STATEMENT OF ANDREW J. IMPARATO, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AAPD ON THE RELEASE OF NCD'S "PROMISES TO KEEP" REPORT

On behalf of the American Association of People with Disabilities, a membership organization promoting the political and economic empowerment of the more than 56 million children and adults with disabilities in the U.S., I commend Marca Bristo, Gina McDonald, and the other members and staff of the National Council on Disability for their courageous leadership in preparing and issuing today's report on federal enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Today's report, like NCD's recent reports on federal enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Air Carrier Access Act, represents an unusually honest, objective assessment of the work NCD's sister agencies have done to implement a civil rights law that has captured the imagination of people with disabilities around the world.

As NCD's report so amply demonstrates, enforcement of ADA has too often suffered from a lack of consistent, strategic leadership from the Department of Justice, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Transportation, and other agencies that make up the enforcement team. Notwithstanding the fact that President Clinton appointed able leaders to run the federal enforcement agencies, the federal effort to translate the requirements of ADA into real remedies for victims of discrimination during the last ten years has been uneven, overly cautious, and laboriously slow.

I think it is important that we recognize the roll that Congress has played in undermining federal enforcement of ADA as well. As NCD points out in today's report, when EEOC was given Title I of ADA to enforce, it was given no budget increase to accommodate this expanded workload. President Clinton has repeatedly pushed for budget increases for federal enforcement agencies, often getting much less than he requested from a skeptical Congress. I am hopeful that today's report will focus the public's attention on Congress's failure to backup this landmark civil rights law and the other laws that make up our civil rights pantheon with a realistic enforcement budget that will enable enforcement agencies to respond consistently, effectively, fairly and quickly to allegations of discrimination.

With the issuance of today's report and the other reports that have made up NCD's "Unequal Protection Under Law" series, the National Council has amply demonstrated the value of having an independent federal agency changed with monitoring enforcement of federal disability civil rights laws. This report represents government at its best, as it shines a spotlight on a longstanding problem that to date has received little attention from the White House, the Congress, the media, or the public. Let us take the opportunity presented by the 10th anniversary of ADA and the issuance of today's historic report to recommit ourselves to an America that works for everyone, where we live up to the schoolhouse pledge of "liberty and justice f or all."

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