This is not an official government website.
© 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Congressional Daily Record
This section is a tribute, commemoration, or district-facing statement. It mentions legislation such as Recognizing and honoring the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v L.C., committees such as Committee on the Judiciary.
Issued
June 24, 2026
senate side of the record
People
0
No members linked from this section
Legislation
1
Bills and resolutions linked from this section
Committees
1
Committees connected to this section
Senate Holds
0
No hold activity linked here
Source Document
Connected Data
Bills and resolutions
Committees
Source Control
Reader mode is for comprehension. The linked government PDF is the official published source.
Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextSENATE RESOLUTION 790—RECOGNIZING AND HONORING THE 27TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN OLMSTEAD V L.C.
Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Wyden, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Markey, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Kim, Ms. Hassan, and Ms. Blunt Rochester) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:
S. Res. 790
Whereas there are over 70,000,000 adults with disabilities
living in the United States;
Whereas section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29
U.S.C. 794) (referred to in this resolution as “section
504”) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in
all federally assisted programs or activities and laid the
foundation for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.) (referred to in this
resolution as “the ADA)”;
Whereas, in 1977, the former Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare issued implementing regulations for
section 504 requiring recipients of Federal funds to provide
services and programs in a manner that affords people with
disabilities an “equal opportunity to obtain the same
results, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same
achievement, in the most integrated setting appropriate to
the person's” needs (sections 84.4(b)(1)(iii) and 84.4(b)(2)
of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on the
date of issuance);
Whereas, in 1978, the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare issued a similar rule requiring recipients of funds
from the Department to “administer programs and activities
in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of
qualified” persons with disabilities (43 Fed. Reg. 2132);
Whereas, in 1978, Congress amended section 504 to
strengthen and clarify its nondiscrimination requirements,
thereby ratifying the 1977 and 1978 regulations and
incorporating the regulations into the Rehabilitation Act of
1973;
Whereas, in the ADA, Congress found that the isolation and
segregation of individuals with disabilities is a serious and
pervasive form of discrimination;
Whereas, through passage of the ADA, Congress intended that
forms of discrimination prohibited under section 504 and its
implementing regulations, including unnecessary segregation,
be prohibited under the ADA as well;
Whereas, on June 22, 1999, the Supreme Court in Olmstead v.
L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) (referred to in this resolution as
“the Olmstead decision”), held that under the ADA, States
must offer qualified individuals with disabilities the choice
to receive their long-term services and support in a
community-based setting;
Whereas the Supreme Court recognized in the Olmstead
decision that “institutional placement of persons who can
handle and benefit from community settings perpetuates
unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are
incapable or unworthy of participating in community life”;
Whereas the Supreme Court further recognized that
“confinement in an institution severely diminishes the
everyday life activities of individuals, including activities
involving family relations and social contacts, work options,
economic independence, educational advancement, and cultural
enrichment.”;
Whereas the Olmstead decision and the integration mandate
of the ADA and section 504 have repeatedly been affirmed by
courts across the United States, by Congress, and in Federal
regulations and guidance, prohibiting States from forcing
people with disabilities into segregated settings, such as
psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, segregated schools, and
sheltered workshops, when those people could be served in
their homes and communities;
Whereas, as a result of the integration mandate, many
individuals with disabilities have been able to live in their
own homes and community-based settings, rather than
institutional settings, and to become productive members of
the community, particularly through access to home- and
community-based services through the Medicaid program under
title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.)
(referred to in this resolution as “the Medicaid program”);
Whereas, despite 5 decades of legal requirements, many
individuals with disabilities continue to live in segregated
institutional settings, where they face abuse and neglect and
limitations on their individual freedoms, including solitary
confinement;
Whereas, on June 18, 2026, 4 days before the 27th
anniversary of the Olmstead decision, the Department of
Justice issued a deeply flawed opinion that rejects the
integration mandate and threatens the hard-won progress
towards full integration of individuals with disabilities
into society in the United States;
Whereas, the Department of Justice's opinion does not
overrule decades-old integration and nondiscrimination
requirements under section 504, the ADA, or the Olmstead
decision; and
Whereas the Department of Justice admits in its own opinion
that its interpretation of the Olmstead decision is “out of
step with common understanding of that decision within
Federal courts”: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate—
(1) recognizes and honors the 27th anniversary of the
Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581
(1999);
(2) salutes all people whose efforts have contributed to
the expansion of home- and community-based long-term services
and supports for individuals with disabilities;
(3) affirms the Olmstead decision's vital importance to
ending the unjustified institutionalization and segregation
of individuals with disabilities;
(4) condemns—
(A) the Department of Justice's incorrect and arbitrary
interpretation of the Olmstead decision and its
misperceptions about what Congress intended; and
(B) the recent cuts, and any future cuts, to the Medicaid
program, including the establishment of burdensome work-
reporting requirements and other barriers, which puts the
health of individuals with disabilities at risk and hinders
the progress made since the enactment of section 504 and the
ADA; and
(5) calls on—
(A) the Department of Justice to immediately rescind its
opinion that was issued on June 18, 2026, concerning the
integration mandate of title II of the ADA and section 504;
and
(B) Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to reverse the
biggest cut to Medicaid in history and increase funding for
home- and community-based services.