- published: 04 Nov 2011
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An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it for authorization or legitimacy the power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to carry out specific government policies in a modern nation. The effects of enabling acts from different times and places vary widely.
The German word for an enabling act is Ermächtigungsgesetz. It usually refers to the enabling act of March 23, 1933, which became a cornerstone of Adolf Hitler's seizure of power.
The first enabling act is dated from August 4, 1914 just after the outbreak of World War I. With the vote of the Social Democrats, the Reichstag (the parliament) agreed to give the government certain powers to take the necessary economic measures during the war. Such enabling acts were also common in other countries. The Reichstag had to be informed, and had the right to abolish a decree based on the enabling act. This ensured that the government used its rights with care and only in rare cases was a decree abolished. The parliament retained its right to make law.
Americans with disabilities comprise one of the largest minority groups in the United States. According to the Disability Status: 2000 - Census 2000 Brief approximately 20% of Americans have one or more diagnosed psychological or physical disability:
Census 2000 counted 49.7 million people with some type of long lasting condition or disability. They represented 19.3 percent of the 257.2 million people who were aged 5 and older in the civilian non-institutionalized population -- or nearly one person in five..."
This percentage varies depending on how disabilities are defined. According to Census Brief 97-5, "About 1 in 5 Americans have some kind of disability, and 1 in 10 have a severe disability."
Although Americans live in the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare[citation needed], those with disabilities can generally find adequate levels of subsidized support from a variety of sources, generally at the regional level. While most rural areas — especially in the Great Plains region — have little or no government-organized medical support infrastructure for the permanently disabled indigent population, most major urban centers have healthcare systems. One of the largest developed systems is the Harris County Mental Health and Retardation Authority (MHMRA).[citation needed] Started in 1992 as a spinoff of the local University of Texas Health Science Center, MHMRA proved to be a success as it focused on handling complex Medicare and Medicaid paperwork for patients, in a system which greatly cut down on administration costs and sped the approval process.