Reinstate executive order to hire an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years.

No sign yet of reinstated executive order on disability hiring goal

Updated: Monday, December 21st, 2009 | By Louis Jacobson

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to reinstate an executive order to hire more federal employees with disabilities. He said he would reinstate "Executive Order No. 13173," which he said began under President Clinton but failed to meet its goal of hiring 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years. A campaign position paper said Obama "will issue this executive order early in his first term and designate a senior White House official to assure that all federal departments and agencies meet the mandate."

We recently discovered a major problem with this promise: Obama gave the wrong number for the executive order. Number 13173 created the "Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Central San Joaquin Valley" -- a worthy cause, perhaps, but nothing having to do with employing Americans with disabilities.

The one that Obama meant to cite was 13163. But so far, we've found no evidence of action. Neither the White House press office nor electronic searches through Whitehouse.gov, Google or Nexis turned up any tangible activity on this promise.

If and when the administration takes action on this promise, we'll be happy to change our rating. But for now we're calling it Stalled.

Sources: Internet searches that produced no results.