[nfbmi-talk] what has changed goodwill's peckham and newhorizons

[joe harcz Comcast]

Amen on all counts Terry.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry D. Eagle" <terrydeagle at yahoo.com>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] what has changed goodwill's peckham and 
newhorizons


> The problem I have is that under federal contracts the persons with
> disablities are exploited for their labor at .22 cents an hour, while
> commercial companies like Halaburton are exploiting the taxpayer with 
> goods
> sold to the government and military at prices hundreds of times market
> wholesale prices.
>
> Even the automobile industry has exploited the labor of persons with
> disabilities under contracts with the likes of Peckham Industries, to
> manufacture auto parts like seat belts for pennies per item, then resale
> those parts in new vehicles or as replacement parts at huge profits.
>
> I know a person that works at Peckham Industries that landed a $12 per 
> hour,
> plus benefits, job under a federal contract to employ persons with
> disabilities, with a certified disability of an injured knee from a high
> school football injury, while Peckham Industries refuses to hire totally
> blind persons because Peckham's computers are not equipped with screen
> readers; an accommodation Peckham Industries should make under the law and
> contracts they hold with the federal government.  Sadly, the federal
> government turns its' head and experiences momentary deafness when issues
> are brought to their attention by persons with disabilities and their
> advocates.
>
> Just follow the money--the money flowing into political canpaigns of both
> the Republican and Democrat parties, and it is clear and obvious who the
> politicians and public policy makers represent, and it is not the hard
> working citizen and persons with disabilities.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe
> harcz Comcast
> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 11:23 PM
> To: nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nfbmi-talk] what has changed goodwill's peckham and new horizons
>
> Old article still relevent today....
>
> Joe
> Charity Leaders' Pay Soars Under Federal Jobs Program
>
>
>
> BY JEFFREY KOSSEFF, BRYAN DENSON And LES ZAITZ
>
> c.2006 Newhouse News Service
>
>
>
> \
>
>
>
> When Congress created the nation's most ambitious jobs program for 
> Americans
> with severe disabilities, the idea was straightforward and rich with
> compassion.
>
>
>
> Federal agencies would reserve contracts for small nonprofit workshops 
> that
> hired epileptics, paraplegics and the mentally retarded to make simple
> products
>
> such as mousetraps, blackboards and first-aid kits. The disabled would 
> gain
> a decent paycheck, some self-esteem and a chance to learn skills that
> someday
>
> might land them a better job.
>
>
>
> More than three decades later, the nonprofits increasingly are hiring
> workers who are mildly disabled, if at all, with aching backs,
> substance-abuse problems
>
> and other maladies common in the American workplace. This new class of
> federally subsidized worker is getting the highest-paid jobs, while many 
> of
> the
>
> most severely disabled toil for pennies an hour.
>
>
>
> Their bosses are benefiting handsomely, with leaders at many of the
> program's biggest charities pulling in private sector-style compensation 
> as
> the new
>
> money rolls in. At least a dozen earn $350,000 or more a year, and average
> pay and benefits for top executives at the program's largest nonprofits 
> have
>
> grown more than three times faster than their workers' pay.
>
>
>
> The program's key requirement -- that three of every four hours of work is
> performed by people with severe disabilities -- is policed under what's
> essentially
>
> an honor system. Oversight is so weak that the biggest contractor, a Texas
> nonprofit, amassed $834 million in government sales despite repeated
> findings
>
> that it couldn't document many of its workers' disabilities.
>
>
>
> This radical reordering of the government's priorities comes at a cost. 
> Many
> of the most severely disabled workers, who labor at charities with
> shoestring
>
> budgets, have been left behind.
>
>
>
> "Like a lot of federal contracting, the big money drives it," said David
> Wiegan, who believes workers at his small nonprofit in McMinnville, Ore.,
> are simply
>
> too disabled to win many of the contracts now offered by the program. He
> said some bigger charities are drifting away from their social welfare
> missions:
>
> "I think they get sucked in, and I think they lose their sense of what's
> right and wrong when they're tempted by a lot of big dollars."
>
>
>
> Called Javits-Wagner-O'Day after its founders in Congress, the program
> requires federal agencies to buy certain goods or services from nonprofits
> that employ
>
> blind or severely disabled workers. Prices are set by regulators and the
> nonprofits, which collaborate with federal agencies that set aside 
> contracts
> for
>
> the nonprofits.
