[News Clippings: House Approves Bill Establishing Broad Rights for Disabled People] Part: 1 of 6
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House Approves Bill Establishing
Broad Rights for Disabled PeopleBy STEVEN A. HOLMES
Special to The New York TimesWASHINGTON, May 22 - The
House of Representatives overwhelm-
ingly approved legislation today that
would guarantee millions of disabled
Americans access to employment,
transportation, public accommoda-
tions and communications services.
Beating back amendments that
would have significantly weakened its
provisions, the House voted 403 to 20
for the proposed Americans With Dis-
abilities Act, which supporters call the
most sweeping civil rights bill in two
decades.
The bill has already been approved
by the Senate and is supported by
President Bush. Although some differ-
ences in the versions passed by the
House and the Senate remain to be
worked out in a conference, sponsors of
the legislation say they expect to have
a bill on the President's desk before
Congress breaks for its July 4th recess.
The measure would extend protec-
tions that the Civil Rights Act of 1964
gave against discrimination based on
sex, religion, color, race or national ori-
gin to people with physical or mental
disabilities, including people with AIDS
as well as recovering alcoholics and
drug abusers. Both the 1964 law and thenew measure bar discrimination in
public accommodations, private em-
ployment and government services.
protection.
200 Watching Supporters Cheer
Many of the bill's requirements are
already embodied in the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973, which prohibited compa-
nies and government agencies receiv-
ing Federal aid from discriminating
against people with disabilities. The
legislation would extend this concept
throughout the public and private sec-
tor; the businesses or agencies need
not receive Federal funds to be cov-
ered. Many businesses will be forced to
change their offices, factories or stores
to accommodate the disabled.
More than 200 supporters of the bill,
many of them in wheelchairs, cheered,
hugged one another and wept as Repre-
sentative Bob Traxler, a Michigan
Democrat who was presiding over the
House, announced the final vote.
The group had followed the debate on
television monitors in the National
Statuary Hall, the marble-columned
portico between the House Chamber
Continued on Page A10, Column 1
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[News Clippings: House Approves Bill Establishing Broad Rights for Disabled People], clipping, 19XX-05-22; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc824960/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.