[nFBMI-Talk] House Passes HR 620: Attention and Advocacy Shift to the Senate

Terry D. Eagle terrydeagle at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 28 12:04:08 UTC 2018


	House Passes HR 620: Attention and Advocacy Shift to the Senate

Late last week, the House of Representatives took up H.R. 620, the ADA
Education and Reform Act. After debate and consideration of six amendments,
four amendments were approved, none of which substantively change the effect
of the bill. When the House voted on the bill, it passed 225-192. 213
Republicans and 12 Democrats voted "yea," while 19 Republicans and 173
Democrats voted "nay." Overall, the vote was closer than expected, but it is
disappointing that the House of Representatives chose to advance a bill that
makes it harder for Americans with disabilities to exercise their right to
full independent enjoyment of public life.

With the support of more than five hundred organizations and tens of
thousands of individuals, the disability community fought hard to encourage
members of the House of Representatives to vote against H.R. 620. While
efforts did not succeed in stopping the bill in its tracks, Moreover,
several Senators, including Senators Casey, Hassan, Duckworth, and Murray,
have already expressed their opposition to any bill that weakens the ADA. 

As the attention turns to the Senate, there is still a chance to defeat this
bill.

While  it is not yet known when the Senate will consider the amended bill,
the House's passage of H.R. 620 makes your advocacy even more important! You
still have the opportunity to convince your Senators that the ADA is a vital
law that protects the rights of individuals with disabilities. In the next
few weeks, tell your Senators and their staff that businesses have had 27
years to comply with the law and that any so-called frivolous lawsuits can
be and have been dealt with directly by the courts. Tell them to oppose H.R.
620.

To contact your Senators:
Find the names and contact of your Senators at: 
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact

Call the Senate office and tell the staff person who answers the phone that
you want your Senator to oppose consideration of HR 620 in the Senate.



-----Original Message-----
From: Terry D. Eagle [mailto:terrydeagle at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 2:19 PM
Subject: RE: [nFBMI-Talk] Senator Duckworth on mission to overcome obstacles

Indeed Senator Duckworth is inspiring.  What is needed is positive action by
legislators and legistures, and moreover, by boters.

It is outrageous to me that the two party system is truly broken when
legislation will not even brought up for discussion and an up or down bote.
Whenever either party is in the majority they play games with our lives, the
lives of our children and grandchildren.  It is time for a strong third
party, so no one party has a majority to block legislation from discussion
and a vote, and whereby "compromise" is not viewed as a poisonous political
pill to accomplishing the vital and necessary work of We the American
citizen.  Term limits and removing lobbyist money are also needed to mend
the broken political system.

As I sit here listening to the live statement of the young men and women
students of Florida address their state legislators to take action to make
it safe to attend classes at schoolswithout the fear of dying, it is
inspiring to observe such a movement of young people and future voters.
Those young people are truly the political blood transfusion that the
American political system needs to repace legislators who are sadly and
sorely out of touch from years and decades of being in their positions, and
being controlled by money, rather than the needs and voice of the citizens
that they are supposed to represent.    

Daily I thank God for our military personnel, like Edward and Senator
Duckworth, who sacrifice so much to keep America safe and free from those
who desire to harm and destroy our freedom and democratic way of life.

Like the students in Florida, it is grassroots action that will maintain and
further enhance and advance our way of life, and stop the outrageous
rollback of laws that advance and protect equal civil rights of all
Americans.  And each and everyone of us can have a hand in the pursuit of
action to achieve equality for all, and a safe America for all.  It is our
civic duty as the price of freedom and equality to contact our elected
representatives to protect the rights of persons with disAbilities to secure
a positive action vote of "NO" or "nay" on the Senate version of H.R. 620,
the ADA Education and Reform Act.  Today please contact your U.S. House of
Representatives and Senate representative, and encourage them to protect the
civil rights of opportunity and equality We fought for so many years ago.
Tomorrow may be too late! 


From: christine Boone [mailto:christineboone2 at gmail.com]
Sent: February 21, 2018 10:55 AM
To: terrydeagle at yahoo.com; 'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'
<nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Subject: RE: [nFBMI-Talk] Senator Duckworth on mission to overcome obstacles

Thanks for sharing this Terry. My son Edward, who is a moderate conservative
like me, has tremendous respect for Senator Duckworth. Edward spent a year
in Afghanistan, and now serves as a reservist working in Army Special
Intelligence. I also like much of what Senator Duckworth represents. If more
members of the democrat party were like this intrepid courageous woman, I
would probably still be a democrat, as I was for the first 25 years of my
voting life! 

Hat's off to Senator Duckworth--and now let's all go pound on our state's
U.S. Senators to vote NO on the Senate version of H.R. 620, the ADA
Education and Reform Act. 

