President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities
Written by John Lancaster,
Then executive director of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities
The President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (PCEPD) was officially formed in 1947 by President Truman as the President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. Originally housed in the Department of Labor, the PCEPD morphed, grew, modernized, and became a Federal Government marketing agency. It marketed the employability of all people with disabilities in the nation’s workforce. The stated mission was “to facilitate the communication, coordination, and promotion of public and private efforts to enhance the employment of people with disabilities.”
On March 2, 1994 President Clinton appointed Tony Coelho as the fifth Chairman of PCEPD, replacing Justin Dart, Jr. The Chairmanship was an unpaid position with significant ability to influence disability employment policy. Tony was quick to assess PCEPD’s strengths and weaknesses. On the minus side of the ledger, PCEPD was extremely underfunded and understaffed for its mission. In 1994, the Committee’s annual budget was under $3,000,000 dollars, mere decimal dust in the Federal Budget. The staff consisted of only 36 government employees.
On the plus side, PCEPD had put together national network of committed people in the form of Governor’s and Mayor’s Committees for employment of people with disabilities around the country.
Tony focused immediately on PCEPD’s strengths. He understood that a much bigger effort was needed to make a difference in the nation’s employment of people with disabilities. Working with his network of employees and Committee members, he began reinvigorating the staff and building existing programs.
The previous Chairman, Justin Dart, Jr. had chosen Richard Douglas as the PCEPD Executive Director. At PCEPD’s 1994 Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon Tony asked me to take over as Executive Director replacing Douglas. I was reluctant to take the opportunity. I had recently been with the PCEPD as an Executive Assistant to Justin Dart traveling with him to all 50 states to educate business, labor, state and local government, and disability leaders on the American with Disabilities Act passed in 1990. I had left when Dart resigned after Clinton was elected. During his service under Dart, he observed how under-staffed and under-funded the Committee was to address the problem.
My response was to question Tony. Why would he want to take on an underfunded understaffed agency to address such a monstrous national problem? I thought the agency should be defunded and the money used elsewhere to improve the employment of people with disabilities.
Tony’s idea was similar. With his typical enthusiasm and optimism, Tony laid out his plan. It was simple. PCEPD would build up its programs and budget making the Committee more relevant and effective. Then, he would convince President Clinton to do away with the Committee and transfer its staff and budget to the Department of Labor under an Assistant Secretary. The new agency could grow into a much more effective entity with necessary personnel and budget to conduct meaningful programs.
Tony’s appointment as PCEPD’s new Chairman energized the staff like putting new batteries in your TV remote. He had worked closely with Justin Dart on the passage of the ADA and had authored it in the House of Representatives. As a person with the disability of epilepsy, he understood its importance to the nation’s workforce and economy. Indeed, Justin Dart was one several disability rights advocates who convinced President Clinton to appoint Coelho.
In his typical business approach, Tony began by restructuring and streamlining PCEPD’s Subcommittee structure to six with the Vice-Chairpersons serving on his Executive Committee. Representatives of business, labor, vocational rehabilitation, state partners, people with disabilities and their organizations were all at the table. He involved the Vice Chairs with leadership assignments around budgeting, strategic planning and operations.
Tony next focused on PCEPD’s most successful program the Job Accommodation Network (JAN). JAN was managed through a government contract with the University of West Virginia. JAN’s already successful toll-free number, 1-800-DIAL-JAN, was enhanced with the addition of a website in 1995. Serious contacts with JAN more than doubled by the end 1996.
Next, Tony shifted the staff into high-gear. He turned to the Employer Subcommittee, staff, and state partners and asked for an employer focused project. What developed was a highly effective Business Leadership Network (BLN). Businesses advising and providing other businesses with best practices and resources in hiring qualified employees with disabilities.
Over the next several years a number of new initiatives began. Working in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD), PCEPD placed an emphasis college students with disabilities. DoD had created a recruitment program placing them in positions throughout the Department. Known as the Federal Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities, it placed college students with disabilities in summer internships and in certain cases into full-time employment with DoD. Under Tony’s leadership and with DoD’s assistance, the program was expanded to 12 other federal agencies. In 1997 partnering with the Employer Subcommittee, the program was again expanded to the private sector and became known as the Workforce Recruitment Program.
Tony then put the staff into overdrive with a series of new initiatives. He convinced the Department of Education to partner on a Cultural Diversity Initiative to ensure that vocational rehabilitation programs and other efforts to bring people with disabilities into work were culturally diverse. Partnerships were further developed with minority organizations to further expand the effort.
PCEPD began working with the Department of Commerce and other organizations to develop entrepreneurial programs for people with disabilities. An increased focus was put on meaningful, non-sheltered work opportunities for folks with cognitive disabilities.
Chairman Coelho then approached the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau to get them to collect data on the employment of people with disabilities. The data showed the collective efforts of PCEPD and their government, state and private partners had resulted in more than 800,000 new workers with disabilities nationwide.
Tony Coelho had successfully built up PCEPD’s programs and its budget as well. In 1999 the budget had grown to over $7,000,000 as a result of Tony’s and my annual visits to the Secretary of Labor and the White House. It was at this time that Tony visited President Clinton and convinced him to do away with the President’s Committee while establishing a new agency under DoL. The new agency would be under a new Assistant Secretary of Labor and be named the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).
I was honored to write an Executive Order for the President with input from DoL and White House staff to set the plan in motion. The Executive Order then became the frame work for a few lines of legislation in the FY 2001 Appropriations Bill. When the Appropriations Bill passed the Congress the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities ceased to exist.
Since that time the ODEP has gradually grown in budget and effectiveness and more and more people with disabilities enter the nation’s workforce each year. The vision Tony Coelho outlined to me at PCEPD’s 1994 Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon had become reality.
A note from the author…
The above has been written with a huge acknowledgement to the staff who worked under his and Tony’s leadership. Without their hard work none of this could have happened. A special thank you to Ruth Ellen Ross for her excellent history of the Committee: An Overview of The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities – 1947-1997. Ruth Ellen Ross’s work was invaluable in preparing this paper. I thank everyone mentioned and referenced in this paper for the tremendous opportunity of having served with you to eradicate the lingering problem of employment discrimination against people with disabilities. May ODEP carry on your good work. Thank you Tony, thank you all.