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