Senator Flake and the CRPD

In some corners of the Senate, bipartisanship is alive and well. On February 10, 2014 Senator Jeff Flake and Senator Patrick Leahy wrote an opinion piece in MiamiHerald.com, "Time for a New Cuba Policy". Both senators are on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy, from Vermont, is the Democrat Chairman of the Committee. Flake is a Republican from Arizona. The opinion piece is clear, factual, and certainly forward thinking. Flake is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is my hope Senator Flake will find colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with whom he can work, ideally Senator Menendez, the Chairman, and his Republican colleagues (Barrasso and McCain) on the Committee who support the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and offer to be the Republican lead in negotiations. If that would happen, it is more likely that we would get to a bipartisan package on reservations, understandings, and declarations on the CRPD more quickly.

There are parallels between what Senator Flake and Senator Leahy are suggesting in their opinion piece and what we hope to achieve with ratification of the CRPD. They urge opening up travel opportunities between the U.S. and Cuba. They urge the removal of restrictions on businesses. They reference the importance of bilateral exchanges on issues. These topics have relevance for us if we were to ratify the CRPD. If the Obama administration would endorse and implement their suggestions with regard to the policy on Cuba and we were to ratify the CRPD, tourist trade that includes people with disabilities would increase between the U.S. and Cuba. Businesses that market assistive technology would have new marketing opportunities in Cuba. The principles of freedom, equal opportunity, and accessibility for people with disabilities could be discussed between the two governments and civil society, and perhaps influence Cuba's position on human rights in general.

I suspect no one raised the connection between a new Cuba policy and the CRPD with Senator Flake when he and Senator Leahy were drafting their opinion piece on Cuba. Now that I have put these connections in this post I hope that Senator Flake will consider them, use his considerable skills and strong interest in international harmony, and help us secure, in a bipartisan manner, ratification of the CRPD. We need more Republican champions. We need a Republican to lead the Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee back to the negotiating table. Senator Flake may be that man.

Please join me in urging him to take the job.

Here is his contact information:
His telephone numbers -
In D.C.: 202.224.4521
In Phoenix: 602-840-1891
In Tucson: 520-575-8633

His Twitter name is @JeffFlake

If you want to schedule a meeting contact DCscheduling@flake.senate.gov.

If you want to visit his website: www.flake.senate.gov. From this site you send him a message when you click on "Contact Jeff".

Thank you.

Common Grounder

CRPD Ratification: We Don't Need Perfect, Just Progress

Having read the papers this morning, I learned that the House breaks Thursday so the Democrats can have their annual retreat (Republicans had theirs a few weeks ago.). Then both Senators and House Representatives go home and don't come back to Washington, D.C. until February 26th. According to the Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew, the government loses its authority (i.e., flexibility to shift money around and pay bills) to spend money on February 27th. With every day that passes more and more time will be spent on the fall mid-term elections. The statistics look very good for the Republicans to retain the House and to make gains, and perhaps, take over leadership in the Senate. 

These seemingly random facts make a point. There will never be the right or perfect time to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  We have been told that substantial efforts have been made to develop a fully bipartisan resolution on the CRPD. They have not succeeded to date. There will always be competition for political space. Those who support the CRPD outnumber those who oppose the CRPD in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So why not proceed to a mark up with a known majority? We need progress. It will help us sustain momentum and grow it.

Contact Senator Menendez (202.224.4744; Twitter: @Senator Menendez). Ask about the status of ratification negotiations and suggest that he proceed to a mark up.

Thank you.

Common Grounder

CRPD: Momentum and Faith

The second and last hearing on the CRPD was November 21st of last year. We clearly showed our support  and appreciation for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee actions to that point. Now we are being asked to show our support for further action by contacting all Senators once again.

The opposition assumes we are out of steam and almost out of time because of  the mid-term election cycle. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee thinks we have an unlimited amount of patience and don't need a sign, any sign, that conversations are still going on between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans have not voiced a chorus of "there is no way I can support ratification", but no one on the Republican side has stepped up to lead the Republicans back to the negotiation table.

We have taken a lot on the chin and on faith in the last 10 weeks. If Senators want us to get all charged up and set our hair on fire, we need at least:

1. A meeting or conference call with Senator Menendez to get a clear picture of where things stand and how we can help.

2. A tentative date for a mark up of a CRPD resolution in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee so we know what we have and continue to work for will make it to the next rung on the ladder.

3. Some concrete indication that those in the Senate, who support the CRPD, will help us in our outreach to find more Senators to get a 67 or better affirmative vote count on the Senate floor.

