[Ct-nfb] Legislative Alert from National Convention

[David Andrews]

It helps to have both!  Yes, Congress-persons respond to their 
constituents, so personal stories etc., are best, but it becomes 
especially strong if both the consumers, and professionals are against it.

Dave

At 07:26 AM 7/7/2011, you wrote:
>Brian,
>While this helps, is it not more effective coming from comments of 
>persons impacted by this?
>
>
>From: ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>On Behalf Of Sigman, Brian
>Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 8:16 AM
>To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List'
>Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Legislative Alert from National Convention
>
>Hi Lucia- I wanted to be sure you were also aware that the National 
>Council of State Agencies for the Blind (representing all public VR 
>programs for people who are blind) has also taken a stance in 
>opposition of the sub-minimum wage language.
>
>
>----------
>From: ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>On Behalf Of llee at nfbct.org
>Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 2:52 PM
>To: NFB of CT list serve
>Subject: [Ct-nfb] Legislative Alert from National Convention
>
>Hi all,
>
>Beth Rival called today from the national convention. She asked that 
>I re-send this legislative alert. We have received word that the 
>Health, Education, Labor & Pension (HELP) Committee will be voting 
>on the Workforce Investment Act next week. The HELP Committee plans 
>to vote to continue the practice of paying disabled people a 
>subminimum wage as stated in Section 511 of the Act. This Act does 
>affect people all over the country, here in CT also. There are 
>disabled people in CT who work for subminimum wages.Please read the 
>following email from Anil Lewis and call Senator Richard Blumenthal, 
>who is on the committee,  to ask him to have Section 511 removed. 
>His contact number is on the list following the email.
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: 
><mailto:nfbnet-master-list-bounces at nfbnet.org>nfbnet-master-list-bounces at nfbnet.org
>[mailto:nfbnet-master-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David Andrews
>Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 12:47 PM
>To: <mailto:nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org>nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org
>Subject: [Nfbnet-master-list] Follow Up on Subminimum Wage Legislative Alert
>
>from Anil Lewis (
><mailto:alewis at nfb.org>alewis at nfb.org)?
>
>
>Dear Fellow Federationists,
>
>Michael Barber reports that the NFB of Iowa has sent over seventy
>letters to Senator Harkin, urging him to remove Section 511 from Title V
>of the Workforce
>Investment Act (WIA). This bill will be marked up and voted on
>Wednesday, June 29, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. If your senator is on the
>Senate Committee
>on Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP committee), please
>continue to write and call regarding this issue.
>
>Section 511 reauthorizes payment of subminimum wages to people with
>disabilities. It is completely contrary to the purpose of the
>Rehabilitation Act, which is intended to promote competitive, integrated
>employment.
>
>The following list contains the names of members of the HELP committee.
>If your senator is a member of the committee, please call his/her office
>to respectfully
>express your adamant objection to linking subminimum wage to the
>Rehabilitation Act, and to insist that Section 511 of the Rehabilitation
>Act be removed
>from the bill. If your senator is not a member of the HELP committee,
>call the committee chair (Senator Tom Harkin) and the ranking member
>(Senator Michael
>Enzi) to register your objection. Additional background information on
>Section 511 follows after the HELP committee list.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Anil Lewis
>Director of Strategic Communications
>NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>Telephone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2374
>E-mail:
><mailto:alewis at nfb.org>alewis at nfb.org
>
>table with 3 columns and 23 rows
>Senator
>
>State
>
>Telephone
>
>Senator Lamar Alexander
>
>Tennessee
>
>(202) 224-4944
>
>Senator Michael F. Bennet
>
>Colorado
>
>(202) 224-5852
>
>Senator Jeff Bingaman
>
>New Mexico
>
>(202) 224-5521
>
>Senator Richard Blumenthal
>
>Connecticut
>
>(202) 224-2823
>
>Senator Richard Burr
>
>North Carolina
>
>(202) 224-3154
>
>Senator Robert Casey, Jr.
>
>Pennsylvania
>
>(202) 224-6324
>
>Senator Mike Enzi
>
>Wyoming
>
>(202) 224-3424
>
>Senator Al Franken
>
>Minnesota
>
>(202) 224-5641
>
>Senator Kay R. Hagan
>
>North Carolina
>
>(202) 224-6342
>
>Senator Tom Harkin
>
>Iowa
>
>(202) 224-3254
>
>Senator Orrin G. Hatch
>
>Utah
>
>(202) 224-5251
>
>Senator Johnny Isakson
>
>Georgia
>
>(202) 224-3643
>
>Senator Mark Steven Kirk
>
>Illinois
>
>(202) 224-2854
>
>Senator John McCain
>
>Arizona
>
>(202) 224-2235
>
>Senator Jeff Merkley
>
>Oregon
>
>(202) 224-3753
>
>Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
>
>Maryland
>
>(202) 224-4654
>
>Senator Lisa Murkowski
>
>Alaska
>
>(202) 224-6665
>
>Senator Patty Murray
>
>Washington
>
>(202) 224-2621
>
>Senator Rand Paul
>
>Kentucky
>
>(202) 224-4343
>
>Senator Pat Roberts
>
>Kansas
>
>(202) 224-4774
>
>Senator Bernard Sanders
>
>Vermont
>
>(202) 224-5141
>
>Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
>
>Rhode Island
>
>(202) 224-2921
>table end
>
>
>Background:
>
>The key legislation around the recent Subminimum Wage legislative alert
>is the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), specifically Title V, the
>Rehabilitation
>Act, which is one of the most important pieces of legislation affecting
>the lives of people with disabilities. There is no bill number assigned
>at this
>time, but we have been provided the proposed draft language. On
>Wednesday, June 29, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
>and Pensions (HELP
>committee) will be marking up the WIA reauthorization. So far, we have
>been unsuccessful in our efforts to have Section 511 removed from the
>language.
>
>
>As the Senate works to reauthorize the Rehabilitation Act, a new section
>has been added, Section 511, which links Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor
>Standards
>Act (FSLA) to the Rehabilitation Act. Section 14(c) of the FLSA is the
>law that allows employers to pay subminimum wages to their workers with
>disabilities.
>There are more than 5,000 entities that hold special wage certificates
>allowing them to pay subminimum wages to more than 400,000 workers with
>disabilities.
>Section 14(c) is flawed in its implementation, and it has been plagued
>with abuse of employers paying workers with disabilities even less than
>the subminimum
>wage they are entitled to receive as a result of this law. The Wage and
>Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor is charged with the
>responsibility
>of oversight, but they are only able to investigate 2 percent of the
>facilities a year. Many workers with disabilities have not been able to
>collect millions
>of dollars of back wages because the statute of limitations has passed
>before WHD can identify the violation.
>
>Section 14(c) is simply unenforceable. We have fought against this
>provision since the founding of our organization, and we have made
>significant progress.
>Section 511 threatens that progress.
>
>The language found in Section 511 is a restatement of Section 14(c) of
>the FLSA, linking legislation that is supposed to provide the training
>and support
>for people with disabilities to obtain competitive employment to
>legislation that asserts that people with disabilities cannot be
>competitively employed.
>The philosophies are in direct conflict, and Section 511 sends a mixed
>message about the purpose of vocational rehabilitation (VR).
>
>Section 511 explains the process a counselor would have to go through
>before referring a client to a subminimum wage work environment. The
>intent is to
>make it more difficult for clients to be steered toward subminimum wage
>employment. Unfortunately, the language opens a door to subminimum wage
>employment
>that did not previously exist. As a result of Section 511, if VR fails
>to provide a client with the proper training and support to become
>competitively
>employed, they will be encouraged to make a referral to a subminimum
>wage employer.
>
>The language states that, once placed in a subminimum wage work
>environment, the client should receive a review every six months.
>However, similar to WHD's
>inability to enforce Section 14(c) of the FLSA, it will not be possible
>for VR to properly enforce this law, leaving even more individuals stuck
>in subminimum
>wage jobs. A better use of the inadequate funding potentially slated for
>enforcement of Section 511, and the insufficient funding for WHD to
>enforce Section
>14(c) would be to develop creative rehabilitation strategies to
>competitively employ all people with disabilities.
>
>Many people have come to believe that subminimum wage employment is an
>opportunity for people with disabilities to experience the tangible and
>intangible
>benefits of work. We maintain that there is no benefit, tangible or
>intangible, to working in an environment that asserts that you are not
>as good as
>everyone else. Industries have been built on this false perception,
>allowing people, who otherwise would be able to obtain competitive
>employment, to
>be exploited at subminimum wages to bolster an employer's profitability.
>The job market has changed drastically since the initial passage of this
>outdated
>legislation. With the proper training and support, people with even the
>most significant disabilities are able to be competitively employed.
>
>We need to let members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
>Labor, and Pension know that Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act
>should be removed
>from the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act.
>--
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20110707/3cec5b3d/attachment.html>