ms. shah is an attorney and a hotel owner in atlanta, georgia. our third witness is kelly buckland. mr. buckland is the executive director of the national council on independent living. and our fourth and final witness is david weiss. mr. weiss is executive vice president and general counsel of d.d.r. corps. a company that owns and manages retail properties. each of the witnesses' written statements will be entered in the record in its entirety and i would ask that each witness summarize his or her testimony in five minutes or less. to help you stay within that time, there's a timing light in front of you. the light switch from green to yellow indicates that you have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the light turns red it indicates that the witness' five minutes have expired. before i recognize the witness, it is tradition of subcommittee that they be sworn. so if you would please stand to be sworn. for those of you who can't stand, just -- do you solemnly swear that the testimony t

ms. shah is an attorney and a hotel owner in atlanta, georgia. our third witness is kelly buckland. mr. buckland is the executive director of the national council on independent living. and our fourth and final witness is david weiss. mr. weiss is executive vice president and general council -- general counsel of d.d.r. corps. a company that owns and manages retail properties. each of the witnesses' written statements will be entered in the record in its entirety and i would ask that each of you witness -- each witness summarize his or her testimony in five minutes or less. to help you stay within that time, there's a timing light in front of you. the light switch from green to yellow indicates that you have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the light turns red it indicates that the witness' five minutes have expired. before i recognize the witness, it is tradition of subcommittee that they be sworn. so if you would please stand to be sworn. for those of you who can't stand, just --

ms. shah. ms. shah, is that microphone on? >> chairman franks -- >> would you turn that microphone on, ms. shah? >> it is on. >> chairman franks -- >> ms. shah, you may have to bring that closer to you. i'm not sure -- >> can you hear me? >> yes, ma'am. >> chairman franks, ranking member cohen and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. it is an honor to appear you. my name is mili shah and i'm a second generation hotelier and attorney from georgia. my parents migrated from india in the 1980s. i spent the first eight years of my life on the third floor of daze inn, a place i called home. 30 years later, my family owns several hotels that employ nearly 400 people. i personally own two hotels in atlanta, georgia, which amount to 150 guest rooms and employ over 20 dedicated employees. i am also here representing the asian-american hotel owners association, owning over 40% of all hotels in the united states and employ eefr 600,000 american workers

ms. shah, critics of legislative efforts to allow for a cure period prior to commencing a lawsuit under title 3 of the ada have argued that the property owners have a legal obligation to ensure their property's accessible to the disabled. these critics argue that a notice and cure legislation would create a further incentive for property owners not to comply with ada until they're sued. how would you respond to that criticism? >> thank you, mr. chairman. you know, i respond to the critics by saying that the fact that they're having an issue with the grace period to begin with shows and implies that they're not here to promote accessibility. all of us here in this room support the ada, support americans with disabilities. we promote it. we think it's great for america. in fact, we want to fix any issues, because ultimately, that attracts customers to our business and we want to grow our business. so we're automatically incentivized. so a notice and cure provision would help us fix any areas of

. >> would you concur with the testimony of ms. shah and your experience? >> yes.hat particular day, this individual sued three locations in our city, same person. and he does not live in the city. and that particular day i was not at the shop. i came back from doing myer -- my errands and agot a patchage, and no one knew who he was. i asked the medical facility that does provide wheelchair to make sure if he is -- and the register with them or buy anything from them. they development know who he is. and recently they did a kind of investigate on this and shows he is able-bodied. he go to places, and he uses his wheelchair to get what he does and he leave his wheelchair and put it back in his truck. >> isn't that fraud? would you you sat is fraud. >> that i fraud. that's i would we're here. we need to stop this. we need to stop this fraud. we need to stop this ridiculous using ada to get that they want. mr. buckland said the facility he contact three time and get no response. please go sue them elm that's what the price. whatever that need to be done, yes, but give