[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12484]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            MAKE THE LAW WORK FOR EVERYONE WITH DISABILITIES

  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, the constituencies in North Carolina are 
as varied as any in America. I am honored to represent America's 
largest Army Post--Fort Bragg--as well as 45 percent of the U.S. Marine 
Corps at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point. Because of their presence and 
our proud military tradition, by 2020, one in every nine North 
Carolinians will be a veteran. We are also home to outstanding 
companies that serve our disabled citizens like the Winston-Salem 
Industries for the Blind. The confluence of these two communities--
veterans and services for the disabled--and how each is treated by the 
Federal Government is of particular concern to me.
  For decades, both the general disabled community and the disabled 
veterans' community have existed in a harmonious balance when it came 
to securing jobs and competitive contracts with the Federal Government. 
The Javits Wagner O'Day Act of 1938, the AbilityOne Program, and the 
Veterans Benefits, Health Insurance, and Information Technology Act of 
2006 assist Americans who are blind, citizens with severe disabilities, 
and our U.S. military veterans through leveraging the procurement power 
of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Unfortunately, the recent 
Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States Supreme Court ruling 
reinterpreted these acts to preclude certain disabled groups from 
bidding for jobs and business with the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
These are not laws designed to build barriers to stop disabled veterans 
from bidding for work outside of the Veterans Administration or the 
blind for bidding for work within the VA, but that is what has 
happened.
  I am asking my colleagues in Congress to take another look at this 
situation. Level the playing field. These laws should continue their 
mutual coexistence by maintaining set-aside opportunities that create 
sustainable employment opportunities for the 70 percent of blind or 
severely disabled Americans who are seeking jobs, in addition to 
competitive contract opportunities for veterans who take the initiative 
to start their own small businesses. Let's get this right.

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