Equality of Opportunity: The Making of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Early Actions in the House

Compared with the Senate, where there were powerful and passionate advocates of disability in leadership positions on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democratic leadership in the House, with the exception of Majority Whip Tony Coelho (D-CA), were much more cautious. House Speaker James C. Wright, Jr. (D-TX) and Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-WA) were skeptical of the ADA’s wide-ranging impact and viewed the bill more as a private agenda of Congressman Coelho than an issue of national policy importance.³ “I had the leadership unwilling to tell me no because it was me,” Coelho said. But they were not openly supportive and would have “killed” the ADA, “if it hadn’t been [for] my making it so personal."⁴ Although in time the ADA would come to be viewed as a leadership bill, largely because of Coelho’s status as Majority Whip, the initially weak support of Democratic leadership placed Republicans in a position to shape the ADA to their interests.⁵

Congressman Coelho was the first member of the House to join the campaign to pass the ADA. He was the bill’s sponsor both in 1988 and in 1989. He also collaborated with Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) to rewrite the ADA and craft a master strategy for passage. House Republicans did not demonstrate significant interest in the ADA until it entered Congress for the second time in the spring of 1989. The leader among Republicans was Congressman Steve Bartlett (R-TX). He had played an integral role in recasting disability policy in terms of independence and in issuing a mandate to the National Council on the Handicapped (NCD) to review federal programs and make recommendations. Although he generally supported the proposals in Toward Independence, Bartlett was cautious about the lead recommendation pertaining to an equal opportunity law. Throughout 1988 he had watched the ADA from a distance. But after President-elect Bush promised support of an act similar to the ADA at a pre-inaugural event on January 19, making passage seem imminent, Bartlett decided to become involved to ensure that it was a reasonable bill.⁶

In April, 1989, Congressman Bartlett joined with Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-IL) and Congressman William F. Goodling (R-PA) to propose a partnership with Congressman Coelho. “We would like to work with you to develop a good bipartisan bill,” they wrote to Coelho on April 25. “By working together, we hope to develop language that we can agree upon, support, and introduce together."⁷ But the revised draft was already completed and Bartlett, Michel, and Goodling did not cosponsor the ADA at the time of its introduction. Michel also wrote a letter to President Bush, on April 26, urging him to join in the efforts of working toward a bipartisan bill. Such an effort, Michel said “is appropriate, definitely warranted, and most importantly, deserved by individuals with disabilities and others who will be affected by it."⁸ Bush fulfilled this request by working with the Senate to develop a compromise bill.

Shortly into the House deliberations in the spring of 1989, ADA supporters received a significant blow that paralleled the 1988 defeat of Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (R-CT). While House Speaker Wright was under scrutiny for alleged ethics violations, some members accused Congressman Coelho of violating House ethical standards by investing in certain bonds. Unlike Wright, however, who dragged out his own investigation before leaving Congress, Coelho promptly submitted his resignation, effective June 15. His commitment to the ADA influenced this decision. Coelho had become a national leader for disability policy. And, though he flatly denied the charges against him, he feared that an investigation might, by association, embarrass the disability community and consequently hurt its prospects for success on the ADA.⁹

Although Congressman Coelho’s career as a U.S. Representative drew to a close, his advocacy for the ADA did not. According to Ralph Neas, “he played a key role, if not a crucial role, on many different occasions with Democrats in the House and the Senate, with Republicans in the House and the Senate, and with President Bush, pushing the calendar on a number of occasions, really helping get us through some difficult times."¹⁰ For example, he took the lead in the House cosponsorship drive and capitalized on his personal attachment to the bill and the trust he had cultivated among colleagues. Moreover, though he was a partisan Democrat, Coelho was well known for his desire to bring opponents to his side by working to empower them with shared ownership and finding common ground, rather than pitch battles.¹¹

Accordingly, Congressman Coelho joined with Democratic Congressman Major R. Owens (DNY), and Republican Congressmen Silvio O. Conte (R-MA) and Hamilton Fish, Jr. (R-NY), to facilitate cosponsorship. In a letter to the rest of their colleagues on June 1, they emphasized the Republican origins of the bill through NCD and the problem of paying persons with disabilities not to work. “Persons with disabilities want to be productive, self-supporting, and tax-paying participants in society,” they wrote. “This bill will grant them that dignity and that right."¹² Because the ADA was a civil rights bill, ADA supporters anticipated that members would readily support it. Yet, despite the bipartisan effort, the process of enlisting House cosponsors was slow: the issue of costs caused people to hesitate. Whereas members often cosponsor a bill when certain colleagues do, in this case they wanted to scrutinize the bill individually.¹³

The House cosponsorship drive was less successful than that in the Senate—33 percent of all senators and 19 percent of all representatives were cosponsors on May 9. But Congressman Coelho secured a crucial commitment from Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD). The two members had become close friends since Coelho, as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, had assisted Hoyer in his first campaign. At Coelho’s request, Hoyer assumed the role of managing the ADA in the House. This meant organizing committee deliberations, serving as the principal negotiator, and leading floor deliberations. Out of respect for Coelho’s commitment to the ADA, Hoyer called himself “chief cosponsor,” and continued to identify Coelho as the ADA’s sponsor. Like so many other members of Congress, the ADA had personal significance for Hoyer: his wife had epilepsy. He became a zealous advocate for the ADA.

3. Dornatt, interview, December 4, 1996.

4. Tony Coelho, interview, December 2, 1996.

5. Coelho, interview, December 2, 1996.

6. Steve Bartlett, interview, March 10, 1997.

7. Robert H. Michel, William F. Goodling, and Steve Bartlett to Honorable Tony Coelho, April 25, 1989, in possession of Chai Feldblum.

8. Robert Michel to George Bush, April 26, 1989, in possession of Feldblum.

9. Coelho, interview, December 2, 1996.

10. Ralph Neas, interview, December 10, 1993.

11. Dornatt, interview, December 4, 1996.

12. Tony Coelho, Major Owens, Silvio Conte, and Hamilton Fish to Members of the House of Representatives, June 1, 1989, in possession of Feldblum.

13. Dornatt, interview, December 4, 1996.