[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5525-S5526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ENZI:
  S. 3112. A bill to reauthorize the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act and the 
Randolph-Sheppard Act, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Javits-Wagner-
O'Day and Randolph-Sheppard Modernization Act of 2008. This legislation 
was drafted after thousands of hours were spent listening to the 
concerns of persons with disabilities and other affected parties.
  The Randolph-Sheppard Act, enacted in 1936, gives persons who are 
legally blind training, support and contracting priority to fulfill 
certain Government food service contracts.
  The Wagner-O'Day Act, enacted in 1938, required the Federal 
Government to make certain commodities purchases from organizations, 75 
percent of whose direct laborers were blind. In 1971, Senator Jacob 
Javits fought to include individuals with other severe disabilities in 
the law. The amended law--the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act--now requires the 
Federal Government to purchase over 11,000 commodities from 
organizations, 75 percent of whose workers have a severe disability.
  Javits-Wagner-O'Day and Randolph-Sheppard are the two main Federal 
employment and training programs for persons with significant 
disabilities. Congress has paid them little attention, and has not 
revised them, since their creation.
  Beginning in 2003, Randolph-Sheppard and JWOD stakeholders approached 
Congress to seek our attention and help. Each group complained the 
other was getting too big a share of lucrative military dining 
contracts.
  In 2003 and 2004, the offices of Senators Gregg, Kennedy, Ensign and 
Dodd tried to informally mediate. Neither the blind vendors nor the 
JWOD vendors would budge. The dispute intensified in the courts and in 
Congress, with each side accusing the other of waste, fraud and abuse.
  When I assumed the chairmanship of the HELP Committee in 2005, I 
decided to honor the stakeholders' longstanding request, and 
investigate their claims. My staff's initial findings were troubling, 
so I worked with my good friend Senator Kennedy to hold a bipartisan 
oversight hearing.
  Our hearing, in October 2005, documented several troubling facts. 
First and foremost, we discovered that the programs had produced bad 
quantitative results for persons with disabilities. There are about 15 
million unemployed persons with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 
64. Javits-Wagner-O'Day and Randolph-Sheppard together had created only 
about 48,000 jobs. Clearly we can--and must--do much better.
  Second, the programs had stayed the same while the law, technology, 
commercial customs and social norms had changed dramatically over the 
past decades. Since JWOD was enacted, Congress, through the Americans 
with Disabilities Act, ADA, Individuals with Disabilities Education 
Act, IDEA and Rehabilitation Act reauthorizations of 1992 and 1998, had 
mandated equal access, inclusion, choice, anti-discrimination and 
control by individuals with disabilities over their own lives. The 
Supreme Court in its Olmstead decision held that the unnecessary 
segregation of individuals with disabilities was an impermissible form 
of discrimination. Corporate good citizens such as Marriott had taken a 
leadership role in

[[Page S5526]]

the community to employ persons with severe disabilities in integrated 
work settings. New technologies made it possible for persons who were 
legally blind to use the Internet. These and countless other examples 
highlight how Randolph-Sheppard and JWOD had become ancient statutes. 
The world had changed dramatically since 1971. Persons 
with disabilities needed and deserved better treatment than the law was 
providing.

  Third, regulatory neglect had given rise to waste, fraud and abuse. 
The Randolph-Sheppard program was supposed to create good jobs and 
increased opportunities for the many persons who are blind. Instead, we 
found that 38 blind vendors were taking the lion's share of profits 
from huge military cafeteria contracts with an approximate total dollar 
value of $1.203 billion. Just as troublesome was the fact that less 
than 5 percent of the employees hired to fulfill those contracts were 
actually blind. In addition, we found nonprofit executives were using 
JWOD to exploit persons with disabilities for improper financial gain. 
The FBI and other Federal law enforcement officials raided a Texas JWOD 
nonprofit and discovered some shocking abuses that underscored the need 
for Congress to act.
  In 2006, I worked with Senators Kennedy, Ensign, Dodd, Burr, Clinton, 
Isakson, Reed, Hatch, Harkin, Roberts, Mikulski, Coburn, Bingaman, 
Collins, and Obama to develop solutions to these problems. The HELP 
Committee staff spent thousands of hours meeting with hundreds of 
stakeholders, and listening to their ideas about how to fix these 
programs. Then we drafted this legislation.
  In 2007, the momentum we had set in motion for a reauthorization bill 
stalled and other priorities began to take precedence. I continued to 
talk to and work with all of the stakeholders we could find, including 
those representing small business.
  Recent events put these issues back on the front burner where they 
belong. On April 15, the Department of Defense and Department of 
Education Inspectors General collaborated on a report, ``Assessment of 
Contracting With Blind Vendors and Employers of Persons Who Are Blind 
or Have Other Severe Disabilities.'' In addition, the Committee for 
Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled--the principal 
regulator of the JWOD program--proposed modest tweaks to its 
authorizing statute. I sincerely applaud the Committee for their hard 
work in coming up with consensus fixes, but its proposal does not go 
nearly far enough.
  As an alternative, I have updated the bill that the bipartisan HELP 
Committee produced in collaboration with stakeholder groups in 2006. It 
fulfills the promise I made to the disability community to try to solve 
the problems we found. The bill vitalizes and expands both programs. It 
creates much more flexibility to provide real job training and real 
skill development so persons with disabilities can develop marketable 
skills and make meaningful career choices. The bill also empowers a 
strong regulator to police both programs and make sure workers are no 
longer exploited.
  Finally, I have tried to stay out of the military dining facility 
debate for years. But it has become a significant distraction to our 
military. Accordingly, this bill establishes an even playing field in a 
way that will be clear and easy for the military to administer and 
participants in the process to understand.
  Our main goal here is to create more and better jobs for persons with 
disabilities. My bill moves us in the direction Congress should take to 
modify these two important programs. I look forward to continued 
discussions with my colleagues and the stakeholders on all these 
issues.
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