Press Releases

Today, the full Senate is considering the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a landmark treaty that will strengthen the rights and freedoms of individuals with disabilities throughout the world – and which was reported favorably by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July.  The Disabilities Convention draws heavily on the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Congress passed in 1990 with broad bipartisan support, and the Convention has already been championed by an array of leaders from both parties.  Its ratification will send a strong message that the United States is committed to the human rights, equal opportunity, and full inclusion of all who live with disabilities in our country and every other.  I was proud to have helped lead the effort, along with former Rep. Tony Coelho and others, to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, and I join in calling on the Senate to agree to the Convention’s swift ratification.

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after the Committee on House Administration issued a report detailing the nearly $1.5 million in taxpayer-funded legal bills accumulated over the past 15 months to pay an outside law firm to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA):

“I join in marking the twenty-second anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990.  I was incredibly proud to lead the effort in Congress to pass this landmark legislation and see it signed into law.  Since 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has enabled more than 50 million people with disabilities to participate more fully and more equally in our society. 

Today, Republicans choose once again to obstruct instead of make meaningful progress on an issue important to millions of American families.  By blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act, Senate Republicans followed their House colleagues, who unanimously rejected its consideration on the Floor last week.  

“I opposed this appropriations bill for several reasons, chief among them that it is not consistent with the bipartisan agreement reached in August on spending levels.  Breaking that agreement is just one more sign that this House Republican conference is simply unwilling to compromise or work with Democrats to find solutions to our challenges.

Today, on Equal Pay Day, we pause to consider that to earn the same wages as a man in 2011, a woman would have had to work from January 1, 2011 until April 17, 2012.  It should be unacceptable in America today that women still earn only 77 cents to the dollar of a man’s wages for the same job.  This is why Democrats enacted the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 – the first piece of legislation signed by President Obama – and it’s why we continue to push for measures that will close the gender gap in wages and bring greater economic opportunities for women.  It’s also why I am proud to be a co-sponsor, along with 177 other Democratic Members of Congress, of the Paycheck Fairness Act.

On March 7, 1965, our friend and esteemed colleague from Georgia, John Lewis, was among the leaders of that march. He was the leader – he and Hosea Williams. Two by two they walked, some 600 with John and Hosea at the front of the line. That day, in an extraordinary practice of nonviolence, he and other marchers were brutally beaten while trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. They were on their way to Montgomery, the state capital, to protest the murder of a young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been shot and killed while protecting his mother during a voting rights rally. And they were marching to Montgomery to say in a nonviolent way every American deserves the right to be able to register and to vote.

We are just about a year away from a pivotal election. Just as important as the choice we will make is ensuring that all who are eligible can participate in making that choice. The right to vote is fundamental to our entire system of government and the ability of every American to have his or her voice heard in Washington and in their statehouses and city halls.

For the thousands of service men and women discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and the countless others who have sacrificed their integrity all these long years, today is a day long awaited. The ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy was a rebuke not only to those gay and lesbian Americans who wished to serve under our flag and risk their lives for it but also to the principles of inclusion and equality that we as a nation hold dear. I was proud to help lead the effort last year to repeal this discriminatory policy once and for all. With this step, our military is surely strengthened at a time when we face great threats to our security and continued demands on our troops. Every American has a share in marking this civil rights milestone, because we all benefit from a strong and capable military that reflects our values.

“Today, America marks Women’s Equality Day: the anniversary of the day women secured the right to vote through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment was only passed as a result of the work of generations of women, who struggled for a full and equal voice in our democracy...

Last year, Congress voted to repeal the counterproductive and unjust policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ But despite overwhelming evidence that repeal will strengthen our military, despite strong support for repeal among our troops and the American people, despite support for repeal from military leaders like the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and despite a federal court order that the government stop enforcing DADT immediately, Republicans are still pushing to keep this shameful policy in place.