The Department of Energy (DOE) is trying to get rid of important rules of Section 504! DOE is trying to change the rules that new buildings must be accessible to people with disabilities. They are also trying to get rid of other rules that help disability accessibility. Please make your voice heard and say “no” to these changes. You can send in a comment as part of an organization. You can also send a comment on your own. The deadline to send in comments is Monday, June 16, 2025.
You can watch our community briefing webinar on how to comment, and read the comments DREDF submitted. Check out Lainey Feingold’s blog, which also includes template language.
Step One:
Write your comment to DOE about the Section 504 rules. Tell DOE why you care about accessibility. Explain why they should not get rid of the 504 rules.
You can download a template and edit it to make it your own. We have 2 templates you can use:
The most important parts of the comment are:
- Telling DOE more about yourself and/or your organization
- Say why you care about accessibility of buildings
Step Two:
Send your comment online with Regulations.gov. You need to send it to two different places. Here is the first place to file your comment: https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOE-HQ-2025-0015-0001
Step Two, Part A:
Here is the first place to file your comment: https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOE-HQ-2025-0015-0001.
Select the blue “Comment” button:
It will look like this:
You can write your comment right in the comment field if it fits. To fit, your comment has to be less than 5,000 characters. You can also write your comments in a document like a Word or PDF file. Then, you can attach the file with your comments:
Fill in the rest of the fields:
Complete the reCAPTCHA and select the blue “Submit Comment” button.
Step Two, Part B:
Here is the second place to send your comments: https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOE-HQ-2025-0024-0001
This portal will work the same way as the first portal did.
Plainer Language Template
Open the Google Doc version of the plainer language template comment
DATE [on or before Monday, June 16, 2025]
Filed to www.regulations.gov under DOE-HQ-2025-0015 and DOE-HQ-2025-0024
Emailed to DOEGeneralCounsel@hq.doe.gov
Department of Energy
Office of Civil Rights and EEO
1000 Independence Avenue SW, Room 5B-168
Washington, DC 20585
Department of Energy
Office of Minority Economic Impact
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington DC 20585
DOE-HQ-2025-0024 Nondiscrimination
DOE-HQ-2025-0015 New Construction Requirements
To Whom It May Concern:
[Say your name and where you are from. Write a sentence or two about why you care about disability rights and accessibility. For example, you can say you are disabled, or someone you care about is disabled.]
I am writing to ask the Department of Energy (DOE) not to change the Section 504 rules. The Section 504 rules are important to me. Changing the rules could hurt many people with disabilities.
Section 504 says that places that get government money must be accessible to people with disabilities. If someone builds a new building, it must be accessible. 504 says people must follow certain rules to make new buildings accessible.
If someone makes alterations to a building, those changes also need to be accessible. Alterations are big changes to a building. For example, businesses sometimes add on parts to their buildings to make more space. If they do that, the new space has to be accessible.
Older buildings need to have plans to help make them as accessible as possible. But older buildings don’t have to make the same changes new buildings do. It makes sense that the Section 504 rules are different for old and new buildings. It can be hard to make older buildings fully accessible. So the rules are less strict on older buildings.
But the 504 rules are strict about new buildings. They are strict about when alterations get made to buildings. Following the rules makes new buildings fully accessible. Following the rules makes alterations to buildings fully accessible.
These are very important Section 504 rules. Congress looked over these rules and agreed with them. Congress said that everyone should follow the rules. If everyone follows the rules, the U.S. will become more accessible.
It would be really bad if DOE changed the 504 rules. New buildings could get made that are not accessible. The point of the 504 rules is to make things more accessible. Changing the rules would go against what Section 504 says.
The law says that changing rules should take time. The government needs to think about the rules and talk to everyday people. DOE should slow down and take time to listen to people. DOE should not change these important rules.
Congress already looked over and said okay to the 504 Rules
The Section 504 rules go back to the 1970s. An agency called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) wrote the rules. HEW had many meetings with Congress and with members of the public. To learn more, you can watch a movie called Crip Camp. This movie shows how people with disabilities fought to help pass the Section 504 rules. Hundreds of disabled people helped pass the Section 504 rules.
HEW wrote the 504 rules to give directions to U.S. government agencies. More than 80 U.S. government agencies started following the 504 rules. The DOE was one of these agencies. DOE should not try to change the rules more than 40 years later.
Right after HEW wrote the Section 504 rules, Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act. Congress said it agreed with the 504 rules. Congress added the 504 rules to the Rehabilitation Act. The Supreme Court has looked at the rules and said they belong in the Rehabilitation Act. U.S. courts have spent years making sure people follow the rules.
The rules for Section 504 are important and make sense. DOE should not change them.
Accessibility rules are very important
DOE wants to get rid of a part of Section 504’s rules. This part is about making new buildings and alterations to buildings accessible. The rule says that following the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) means that something is accessible. The UFAS are rules about what is accessible for people with disabilities.
Rules like the UFAS help keep things accessible. Builders know what they need to do to make their buildings accessible. They need to make sure what they build is accessible. For example, they need to measure the doorways, ramps, and walkways. Even messing up by a few inches can make something not accessible for disabled people.
