Senate passes bill protecting disabled people

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Senate passes bill protecting disabled people

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1131121320080911

The Senate on Thursday approved major legislation that would expand

protection against workplace discrimination for people with

disabilities and overturn several Supreme Court rulings that curbed

such safeguards in the past decade.

The measure, passed on a voice vote and without dissent, is similar

to a legislation that sailed through the House of Representatives in

June, 402-17.

Minor differences between the two bills are expected to be quickly

resolved so that a final version can be sent to President W.

Bush to sign into law. It would expand the 1990 Americans with

Disabilities Act, which was signed by Bush's father, President

Bush.

" This is the most important piece of disability legislation since the

enactment of the ADA in 1990 and we are close enough to the finish

line that we can see over, " said Imparato, head of the

American Association of People with Disabilities.

The 1990 law requires employers to make accommodations for disabled

employees. The new bill, the ADA Amendments Act, addresses Supreme

Court decisions that critics say restricted the law. The court has

ruled that mitigating measures -- such as medication or a prosthesis -

- make a person ineligible for coverage.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bill,

said the Supreme Court rulings put the disabled in an untenable

position.

" The erosions of rights created by these court cases have created a

bizarre Catch 22 where people with serious conditions like epilepsy

or diabetes could be forced to choose between treating their

conditions and forfeiting their protections under the ADA, or not

treating their conditions and being protected, " Harkin said.

" That is not what Congress intended when we passed the law and this

bill is the right fix, " Harkin said.

In an unusual show of election-year cooperation, disability advocates

and the business lobby compromised to draft the new legislation.

Both the House and Senate bills again define a disability as a

physical or mental impairment that " substantially limits " one or more

major life activities. They increase the number of activities

covered, add a category of bodily functions and allow workers to sue

if they believe they are mistreated.

" Today's Senate passage of the ADA Amendments Act gives the nation a

glimpse of the legislative process at its highest and best, " said

Zirkin, head of The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

" No narrow partisan politics barred the way to reinstating a

vulnerable class of people with disabilities who had been excluded by

narrow court decisions from the law's protections -- such as those

with diabetes, cancer and bipolar disorder, " Zirkin said.

(Reporting by Ferraro, editing by Bill Trott)