>
>
>
> The program is administered like no other in the government. A
> presidentially appointed committee delegates much day-to-day oversight to
> two trade associations
>
> representing nonprofits. These groups collect up to a 4 percent commission
> on every contract they monitor, creating a basic conflict of interest:
> Booting
>
> a charity from the program cuts their own revenue stream.
>
>
>
> Sales in the $2.25 billion program have doubled during the Bush
> administration, driven largely by the post-Sept. 11 boom in Pentagon
> contracts for complex
>
> tasks such as sewing chemical-warfare suits or fixing battle-scarred
> Humvees. Delivering on those contracts requires a more skilled -- and less
> disabled
>
> -- work force with salaries that are often comparable to the private 
> sector.
>
>
>
> Across the country, about 300,000 blind or disabled workers hold jobs at
> small charities similar to Wiegan's, with most earning less than minimum
> wage under
>
> a federal law that allows them to be compensated based on their limited
> productivity. While many federal programs for the disabled have faced 
> steep
> budget
>
> cuts, Javits-Wagner-O'Day continues to grow year to year and now employs
> more than 48,000 workers.
>
>
>
> The Oregonian of Portland, Ore., began investigating the program as part 
> of
> a continuing series of reports examining the evolution of nonprofits that
> employ
>
> America's disabled workers. The findings, drawn from hundreds of 
> interviews,
> thousands of pages of documents and visits to more than a dozen charities
>
> in seven states, reveal a program that drifted far from its founding
> principles with little outside scrutiny or public debate about who is
> benefiting.
>
>
>
> Periodic attempts to change Javits-Wagner-O'Day have foundered on 
> opposition
> from nonprofits and their advocacy groups, which are skilled at lobbying
> against
>
> reforms. But pressure for change is mounting as some in Congress question
> whether nonprofit executives are cashing in at the expense of the 
> disabled.
>
>
>
> The program "is intended to benefit many persons with disabilities, not a
> handful of nonprofit executives," said Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming 
> Republican
> who
>
> chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
>
>
>
> Enzi held a hearing on the program last fall and will be an influential
> player this year as Congress considers updating Javits-Wagner-O'Day. He 
> said
> he's
>
> concerned that small charities can't get contracts while "much larger
> nonprofits grow rich." More should be done to get disabled workers into
> mainstream
>
> jobs, he said.
>
>
>
> That long-term goal -- to train disabled workers so they can compete for
> jobs on the open market -- has taken a back seat. Figures reviewed by The
> Oregonian
>
> show only 2,450 workers moved from Javits-Wagner-O'Day jobs into the 
> regular
> workplace last year, a figure that has fallen despite the program's surge
>
> in growth.
>
>
>
> Mike Davis is not the kind of worker lawmakers said they had in mind when
> they drafted Javits-Wagner-O'Day, but he owes his job to the program.
>
>
>
> The 29-year-old mechanic, out of the Army on a medical discharge, found 
> work
> at Skookum Educational Programs, one of the biggest charities in
> Javits-Wagner-O'Day.
>
> Weekdays, he fixes Humvees and 19-ton military cargo trucks at Fort Lewis,
> Wash., tearing into engines battered by duty in Iraq and elsewhere.
>
>
>
> Davis earns $24.56 an hour, including about $3 for medical benefits and
> retirement. He has a hearing problem -- corrected by hearing aids -- and
> backaches
>
> that he says made him unemployable elsewhere.
>
>
>
> Congress envisioned helping a different class of veterans 35 years ago. 
> With
> troops streaming home from the Vietnam War, lawmakers pondered expanding a
>
> small program that since the 1930s had set aside contracts for the blind.
> Their plan was to open the program to veterans with missing limbs, 
> paralysis
>
> or brain damage, plus 12 million working-age adults left unemployed by 
> major
> disabilities.
>
>
>
> President Nixon's chief disability-employment training official told
> lawmakers who would get the jobs.
>
>
>
> "We are talking about mentally retarded and the paraplegic ... and
> quadriplegic," Edward Newman told Congress. He included "deaf people with
> severe psychomotor
>
> problems ... and people with other kinds of neurological involvement such 
> as
> people with severe cerebral palsy or epilepsy."
