[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3571]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   BLIND PERSONS EARNINGS EQUITY ACT

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, today I rise in support of the 
Blind Persons Earnings Equity Act, a bill that will open up a world of 
opportunities for blind persons and greatly improve their lives. 
Currently, the blind are discouraged from working by an overly 
restrictive provision in the Social Security Act that limits the amount 
of income they may earn for themselves. The Blind Persons Earnings 
Equity Act would raise that earnings restriction and lessen the burden 
of at least one of the many obstacles to employment faced by the blind 
today.
  Blindness has profoundly adverse social and economic consequences, 
and Social Security benefits are needed to offset the disadvantages 
suffered by the blind. However, these same laws that are meant to help, 
must be revised when it becomes clear they are hindering blind persons 
from joining the workforce and discouraging them from becoming fully 
engaged in society.
  Instead of encouraging the blind to develop job skills and become 
productive members of their communities, the law addressed by this bill 
penalizes them. Once their earnings rise above an amount that is barely 
sufficient to cover the most basic living expenses, their Social 
Security benefits are cut completely. No wonder it is estimated that 
over seventy percent of the employable blind population is either 
unemployed or underemployed.
  This statistic, however, does not represent an unwillingness to work. 
On the contrary, the blind want to work and take great pride in 
developing the necessary skills that enable them to contribute to 
society.
  I had the honor of knowing personally a great American leader who 
just happened to be blind. His name was Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and for 
over 25 years he led the organized blind movement in the United States. 
As President for the National Federation of the Blind, he moved the 
national headquarters to Baltimore where I had the opportunity to meet 
him. Sadly, Dr. Jernigan passed away last year.
  Dr. Jernigan may have been blind in the physical sense, Mr. 
President, but he was a man of vision nonetheless. In his leadership of 
the National Federation of the Blind, he taught all of us to understand 
that eyesight and insight are not related to each other in any way. 
Although he did not have eyesight, his insight on life, learning, and 
leading has no equal. Dr. Jernigan devoted his life to empowering the 
blind and encouraging them to be active members of society. He fought 
to improve their access to information, education, jobs, and public 
facilities.
  The overly restrictive earnings cap in the Social Security Act 
represents precisely the kind of unfair law and barrier to employment 
that Dr. Jernigan battled throughout his life. He knew first hand about 
the devastating impact that restrictions such as this could have on the 
aspirations and hope of blind persons already struggling to overcome 
tremendous challenges.
  Congress itself has recognized the overly restrictive nature of this 
earnings cap. In 1996, we raised the cap for senior citizens with 
passage of the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act. However, the 
earnings limitation for blind individuals was left unchanged. Up until 
that point, for almost twenty years, the same earnings cap had applied 
to both senior citizens and blind persons under the Social Security 
Act. With passage of the 1996 Freedom to Work Act, seniors were 
encouraged to remain active and continue working, but the disincentive 
to work was unfortunately left in place for the blind. Consequently, by 
2002, seniors will be permitted to earn up to $30,000, but blind people 
who earn over $14,800 (less than half as much) will lose their 
benefits.
  There is no justification for raising the earnings cap for one group 
and not the other. Why should we distinguish between two groups that 
for over twenty years were treated even-handedly under the law? What 
has changed to cause us to discriminate between the two and encourage 
one to work while greatly limiting the opportunities of the other? By 
reestablishing parity in the treatment of blind persons and senior 
citizens under the Social Security Act, this legislation will restore 
fairness to this law and will remedy a policy that has kept the blind 
locked out of rewarding, self-fulfilling employment.
  Although a small number of blind persons may become newly eligible 
for benefits as a result of this change, their number will be a mere 
fraction of the thousands who do not work because of the disincentive 
imposed by this earnings limit. By enabling these beneficiaries to 
work, the overall net effect of this bill will be to increase payments 
to the Social Security trust funds and bring additional revenue to the 
Federal Treasury as well.
  I urge my colleagues to support this necessary legislation that will 
ensure the blind are treated fairly under the law and will empower 
thousands of blind beneficiaries to become more engaged in society 
through productive employment.

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