Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 13164: Requiring Federal Agencies To Establish Procedures To Facilitate the Provision of Reasonable Accommodation

President: Bill Clinton

Required every executive agency to adopt written procedures for handling disability-accommodation requests.

Status: In effect.

Is Executive Order 13164 still in effect? Yes. Active requirement implemented through agency procedures and current EEOC guidance.

What does Executive Order 13164 do?

EO 13164 requires each federal agency to maintain effective written procedures for processing reasonable-accommodation requests from employees and applicants with disabilities. Procedures must explain how to request accommodation, time frames, confidentiality, denials, dispute resolution, reassignment and recordkeeping, while observing collective-bargaining duties where required. The order implements, but does not replace or expand beyond, the Rehabilitation Act. EEOC guidance and OPM’s current accommodation materials continue to cite the order.

Later evidence reviewed October 2, 2026: EEOC and OPM still identify EO 13164 as requiring written accommodation procedures. The Rehabilitation Act supplies the underlying statutory duty and remedies.

Administration position: The order standardized the process for requesting and deciding accommodations; it did not guarantee every requested measure or replace the statutory undue-hardship analysis.
SignedJuly 26, 2000
Legal foundationSection 501 of the Rehabilitation Act
OversightEqual Employment Opportunity Commission

Before and after

Before the order

Federal agencies had Rehabilitation Act duties but no single executive requirement for detailed written accommodation procedures.

After the order

Each agency had to create, publish, track and maintain a defined request-and-decision process.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Executive agenciesIssue and maintain written accommodation proceduresContinuing
EEOCReview procedures and provide guidanceContinuing
Managers and EEO officesProcess requests promptly and protect medical informationContinuing

What happened next

EO 13164 signed.

Published in the Federal Register.

EEOC issued implementation guidance.

EEOC and OPM guidance continued to identify EO 13164 as the source of the written-procedure requirement.