>
>
>
> That definition is now archaic. With the acquiescence of regulators,
> nonprofits gradually have expanded the notion of severely disabled to
> include ailments
>
> never discussed when the law was amended in 1971. The additions include
> conditions such as alcoholism or chemical dependency, minor learning
> disabilities,
>
> limited English, nasal polyps, carpal tunnel syndrome, allergies, 
> arthritis
> and speech impairments.
>
>
>
> The broadened notion of who is disabled, in combination with the surge in
> military spending since Sept. 11, has revolutionized many of the biggest
> nonprofits
>
> in Javits-Wagner-O'Day. It also has stretched the boundaries of the
> program's most fundamental rule: 75 percent of the work hours logged by
> contractors
>
> must be supplied by blind or severely disabled workers.
>
>
>
> Skookum is a case study in the transformation.
>
>
>
> For years, the bulk of Skookum's developmentally disabled workers made
> jump-ropes or sorted recyclables in businesses cultivated by founder Jim
> Westall.
>
> The jump-rope business still occupies a room at the company's airy
> headquarters in Port Townsend, Wash., but the fact that it no longer turns 
> a
> profit
>
> is of little concern.
>
>
>
> In 2001, Skookum landed a five-year, $64 million Javits-Wagner-O'Day
> contract to diagnose and repair Army vehicles that overnight promised to
> double the
>
> nonprofit's annual revenues.
>
>
>
> When the Army later told Skookum that thousands of damaged vehicles were
> heading back from Iraq, Westall couldn't find enough disabled employees in 
> a
> hurry
>
> to handle the load. So the government granted Skookum a three-month waiver
> of its disability requirement, Westall said. The waiver has expired, and 
> the
>
> work goes on.
>
>
>
> The contract now has 120 workers with pay averaging $20 an hour. At least
> one has a missing leg, though most others suffer learning, hearing and
> physical
>
> afflictions, such as back and joint pain.
>
>
>
> Westall, a former special education teacher and Skookum's chief executive,
> acknowledges that workers at the Fort Lewis garage are higher functioning
> than
>
> many others in Javits-Wagner-O'Day. The nature of the work demands it, he
> said: "They have to be able to do the work or the Army has no use for 
> them.
> You
>
> have to know an axle from a gas cap."
>
>
>
> Westall thinks the program should be expanded to cover a wider range of
> workers, including perhaps battered women. Until then, he said, meeting 
> the
> program's
>
> standard of 75 percent disabled labor boils down to a balancing act.
>
>
>
> "Move too far one way -- and hire too many people with too severe
> disabilities who can't do the work -- and we lose our contract," he said.
> "Move too far
>
> the other way -- to this place where we have all of these high-functioning
> people that can do the work but (have) questionable disabilities -- we 
> lose
>
> our soul."
>
>
>
> Skookum is hardly alone.
>
>
>
> Many of the biggest charities in Javits-Wagner-O'Day routinely use workers
> with modest disabilities. What matters, they say, is not the type of
> disability
>
> but whether it prevents them from holding a job outside the program.
>
>
>
> One of the most successful is Fedcap Rehabilitation Services, a New York
> City charity that pays an average of $17.87 an hour to Javits-Wagner-O'Day
> workers.
>
> Fedcap, which supplies custodial crews for federal buildings, reports the
> program's third-highest average wage, mostly because the nonprofit pays
> union
>
> scale.
>
>
>
> Like Skookum, the charity specialized in hiring workers with profound
> physical disabilities when it was founded 70 years ago. Now, Fedcap 
> workers
> include
>
> many with learning disabilities, mental illness, alcoholism and substance
> abuse who are judged unemployable elsewhere, said Susan Fonfa, the 
> charity's
>
> executive director.
>
>
>
> "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not real," Fonfa said. 
> "We
> will get people with every disability possible, just about."
>
>
>
> Critics of this hiring trend say it's less a balancing act than a cop-out.
> Some charities are cashing in on the government's largess, they say, while
> smaller
>
> nonprofits with workers who are far needier can't get in.
>
>
>
> At Wiegan's nonprofit in Oregon, for instance, the majority of the 150
> workers are mentally retarded, autistic, blind, or beset with other 
> physical
> or developmental
>
> disabilities. Their problems are too severe to perform much of the work 
> now
> being offered under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, Wiegan said.
