Thanks to everyone in our industry that placed a call, visited a congressional office, wrote a letter, travelled to D.C., and/or supported all our national groups’ efforts over the past year, H.R. 620 this week passed the House of Representatives. Thank you!
On Thursday, most House Republicans and a handful of Democrats passed the bill on a 225-192 vote.
All fourteen California Republicans and six (6) California Democrats voted “yes,” while thirty-one (31) California Democrats voted “Nay,” and two (2) abstained.
H.R. 620 proposes narrowly targeted reforms to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and was introduced earlier this year and had 108 cosponsors. The bipartisan legislation addresses an unintended consequence of ADA, which has resulted in a national surge in “drive-by lawsuits,” by creating a pause in litigation to allow businesses the opportunity to correct alleged barriers to access.
In California over the last few years our industry has been involved in helping move forward incremental reforms to State Laws that govern ADA which have seen positive results in terms of increasing accessibility. However, Nationally, ADA lawsuits have been on the rise in recent years. More lawsuits of this type were filed in federal court across the country in the first six months of this year than were filed in all of 2013. In many instances, a single plaintiff has filed dozens, even hundreds, of cases across a geographic area alleging violations.
The fate of the measure in the U.S. Senate is uncertain.
All the national commercial real estate groups CBPA is affiliated with are working closely together to support this legislation and educate lawmakers on its importance.
We’d like to thank ICSC, NAIOP, BOMA International, and RILA for all their work on our behalf!
Here is a video on the need for ADA reform.
