Annie Billings White
Annie Billings White is an ultraconservative Republican ideologue. An attorney, White has worked on several United States Senate legislative committees as a paid staffer. She currently works on Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee as a "senior disabilities advisor" for HELP Committee chairman, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH).
Her signature legislative accomplishment was a "technical correction" to the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004. This "technical correction", billed as legislation that would bring the Act in line with Bush administration education reform policy, actually had the net effect of removing all liability from a school's failure to provide for students with mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, and physical disabilities. It also created a maze of appeals procedures for parents, essentialy preventing parents from seeking redress in the federal courts.
White previously worked on the staff of U.S. Representative John Ashcroft (R-MO) as a liaison to evangelical Christian groups.
External links
- IDEA Reauthorization: Is It a Better IDEA?Interviews with Washington IDEA Experts Connie Garner, Annie White, and Jessica Brodey, Family Center on Technology and Disability Newsletter, February 2004.
