II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4595 

To support local governments for jurisdictions that elect or appoint a person 

with a disability in providing the accommodations needed for the elected 

or appointed official to carry out their official work duties, and to 

build the capacity of local governments to have consistent and adequate 

funding for accommodations. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 21, 2022 

Mr. CASEY (for himself, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. DUCKWORTH, 

Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BROWN, Mr. WYDEN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, and Mr. 

PADILLA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To support local governments for jurisdictions that elect or 

appoint a person with a disability in providing the accommodations needed for the elected or appointed official 

to carry out their official work duties, and to build 

the capacity of local governments to have consistent and 

adequate funding for accommodations. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accessibility and Inclu3 sion to Diversify Local Government Leadership Act’’ or 

4 the ‘‘AID Local Government Leadership Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

7 (1) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre8 vention estimates approximately 1 in 4 adults in the 

9 United States has a disability. 

10 (2) Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 

11 indicates that the labor force participation rate of 

12 people with disabilities is consistently half of that of 

13 people without disabilities. 

14 (3) The National Council on Independent Liv15 ing reports that people with disabilities are under16 represented in elected offices. 

17 (4) Local governments are required, under the 

18 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, to provide 

19 reasonable accommodations to enable individuals 

20 with disabilities to perform official work duties. 

21 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 

22 (1) to support local governments for jurisdic23 tions that elect or appoint a person with a disability, 

24 in providing the accommodations needed for the 

25 local elected or appointed official to carry out the of26 ficial’s official work duties, to enable the governVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:48 Jul 26, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4595.IS S4595

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1 ments to meet the requirement described in sub2 section (a)(4); and 

3 (2) to build the capacity of local governments, 

4 who otherwise do not have adequate funding to pro5 vide the accommodations, to have adequate and con6 sistent funding to provide the accommodations for 

7 such officials. 

8 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

9 In this Act: 

10 (1) ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY.—The term ‘‘as11 sistive technology’’ means technology designed to be 

12 utilized in an assistive technology device or assistive 

13 technology service. 

14 (2) ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICE; ASSISTIVE

15 TECHNOLOGY SERVICE.—The terms ‘‘assistive tech16 nology device’’ and ‘‘assistive technology service’’ 

17 have the meanings given the terms in section 3 of 

18 the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 

19 3002). 

20 (3) DISABILITY.—The term ‘‘disability’’ has the 

21 meaning given the term in section 3 of the Ameri22 cans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 

23 12102). 

24 (4) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ 

25 has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 


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1 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 

2 Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 

3 (5) LOCAL APPOINTED OFFICIAL.—The term 

4 ‘‘local’’, used with respect to an appointed official, 

5 means an individual who— 

6 (A) is appointed to a position on an advi7 sory committee that makes recommendations to 

8 local government; and 

9 (B) is not paid for the individual’s work in 

10 the position. 

11 (6) LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIAL.—The term 

12 ‘‘local’’, used with respect to an elected official, 

13 means an official who is elected for a position, from 

14 a village, town, county, or other municipality that is 

15 not national or statewide, via an election authorized 

16 by a local election board. 

17 (7) LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘local 

18 government’’ means the government of any village, 

19 town, city, county, or other municipality that is not 

20 national or statewide. 

21 (8) REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION.—The term 

22 ‘‘reasonable accommodation’’ has the meaning given 

23 the term in section 101 of the Americans with Dis24 abilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111). 


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1 (9) RURAL.—The term ‘‘rural’’, used with re2 spect to an area, means an area classified as a rural 

3 commuting area under the Rural-Urban Commuting 

4 Area Codes developed by the Secretary of Agri5 culture and the Secretary of Health and Human 

6 Services. 

7 (10) SECRETARY.—Except as otherwise speci8 fied, the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of 

9 Labor, acting through the Assistant Secretary for 

10 Disability Employment Policy. 

11 (11) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 

12 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com13 monwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, 

14 the United States Virgin Islands, and the Common15 wealth of the Northern Marianas. 

16 (12) WORK DUTIES.—The term ‘‘work duties’’ 

17 means the essential functions of an employment po18 sition. 

19 SEC. 4. COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts appropriated 

21 to carry out this Act, the Secretary shall award grants 

22 to eligible entities in any State or associated with any In23 dian tribe in order to provide, to local elected or appointed 

24 officials who have disabilities, reasonable accommodations 


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1 needed to enable the officials to carry out their official 

2 work duties, which accommodations may include— 

3 (1) physical adaptations of office space and 

4 other spaces used for public events; 

5 (2) specialized software; 

6 (3) communication supports, including sign lan7 guage interpreters; 

8 (4) provision of transportation services for an 

9 official work event (excluding transportation for 

10 commuting); and 

11 (5) other assistive technology devices and as12 sistive technology services needed to carry out offi13 cial work duties. 

14 (b) AWARDS.— 

15 (1) PROCESS.—During a fiscal year, the Sec16 retary shall award the grants on a first-come, first17 served basis until the funds appropriated under this 

18 section for that year are exhausted. If funds appro19 priated under this section are not exhausted for a 

20 fiscal year, the Secretary may use the funds to 

21 award such grants during a subsequent fiscal year. 

22 (2) AMOUNTS.—The Secretary shall award such 

23 a grant in an amount of not less than $3,000 and 

24 not more than $50,000, per year of the grant period. 


