the a.d.a. and its overall purpose. when the a.d.a. was signed into law by president george h.w. bush in 1990, it was to provide the disabled equal access to public facilities. in large part, the a.d.a. has worked. it has been hailed as the most sweeping, nondiscrimination legislation since the civil rights act of 1964. unfortunately, enterprising plaintiffs and their lawyers have abused the law by filing a flurry of a.d.a. lawsuits aimed at churning out billable hours and extracting money from small businesses rather than improving access for the disabled as the a.d.a. intended. these predatory lawsuits are possible for two chief reasons. first, 100% compliance with the a.d.a. is very difficult to achieve. even though good faith efforts such as bringing or hiring an a.d.a. compliant expert, a business can still find themselves subject to a lawsuit for almost any minor or unintentional infraction. according to one a.d.a. compliant specialist, quote, i rarely, if ever, see circumstances or instanc

the a.d.a. intended. these predatory lawsuits are possible for two chief reasons. first, 100% compliance with the a.d.a. is very difficult to achieve. even though good faith efforts, such as bringing or hiring an a.d.a. compliance expert, a business can find themselves subject to a lawsuit for almost any minor or unintentional fraction. according to one a.d.a. compliant specialist, i rarely, if ever see circumstances or instances where there isn't an access violation somewhere. i can find something wrong anywhere. this makes compliance a challenge, even for those with the very best of intentions. second, unlike title ii of the civil rights act, it does not require notice before a lawsuit can be filed. this has led to thousands of lawsuits filed for issues of relatively minor noncompliance such as a sign being the wrong color or the wrong wording. abuse of a.d.a. has been noted by judges around the country who referred to the plif ration as a quote, cottage industry. these judges recognized the ex

the a.d.a. and its overall purpose. when the a.d.a. was signed into law by president george h.w. bush in 1990, it was to provide the disabled equal access to public facilities. in large part, the a.d.a. has worked. it has been hailed as the most sweeping, nondiscrimination legislation since the civil ights act of 1964. unfortunately, enterprising plaintiffs and their lawyers have abused the law by filing a flurry of a.d.a. lawsuits aimed at churning out billable hours and extracting money from small businesses rather than improving access for the disabled as the a.d.a. intended. these predatory lawsuits are possible -- are possible for two chief reasons. first, 100% compliance with the a.d.a. is very difficult to achieve. even though good faith efforts such as bringing or hiring an a.d.a. compliant expert, a business can still find themselves subject to a lawsuit for almost any minor or unintentional infraction. according to one a.d.a. compliant specialist, quote, i rarely, if ever, see circumsta

that the president put in executive order to those contained in the original civil rights act and the a.d.ait is specifically designed to exclude lgbt americans, and in doing that, it aligns itself with the parallel efforts we see happening in states like north carolina. it's wrong and it doesn't have anything to do with our military. it doesn't have anything to do with fighting isis. it doesn't have anything to do with religious protections. it's about bigotry, plain and simple, and today we have another chance to do the right thing and to send the right message and to stick up for our military. thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield back. >> if the gentleman will yield? mr. maloney: yes, i will. mr. dent: i just want to state i support the amendment and oppose discrimination in any shape or form in this case as it relates to federal contracting. i yield back. mr. maloney: reclaiming my time. i want to thank the gentleman from pennsylvania and i want to acknowledge that it was the gentleman from pennsylvania, together with mr. hannah from new york, who craig -- mr. hanna from new york, who co

that the president put in executive order to those contained in the original civil rights act and the a.d.ade lgbt americans, and in doing that, it aligns itself with the parallel efforts we see happening in states like north carolina. it's wrong and it doesn't have anything to do with our military. it doesn't have anything to do with fighting isis. it doesn't have anything to do with religious protections. it's about bigotry, plain and simple, and today we have another chance to do the right thing and to send the right message and to stick up for our military. thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield back. >> if the gentleman will yield? mr. maloney: yes, i will. mr. dent: i just want to state i support the amendment and oppose discrimination in any shape or form in this case as it relates to federal contracting. i yield back. mr. maloney: reclaiming my time. i want to thank the gentleman from pennsylvania and i want to acknowledge that it was the gentleman from pennsylvania, together with mr. hannah from new york, who craig -- mr. hanna from new york, who courageously supported it. i'm honored

