It's not to hurt trees, and it's not to derail the clause. It's a simple enunciation of what is already in the national transportation policy, which refers to the needs of people with disabilities three times. So what we've gone from is a national transportation policy that refers to people with disabilities on three occasions--in the initial paragraph twice, and then later on it talks about “an undue obstacle to the mobility of persons, including persons with disabilities”--to a national policy statement that only refers to it once. I think that would be a mistake. I think there is probably more understanding of the needs of people with disabilities now than when the former national transportation policy statement was adopted. So I think it would not show well for this committee to water down what is an important component of the national transportation policy as it exists now.
On November 21st, 2006. See this statement in context.