Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on Tuesday lamented the death of a United Nations treaty aimed at securing rights for disabled people around the world, which failed to garner a two-thirds vote required for ratification due largely in part to Republican opposition.
“This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate and it needs to be a wakeup call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people,” said Sen. Kerry. “We need to fix this place because what happens and doesn’t happen here affects millions of lives. Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled and that’s unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter.”
