by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
The message Rep. Benjamin Cardin and I delivered to a Town Hall Meeting we sponsored last Tuesday at Baltimore’s League Serving People with Physical Disabilities was clear and convincing. Disabled Americans are human beings with abilities, people who can contribute and often pay their own way in life.
At a time when our economy needs a growing, capable workforce, 15 million working-age Americans are precluded from working because of a severe disability. More than 10% of all adult African Americans are attempting to survive within this group. If we dismantle legal and practical barriers which limit their ability to work, everyone will gain.
Our national response must be guided by common sense, as well as by compassion. In the Congress, I have worked to reduce mobility barriers to employment by supporting a more accessible and affordable public transportation system. When a disabled person cannot use fixed route bus services, for example, transit authorities will now provide mobility transport.
I also support President Clinton’s proposed $1000 tax credit to partially offset the transportation costs which could prevent 200,000 disabled Americans from getting to work, as well as the cost of assistive technology to make their work more productive.
As we preserve and strengthen our Medicare program, the needs of working-age, disabled Americans deserve careful consideration. 4.8 million disabled workers are expected to receive Social Security Disability Income benefits in 1999, and 4.3 million other adults will receive Supplemental Security Income.
I have concluded that our current Medicare and Medicaid systems contain inflexible, outdated barriers to working which we should remove. In 1996, for example, fewer than 6% of new disability recipients were referred to State vocational rehabilitation agencies. Other disabled Americans are prevented from even attempting to work because they fear the loss of necessary health care coverage.
After careful study of these problems, President Clinton’s proposed FY 2000 budget would fund the bipartisan "Work Incentives Improvement Act," which Congressman Cardin, some 50 other House Members and I have cosponsored.
Disabled Americans would receive (1) a "ticket" to pay for the rehabilitation and employment services they need, (2) assurance that income support would remain available if attempted work is unsuccessful and (3) limited reduction in benefits during the transition to work The Act also would assure SSDI beneficiaries continued Medicare coverage for 10 years after returning to work and allow the states to offer a Medicaid "buy-in" plan.
These reforms pass the dual tests of compassion and common sense. They would encourage disabled individuals’ transition to employment and help them keep their jobs. For every 1% who can become fully self-sufficient and leave the disability rolls, the Disability Trust Fund will save $3 billion in lifetime benefit payments.
The work we do helps to define our place in the community. For disabled Americans, like the rest of us, mobility, technology and financial constraints are central to that work equation.
Too often, "disabled" workers are inaccurately stereotyped as either unmotivated or helpless objects of pity. The evidence demonstrates, however, that people want to work if we can help them overcome the obstacles they confront.
A reality of American life, moreover, is that each of us at some point will share the challenges faced by a disabled family member. In the context of our technological age, each of us is a composite of abilities and limitations. Too often, however, the true disability has been society’s failure to encourage the abilities each of us has to offer.
We all gain when we dismantle the barriers to opportunity.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.