But DOE wants the government to stop using the UFAS. If DOE gets rid of these 504 rules, builders who get money from the government will have problems. They won’t know if what they build is actually accessible.
I disagree with the changes that DOE wants to make to the Section 504 rules. DOE should not change the rules.
Sincerely,
Name
If organization:
Title [for example, Executive Director]
Organization
Standard Language Template
Open the Google Doc version of the standard template comment
DATE [on or before Monday, June 16, 2025]
Filed to www.regulations.gov under DOE-HQ-2025-0015 and DOE-HQ-2025-0024
Emailed to DOEGeneralCounsel@hq.doe.gov
Department of Energy
Office of Civil Rights and EEO
1000 Independence Avenue SW, Room 5B-168
Washington, DC 20585
Department of Energy
Office of Minority Economic Impact
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington DC 20585
RE: Docket Number DOE-HQ-2025-0015 (New Construction Requirements Related to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities)
Docket Number DOE-HQ-2025-0024 (Rescinding Regulations Related to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities (General Provisions))
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing [state whether you are writing on behalf of an organization or as yourself as an individual] on behalf of [Organization] [Description of organization] OR I am writing as a [describe self, for example, as a disabled person who uses a wheelchair, or as an advocate] [As org or as individual: Why you care about Section 504 regulations and accessible built environment (important!)]
This is a significant adverse comment opposing the direct final rules at Docket Numbers DOE-HQ-2025-0015 and DOE-HQ-2025-0024. The proposed rules would rescind critical portions of the Department of Energy (DOE)’s regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Number 2025-0015 would rescind 10 C.F.R. § 1040.73, which requires recipients to ensure that new construction and alteration is fully accessible to people with disabilities. Number 2025-0024 would rescind portions of DOE’s program access rule for existing facilities at 10 C.F.R. § 1040.72(c) & (d), including the requirement to make a transition plan to eliminate access barriers in these existing facilities.
The proposed rules are unlawful. “Direct final rules” must be routine or noncontroversial. Here, the proposed changes are neither. Instead, the proposals would delete foundational provisions implementing Section 504 in contradiction of Congress’s clear understanding of the law.
“[E]limination of architectural barriers was one of the central aims of the [Rehabilitation] Act.” Alexander v. Choate, 469 U.S. 287, 297 (1985). The requirement that newly constructed and altered facilities be fully accessible to people with disabilities, as measured by applicable access standards, is central to this purpose. As important is the requirement that recipients of federal funds undertake careful accessibility planning to remove barriers in existing buildings.
The proposed rules would encourage new construction that is inaccessible to people with disabilities. They would also upend decades of reliance on established accessibility standards, creating conflicts with other statutory and regulatory standards.
The Proposed Rules Would Destroy Balanced Rulemaking Approved by Congress
The rules at issue date back to the coordination regulations adopted by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1978. These rules were intended to establish minimum standards for implementing Section 504 across the federal government and were based on HEW’s Final Rule for its own recipients finalized in 1977.
In adopting the 1977 and 1978 rules, HEW consulted extensively with Congress and engaged in multiple rounds of notice and public comment. The final rules carefully balanced the challenge of addressing barriers to people with disabilities in existing buildings with the opportunity for new construction and alterations to achieve greater accessibility going forward.
The compromise reached – which has been adopted by more than 80 federal agencies – was and still is to allow some flexibility with respect to existing buildings, while requiring new facilities to be fully accessible as measured by access standards. Over time, this approach advances Section 504’s goal of reaching a more accessible society for people with disabilities.
Congress has repeatedly reviewed and approved the regulatory standards that DOE now seeks to delete, giving them the force of law. Rail Corp. v. Darrone, 465 U.S. 624, 635 nn.15 & 16 (1984). Federal courts have enforced the rules for decades. DOE may not lawfully eliminate foundational rules for the implementation of Section 504.
The Proposed Rules Would Undermine Access Standards and Create Conflicts
Compliance with access standards in new construction and alterations is critical to advancing the goals of Section 504. The deletion of the regulatory reference to the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards as a measure of compliance would directly undermine the goals of Section 504. Access standards are key to making new construction and alterations accessible. Architects and contractors need a comprehensive set of design rules to ensure that new construction and alterations are built to be fully accessible to people with disabilities. Accessibility is often a matter of inches, making the difference between inclusion and exclusion of people with disabilities. Without access standards, we will never reach the fully inclusive society intended by Congress in enacting and reenacting Section 504.
The rules would also create conflicting enforcement standards: recipients of federal financial assistance from the DOE include many entities that receive funding from other federal departments and agencies, and/or that are subject to the requirements of the ADA. These recipients would be required to comply with access standards due to their other funding or under the ADA, but would remain open to liability under the general nondiscrimination language at section 1040.71.
The Rulemaking is Unlawful and Must Be Withdrawn
The careful compromise reached by agencies and Congress – to require that new construction and alteration be fully accessible, while imposing a more flexible standard for existing facilities – would be destroyed by the proposed “direct final rules.” Ensuring that new construction and alterations are fully accessible to people with disabilities is critical to advancing the goals of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The rulemaking is unlawful and must be withdrawn.
Sincerely,
Name
If organization:
Title [for example, Executive Director]
Organization