>
>
>
> For years, Mid-Valley Rehabilitation has tried to land a contract under 
> the
> program, Wiegan said. The nonprofit turned down one offer to make military
> footlockers,
>
> he said, because the costs were too high. Any worker who can repair a 
> Humvee
> has no business taking money under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, he said.
>
>
>
> "It's beyond absurd," Wiegan said. "If they can do that work, they're
> competitively employable. It's crystal clear."
>
>
>
> Wiegan's nonprofit is more typical of those that employ the severely
> disabled. Because such workers are normally less productive, the law 
> allows
> charities
>
> like Mid-Valley to pay less than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an 
> hour.
> About 300,000 workers fall into this category, according to U.S. Labor
> Department
>
> estimates. Even so, about 70 percent of the nation's disabled adults 
> remain
> unemployed.
>
>
>
> When people with truly severe disabilities are lucky enough to land work
> under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, they're often paid a subminimum wage. To get a
> picture
>
> of how little these employees earn, The Oregonian analyzed earnings 
> records
> for eight large contractors. They show that 1,644 employees with severe
> disabilities
>
> received a median wage of $1.93 an hour.
>
>
>
> Megan Brixey is the type of worker lawmakers envisioned helping when
> Congress expanded Javits-Wagner-O'Day.
>
>
>
> The 27-year-old McMinnville resident has Down syndrome and a job loading
> lumber for $3.91 an hour at a wood-products company run by Wiegan's
> nonprofit.
>
> Brixey said she dreams of magic -- "Like Harry Potter," she says --  
> wishing
> that it flowed into her hands to make her a faster worker.
>
>
>
> Wiegan said the big contracts and high pay for workers with mild
> disabilities send a blunt message to his severely disabled employees:
> "They're not as important
>
> as the money."
>
>
>
> The money has been a boon to top executives at the biggest nonprofits. As
> sales ballooned under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, charity boards have adopted
> compensation
>
> packages and marketing budgets that resemble those of the private sector.
>
>
>
> Nineteen years ago, a disability counselor started a tiny nonprofit jobs
> program deep in the heart of Appalachia with a small grant. Since then,
> Terri McRae
>
> has built Advocacy & Resources Corp. of Cookeville, Tenn., into a
> multimillion-dollar producer of baking mix, fortified vegetable oil and
> other food for
>
> the government. The charity drew $50 million in federal contracts last 
> year,
> making it one of the largest in Javits-Wagner-O'Day.
>
>
>
> McRae's paychecks mirrored the charity's success.
>
>
>
> In 2004, as her nonprofit landed large contracts with the military and 
> U.S.
> Department of Agriculture, her wages, deferred compensation and benefits 
> had
>
> grown to $518,835, up from $66,500 a few years earlier.
>
>
>
> McRae readily defends her compensation. Her nonprofit pays market wages to
> all employees, including the executives, she said. Running a
> multimillion-dollar
>
> government contractor requires deep knowledge of many regulatory
> requirements, something that has taken years to develop, McRae said.
>
>
>
> "I'm telling you what -- my job's a hard damn job," McRae said in an
> interview last summer. "And when I'm gone, I'm going to be really hard to
> replace."
>
>
>
> The Oregonian analyzed tax forms for Javits-Wagner-O'Day's 50 largest
> contractors, which together account for about two-thirds of the program's
> sales. More
>
> than a dozen reported executives with pay and benefits exceeding $350,000 
> in
> 2004, the most recent year for which complete tax records are available.
>
>
>
> The list includes Bill Hudson, president of LC Industries Inc. in Durham,
> N.C., who made $537,787; John Miller, chief executive of Goodwill 
> Industries
> of
>
> Southeastern Wisconsin, who made $444,405; and Terry Allen Perl, chief
> executive of The Chimes Inc. in Baltimore, who drew $704,175. The 
> charities
> said
>
> salaries for all three were set by their board members based on pay at
> similar-sized operations.
>
>
>
> The largest Javits-Wagner-O'Day contractor, an El Paso, Texas, company 
> with
> $276 million in sales to the military and other agencies last year, 
> reports
>
> no salary for its president, Robert E. Jones. Instead, the National Center
> for the Employment of the Disabled said it paid $4 million in 2004 to a
> management
>
> firm controlled by Jones' family trust.
