Bill expands protections for disabled in workplace

WASHINGTON - The often divided, election-year Congress came together yesterday to give final approval to a bill to protect millions of disabled Americans against discrimination in the workplace.

On a voice vote, the House approved the measure that was unanimously passed by the Senate last week.

The legislation would reverse US Supreme Court rulings that critics charge narrowed the intent of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and erected new barriers.

The White House has signaled that President Bush will sign the measure into law, which would expand the initial one signed 18 years ago by his father.

"The Supreme Court has slowly chipped away at the broad protections of the ADA," said Representative James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and a chief sponsor of the measure.

"The bill we pass today will restore the full meaning of equal protection under the law," Sensenbrenner said.

The new measure clarifies that Congress meant for the Americans with Disabilities Act to be broadly interpreted in requiring employers to make accommodations for the disabled.

It reverses Supreme Court decisions that limited the law. The court ruled, for instance, that mitigating circumstances - like medication or a prosthesis - make a person ineligible for coverage.

The bill again defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits" activities. It also increases the number of activities covered and expands the ability of workers to sue if they believe they are mistreated.

Advocates for the disabled and the business lobby compromised in helping draft the bill, ensuring broad support among Democratic and Republican lawmakers even as they jockeyed for position in the Nov. 4 congressional elections.

House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer, another chief sponsor, said backers of the initial law "never expected that people with disabilities who worked to mitigate their conditions would have their efforts held against them. But the courts did exactly that."

"Those narrow rulings have closed the doors of opportunity for millions of Americans," Hoyer said. "We are here today to bring those millions of our fellow citizens back where they belong: under the protection of the ADA."