Seems innocuous. It's a short bill. Promotes education? Sounds good Clarify? Well, seems reasonable Notice and cure? That seems like a prudent course Why are people all upset?pic.twitter.com/mwVmoogPNL
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Seems innocuous. It's a short bill. Promotes education? Sounds good Clarify? Well, seems reasonable Notice and cure? That seems like a prudent course Why are people all upset?pic.twitter.com/mwVmoogPNL
Our first hint that something more nefarious is afoot comes pretty swiftly. Reform is a strong word for the title given the description. Adding a little education, clarification and a notice/cure seems fairly wimpy to earn a bold word like "reform".pic.twitter.com/XZ9XU6iGX6
The education section is brief. Not a fan of "existing funding". It's good they are including a bunch of folks for consultation, but...this sounds like this won't be a one person job, which means cuts other places. This bill gives no idea as to the scope of the program.pic.twitter.com/BnxBtDWHi2
Is this a couple hundred thousand? Several million? How many people are participating? Let's just say we get feedback from at least 10 people in each state for each category to adapt to their specific regional needs and perhaps have one representative from each county in the US.
We are talking about managing input of thousands of people, and for something this important we want more than trivial information, right? Say we spend even 30 minutes per person. This is an *enormous* program for 12 lines using existing funding.
There is almost no guidance for this ginormous new thing. It permits the "training for professionals such as Certified Access Specialists to provide a guidance of remediation for potential violations" of the ADA.
Do we need these guys? I like a short bill, but dang, MORE WORDS.pic.twitter.com/cI8YDEtfUj
If you take unspecified "existing funds" from presumably needed programs, and redirect them to a vague, huge I guess you could call it a "goal"...that's a very efficient way to create massive governmental waste, fraud, nepotism, and money laundering for the extra ambitious.
We have no oversight, no structure, no reporting, no data request, no specified targets. Who wrote this? Someone suggest a career in collecting elephant dung.
...and I have a feeling this isn't even why we have protesters for this bill. Let's move on to notice and cure.
(A) doesn't appear to be changing in a substantive way. It adds the (B)...which is a problem, we'll get to that. Subchapter is changed to title, section number has changed, but it may be the same language. The key word here is "futile". Before we get to that, let's sidebar.pic.twitter.com/IQeAEOqXRj
Lots of law can have multiple references. It's sort of a bother for referencing/cross-referencing. Looking it all up is an excellent thing to outsource (and would certainly speed up my reading from my present meandering stroll).
I'm not verifying here because I've already decided this is bad enough I wouldn't vote for it. I'll cover the rest of the highlights, but it's time consuming and my guess if that these differences aren't the flaming torches.
It is a completely reasonable expectation for your federal delegation to outsource perfunctory tasks. It is also reasonable to have interns, staffers, other knowledge sources read and give feedback on bills. Heck, make a bill book club!
It is *not* reasonable at any point in time to vote on something you haven't read when that is your job. Right now, lots of reps are doing that. It's not ok. Demand more. Demand proficiency in bill-reading and a commitment to read every single thing they vote on. Every. One.
If a rep is not provided enough time, they should say that. If they don't understand, they should say that too. We have time! The executive branch has emergency powers for things that don't have time for deliberative law. Demand law that is thoughtful & well-considered.
Back to the bill. Let's focus on "futile gestures".
Here is a good part of why people are flippping their lids on this bill. It shifts the burden to the disabled person providing notice. But that sounds reasonable? Are the owners of "existing" public accomodations psychic? Why should they have to figure out what is wrong?pic.twitter.com/hivGMxzX5L
The ADA isn't new...it became law in 1990.
I'm 41 now, I wasn't even old enough to drive.
We were still excited about tearing walls down instead of building them in 1990.
@PearlJam was just forming.
Where were you in 1990?
More importantly, how big was your hair?
This is for *existing* public accommodations...we are talking about things that likely violated code to beging with if built since 1990, or people who have had more than a quarter century to figure out that there are disabled people in public spaces.
In yet another shock, disabled people are disabled. For many disabled people, life feels like a futile gesture. Merely getting a donut in NYC can be a 5 hour debacle in a wheelchair. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LhpUJRGrZgc …
This states that you can't start an action based on failure to remove an architectural barrier to access for an existing public accommodation until you've gone through a process...despite being on notice since 1990 such things must be handled NOT by the disabled person.
It would be understandable if this were new law, we had just implemented it, it was a nightmare and we needed to revisit it. Just chant this for the rest of this tweet. 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 Seriously, why are we even doing this? 1990 1990 1990!
Let's talk about the process. Step 1 - provide written notice to the owner or operator...let's just mull on this for a minute. Putting something in writing alone can be a futile gesture for many disabled folks. What if you have cognitive challenges? What if you can't write?pic.twitter.com/9pkyfASjUf
There are probably at least a dozen totally inappropriate but functionally demonstrative @nbcsnl skits if you are daft enough you cannot picture this problem.
Have any of you tried to figure out who the owner or operator of an accomodation is before? Sometimes it's easy peasy. Sometimes it's a series of complex LLC to PO Box in Delaware affairs that requires way more than the Hardy Boys to resolve.
The next part of the sentence requires the written notice be "specific enough" to "identify" the barrier. I don't do this sort of litigtion, but that looks like a massive field day in legal costs arguing specificity.pic.twitter.com/yMxfz4T07j
Ask yourself how would you write about the doo-hickey thing that's all trippy and part metal with some wood kind of by the door?
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