Alexander: Federal Government Can “Create an Environment, and Governors Can Encourage” the Private Sector to Increase Employment Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities

Washington, D.C., February 26 – At a hearing today of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where Governor Jack Markell of Delaware testified about his initiative as chair of the National Governors Association to increase employment among individuals with disabilities, Ranking Member U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the federal government can help expand employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities by “creating an environment in this big, complex country where the states, communities and the private sector can succeed.”

Alexander said:  “As former chair of the National Governors Association, I know this idea of focusing the attention of all the governors on a single subject is a terrific tactic for expanding the goal that Senator Harkin announced earlier –helping more Americans with disabilities find more employment. Involving the private sector makes a difference. For example, the last year I was governor, we came up with the idea of a work-site day care.  We asked employers in Tennessee to provide a thousand work-site day care sites.  They produced 2,000—or, in other words, did twice as much as we had asked.”

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