Securing the ratification of the CRPD is not our job alone now. It's everyone's job if we believe in the principles on which the Constitution was based and the need to restore U.S. standing as a leader on human rights and a champion of freedom. 

Look for a response to or evidence of the three points enumerated here. Enlist your friends and family. Then act.

Thank you.

Common Grounder

CRPD and Leadership

To be honest I was very disappointed when President Obama failed to mention people with disabilities or the need to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in his State of the Union speech. During the drafting of the State of the Union, I imagine the discussion about whether to mention either of these topics went something like this:

“On people with disabilities we’re covered because the President will end the speech by introducing everyone to the disabled vet. And the CRPD is a Senate matter. To mention it would take too much space.”

Well, the speech people were wrong on both counts. And, the President was wrong for not demanding both items be included in his speech.

Nothing would have been lost or diminished by referencing people with disabilities and the CRPD in the President’s speech and so much could have been gained.

People with disabilities are a substantial block of the U.S. population. Does it make political sense not to mention them in a speech? People with disabilities care about a thriving middle class, economic opportunities, and a descent minimum wage.  In the President’s speech all they were looking for was a brief acknowledgement, a sense that they count. In the Republican response to the President’s speech, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers was willing to go for some heartstrings in her several references to her son with Down Syndrome. Republicans recognized the tactical value, even if only on an emotional level, of including people with disabilities in their response.

People with disabilities understand empowerment. They are willing to work with elected officials to broaden and strengthen our country’s economic prosperity. But, unlike elected officials, they see ratification of the CRPD as something of strategic value, at home and abroad – an enhanced position for the U.S. worldwide; increased opportunities for U.S. businesses across the globe; the right of Americans to expect, and if not available, promote greater accessibility around the world; and a seat at the table for the U.S. when CRPD standards are being reviewed and revised.

If the ratification of the CRPD had been mentioned by the President in his speech, Senators may have sensed they needed to assume greater personal responsibility to make ratification happen. Since he didn’t, Senators may think ratification is not a priority for 2014. It is a vital key to restoring our leadership in the international arena. In today’s Washington Post, Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for national security at the Center for American Progress in his opinion piece “Some Work to Do on Foreign Policy”,  said – “At the start of its sixth year, the Obama administration runs the risk of remaining intellectually stuck…Yet major global changes, including the rise of other powers and widespread social protests for dignity, require a forward-looking moral framework for U.S. engagement.”(emphasis added)

Ratifying the CRPD would contribute to the framework Katulis identifies. We have and will continue to advocate for ratification of the CRPD. But it’s time for the President and Senate to appreciate the full weight and value of ratification and to lead.

Thank you.

Common Grounder 

CRPD Ratification: It Is Up to Us

I started blogging about ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on August 9, 2013. I thought by taking on CRPD-related topics one at a time, by not getting too much into the weeds, by using non-jargon as much as possible, and by addressing possible consequences in terms of probabilities, that most people would decide that ratification was a good idea, and therefore, help make it happen before 2014.

Well, I have had almost 5,000 views of my blog and 2014 is here, and the path to ratification is uncertain. Although I have spent most of my professional life involved in the disability policy arena, I was usually on the "inside" where people advocated for something to me. Now with this blog experience I know it is a challenge to get people's attention, keep it, and even more challenging to inspire people to take an action and then another and another.

I am an optimistic person, but I now know I am naive. Most people have many things competing for their attention in the course of a day. An international treaty is foreign (no pun intended) to most people. Its relevance to them is not there. The connection to people has to be made. I think that has happened. Through  the U.S. International Council on Disabilities, David Morrissey ( no relation to me), its CEO, Marca Bristol, its president, and its staff, and other national figures (Senator Bob Dole, formerAttorney General Dick Thornburgh, Patria Wright and others with the Disabilities Rights and Education Defense Fund, former Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD, Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference, former Governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former House whip Tony Coelho, former Representative Steve Bartlett, former Counselor to President George H.W. Bush, Boyden Gray and others), many, many organizations and people have joined hands to push for ratification of the CRPD. As a result all Senators know ratification is important to the disability community. Opponents to ratification know that ratification is important to the disability community. So on one level we have been successful.

The risk we face is that if we do not succeed in achieving ratification early in 2014, it won't happen for a long time. And, if we fail, the next time we join hands to advocate for a policy that would benefit people with disabilities, any policy, elected officials may blow us off, because we are viewed as not that strong or effective a force for change.

