Posted on 07/21/2012 9:23:04 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is delaying Senate consideration of the United Nations treaty on people with disabilities amid growing opposition from home-schooling advocates.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to take up the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities on Thursday, with the goal of getting it passed in time for the 22nd anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26. Instead, Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced that he will hold the markup next Thursday, July 26.
A spokesman for DeMint said several Republicans on the committee joined him in asking for the delay.
"Part of this treaty deals with abortion and the rights of children, issues that should be addressed by states, local governments and American parents, not international bureaucrats," DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton told The Hill in an email. "Sen. DeMint strongly opposes this treaty, as the United States is already the world leader in addressing the needs of the disabled and it’s foolish to think Americans need to sign away our sovereignty to exert our influence around the world."
The treaty has broad bipartisan support, with many senators — including Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — arguing that it would merely extend the protections of the ADA to people with disabilities around the world, including Americans living abroad.
But some home-schooling advocates are worried about “international bureaucrats” telling them how to raise their children. In a 2007 study, 6 percent of parents of the nation's 1.5 million home-schooled students cited health or special needs as the reason for educating at home.
“Is this something that really needs to go through the UN,” said an aide to one Republican lawmaker opposed to the treaty, “or can it be done through a bilateral treaty?”
The aide said the treaty popped up on the congressional radar very quickly about one month ago, and DeMint and others want to slow it down in order to give opponents a chance to have their voices heard. The Home School Legal Defense Association is one of the groups leading the charge against the treaty on Capitol Hill, with the help of former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
“The [U.N. treaty] would usurp the rights and powers of parents here in the United States to do what is best for their special-needs child by placing the law of the U.N. above the rights of the parents,” Rick and Karen Santorum said in a statement. “It is the job of our elected representatives to preserve these rights, not hand them off to unaccountable international bureaucrats."
The home-schooling group is urging its members to send a message to senators telling them to oppose a treaty that “surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected U.N. bureaucrats and will threaten parental control over children with disabilities.”
“If the Senate ratifies this treaty,'” the message says, “it would be the first time ever that the U.S. has ratified a treaty that obligates us to recognize economic, social and cultural entitlements as rights under domestic law. Please take the time to examine this treaty carefully.”
Some conservative Republicans remain unconvinced.
A spokeswoman for Barrasso tells The Hill that his support for the treaty remains the same as when he spoke in support at a Senate hearing last week.
“The convention offers the United States a forum to utilize our wealth of knowledge and practical experiences to influence other nations in recognizing the rights for people with disabilities,” Barrasso said as he entered a letter of support from President George H.W. Bush — who signed the ADA into law — into the Congressional Record. “It can help in advancing policies so Americans with disabilities can receive the same protections while working, studying and traveling abroad, including, very importantly, our veterans.”
I hope DeMint can beat this back.
Is Jim Demint the only Senator drawing a paycheck?
It seems like him in Senate and Issa in House are the only ones on the stick.
And the WH is going overdrive trying to defeat and unseat them.
What business is it of ours whether or not other countries have the equivalent of the ADA?
Keep my beautiful special needs grandson out of the clutches of people who will judge his quality of life by their own evil standards. Maybe I’m paranoid and it’s merely another scheme to drain our treasury.
The U.N. needs to be closed and all its “treaties” need to be unwound.
Is our country so screwed up that we have to sign every treaty that comes our way? Are we REALLY unable to have our own ADA laws without their help?
And this crap about helping Americans overseas is BS, if the treaty is ratified by Germany, for example, it applies to GERMANY, not just Germans, and if the one or two wheelie-Americans overseas happens to be there, it applies to them also.
Nice work DeMint, no big hurry. Perhaps we wait until the 23rd anniversary of the ADA to bring it up?
“Is Jim Demint the only Senator drawing a paycheck?”
Oh, they all DRAW one...
On that subject, a comedian went through town, and he was new to this state. He went to the eastern part and he was amazed at how many people were artists there. Whenever he asked them what they did, most of them said, “I draw”.
The New World Order wants our children’s souls and their innocence. Does anyone not believe that is what they ultimately want?
The New World Order wants our children’s souls and their innocence. Does anyone not believe that is what they ultimately want?
There should be a law that requires any UN treaty be passed by more than 2/3 of the Senate and House before it can pass. Does anyone know what the current requirements are?
There should be NO UN.
I think the US senate should do two things.
First of all, in exchange for killing these internationalist abominations, they should again assert their right to approve *all* treaties.
In recent years, various presidents have tried to create “treaties called something else”, that are “sub-treaties” or “agreements”, that can bind the United States, but without the approval of the senate. This has to stop.
If necessary, the senate should sue the president, to be heard before the SCOTUS, with the idea that they would declare all such agreements null and void, unless approved by the senate.
“Is Jim Demint the only Senator drawing a paycheck? It seems like him in Senate and Issa in House are the only ones on the stick.”
I agree. Very few seem to be willing to step forward and fight the leftists.
“What business is it of ours whether or not other countries have the equivalent of the ADA?”
Not only that, but it is a joke to talk about an international ADA treaty when most of the UN members are corrupt, third world dictatorships that don’t follow the laws they have now.
“Keep my beautiful special needs grandson out of the clutches of people who will judge his quality of life by their own evil standards. Maybe I’m paranoid and it’s merely another scheme to drain our treasury.”
It really is disgusting that any senator would renounce the sovereignty of the U.S.; I don’t know the details of this treaty, but I know the UN and that is enough. I’m against it. If DeMint is right, and I trust him like I trust few others in the District of Corruption, and it could affect homeschoolers in the U.S., or kids like your grandson, no Senator should support it, even the Dim/socialists. That Republicans like McCain and Barasso are on board tells us how unreliable that party is also.
“The U.N. needs to be closed and all its “treaties” need to be unwound.”
Exactly. We should not be part of this world welfare body and should not be headquartering it. My default position is, if it is a proposal from the United Nuisance, it’s garbage and should be avoided at all costs.
“Is our country so screwed up that we have to sign every treaty that comes our way? Are we REALLY unable to have our own ADA laws without their help?”
It seems all of our elites are in favor of being governed by a one world organization. Ruth Vader Ginsburg tells other countries not to adopt a constitution like ours. Snarlin Specter liked to look to foreign law for guidance. And the pseudo president (and G. W. Bush was not much better in this regard) and a bunch of our senators appear only too ready to bite off on an internationl law of the sea treaty and now this international ADA turkey.
I’m against any worldwide treaties of this sort. We got along well in the early years of the republic with bilateral treaties between the U.S. and one other nation, as the need presented itself. These traitors today want to push us to a world government.
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