Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CRPD and Momentum


The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is stuck in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It’s not a peanut butter, it’s a disability rights treaty. It costs no money. It requires no change in U.S. laws. Legal scholars, and I suspect, the Obama Administration and Committee staff too, have proposed clarifications to address concerns about the treaty’s impact on sovereignty, home schooling, and other matters. Yet the treaty is stuck. The latest is that members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have not heard from enough proponents of ratification.

Ok. If that’s the reason, here are the phone numbers:

SIMPLE MAJORITY NEEDED TO PASS RESOULTION ON CRPD
OUT OF SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
MEMBERS

Voted yes Dec. 4, 2012

Menendez (D-NJ) (202) 224-4744, Chairman
Barrasso (R-WY) (202) 224-6441
Boxer (D-CA) (202) 224-3553
Cardin (D-MD) (202) 224-4524
Coons (D-DE) (202) 224-5042
Durbin (D-IL) (202) 224-2152
McCain (R-AZ) (202) 224-2235
Shaheen (D-NH) (202) 224-4049
Udall (D-NM) (202) 224-6621

Voted no Dec. 4, 2012

Corker (R-TN) (202) 224-3344, Ranking Republican
Johnson (R-WI) (202) 224-5323
Paul (R-KY) (202) 224-4343
Risch (R-ID) (202) 224-2752
Rubio (R-FL) (202) 224-3041

New members in 2013, did not vote in 2012

Flake (R-AZ) (202) 224-4521
Kaine (D-VA) (202) 224-4024
Markey (D-MA) (202) 224-2742
Murphy (D-CN) (202) 224-4041

Call Senators, please. Show them what momentum looks like. For the life of me, I struggle to grasp why something so right, so needed, must be shouted about over and over again. But, so be it. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get and sustain the attention of Senators to make ratification happen. Here’s hoping you’ll join me.

Thank you.
Common Grounder

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