>
>
>
> Average pay and benefits for the top contractors' CEOs climbed 57 percent
> between 2000 and 2004, a period in which average hourly pay for their
> severely
>
> disabled workers increased 16 percent.
>
>
>
> The CEOs averaged $248,287 in pay and benefits in 2004, up from $241,164 a
> year earlier and $158,400 in 2000. By comparison, only a quarter of
> human-services
>
> nonprofits with budgets greater than $5 million gave their CEOs pay and
> benefits exceeding $155,520 in 2003, according to Guidestar, a national
> clearinghouse
>
> for charity data.
>
>
>
> The Oregonian's averages exclude two nonprofits: Mississippi Industries 
> for
> the Blind, because it is run by the state, and the El Paso charity, 
> because
>
> it reports only a management fee and not Jones' salary.
>
>
>
> Few observers expect charity officials to take vows of poverty. But in
> recent years, controversy about perks, insider deals and big executive
> salaries has
>
> prompted Congress to threaten a crackdown.
>
>
>
> Internal Revenue Service rules require nonprofit boards to base executive
> salaries on a review of what's paid to comparable business leaders. Some 
> of
> those
>
> familiar with Javits-Wagner-O'Day, including Fredric Schroeder, a former
> member of the committee that oversees the program, find the rising 
> paychecks
> unseemly.
>
>
>
> "There is the clear appearance that people with severe disabilities are
> being paid low wages with no oversight of those wages and that executives
> are being
>
> paid astronomical wages," said Schroeder, who sat on the program's 
> oversight
> committee during the Clinton administration.
>
>
>
> The boom in contracts has fattened both salaries and the balance sheet at
> many Javits-Wagner-O'Day nonprofits. Net assets of the top 50 charities 
> grew
> 60
>
> percent between 2000 and 2004, with the biggest exploding by five times or
> more.
>
>
>
> Charities now fret over things like "brand identity." The trade 
> association
> representing most of the program's nonprofits spent $500,000 on lobbying 
> and
>
> $3 million on marketing and communications in 2004, according to tax forms
> and congressional records.
>
>
>
> Charity officials say the spending aims to boost awareness about the
> program's goals and to attract more federal business. But it also adds
> overhead. Supplies,
>
> marketing, management salaries and other costs take up the bulk of the
> program's money. Only about 18 percent of the $2.25 billion spent in 2005
> went to
>
> wages for the disabled.
>
>
>
> The 15-member committee that oversees Javits-Wagner-O'Day does not police
> salaries, deferring instead to the IRS. Recently, the program's growth
> prompted
>
> the committee to consider setting new governance and conflict-of-interest
> standards for nonprofits, which overwhelmingly have criticized the move as
> an
>
> intrusion.
>
>
>
> Stronger oversight would be a departure. When it comes to policing its key
> mandate -- that contractors use severely disabled workers for 
> three-fourths
> of
>
> their labor -- even top officials concede they haven't aggressively
> monitored the nonprofits.
>
>
>
> Headquartered on the 10th floor of a bland high-rise near the Pentagon, 
> the
> Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled is 
> one
>
> of smallest and most unusual agencies in the government.
>
>
>
> By law, the panel of 15 presidential appointees -- four representatives of
> blind and disabled workers, and 11 federal government managers -- decides
> which
>
> federal contracts are set aside under Javits-Wagner-O'Day. Their choices,
> which are seldom reviewed by Congress, can steer hundreds of millions of
> dollars
>
> to obscure nonprofits.
>
>
>
> In an arrangement with few parallels in government, the law allows the
> presidential committee to assign most contract management duties to two
> trade associations,
>
> the National Industries for the Blind, or NIB, and NISH, formerly known as
> the National Industries for the Severely Handicapped.
>
>
>
> For years, government regulators visited charities to determine whether 
> they
> employed enough severely disabled workers. Employees of the trade groups
> also
>
> visited the charities to help them comply with the labor rules. But in 
> 2001,
> with fewer than 30 staffers tracking more than $1 billion in contracts, 
> the
>
> agency delegated regular site inspections to the trade associations.
