EXCLUSIVE: Congress for all: Reps. Bryan Steil and Stephanie Bice roll out ADA accessible ramp with disabled veterans
THE LOWDOWN
GOP Reps. Bryan Steil and Stephanie Bice built an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ramp for disabled visitors.
Construction on the ramp began last August. Standing on the new ramp, Bice told the Reporter that “months ago, this was actually a sidewalk.”
Steil added that “you need to be able to petition the government; it is one of your First Amendment rights, and we need to make sure that everyone has an accessible and available way to come into the United States Capitol.”
Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Congress remained frustratingly inaccessible to disabled Americans, including veterans, until Reps. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.) and Stephanie Bice (R., Okla.) of the Committee on House Administration stepped in last year.
Starting last August, construction began on an ADA-compliant ramp for disabled visitors and even parents with baby strollers to be able to use. Construction was completed in December, but Steil and Bice led a bipartisan rollout of the ramp today, alongside Democratic Reps. Joe Morelle of New York and Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Constructing a ramp has been an issue item for years, but no action had been taken until Bice, who leads the committee’s Modernization Subcommittee, got to work. Standing on the new ramp, Bice told the Reporter that “months ago, this was actually a sidewalk.”
“It was pretty surprising that we did not have a permanent ADA dropoff and pickup zone,” she said. Bice’s efforts were so successful that they inspired similar measures by the Senate. Of those, she said that they “showed that it can be done.”
“It required a lot of coordination, we had to work with the Architect of the Capitol, the Sergeants at Arms, and others to make it accessible, but we proved we could do it in a relatively short amount of time,” Bice said.
Steil added to the Reporter that “you need to be able to petition the government; it is one of your First Amendment rights, and we need to make sure that everyone has an accessible and available way to come in to the United States Capitol.”
“It’s obviously a historic building, and accessibility has been a real challenge for disabled individuals to come to the United States Capitol, and number one among those is disabled veterans,” Steil said. “So I am pleased today to be joined by [Paralyzed Veterans of America] … Small changes like this can have a big impact.”
While no one doubted that this change was needed, it took the leadership of Bice and Steil to make it happen.
“I come from the business sector, so you’d think things would be able to move a little faster,” Steil said. “Things are a little slower than they should be here on Capitol Hill, but at the end of the day we were able to get this done.”
“It came to be a recognition that this needed to be solved, this needed to be changed. Stephanie Bice and Joe Morelle were great partners in this, Stephanie really led the charge with us in making sure that we had this accessible and available location here,” Steil said.
Hoyer, the former Majority Leader for House Democrats, thanked the Republicans for their work on the measure. Top Democrats are currently trying to elect a radical judge in Wisconsin and are promising that her win would help draw Steil out of his district.