well, dallas county courthouse has been -- is a courthouse that actually was grandfathered into the a.d.a. laws and so did not have to have a ramp by which people who have wheelchairs can get readily into the courthouse. it has been grandfathered in. we were very blessed to have a gentleman help us get my dad up those seven stairs, into the courthouse. but when we got to the courthouse, because the voter registration was on the second floor, we had to take an elevator upstairs. lo and behold, that particular day the one elevator bank was, what? actually out of service. out of service. now, my mom, having been a former member of the city council in central sell ma and obviously a very -- in selma, and obviously a very well known member of the citizens of selma, she could go across the wall and talk and say, look, we're here today to get this photo i.d. this nondriving photo voter i.d., so that my husband can vote. it took an hour and a half, but they got someone to service that elevator. by the time that elevator was working and we got up to the and betold low hold, it was 11:30 and, guess

we spend millions of dollars ensuring our properties are code compliant and compliant with the a.d.a. and we have millions of dollars invested and we have attorneys esenablely that come to us with their hand out, with vague claims of noncompliance they don't have specifics and they never bother to follow up as long as you have paid to settle a suit. as a fol oweup, i guess i would mention in your district, mr. deutch, this has become -- this issue, ust the icsc there are press reports, there was one this week of a serial plaintiff filing a thousand lawsuits. response to mr. cohen's question about the lawsuit, california has passed legislation to try to curb the abuse of lawyers that he thinks will help, there are abuses going on so california has passed legislation as well to try to limit the abuses that are occurring there. mr. deutch: mr. buckland, isn't there a difference between a business owner who refuses to include a required number of handicapped spaces for who refuses to make the restrooms accessible, and a business owner who runs a business who has follow all of the technica

with the nicklaus nine, we will ow have an 18-hole, 100% a.d.a. accessible golf course to accommodate returning troops and our local combat veterans. with the nicklaus nine, we will have doubled the accessibility and green to offer our veterans who have given so much. now, i'm going to tell you a story and i guarantee it's going to stay with you. i guarantee you're going to remember this story. there is a program in american lake golf course that teaches blind veterans how to play golf. blind veterans how to play golf. and one day we had ray reed who was sent to the national blind golf tournament in iowa. ray reed, blind, wounded warrior. you know what he did at that national golf tournament? he scored a hole in one. yes, blind veterans can golf, and they learn how to do that at american lake. it's incredible and they're an inspiration to all of us. mr. speaker, to avoid a point of order on my amendment i would like to withdraw at this time but i hope i can cork with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle -- i can work with my colleagues on both

order to override any objections that we might have, including, by the way, the passage of the now disastrous a.d.a., or known to some of us as obamacare, which now we are seeing catastrophic consequences, including our citizens seeing dramatic increases in their premiums that the point where it's simply unaffordable, and there's more to come. but the fact is after 13 hearings with 52 witnesses, a unanimous vote on the other side , three in opposition on my side, that we came up with a defense authorization bill. the defense authorization bill has reached the president's desk and been signed by the president for 53 years, and there's another greater example, in my view, over that 53-year period over the ability of both sides to work together for the good of the country. so here we have just recently what appears to be, most evidence indicates a terrorist act blowing up of an airliner. we have almost unprecedented suicide attacks in the city of baghdad that has killed over 1,000 people in the last year. we have isis metastasizing throughout the region, including libya and now rearing its ugly head i

the law to file frivolous lawsuits. we hear from business owners who were sued for a.d.a. violations. it's an

i don't know that there is but the provision that's become controversial says 1964 civil rights act, a.d.a., nothing contradicts that which is the law anyway. so tell you the truth, i'm not sure why all this has blown up. i am struck, however, by the degree to which extraneous issues come out in our defense authorization bill. this is about the troops, about their pay, about weapons, readiness that we were just talking about. and we seem to spend lots of time talking about other things, including this. karoun: one other issue that's come up in recurrent years is the guantanamo issue and again in this bill you don't let any of the funding to be used for the transfer issue to the united states. this past week, the senate confirmed the army secretary and there was a hold on his nomination along the line of the same issue. one senator said republicans have successfully run out the clock on guantanamo. i am wondering if you agree, if it's a done deal and if you think that it's too late, basically, to do anything? have the republicans won on this issue? mr. thornberry: i don't know about won. we