More than 41,000 Americans who are blind or have significant disabilities could see easier paths into federal contracting jobs, promotions and new lines of work under a bipartisan bill that would rewrite AbilityOne's legal foundation for the first time in nearly 50 years. Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 10443, the American Procurement Improvement Act (APIA), to modernize the statute governing the program.
AbilityOne dates to 1938, when Congress created the program to steer federal purchasing toward products and services made by workers who are blind. It now employs more than 41,000 Americans who are blind or have significant disabilities through contracts with federal agencies. According to Federal News Network's Sept. 21 report, the APIA "would be the first major update to AbilityOne in nearly 50 years."
What H.R. 10443 Would Actually Change
The bill does not touch AbilityOne's core mission of connecting federal contracts to jobs for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. Instead, it rewrites the mechanics around that mission. The APIA would expand who qualifies for the program, making it easier for more Americans with disabilities to get hired in the first place. It also targets career mobility once someone is on the job, aiming to help workers get promoted and advance rather than stall out in entry-level contract positions.
On the procurement side, the bill would speed up the process the AbilityOne Commission uses to add new products and services to its procurement list — the list of goods and services federal agencies are required to buy through the program. That list has historically moved slowly, and a faster addition process would let nonprofit agencies in the AbilityOne network compete for a wider range of contracts sooner. The bill also increases accountability requirements built into the program's oversight.
"For nearly ninety years, this program has opened up job opportunities for tens of thousands of Americans with disabilities, delivering greater independence and dignity while yielding a strong return on investment for the taxpayers. However, its legal framework hasn't been substantially updated in over half a century," Hoyer said in the press release announcing the bill.
Why Sessions Points to an 8.3% Unemployment Rate
Sessions, the bill's Republican co-sponsor, framed the legislation around a labor-market gap: the unemployment rate for Americans with disabilities was 8.3% last year, more than double the rate for Americans without disabilities. For Sessions, that disparity is the case for updating a program whose statute has not kept pace with the modern workforce it is meant to serve.
"AbilityOne has worked for nearly 90 years, connecting federal procurement with real employment for Americans who are blind or have significant disabilities. The law governing it has not kept pace," Sessions said.
The bill has drawn cosponsors from both parties: Reps. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.), James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) have signed on alongside Hoyer and Sessions. That bipartisan spread, on a bill originating from a program with no natural partisan constituency, is part of what Hoyer is counting on to move it quickly.
A 50-Organization Coalition Backs the Bill
The APIA is not just a two-member effort. It is endorsed by a coalition of 50 organizations, unions, disability stakeholders and advocacy groups, including SourceAmerica, the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Arc of the United States and the National Federation of the Blind. That breadth of endorsement — spanning the nonprofit agencies that hold AbilityOne contracts and the advocacy groups that represent the workers those contracts employ — signals the bill was negotiated with the program's stakeholders rather than written around them.
Hoyer said he hopes to move the bill through the House before the end of the year, a timeline that would require it to clear committee and floor action in the next few months. Whether that holds depends on how much competition the bill draws for floor time against other year-end priorities, and whether the Senate signals interest in a companion measure.
What It Means for Contractors
For the nonprofit agencies that hold AbilityOne contracts nationwide, the practical upside is a faster on-ramp for new work. If the APIA's provision to speed up additions to the AbilityOne Commission's procurement list becomes law, nonprofit agencies could compete for federal product and service contracts on a shorter timeline than the current process allows — potentially opening new revenue lines sooner than the current process allows.
Federal agencies that buy through AbilityOne should also expect the list of covered products and services to grow and to turn over faster, meaning contracting officers who rely on the AbilityOne procurement list as a required purchasing source will likely see more options appear on it, and possibly more often, if the bill becomes law.
The expanded eligibility criteria matter for a wider set of contractors too. Companies and nonprofits that currently fall just outside AbilityOne's eligibility rules — because of how the current statute defines qualifying disabilities or qualifying employment structures — are the ones most likely to gain new access if Congress broadens those criteria as the bill proposes. For workers already employed under AbilityOne contracts, the promotion and career-advancement provisions could mean contract-holding agencies face new expectations to build in growth paths, not just entry-level roles, when they structure their federal work.
None of that changes what agencies buy under AbilityOne today. The current procurement list stays in effect, and existing contracts are unaffected unless and until Congress passes the APIA and the AbilityOne Commission implements whatever timeline and eligibility changes the final statute requires. For now, the bill is a marker of where Hoyer, Sessions and the coalition backing them want the program to go — not a change in force.
