The U.S. Senate passed a bill last month that would amend language in federal law that strikes the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" in favor of "intellectual disabilities," the phrase of choice used by the Centers for Disease Control and the White House.

Now the House of Representatives has its turn with the language.

Originally introduced last November by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Senate bill 2781 seeks to remove a negative stigma associated with the "old-fashioned" term once commonly used to describe a person who learns and develops more slowly than others, according to the Web site KidsHealth. But the term is now generally frowned upon by those in educational and therapeutic circles because of the harmful effects it can have on feelings of not only persons with disabilities but also their families and friends.

Currently, "mental retardation" is defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1965 and 1973, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Health Research and Health Services Amendments of 1976, and the Public Service Health Act.

The bill was referred on Aug. 9 to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Education and Labor. Senate bill 2781 is also known as "Rosa's Law," named after Rosa Marcellino, a child born with Down syndrome. Her school in Edgewater, Md., had labeled her as retarded when developing her educational activities. But Nina Marcellino, Rosa's mother, disallowed the term in her house, and none of Rosa's siblings referred to hers as retarded.

Nina Marcellino organized a group of parents to petition for a bill to change Maryland state law on the definitions of disabilities. At a hearing called to discuss the implications of changing the term, Rosa's brother Nick, then 13 years old, testified. "What you call people is how you treat them," he told lawmakers. "What you call my sister is how you will treat her. If you believe she's 'retarded,' it invites taunting, stigma. It invites bullying and it also invites the slammed doors of being treated with respect and dignity."

Sen. Mikulski learned of Rosa's Law and the plans to bring it before the state assembly when she met Nina Marcellino at a round table discussion on special education in April 2009. Sen. Mikulski promised to take a similar bill to the U.S. Senate floor if the bill passed the Maryland General Assembly, which it did unanimously. Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the bill into law on April 14, 2009. It went into effect in Maryland last Oct. 1.