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Restoration of Employment Choice for Adults with Disabilities Act
To amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure workplace choice and opportunity for young adults with disabilities.
Summary
This bill would amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to modify rules for subminimum wage employment of people with disabilities. It would expand eligibility from ages 18-24 to age 18 and older, and would change the legal framework from prohibiting subminimum wage employment with specified exceptions to allowing it if the individual chooses employment. The bill would add an exception allowing entities to employ workers at subminimum wage if they have made documented efforts to contact the state vocational rehabilitation agency for counseling and referrals but that agency fails to respond. It would also require that documentation of the employment process be shared with the employer if an individual with a disability is employed at subminimum wage.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
5 cosponsors
- Rep. Bergman, Jack [R-MI-1] (R-MI)
- Rep. Fitzgerald, Scott [R-WI-5] (R-WI)
- Rep. Owens, Burgess [R-UT-4] (R-UT)
- Rep. Steil, Bryan [R-WI-1] (R-WI)
- Rep. Wagner, Ann [R-MO-2] (R-MO)
Actions (4)
- May 21, 2026 Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 18 - 15. · house
- May 21, 2026 Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held · house
- May 12, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. · house
- May 12, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Committee action
What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.
As published:Roll Call Vote #1 | H.R. 8736 | MCBATH_AMD_EMPTA (MCBATH) | Failed (15y-18n)
As published:Roll Call Vote #2 | H.R. 8736 (Grothman) | Motion to Report as Amended | Passed (18y-15n)
Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 12, 2026
Mr. Grothman (for himself, Mrs. Wagner, and Mr. Owens) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure workplace choice and opportunity for young adults with disabilities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Restoration of Employment Choice for Adults with Disabilities Act”.
SEC. 2. USE OF SUBMINIMUM WAGE.
Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794g) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)—
(i) by striking “No” and inserting “Any”;
(ii) by striking “24 or younger” and inserting “18 or older”; and
(iii) by striking “unless” and inserting “if”; and
(B) by inserting at the end the following new paragraph:
“(3) The individual chooses to accept employment with such entity.”;
(2) in subsection (b)(2), by striking “24” and inserting “17”;
(3) in subsection (c), by inserting at the end the following new paragraph:
“(4) Other exceptions.—The entity described in subsection
(a) can satisfy the requirements of paragraph (1)(A) with respect to an individual, if—
“(A) such entity makes documented efforts, at the intervals described in paragraph (2), to contact on behalf of the individual, the designated State unit for the counseling, information, and referrals described in paragraph (1)(A); and
“(B) such designated State unit fails to provide such counseling, information, and referrals after such documented efforts.”; and
(4) in subsection (d)(1), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “and, if such individual is employed by an entity described in subsection (a) at the time such documentation is made pursuant to such process, to make available copies of such documentation to the entity”.
SEC. 3. APPLICATION.
The amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect to the employment of an individual on or after the date of enactment of this Act. <all>
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