General Wesley Clark's Agenda for People with Disabilities
December 2003

Protecting every American's opportunity to work, compete, and participate in public life.

Independence, freedom, choice, and opportunity are basic American values. They are part of our core civil rights that many in this country take for granted. Unfortunately, Americans with disabilities understand that these rights must be fought for and vigorously protected. The Americans with Disabilities Act was the most important civil rights legislation of the last decade. It represented a crucial step forward in opening new opportunities for people with disabilities and providing basic protections against discrimination. For the past three years, the Bush administration has remained idle while an activist judiciary has steadily undermined the federal government.s power to preserve these protections. It is high time that we reverse this trend.

My agenda for safeguarding the rights and choices of people with disabilities is based on three basic principles:

• Protect Rights and Liberties
• Make Health Care Work for Disabled Americans
• Expand Opportunity

Almost one in five Americans is living with a disability, but exuding a New American Patriotism that no physical or mental challenge can impair. As President, I will honor these unsung heroes and their important contributions to our national life. I will:

Protect Rights and Liberties

• Appoint judges who are committed to upholding the law. I believe that lawyers and judges should be appointed to the federal bench who will uphold the law, including the ADA, without imposing their personal ideology on it.
• Restore the Americans with Disability Act. I would propose an Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act to reinstate the originally intended definitions of disability and reasonable accommodation, which the Rehnquist Court has persistently whittled away.
• Oppose Delay in ADA Compliance Enforcement Actions. I oppose waiting periods and delays in enforcing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are meaningless obstructions to justice.
• Ensure Monitoring and Enforcement of ADA. I believe that we must have appropriate commitment to government monitoring and enforcement of the ADA. We must fully fund the EEOC and civil rights divisions of the Justice Department. I will appoint an Attorney General and a Chair of the EEOC who are committed to enforcing the ADA.

Make Health Care Work

• Protect Medicaid. I oppose turning Medicaid into a block grant to states. Medicaid provides important health care and independence for millions of children and disabled adults.
• Repair the damage done by the Bush administration.s prescription drug plan. I will fix the new Medicare law to protect people with disabilities. The new law favors people in good health over people with disabilities and the private sector over the public trust. Millions of people with disabilities stand to lose access to medications.
• Advocate for the Family Opportunity Act. Parents with children who require complex medical care should not have to turn down better paying jobs to protect Medicaid coverage which is essential for paying for the health care needs of their children. The health and education of children needs to be our top national priority, and this legislation will provide relief to families of children with severe disabilities.
• Protect Home and Community Based Services. States are struggling under huge deficits that could force them to cut funding for home and community based services. As a part of my jobs plan I am proposing an immediate $40 billion tax rebate to help states meet the increasing costs of medical care and other pressing needs.
• Support passage of the Medical Community Attendant Services and Supports Act. No one should be forced into an institutional setting based solely on the need for personal attendant services. We must give senior citizens and people with disabilities choices by providing them with access to home and community based care.

Expand Opportunity

• Encourage employment for people with disabilities. As a first step I will demand appropriate hiring practices within my own administration, implement President Clinton.s executive order calling for 100,000 more disabled employees in federal government service, and change federal contracting practices. I pledge that individuals with disabilities will be well represented both in and by my administration.
• Eliminate Penalties for working people with disabilities. I will reform programs so that disabled people do not lose health care or social security benefits when they earn income through work, and abolish the Disabled Veterans Tax, which similarly penalizes disabled American veterans who earn retirement benefits through non-military employment.
• Work to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Together with my proposed $40 billion state and local tax rebate fund, funding the IDEA will relieve the pressure on cash-strapped states without placing additional burdens on the families of children with disabilities.
• Increase Accessibility to School. I will work together with Congress and the National Council on Disability to enhance the accessibility of postsecondary education for all students.

| Benefits | Info | Join | Other Sites | News | Feedback | Calendar | Home |