Reid: Senate to take up disability treaty while defense amendments are negotiated

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that the Senate would move toward votes on a treaty protecting the rights of people with disabilities because Republicans still aren’t in agreement over amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Reid said that while Republicans discuss what they want to do on the defense authorization, he intends bring up the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday. 

Republicans have expressed concern over the treaty, saying they don’t want international treaties writing U.S. law. But advocates for the treaty have said it’s based on the American Disabilities Act, granting people with disabilities equal rights, meaning U.S. law already follows the treaty.

Democrats have indicated  they’d be open to amendments to the treaty, which would require countries that adopt it to equalize access for people with disabilities.

Reid also said the Senate would proceed to S.676, a bill to amend the Act of June 18, 1934, to reaffirm the authority of the secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Indian tribes, sometimes called the “Carcieri Fix,” on Wednesday.

Reid said if cloture is not invoked on the motion to proceed to the "Carcieri Fix" bill Wednesday, he’d continue to work with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on an agreement to move forward on the defense authorization bill, S. 3254.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is filibustering the defense bill, which would set defense policy and authorize more than $600 billion in Pentagon spending, until he gets a vote on his amendment limiting indefinite detention.

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