Senate HELP Committee Report on Disability Employment

On July26, the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), released a report discussing the state of employment for adults with disabilities, and offered a number of policy recommendations to increase participation of individuals with disabilities in the labor force.  http://harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/500469b49b364.pdf

"As the first generation of Americans who have grown up under the ADA approach adulthood & wounded warriors return from Iraq & Afghanistan, our country has a unique opportunity to address the issue of disability employment," said HELP Committee Chairman Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). The report noted that individuals w/ disabilities "experience a disproportionate level of poverty because of their low employment participation & earnings rates, their underemployment & the low levels of federal disability cash benefits." The report noted that the poverty rate for working-age adults with disabilities in the U.S. in 2010 was 27.3 percent while for those without disabilities it was 12.8 percent, while federal benefits are generally insufficient to alleviate poverty among individuals w/ disabilities.