UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY OF OKLAHOMA [john K. name written in pen] [UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY OF OKLAHOMA logo] 1917 S. Harvard Ave. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73128 Please reply to: 3941 Warwick Drive, Norman, OK 73072 405-681-9611 June 12, 1990 [note: To: Distribution 6/18/90 Bill gets 5 gold [illegible] Please see #3 Allan] The Honorable David L. Boren U.S. Senate 453 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3601 Dear David: We were surprised and disappointed that you supported Senator Helms initiative to incorporate the Chapman amendment in the instructions to the Senate ADA conferees. The Chapman amendment is unnecessary, probably unenforceable, and morally indefensible. (1) HHS Secretary Sullivan, CDC-Atlanta, and the AMA have all stated in writing that the Chapman amendment adds nothing to the control of infectious diseases. Under terms of the existing bill, food handlers and others who pose any disease risk to the public can already be reassigned, terminated, or denied initial employment. (2) The Chapman amendment attempts to legitimize discrimination in the workplace based upon diagnoses of disease even when the individuals with these disease pose no health risk to others. For example, one of your constituents who had contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever could be terminated from a local restaurant job even though that disease can not be transmitted to other people except by ticks. Would that stand up in a test of law? Indeed, the amendment is so fuzzy – critical classifications of “communicable disease” and “of public health significance” are introduced without medical definition – that the only certain beneficiaries will be the lawyers. (3) The Chapman amendment sanctions the most facile and pernicious form of discrimination – the self-exculpatory: “We know these people are o.k.; it’s just that others might be offended.” Consider a parallel example. At a recent fund raising activity at a large mall complex, a young man who is severely affected by cerebral palsy had stopped in his wheelchair at the end of the UCP booth next to the entrance of a women’s lingerie shop. After a few moments the owner came out and asked one of the UCP [note: (over)] [Page 1] The Honorable David L. Coren Page two volunteers to move this young man to the other end of the booth because she thought his appearance might be upsetting to her potential customers. Wrong? Of course, but that is no less offensive than the rationale that the National Restaurant Association invoked in support of the Chapman amendment. Would you have us pander to the delicate sensitivities of lingerie shop owners and the latent fear and hostility that she and the National Restaurant Association feel toward anyone who looks, acts, or may, in some hidden way, be different? The Chapman amendment which you endorsed says it is all right to discriminate and to exclude people from food handling and food product jobs when there is no health reason for that exclusion. I’m not surprised that the restauranteurs are willing to sacrifice the civil rights of others to their concern with profit. I had hoped for better from the U.S. Senate. There is still some hope that he ADA Conference Committee will report a final bill that sustains the basic commitment of guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities against any irrelevant and functionally unjustifiable discrimination. If that happens, there will almost certainly be renewed efforts to weaken and restrict this bill. Final passage of a strong ADA, indeed passage of ADA in any form, may depend upon the success of the Congressional leadership in bringing a Conference Committee bill to vote without further amendments. With this in mind, we ask two things. First, please reconsider your vote on the Chapman amendment instructions, and let the Senate conferees know that you would welcome a bill without this unnecessary baggage. Second, be prepared to give your support to a timely, amendment-free passage of a restrengthened Conference Committee Report and Bill. Please let us know your current thoughts and plans regarding these important matters. Sincerely, [Bill Upthegrove signature] Wm. R. Upthegrove Chairman, UCP-OK Governmental Activities Committee & Chairman, Legislation & Advocacy Committee of the Oklahoma Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities WRC/kdp Cc: Jim Rankin, Executive Director, UCO-OK Robert Woolsey, Chairman, OPCDD [Page 2]