FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nov. 22, 2022

WASHINGTON--The National Council on Disability remembers Robert “Bobby” Silverstein, Esq., 73, who died Nov. 17.

Bobby played a critical role in advancing disability policy.

Prior to working on Capital Hill, he was co-founder of a law firm that focused on public policy analyses for Federal, State, and local officials and representation of persons with disabilities and their families.  He was also the staff director of a congressionally-mandated study of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

He served in both the U.S. House of Representatives, as counsel to the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, and Senate, as staff director and chief counsel for the Subcommittee on Disability Policy of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and chief aide to Sen. Tom Harkin, who sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

He was a bi-partisan consensus-builder in making the ADA a reality, and was known as the "behind-the-scenes architect of the ADA" and more than 20 disability-related bills that were enacted into law.

After leaving government service, he continued his public policy work as director of The Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy where his work was used for NCD's 2006 Creating Livable Communities report. Most recently he served as principal at Powers Pyles Sutter and Verville. 

A funeral service will be held on today at 1 p.m. at Temple Rodef Shalom, 2100 Westmoreland St., Falls Church, Va. The service will be livestreamed.

NCD remembers and honors the service of Bobby Silverstein and sends condolences to the Silverstein family.