[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SUBMINIMUM WAGE FOR DISABLED

  (Mr. CLEAVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. CLEAVER. There are a number of issues that fail to make it to the 
floor, but there's one issue that I absolutely feel strongly about and 
believe that the people of this Congress and the people of the Nation 
need to know, and that is the subminimum wage for people with 
disabilities.
  Inclusion is a birthright. This is a civil right. And there is a rule 
in the Department of Labor called 14(c). It's a certificate from the 
United States Department of Labor which says that people with 
disabilities can get paid less than subminimum wage. But it is not 
subminimum wage for all of them--it is hardly a wage at all. Some of 
these people who are on disability are making 45 cents an hour or less 
in sheltered workshops.
  So I am suggesting that this issue is so important that it needs to 
be brought to the floor of the United States Congress. This is a civil 
right, and we need to make it something that is a priority of this 
Congress as soon as possible.

                          ____________________