NEW YORK, October 22, 2004— The promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act remains unfulfilled and the time has come to consider aggressive legislative action in Congress to address the unmistakable weakening of the protections afforded under the ADA, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Maryland, said in a speech on October 21 at New York Law School.  

In 1990, Congressman Hoyer shepherded the Americans with Disabilities Act to overwhelming approval in the House, and it was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. The ADA—the world’s first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities—was an explicit statement that a disability need not result in exclusion, paternalism or dependence, Hoyer says.  

“Under this new law, Americans with disabilities were guaranteed that employers could not discriminate against them simply because they have a disability,” Hoyer says. “However, our progress and the best efforts of so many in the business community must not obscure this fact: The promise of the ADA remains unfulfilled for far too many of America’s 54 million disabled citizens.”  

Hoyer noted that only 32 percent of people of working age who have a disability are employed.  More than two-thirds who are not employed say they would prefer to work, he said, and three times as many individuals with disabilities live in poverty as those without. And people with disabilities are twice as likely to drop out of high school. Given the adverse rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts, the time has come to consider action in Congress to address the weakening of ADA protections, “but we need to pick our shots strategically,” Hoyer said.    

“Congress must make unmistakably clear that we intended the phrase ‘disability’ to include every person in America with a disability, not merely those who can avoid interpretational traps constructed by hostile courts,” Hoyer said. “There are many different ways of accomplishing this goal, and it may even require changing the literal definition of ‘disability’ that is written in the ADA.”  

Congressman Hoyer presented the first annual Tony Coelho Lecture in Disability Employment Law & Policy, named for Tony Coelho, former Majority Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, author and principal sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and one of the nation’s leading advocates for people with disabilities. The lecture was presented by the Law School’s Labor & Employment Law Program, directed by Professor Seth Harris.  

A transcript and video of Congressman Hoyer’s speech is available at the New York Law School Web site at old.nyls.edu.

ABOUT NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL

Founded in 1891, New York Law School is the second oldest independent law school in the United States. Drawing on its location near the centers of law, government, and finance in New York City, its faculty of noted and prolific scholars has built the school’s curricular strength in the areas of tax law, labor and employment law, civil and human rights law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and interdisciplinary fields such as legal history and legal ethics. New York Law School has more than 11,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program. It is one of only two law schools in the metropolitan area to offer the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation.     

Contact: Edie Sachs, Director of Communications, Office of Public Affairs, 212.431.2187, esachs@nyls.edu.   

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