January 7, 2009
Work programs for the disabled found lacking in Senate probe
Failure to hire the blind, executive salaries assailed
WASHINGTON // Blind vendors who win government contracts rarely share that success by employing blind workers, while executives in a separate federal initiative earn six-figure salaries for running job programs that fail to integrate disabled employees into mainsteam society, a congressional investigation has found.
An investigation by the Senate health committee found that the two work programs inadequately serve many disabled individuals they were designed to help. The findings are contained in a 15-page memorandum obtained by the Associated Press.
The committee scheduled a hearing today to discuss the findings by the panel's staff, which spent about four months reviewing the Randolph-Sheppard program for the blind and the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program for people with physical or intellectual disabilities. The review began after backers of the programs complained to lawmakers.
In the Randolph-Sheppard program, blind individuals operate snack shops and cafeterias on government properties. Last year, about 2,500 blind entrepreneurs participated. It generated $488.5 million in sales, and the average vendor's earnings amounted to $39,880, government statistics show.
The committee's staff focused on the vendors with contracts to serve 38 military cafeterias, which hire the great majority of workers employed through the program.
Of the 7,122 workers employed by the cafeterias, less than 9 percent had a disability.
"This is cause for concern in a program designed to create jobs for persons who are blind," the staff memo states.
But James Gashel, executive director for strategic initiatives at the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind, said the concern is misplaced.
"Blind people who have those businesses do employ blind and disabled people," Gashel said. "Could they do better? Yeah." He said any corporation could do better.
Gashel said the biggest problem is that the federal government barely does more than "keep the lights on for it."
He said the Randolph-Sheppard program is almost a $500 million-a-year business, and the federal government has only four full-time workers administering it.
In the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program, federal agencies buy products manufactured primarily by disabled individuals. Its sales to the federal government totaled about $2 billion last year.
It provides jobs to more than 45,000 people, and it's the largest single source of employment for people who are blind or have other severe disabilities. The workers make mouse pads, aprons, ink pens and thousands of other products.
More than 600 participating nonprofit organizations employ these individuals.
The chief executives of some of the nonprofits make enormous sums, according to the memo, which cites annual earnings of $715,000 in one instance, and $680,000 in another as examples of "excessive executive compensation, lavish perks, conflicts of interest and self-dealing."
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said some of the compensation is excessive.
"It is unconscionable that private companies and employers exploit federal laws to make millions off individuals with disabilities," he said. "It's also unconscionable that federal agencies responsible for implementing the laws designed to provide job opportunities aren't stopping this abuse."
Still, it's the lack of incentives to move people into the mainstream that has advocates for the disabled most concerned.
Robert Lawhead, executive director of a job-placement program in Boulder, Colo., said he helps place about 200 disabled people annually into private sector jobs.
"People don't want to be segregated because of a particular individual characteristic," Lawhead said. "They want to be a part of the community."
Each year, only about 2,500 workers in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program, or about 6 percent, are placed in jobs where, for example, they might work as greeters at Wal-Mart, or grocery baggers at Safeway.
"Those sheltered workshops don't help people learn the skills they need to move out into the community," said Lawhead, who will testify at today's hearing.
The federal government designates two nonprofits to implement the jobs program. They in essence broker agreements in which federal agencies agree to buy goods and services from the nonprofits.
Tony Young, senior policy planner for one of those nonprofits, NISH - Creating Employment Opportunities for People with Severe Disabilities, said it is important to understand that people in the program have not been able to get jobs in the private sector.
"This program is often the only way these folks with very significant disabilities can get into the work force at all," he said, adding that it focuses on trying to give workers the skills and confidence needed to work on their own.
"One of the major factors there is that private employers are not willing to hire people with severe disabilities into their work force," he said.
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