Verona, PA - Former Republican presidential candidate and chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum issued the following statement regarding the defeat of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): 

"Today's vote was a victory for disabled Americans across the country, and Karen and I, as parents of a special needs little girl, are grateful for all that Patriot Voices members, the Home School Legal Defense Association and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) did to stop this treaty from becoming law."

"Now that CRPD is defeated, we know that the United Nations won't have oversight of how we care for our special needs kids.  This treaty would have given the U.N. oversight of the healthcare and education choices parents with special needs kids make.  Had it passed, CRPD would have become the law of the land under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, and would have trumped state laws, and could have been used as precedent by state and federal judges.  But now it won't."

"Patriot Voices compiled over 20,000 signatures in opposition to CRPD along with thousands of phone calls, emails and tweets which were instrumental in stopping this flawed treaty.  Today's results showed the ability of Patriot Voices to activate and mobilize our members to impact a critical piece of legislation," Santorum concluded.   

By a vote of 61 yeas to 38 nays, CRPD was defeated since it is required to have two-thirds of the Senate or 67 senators vote in the affirmative to ratify U.N. treaties.