Christine
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBMI-Talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Terry D. Eagle via NFBMI-Talk
> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 3:05 PM
> To: 'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List' <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Terry D. Eagle <terrydeagle at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [nFBMI-Talk] Senator Duckworth on mission to overcome 
> obstacles
> 
> Senator Duckworth on mission to overcome obstacles
> 
> Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Published 1:02 p.m. ET Feb. 18, 2018
> 
> 
> 
> Washington - Breaking down barriers is nothing new for Sen. Tammy 
> Duckworth, and that's the way she likes it.
> 
> 
> 
> The decorated Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter 
> was shot down is an Asian-American woman in the mostly white, mostly 
> male and very fusty Senate. And now, with a baby due in April, she'll 
> be the
first
> senator to give birth while in office.
> 
> 
> 
> And so, along with her legislative and political goals, the Illinois
Democrat is
> adding a new one: educating the tradition-bound Senate on creating a 
> workplace that makes room for new moms.
> 
> 
> 
> "She's been through things that you and I will probably never understand.
So
> I'm sure for her (having a baby) is in no way daunting," said Rep. 
> Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., who had two children while serving in
Congress.
> "She's also someone who's had a whole career in a male-dominated world."
> 
> 
> 
> Duckworth, who turns 50 in March, says she appreciates the historic 
> nature of her baby's birth, as well as the fact that she represents 
> working
mothers
> 
> and women having babies later in life. She fully expects to have to 
> find a place to nurse in some quiet parlor off the Senate floor.
> 
> 
> 
> But she says having a baby, a second daughter, is just one of many 
> stops
on
> the trail ahead.
> 
> 
> 
> "This is the last job that I want," Duckworth said of the Illinois 
> Senate
seat
> once held by Barack Obama. The former president is one of several men 
> she ticks off as mentors and role models. They include Sen. Dick 
> Durbin,
D-Ill.,
> former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and the late Democratic Sens. Daniel 
> Inouye
of
> Hawaii and Edward Kennedy - all backers of the Americans with 
> Disabilities Act, which made the nation's landscape a little easier to
navigate.
> 
> 
> 
> But she's sees both problems with compliance and efforts to undermine 
> the law.
> 
> 
> 
> She points to flaws in Chicago's mass transit system, for example, and 
> in
a
> ladies' room at a U.S. embassy overseas. And floating through Congress 
> now is a bill designed to curb frivolous lawsuits under the ADA that 
> Duckworth and others say weakens it.
> 
> 
> 
> Duckworth is already in the history books. She's the first female 
> amputee elected to Congress, the first Asian-American to represent 
> Illinois in Washington and the first member of Congress born in 
> Thailand. Her story of resilience and grit set her in the rare company 
> of grievously injured
veterans
> who later served in the Senate - Dole, a World War II veteran, and 
> John McCain, who was kept prisoner for more than five years in Vietnam.
> 
> 
> 
> "If you take gender out of it, it's not that new," said Duckworth, a 
> year
into
> her own Senate term.
> 
> 
> 
> But gender can't be ignored as the nation reckons with sexual 
> misconduct
at
> home and in the workplace, especially since Congress is not exactly 
> known for being on the leading edge of equality. The first area 
> specifically set
up for
> lactation opened in the Capitol only a dozen years ago. The House
installed
> its first lavatory for women lawmakers in 2011. The Senate has had its 
> own women's restroom for 25 years.
> 
> 
> 
> Duckworth, one of 22 women in the Senate, has the experience to give 
> her policy advice and criticisms of President Donald Trump an 
> especially authoritative edge.
> 
> 
> 
> His demand for a military parade? "Our troops in danger overseas don't 
> need a show of bravado, they need steady leadership," she said.
> 
> 
> 
> His complaint that Democrats didn't sufficiently applaud his State of 
> the Union address?
> 
> "I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a 
> five-deferment draft dodger," reads the Tweet pinned atop her page, 
> referring to Trump's deferment from Vietnam due to a foot ailment. She 
> refuses to "mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap
when he demands I clap."
> 
> 
> 
> CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" gave Duckworth full credit 
> for
the
> nickname. In a gag ad earlier this month, a new G.I. Joe doll 
> resembling Trump, named "Cadet Bonespurs," lolls in a hammock while 
> his comrades march off to war.
> 
> 
> 
> When Trump tweets that Democrats don't care about the military, "she 
> takes that personally. She answered personally," said Durbin.
> 
> 
> 
> Politics and the military were not Duckworth's original goals.
> 
> 
> 
> As she worked on a master's degree in international affairs in the 
> early
1990s
> at George Washington University, Duckworth was aiming to become an 
> ambassador.  She signed up for ROTC to learn more about the military.
> She fell in love with the challenge - and with a cadet named Bryan
Bowlsbey.
> They married in 1993.
> 
> Duckworth has said she applied to fly helicopters because she wanted 
> the same power as men - and because it was one of the few combat jobs 
> open to women.
> 
> 
> 
> She was the senior officer co-piloting a Black Hawk on Nov. 12, 2004, 
> when
a
> grenade fired by an Iraqi insurgent exploded in a fireball at 
> Duckworth's
feet.
> She lost both legs and partial use of her arm and faced a grueling
recovery.
> 
> 
> 
> As she recovered, Duckworth befriended some important members of the 
> Senate.
> Durbin invited Duckworth to be his guest at President George W. Bush's
2005
> State of the Union address. And Dole, who had lost much of the use of 
> one arm to war, dedicated his 2005 book to her. Duckworth, he wrote, 
> "represents all those with their own battles ahead of them."
> 
> 
> 
> But for all of her powerful patrons, achievements and drive, the 
> Senate terrain can still seem bumpy.
> 
> 
> 
> One day in December as Duckworth wheeled around a corner in the 
> Capitol toward the Senate's historic vote on tax cuts, a young police 
> officer
stopped
> her.  The elevators, he said, were reserved "for members only."
> 
> 
> 
> Duckworth looked up and, all business, informed him that she's the 
> junior senator from Illinois.
> 
> The officer let Duckworth through - with apologies.
> 
> 
> 
> Source:
> 
> http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/18/senate-
> duckworth-n
> ew-mothers/110577672/
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
> http://www.avg.com
> _______________________________________________
> NFBMI-Talk mailing list
> NFBMI-Talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
NFBMI-
> Talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmi-
> talk_nfbnet.org/christineboone2%40gmail.com





More information about the NFBMI-Talk mailing list