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BUSH/REPUBLICAN PARTY RECORD ON DISABILITY ISSUES
By Anthony P. DeStefano

(Article reprinted by permission from the Author, as originally published on the American Association of People with Disabilities website)

As an accomplished Certified Public Accountant living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, a person with a disability, the family member of five people with serious disabilities, and a disabilities rights advocate for many years, I would like to set the record straight on how the Republican Party and President Bush treat people with disabilities. For us the Republican Party is the party of Lincoln. President Lincoln had bipolar disorder. But the GOP is much more than that. The Republican Party is also the party of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Social Security Disability Income, Section 8 housing and the Help America Vote Act. If not for Republican Presidents there would be no Tennessee v. Lane and Jones in the first place because there would be no ADA, Title I, II or anything else. The history of Democratic Party presidents on disability rights issues pail in comparison to those elected as Republicans. The following is a short list of things the Republican Party and President Bush have done for us.
  1. While FDR created Social Security for seniors, on August 1, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower extended monthly benefits for the first time to workers who became disabled, thereby creating SSDI.


  2. On September 26, 1973, President Nixon signed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.


  3. On October 29, 1992, President George H.W. Bush signed Pub. L. 102-569 to extend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.


  4. In 1974, President Nixon created the Section 8 housing programs. By 1997 1.5 million households received benefits under the programs.


  5. On November 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or the IDEA).


  6. On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.


  7. On January 23, 2003 the CMS announced that the "President Will Propose $1.75 Billion Program to Help Transition Americans With Disabilities From Institutions to Community Living."


  8. On May 27, 2003, President Bush signed H.R. 1298 to provide $15 billion to fight AIDS abroad. The President said, "This is the largest, single up front commitment in history for an international public health initiative involving a specific disease."


  9. The President supports and agreed to push for the passage of the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 (H.R. 953/S.486). The bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Republican Pete V. Domenici (NM) and is cosponsored by 21 Republicans in the Senate and 40 Republicans in the House.


  10. On June 18, 2001, President Bush signed Executive Order 13217 to create "Community-Based Alternatives for Individuals with Disabilities."


  11. President Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug bill to spend $400 billion on prescription drugs for seniors and disabled people. This bill will provide drug benefits to millions of people who don't have it now and represents a huge spending commitment. On January 24, 2004, the Congressional Budget Office, an independent arm of Congress, backed the GOP on an important provision in the Medicare law. This bill was passed largely by the GOP in Congress with the help of only a few Democrats.


  12. On April 29, 2002, President Bush announced the formation of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The commission's final report was issued July 22, 2003 and is a very important, comprehensive document on mental health.


  13. On February 1, 2001, President Bush began the New Freedom Initiative, and on April 29, 2003, President Bush issued "A Progress Report on Fulfilling America's Promise to Americans with Disabilities" It notes that the President signed legislation increasing by $1.2 billion the FY 2002 budget for the IDEA Part B State Grants.


  14. The Bush DOJ filed several new suits and briefs to uphold the constitutionality of the ADA and filed a brief in support of Lane and others in the "State of Tennessee v. George Lane and Beverly Jones."


  15. On December 19, 2003, the Bush Administration announced a record $1.27 billion to help hundreds of thousands of homeless individuals and families end chronic homelessness. I believe that this represents a huge commitment to fight homelessness. An estimated 23% of homeless people have mental illnesses.


  16. On December 19, 2003, President George W. Bush signed Pub. L. 108-197 to extend the Mental Health Parity Act.


  17. On October 29, 2002, President Bush signed the Help America Vote Act which requires polling places to be accessible to people with disabilities, including blind people. On December 12, 2003, the Bush DOJ, Civil Rights Division, announced in a letter to the AAPD that it will strictly enforce the accessibility provisions of the HAVA Act so more people with disabilities can vote.
These are not all the achievements of the GOP for people with disabilities. There are many more. In addition, I would like to point out that much of President Bush's spending on these programs causes problems for him with his traditional Republican base. The Club for Growth, a very large conservative GOP supporter, called Bush "the biggest spender in 50 years." So President Bush spends this money with great political courage. And with all the other foreign and national problems President Bush and the DOJ have to deal with after 9/11, they still find time for us.