There is so much more at stake than the CRPD. Please stay or become engaged now. Help us secure ratification. Contact your Senators. Urge ratification, even if you have done so previously. The facts are on our side. Time is not. 

Thank you.

Common Grounder

The CRPD and Two World Views

U.S. News and World Report featured two opinion pieces on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on January 20, 2014. One  was by Christopher Neiweem,  Director of VetsFirst, a program of the United Spinal Association, in favor of ratification. And the other was by Steven Groves with The Heritage Foundation, against ratification.

No one can predict or guarantee how much or how fast the world will change for the better with regard to people with disabilities if the CRPD were or were not ratified. However, what we have in these opinion pieces is two very different views of what will happen. Neiweem sees more accessibility and greater opportunities for veterans with disabilities and others with disabilities. Groves sees the Constitution unraveling and our system of government being jeopardized.

If you consider the underlying values in the CRPD-- nondiscrimination on the basis of disability and equal opportunity --  you realize that the objective is to change behavior, to set standards for how people with disabilities are treated. The hope is that individual behavior and government policies will increasingly embrace the values expressed in the CRPD. How these values can have negative consequences of the nature and magnitude that Groves suggests, defy logic.

The U.S. and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were a good match. Things changed for the better. The ADA was a model for the CRPD. Everyone admits these two facts -- the ADA was a good thing and it was a model or the CRPD. With ratification we restore our full partnership as a champion of human rights with the world community. Without ratification we raise doubts about our sincerity and commitment to disability rights both here and abroad. We give ammunition to our detractors. We lose the opportunity to shape the nature and progress toward an accessible world for all. We run the risk of marginalizing market openings for American business. 

On balance ratification of the CRPD is the best course. The other alternative is too much of the "chicken little" syndrome that, in effect, doubts the strength of our Constitution and the effectiveness of the checks and balances in our system of government.

If you agree with me that ours will be a bright future if we ratify the CRPD, then please let the Senate know -- first the members of the Foreign Relations Committee and then, all Senators. Let's settle this now. 

Thank you.

Common Grounder

The CRPD and Five Men Who Hold History in Their Hands

I have high hopes. Next week Senators will be in their states. Five Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) are especially important. I hope, if constituents who support the CRPD contact them, these five Senators will join other Republican Senators who also support the treaty (Ayotte, Barrasso, Collins, McCain, Murkowski, and Kirk). When the CRPD is voted out of the SFRC (the Chairman has the votes he needs to pass the CRPD resolution out of the committee), it is my hope these five on the committee will be there to make the committee vote unanimous in favor of the CRPD. And then, as rising stars in the Republican party I hope these five will encourage other Republican Senators to join in the vote for ratification of the CRPD on the Senate floor. Disability-related issues have historically been bipartisan and the Senate has played a leadership role in these areas. It should happen in this case, but it is up to us to reach out to these five. You do not need to search for their numbers. They are below.

Flake (R-AZ)

            DC: (202) 224-4521

            TUCSON: (520) 575-8633

            PHOENIX: (602) 840-1891

Johnson (R-WI)

            DC: (202) 224-5323

            OSHKOSH: (920) 230-7250

            MILWAUKEE: (414) 276-7282

Paul (R-KY)

            DC: (202) 224-4343

            CRESCENT SPRINGS: (859) 426-0165

Risch (R-ID)

            DC: (202) 224-2752

            BOISE: (208) 342-7985

            COEUR d’ALENE: (208) 667-6130

            IDAHO FALLS: (208) 523-5541

            LEWISTON: (208) 743-0792

            POCATELLO: (208) 236-6817

            TWIN FALLS: (208) 734-6780

Rubio (R-FL)

            DC: (202) 224-3041

            ORLANDO: (407) 254-2573 or (866) 630-7106

            MIAMI: (305) 418-8553

            TAMPA: (813) 977-6450

            JACKSONVILLE: (904) 398-8586

            PENSACOLA: (850) 433-2603

            TALLAHASSEE: (850) 599-9100

            NAPLES: (239) 213-1521

            PALM BEACH: (561) 775-3360

Senator Corker, the Ranking Republican on the SFRC, does not support ratification of the CRPD. Two other Republican Senators, Barrasso (R-WY) and McCain (R-AZ) on the SFRC, and all Democrat Senators on the SFRC (Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman; Boxer (D-CA), Cardin (D-MD), Coons (D-DE), Durbin (D-IL), Kaine (D-VA), Markey (D-MA) Murphy (D-CN), Shaheen (D-NH), and Udall (D-NM)) do support ratification of the CRPD.

Thank you.

Common Grounder