[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 30 (Monday, July 31, 2000)]
[Pages 1687-1688]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13164--Requiring Federal Agencies To Establish 
Procedures To Facilitate the Provision of Reasonable Accommodation

July 26, 2000

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and 
the laws of the United States of America, including the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 701 et seq.), as amended, and in order to promote 
a model Federal workplace that provides reasonable accommodation for (1) 
individuals with disabilities in the application process for Federal 
employment; (2) Federal employees with disabilities to perform the 
essential functions of a position; and (3) Federal employees with 
disabilities to enjoy benefits and privileges of employment equal to 
those enjoyed by employees without disabilities, it is hereby ordered as 
follows:
    Section 1. Establishment of Effective Written Procedures to 
Facilitate the Provision of Reasonable Accommodation. (a) Each Federal 
agency shall establish effective written procedures for processing 
requests for reasonable accommodation by employees and applicants with 
disabilities. The written procedures may allow different components of 
an agency to tailor their procedures as necessary to ensure the 
expeditious processing of requests.
    (b) As set forth in Re-charting the Course: The First Report of the 
Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities 
(1998), effective written procedures for processing requests for 
reasonable accommodation should include the following:
    L(1) Explain that an employee or job applicant may initiate a 
request for reasonable accommodation orally or in writing. If the agency 
requires an applicant or employee to complete a reasonable accommodation 
request form for recordkeeping purposes, the form must be provided as an 
attachment to the agency's written procedures;
    L(2) Explain how the agency will process a request for reasonable 
accommodation, and from whom the individual will receive a final 
decision;
    L(3) Designate a time period during which reasonable accommodation 
requests will be granted or denied, absent extenuating circumstances. 
Time limits for decision making should be as short as reasonably 
possible;
    L(4) Explain the responsibility of the employee or applicant to 
provide appropriate medical information related to the functional 
impairment at issue and the requested accommodation where the disability 
and/or need for accommodation is not obvious;
    L(5) Explain the agency's right to request relevant supplemental 
medical information if the information submitted does not clearly 
explain the nature of the disability, or the need for the reasonable 
accommodation, or does not otherwise clarify how the requested 
accommodation will assist the employee to perform the essential

[[Page 1688]]

functions of the job or to enjoy the benefits and privileges of the 
workplace;
    L(6) Explain the agency's right to have medical information reviewed 
by a medical expert of the agency's choosing at the agency's expense;
    L(7) Provide that reassignment will be considered as a reasonable 
accommodation if the agency determines that no other reasonable 
accommodation will permit the employee with a disability to perform the 
essential functions of his or her current position;
    L(8) Provide that reasonable accommodation denials be in writing and 
specify the reasons for denial;
    L(9) Ensure that agencies' systems of recordkeeping track the 
processing of requests for reasonable accommodation and maintain the 
confidentiality of medical information received in accordance with 
applicable law and regulations; and
    L(10) Encourage the use of informal dispute resolution processes to 
allow individuals with disabilities to obtain prompt reconsideration of 
denials of reasonable accommodation. Agencies must also inform 
individuals with disabilities that they have the right to file 
complaints in the Equal Employment Opportunity process and other 
statutory processes, as appropriate, if their requests for reasonable 
accommodation are denied.
    Sec. 2. Submission of Agency Reasonable Accommodation Procedures to 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Within 1 year from 
the date of this order, each agency shall submit its procedures to the 
EEOC. Each agency shall also submit to the EEOC any modifications to its 
reasonable accommodation procedures at the time that those modifications 
are adopted.
    Sec. 3. Collective Bargaining Obligations. In adopting their 
reasonable accommodation procedures, agencies must honor their 
obligations to notify their collective bargaining representatives and 
bargain over such procedures to the extent required by law.
    Sec. 4. Implementation. The EEOC shall issue guidance for the 
implementation of this order within 90 days from the date of this order.
    Sec. 5. Construction and Judicial Review. (a) Nothing in this order 
limits the rights that individuals with disabilities may have under the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
    (b) This order is intended only to improve the internal management 
of the executive branch and does not create any right or benefit, 
substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or equity by a party 
against the United States, its agencies, its officers, its employees, or 
any person.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
July 26, 2000.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., July 27, 
2000]

Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on July 
28.