[NFBP-Talk] FW: [Rehab] Federal Agency Recommends Ending Government Disability Jobs Program - Disability Scoop - October 19, 2020

[Jim Antonacci]

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From: Rehab [mailto:rehab-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Nightingale, Noel
via Rehab
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2020 4:09 PM
To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org; rehab at nfbnet.org; jobs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Nightingale, Noel <Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov>
Subject: [Rehab] Federal Agency Recommends Ending Government Disability Jobs
Program - Disability Scoop - October 19, 2020


https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2020/10/19/federal-agency-recommends-ending-
government-disability-jobs-program/29041/
Federal Agency Recommends Ending Government Disability Jobs Program
By Michelle Diament
Disability Scoop
October 19, 2020
An independent federal agency says it's time for a decades-old government
jobs program for people with disabilities to come to an end.
The National Council on Disability, which is charged with advising the
president and Congress on disability issues, is calling for the AbilityOne
Program to be phased out.
The 82-year-old program funnels government contracts to a network of 500
nonprofits across the nation that make products or provide services to
federal agencies. At least 75% of the direct labor hours undertaken by the
nonprofits must be performed by people who are blind or who have significant
disabilities.
However, in a report out this month, the National Council on Disability said
the program is antiquated and is failing to increase employment
opportunities for people with disabilities.
"The AbilityOne Program is a federally sanctioned segregated jobs system,"
said Neil Romano, chairman of the council. "Not only is its effectiveness in
question based on our research, it is a policy relic in tension with current
national disability policy."
Currently, about 45,000 people with significant disabilities or blindness
are employed through AbilityOne, according to NCD. And, in the 2018 fiscal
year alone, the federal government allocated $3.6 billion worth of contracts
to the program through a mandatory preference system.
Nonetheless, the National Council on Disability found that in the last eight
years of available data, employment of people who are blind through the
program has stagnated and positions for those with significant disabilities
have declined even as overall program sales have increased. Accordingly, the
percentage of AbilityOne Program revenue going toward wages for people with
disabilities has dropped each year since 2011.
Meanwhile, there are concerns about transparency and oversight, particularly
in regard to spending on executive salaries and lobbying. And, the NCD
report said that the requirement that people with disabilities perform 75%
of work hours reinforces an outdated model of employment.
"The ratio inherently creates pressures on the AbilityOne (nonprofits) to
place workers with disabilities into more segregated settings, whether as
work crews or on the production floor, while the entire program perpetuates
a separate system for people who are blind or have significant disabilities
at the same time federal laws seek to achieve greater integration," the
report states.
Only about 4% of AbilityOne workers leave the program each year for
competitive, integrated employment, the NCD report notes.
The National Council on Disability is recommending that the government phase
out the AbilityOne Program over an eight-year period. Instead, all federal
contractors and subcontractors with at least $200,000 in contracts and a
minimum of 50 employees should be required to hire a certain percentage of
people who are blind or who have significant disabilities, the council said.
"The phaseout must be conducted in such a way to ensure that all employees
working under the program are prepared to transition to the new requirement
to avoid job loss, unemployment or underemployment, or lower wages," the
report indicates.
Officials with the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, an independent federal agency
that administers the AbilityOne Program, said they are currently reviewing
the report and declined to provide further comment.


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