>
>
>
> The decision was made without significant public debate or even a 
> committee
> vote. "With my staff of 29 people, NIB and NISH can put more resources
> against
>
> that," said Leon Wilson, executive director of the presidential panel. "I
> still believe that was a better path for us to take."
>
>
>
> On paper, the panel still has broad authority to cut off contracts from
> nonprofits that fail to meet the program's requirement that 75 percent of
> all labor
>
> be performed by workers with severe disabilities.
>
>
>
> In reality, it's an honor system with little enforcement. Nonprofits file
> annual reports, but NISH officials visit only once every three years. They
> randomly
>
> sample employee files to check the ratio of severely disabled labor hours.
> If paperwork is complete, the nonprofit passes.
>
>
>
> Robert Chamberlin, NISH's chief executive, said his staffers do not
> interview workers to verify their disabilities because of restrictions set
> by federal
>
> health privacy laws. More importantly, Chamberlin said, NISH does not have
> the legal authority to conduct audits or investigations of the program's
> contractors.
>
>
>
> "They have specifically told us, `You're not auditors,"' he said. "`You're
> not investigators. Your mission is to go in an assist mode."'
>
>
>
> The tiny federal committee does visit new nonprofits or those known to 
> have
> problems. But officials acknowledge that no one regularly audits longtime
> participants
>
> in the program.
>
>
>
> The trade groups have an incentive to resolve issues amicably. The 
> charities
> pay them up to 4 percent on each contract. The commissions helped boost
> NISH's
>
> revenue 86 percent over four years, to $58 million in 2004.
>
>
>
> The trade associations "live on the commissions that come from the 
> contracts
> that go to these nonprofits," said Schroeder, the former committee member.
>
> "So are they genuinely interested in pulling the plug on a contract that
> appears to be unreasonably operated? ... I'm not suggesting evil, but
> there's
>
> no truly independent oversight."
>
>
>
> Rules of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program leave room for some 
> interpretation
> of who qualifies as "severely disabled." They say a worker must suffer 
> from
>
> a "severe physical or mental impairment" that so limits his or her ability
> to walk, talk or work that the person is unable to "engage in normal
> competitive
>
> employment."
>
>
>
> The law specifies a measurable standard for blindness -- 20/200 vision in
> the best corrected eye. As such, there are few questions about workers at
> the
>
> 74 nonprofits represented by NIB, the trade group for the blind.
>
>
>
> But the range of other disabilities is much less clearly defined. NISH,
> which represents 553 contractors, demands only that its charities document
> that
>
> workers have disabilities preventing them from finding other jobs.
>
>
>
> The program's lax oversight can be seen in the committee's dealings with 
> El
> Paso's National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, the program's
> biggest
>
> contractor.
>
>
>
> Officials with the committee and NISH began examining in 1999 whether the
> nonprofit used enough labor from severely disabled workers. By May 2000,
> officials
>
> on three separate occasions had found inadequate documentation to back up
> disability claims. The problems did not stop the nonprofit from building 
> its
>
> business year after year.
>
>
>
> Last spring, an anonymous complaint triggered a visit from committee
> investigators, who found payroll reports indicating only 39 percent of the
> nonprofit's
>
> labor was from severely disabled workers. Still, it wasn't until January
> that the committee ordered NISH to send a compliance team to El Paso to
> review
>
> all the nonprofit's records.
>
>
>
> Since then, the charity's largest customer -- the Defense Supply Center in
> Philadelphia -- said NISH alerted commanders of "some concerns" about
> whether
>
> the nonprofit was using enough severely disabled labor. A spokeswoman said
> Friday that the center last week "ceased placing orders with NCED" until 
> the
>
> concerns are resolved. Separately, charity officials are scheduled to 
> appear
> before the committee Thursday to address the work-force issue.
>
>
>
> Not since the early 1990s has the committee or NISH released an accounting
> of the types of disabilities in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day work force. The
> Oregonian
>
> sent surveys to the 50 largest contractors in an attempt to categorize
> disabilities, but only six responded, too few for a reliable sample. NISH
> has worked
>
> for months to compile such a report, but results were not ready as of last
> week.
>
>
>
> Linda Merrill, chief executive at Envision, a Kansas nonprofit that
> primarily employs blind workers, said it's time for "severely disabled" to
> be defined
>
> more strictly.
