Testimony of John L. Wodatch Before the Foreign Relations Committee Of the United States Senate

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for your invitation to present my views to the Committee. I come before you this morning to urge you to support ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

I have a long history of work on disability rights issues. I have witnessed firsthand the strong bipartisan support for disability rights that is out nation’s tradition. I retired last July from service in the federal executive branch after 42 years of service. During that time I was the author of the federal government’s first comprehensive disability rights regulations, regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, first issued in 1977. I was fortunate to work for Attorney General Dick Thornburgh during our nation’s consideration of the Americans with Disabilities Act and served as a member of the White House team under President George H.W. Bush that negotiated the ADA. I then oversaw development of the ADA regulations and served as the head of the new unit at the Department of Justice that was created to implement the ADA. I also served as a member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.