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FRIEDEN OUT AS NCD CHAIR
By Mike
Ervin
President George W.
Bush has decided he no longer wants renowned disability rights activist Lex
Frieden to serve as chair of the National Council on Disability.
On May 9, the White House submitted for confirmation to the
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions the nomination
of John R. Vaughn to replace Frieden. Other nominations submitted the same day
were those of Victoria Ray Carlson, Chad Colley and Lisa Mattheiss to replace
council members Joel I. Kahn, David Wenzel and Carol Hughes Novak.
 Frieden's three-year
term began July 26, 2002. According to law, the president could have nominated
him for another three-year term. Members are also allowed by law to serve past
the end of their expired terms until they are officially replaced, which is
what happened in the case of Frieden and the three others.
Frieden is director
of the Independent Living Research Utilization in Houston, Texas, and a
professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Baylor College of
Medicine. He is a past president of Rehabilitation International,
The purpose of the
15-member NCD, according to the legislation that created it, is to advise the
president and Congress and "to promote policies, programs, practices, and
procedures that guarantee equal opportunity for all individuals with
disabilities, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability; and
empower individuals with disabilities to achieve economic self-sufficiency,
independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of
society."
Asked how he felt about being replaced, Frieden sounded satisfied with what NCD
has accomplished, frustrated that it couldn't do more and relieved to be
stepping out of the Washington hustle-and-bustle. "I would have been proud to
be reappointed, but by the same token I feel like we've done a lot in four
years," he said. "We are in a very difficult time for advocacy both in the
Congress and the administration. Neither one of them seems to be moving as fast
as we want them to. It's frustrating."
Frieden said he is proud of the work NCD has
done promoting the concept of livable communities. "It's equivalent to the
concept of universal design," he said. "The idea is, when we start to build
communities, we do so with the assumption that the communities include people
with disabilities. So everything from the ground up is going to be designed for
all people. The whole issue of disability accommodation becomes superfluous."
High among his sources of aggravation is what he perceived as inertia
within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Personally, I am
terribly frustrated that the HUD does not take more initiative to meet the
housing needs of low-income people with disabilities," he said. "Likewise I'm
frustrated that Congress does not provide them with the necessary funds or
direction to compel them to do it."
He also said that the continuing difficulties people
with disabilities have obtaining decent health care, rehabilitation and
personal-assistance services is an alarming problem that will soon worsen
exponentially as baby boomers age and become disabled. "That's going to have a
profound effect upon this nation, and somebody better wake up and start
planning for it," he said.
Frieden's previous stint in D.C. was as executive
director of NCD from 1984 to 1988. "One of the reasons I left (Washington) was
because people inside that little bubble become preoccupied with microscopic
issues and they fail to see the big picture," he said. "Things get bogged down
because of political nuance. And I feel like we're just blessed when anything
good happens in Washington."
Asked about his relationship with President
Bush, Frieden said: "As a human being I think he's a nice person, Obviously, he
didn't respond to some of the recommendations we gave him. I don't like that
too much."
Frieden said he knows "virtually nothing" about his potential successor.
Vaughn, who is blind, was commissioner of the Virginia Department of
Rehabilitation Services from 1995 to 1999. The native Midwesterner is retired
from the banking business and now lives in Fort Myers, Fla.
Vaughn said he did
not wish to discuss his plans as NCD chair until his term officially begins. He
said he was first contacted about serving on NCD by White House personnel last
October and then asked if he would agree to be nominated as chair last
December.
*****
Mike Ervin is a free-lance writer and
advocate. Also a member of ADAPT.
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