>
>
>
> "We're kind of joking among ourselves," said Merrill, "that instead of
> National Industries for the Severely Handicapped, it's National Industries
> for the
>
> Severe Hangnail and Hemorrhoids."
>
>
>
> NISH's Chamberlin acknowledged that nonprofits have an incentive to employ
> people who have higher productivity, but he does not blame that on the
> federal
>
> program. Customers increasingly are demanding high quality at low prices, 
> he
> said.
>
>
>
> "The government is tough," Chamberlin said. To address the problem, he 
> said,
> NISH is attempting to find more business in areas such as document
> destruction
>
> and laundry, which are better suited to people with more severe
> disabilities.
>
>
>
> Powerful forces on Capitol Hill are beginning to recognize problems with
> Javits-Wagner-O'Day, foreshadowing a showdown between lawmakers and
> charities in
>
> the program.
>
>
>
> Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would reserve some federal
> contracts for private businesses employing disabled workers. And a Senate
> committee
>
> held a hearing in October, taking testimony about soaring executive 
> salaries
> and misdirected resources.
>
>
>
> Enzi, the Wyoming senator, said the program should do more to move workers
> into mainstream jobs. As it stands, only 5 percent of the severely 
> disabled
> workers
>
> in the program move to private-sector jobs, down from 7 percent in 2000.
> Wilson, director of the presidential panel, said workers are reluctant to
> leave
>
> nonprofits because they are friendly places with wages and benefits that 
> are
> often superior to comparable private companies.
>
>
>
> Newman, the former Nixon administration official, said policymakers 
> expanded
> the program in 1971 hoping to train workers and move them out of 
> low-paying
>
> "sheltered workshop" nonprofits and into the regular work force. Now, he
> sees a reversal.
>
>
>
> "They are rebuilding a sheltered workshop mentality, when the efforts of 
> the
> '60s and '70s was to help people with disabilities be able to join the
> mainstream
>
> of the work world," said Newman, now a professor at Temple University.
>
>
>
> If history is any guide, changes to the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program are
> likely to be met with great resistance by many of the biggest charities.
>
>
>
> The chairman of the presidential oversight committee, Steve Schwalb, said
> alarm about rising executive pay led members to propose a $207,000
> compensation
>
> cap in late 2004. The figure seemed reasonable because $207,000 was the 
> top
> compensation for federal managers, most of whom run agencies larger than 
> the
>
> program's nonprofits.
>
>
>
> What followed was a roar of protest from nonprofit executives, board 
> members
> who set their salaries and some of their lawyers.
>
>
>
> Schwalb's committee withdrew the proposal. But after The Oregonian last 
> fall
> reported on rising executive salaries and Enzi's committee held hearings,
> the
>
> presidential panel proposed more stringent governance standards for
> nonprofits along with a possible compensation limit, though it has not
> specified a
>
> number.
>
>
>
> Chamberlin, who as head of NISH earned salary and benefits totaling 
> $299,565
> in 2004, has been among the opponents of a salary cap. The trade group had
>
> argued against the $207,000 pay limit, calling it discriminatory and
> unnecessary.
>
>
>
> One supporter of a compensation limit is John Murphy, who earned $130,310 
> in
> pay and benefits as the head of Portland Habilitation Center in 2004. The
> nonprofit
>
> provides janitorial services for federal buildings and is Oregon's biggest
> Javits-Wagner-O'Day contractor.
>
>
>
> Murphy, who sits on the NISH board of directors, said it will be difficult
> for the program to determine a maximum salary. But it's needed, he said.
>
>
>
> "The committee should make some judgments and come down on organizations
> where it just stinks," Murphy said. "The reputation of the program is at
> stake."
>
>
>
> March 7, 2006
>
>
>
> (Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson and Les Zaitz are staff writers for The
> Oregonian of Portland, Ore. They can be contacted at
> jeff.kosseff at newhouse.com, bryandenson at news.oregonian.com.
>
> and leszaitz at news.oregonian.com. News researchers Margie Gultry and 
> Kathleen
> Blythe contributed to this report.
>
>
>
> table end
> _______________________________________________
> nfbmi-talk mailing list
> nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nfbmi-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org/terrydeagle%40yahoo.
> com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfbmi-talk mailing list
> nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nfbmi-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org/joeharcz%40comcast.net