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1 (c) GRANT PERIOD.—The Secretary shall award such 

2 a grant for a period equal to— 

3 (1) the number of years the local elected or ap4 pointed official involved will be in office during the 

5 official’s first term; and 

6 (2) 2 years. 

7 (d) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to receive a 

8 grant under this section, an entity shall be a local govern9 ment— 

10 (1) that has a local elected or appointed official 

11 who has a disability and needs a reasonable accom12 modation to carry out the official’s official work du13 ties; and 

14 (2) for a jurisdiction that— 

15 (A) is in a rural area; 

16 (B) has a population of less than 10,000; 

17 or 

18 (C) has a population of 10,000 to less than 

19 200,000, and a poverty rate of 18 percent or 

20 greater, according to the most recent data 

21 available from the Bureau of the Census. 

22 (e) APPLICATION AND SELECTION.— 

23 (1) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 

24 grant under this section, an entity shall submit an 

25 application to the Secretary, in accordance with a 


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1 process prescribed by the Secretary, that shall in2 clude, at a minimum— 

3 (A) a description of— 

4 (i) the position, including the official 

5 work duties of the position, held by the 

6 local elected or appointed official involved; 

7 (ii) the needed reasonable accom8 modations for the local elected or ap9 pointed official; and 

10 (iii) a budget to cover those accom11 modations; and 

12 (B) assurances that the eligible entity 

13 will— 

14 (i) use the grant funds only for rea15 sonable accommodations needed for the 

16 local elected or appointed official involved 

17 to carry out their official work duties; 

18 (ii) provide, for each fiscal year, non19 Federal matching funds equal to not less 

20 than 25 percent of the amount provided 

21 through the grant for that fiscal year; 

22 (iii) use the non-Federal matching 

23 funds to fund a reasonable accommoda24 tions funding account; 


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1 (iv) continue the funding of that ac2 count for at least 4 years after the end of 

3 the grant period, maintaining a balance in 

4 the account equal to the total amount of 

5 non-Federal matching funds provided by 

6 the entity during the grant period; 

7 (v) use the account solely for the pur8 poses of assisting local elected and ap9 pointed officials who have disabilities, by 

10 providing reasonable accommodations 

11 needed to carry out their official work du12 ties; and 

13 (vi) submit annual reports on the 

14 grant activities as required by the Sec15 retary. 

16 (2) SELECTION PROCESS.—The Secretary shall 

17 award grants in accordance with a process pre18 scribed by the Secretary. 

19 (f) ALLOWABLE USE.—An eligible entity that re20 ceives a grant under this Act may use the grant funds 

21 for reasonable accommodations needed to enable a local 

22 elected or appointed official who has a disability to carry 

23 out the official work duties of the local elected or ap24 pointed official. The reasonable accommodations may in25 clude the physical adaptations, specialized software, comVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Jul 30, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4595.IS S4595

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1 munication supports, and devices and services, described 

2 in subsection (a). 

3 (g) ANNUAL REPORT.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall annually 

5 prepare a report regarding the impact of the grant 

6 program carried out under this section, which report 

7 shall include— 

8 (A) the number of applications received 

9 under the program; 

10 (B) the number of eligible entities that re11 ceived a grant; 

12 (C) a description of the communities re13 ceiving the grant funding, such as— 

14 (i) information on whether the com15 munities are— 

16 (I) rural areas or jurisdictions 

17 described in subsection (d)(2); or 

18 (II) other types of communities; 

19 (ii) race and ethnicity data for the 

20 communities; 

21 (iii) information on the percentage of 

22 the population of the communities that is 

23 living in poverty; and 

24 (iv) related community demographics; 


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1 (D) a description of the types of positions 

2 held by the local elected or appointed officials 

3 supported; and 

4 (E) a description of the types of adapta5 tions, services, assistive technology, technology, 

6 communication services, and other reasonable 

7 accommodations funded through the grants in 

8 order for the local elected or appointed officials 

9 to carry out their official responsibilities. 

10 (2) INFORMATION ADDED AFTER SECOND

11 YEAR.—Beginning with the third year of the pro12 gram and for each subsequent year, in addition to 

13 the information specified in paragraph (1), the re14 port shall include— 

15 (A) the total amount of funds eligible enti16 ties receiving the grants invested in reasonable 

17 accommodations funding accounts; and 

18 (B) aggregate data on the age, sex, gender 

19 identity, race and ethnicity, and disability of the 

20 local elected or appointed officials the grant 

21 program is supporting. 

22 (3) SUBMISSION.—The Secretary shall annually 

23 submit the report prepared under this subsection 

24 to— 


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1 (A) the Committee on Health, Education, 

2 Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; 

3 (B) the Committee on Education and 

4 Labor of the House of Representatives; and 

5 (C) the Special Committee on Aging of the 

6 Senate. 

7 (h) ADMINISTRATION.—From the amounts made 

8 available under subsection (i) for a fiscal year, the Sec9 retary may reserve and use not more than 1 percent for 

10 administration of the grant program carried out under 

11 this section. 

12 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 

14 appropriated to carry out this Act, $5,000,000 for 

15 each of fiscal years 2024 through 2030. 

16 (2) AVAILABILITY.—Funds appropriated under 

17 paragraph (1) shall remain available until expended. 

Æ 


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