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Newt Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House
and figurehead of the conservative movement, may be a key ally in the fight for
disability rights in the upcoming years.
Gingrich, who left politics in 1999, stressed the importance of “rethinking
disability in America,” in a March 27 speech at the American Enterprise
Institute. Entitled, “What is the Right
Change to Help All Americans Pursue Happiness and Create Prosperity,” the
speech was a response to Senator Barack Obama’s recent oration on race and poverty
in America. While Mr. Gingrich was
occasionally critical of Obama’s analysis, he mainly expanded on Obama’s themes
of improving education and decreasing poverty.
The former Congressman emphasized that doing so would demand public
policy that is non-bureaucratic and fiscally sound.
During the speech, Gingrich made two separate remarks about disability.
The first stressed the importance of “using modern technology
and modern science to turn disabilities into capabilities.” Gingrich has long been a proponent of
utilizing technology to alleviate the effects of disability. In a 1999 interview with assistive technology
columnist John Williams, he said: “I really do not see why we can’t use the
most advanced science and technology to liberate and to empower people, including
people with disabilities, to become fully integrated into society.”
In his second remark on the subject, Gingrich painted
providing civil rights to those with disabilities as a building block in
revitalizing American society. “I don’t
think that you can talk about every American pursing happiness if we don’t do
something to fundamentally rethink how we approach disabilities in America,” he
stated.
In his days as Speaker, Gingrich was no stranger to
confrontation, and much of his tenure as Speaker of the House was marked by turbulence. In 1995, Gingrich refused to submit a revised
budget to President Clinton, contributing to a stand-off that
led to portions of the Federal government being shut down. Gingrich was also the target of 87 ethics
violations while in Congress. He was
sanctioned for $300,000 for “intentional disregard of House Rules,” but the
majority of accusations levied against the Speaker went unresolved.
Gingrich’s record on disability issues is a mixed one as
well.
Several times during his tenure Gingrich met with the
disability-advocacy group ADAPT and voiced support for their drafts of the CASA
legislation, which would have allowed Medicaid funds to be directed towards
community-based attendant care instead of forcing individuals with disabilities
into nursing homes. However, ADAPT
believed that Gingrich wasn’t following through on his promise to support the
bill, and in May of 1995 ADAPT stormed his office and took it over in protest.
In November of 1996, Gingrich signed a pledge to introduce the CASA legislation in January of the next year. Though
he failed to meet the deadline, he did introduce the MICASA bill (a slightly altered version) on June 24,
1997. The legislation—which has been
repurposed and is currently The Community Choice Act—is still pending today.
All and all, Americans with disabilities should be hopeful
that Mr. Gingrich continues to be supportive of disability issues. He is a venerated figure in the conservative
movement and in politics in general.
According to a 1999 interview, Gingrich once spent 24 hours in a wheelchair
“to learn how difficult and inconvenient it was for people using wheelchairs to
get around.” In a nutshell, such an
effort is what makes Gingrich a promising advocate for a community that is
continually being overlooked.
