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KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
(Kansas Department of Human Resources’ logo)
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY CONCERNS
1430 S.W. Topeka Boulevard, Topeka, Kansas 66612-1877 
913-296-1722 (Voice) • 913-296-5044 (TDD) • 561-1722 (KANS-A-N)
Mike Hayden, Governor
Ray D. Siehndel, Secretary

June 7, 1990

ADA ALERT: CONFERENCE COMMITTEE CONTACTS NEEDED NOW

The Senate appointments to the conference committee are: Ted Kennedy, Tom Harkin, Howard Metzenbaum, Paul Simon, Orrin Hatch, Dave Durenberger, James Jeffords, Earnest Hollings, Daniel Inouye, John C. Danforth.

The House appointees are: Democrats - Hoyer, Hawkins, Major Owens, Martinez, Dingell, Markey, Thomas Luken, Anderson, Roe, Mineta, Brooks, Don Edwards, Kastenmeier, Chapman. Republicans -Bartlett, Fawell, Lent, Whittaker, Hammerschmidt, Shuster, Fish, Sensenbrenner.

The conference committee can make changes to the ADA for further consideration by both chambers. Please contact as many as possible immediately! They are expected to report on June 12. This is our final opportunity to delete weakening provisions such as the Chapman amendment which allows employers to bar people with communicable diseases from food-handling jobs. Although medical research has shown that AIDS cannot be transmitted through food-handling, facts were not a consideration 

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when the amendment was adopted, only unfounded fear. This amendment is particularly threatening because the ADA definition of disability includes people who are "regarded as having a physical or mental impairment".

Therefore, employers will be allowed to legally discriminate against anyone whom they regard as having such a communicable disease, regardless of the validity of their assumption. For example, it may allow an employer to deny a food-handling job to a person who has had polio if the employer regards that person as having a communicable disease.
 
As some of us remember, the Department of Justice under Reagan attempted a similar, but ill-fated strategy in proposing a rule that concerned communicable diseases, Lastly, the ADA has other safeguards against people with disabilities being in jobs if they present a direct threat to the health and safety of themselves or others. These safeguards render the Chapman amendment unnecessary and superfluous.

Feel free to use this information when contacting the ADA conference Committee. We must make the ADA strong; we are the ones who must live with it. 

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Any U.S. Representative may be contacted as follows: 
Representative (Name)
U.S. House of Representatives 
Washington DC 20515

Any U.S. Senator may be contacted as follows: 
Senator (Name) 
U.S. Senate 
Washington DC 20510

Telephone contacts can be made by dialing the congressional switchboard operator: 202-224-3121

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