a couple of minutes a week, he
was not disabled and the employer was free to fire him because of his epilepsy.
Under these bills, the court must determine whether a person has a disability
when the condition is active – such as during a seizure. This provision should
help the many veterans who develop epilepsy in connection with traumatic brain
injuries. This provision should also help people with multiple sclerosis which
has periods when it is not active.
Below is information sent out
from a further analysis of the ADA Restoration Act by American Foundation for
the Blind AFB here in Washington
DC with how this will affect blind or
visually impaired.
Last week, the U.S. Senate
surprised disability and business community advocates by passing S. 3406, the
ADA
Amendments Act of 2008, with little notice under unanimous consent. While
favorable action by the Senate was always deemed likely, the move to advance the
legislation with dispatch means that the House can and will act on the measure
before Congress adjourns. The House is likely to act any day, and the President
is expected to sign the legislation.
The
ADA
amendments are intended to remedy the harmful effects of Supreme Court decisions
that have eroded the civil rights protections of the law by imposing illogical
and far-too-rigorous conditions on its application. For example, decisions by
the Court have left in doubt whether an individual with a disability who may use
assistive technology or medications to mitigate the effects of their disability
can in fact bring a successful claim under the
ADA
for employment discrimination.
In addition to restoring the
original intent of Congress, the ADA
amendments also include two important features of particular interest to the
vision loss community.
First, while the amendments are
designed to clarify that use of ordinary eye glasses or contacts is to be
considered a mitigating measure when determining whether an individual can bring
an ADA
claim, the amendments are careful to distinguish glasses and contacts from low
vision devices. This means that an individual's use of low vision devices cannot
be taken into account when determining whether an individual has a disability
that in fact substantially limits that individual in a major life activity such
as seeing or reading.
Secondly, in making the
important distinction between glasses/contacts and low vision devices, the
amendments should help to pave the way for greater coverage of low vision
devices under Medicare and Medicaid. Currently, the Medicare administering
agency intends to permanently blur this distinction and categorically exclude
reimbursement for any device that uses a lens. While the
ADA
amendments will not have the legal effect of changing reimbursement policy per
se, these amendments should serve as valuable precedent for future advocacy in
this area. The definitions of these terms found in the
ADA
amendments are as follows--
(I) the term `ordinary
eyeglasses or contact lenses' means lenses that are intended to fully correct
visual acuity or eliminate refractive error; and
(II) the term `low-vision
devices' means devices that magnify, enhance, or otherwise augment a visual
image.'.
The array of vision loss
provisions in the ADA
amendments were prepared and advocated by AFB with the support of leading
ophthalmologists and other professionals and consumers. For the full text of the
Senate-passed ADA
amendments go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.3406.ES:.
ADA Amendments on Fast Track for Presidential
Signature--Changes Will Add Protections for People with Vision Loss
For further information,
contact:
Mark Richert
Director, Public Policy, AFB
(202) 822-0833
mrichert@afb.net
Or contact Tom Zampieri
Director Government Relations
Blinded Veterans Association
Washington, DC
20001-2694
tzampieri@bva.org
BVA's Legislative Alerts Group
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