Earlier this month, the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities released draft, interim recommendations for their statutorily mandated report which recommended the phase-out of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (with no real recommendations on how that might happen without harm being done to individuals with disabilities). They also included an entire chapter on the AbilityOne Program, painting a skewed, erroneous picture of both the program and the work that our 500+ CRPs across the nation do each and every day.
What is noteworthy in both cases is the lack of interaction with stakeholders. They have had little, if any, discussions with individuals who are employed through 14(c), and, although SourceAmerica has submitted comments and testified—at no point did they engage us or our network with regard to the AbilityOne Program.
The Advisory Committee will meet again on August 10 to review and approve its interim report. It is critical that you weigh in and make your voices heard.
Please take the following actions immediately:
1. Utilize this action alert to tell the Advisory Committee to maintain the full spectrum of employment options and to follow the principle of “nothing about us without us” before making any recommendations that will impact hundreds of thousands of individuals.
2. Utilize this action alert to tell the Advisory Committee that their analysis of the AbilityOne Program is ill-informed and that greater interaction with stakeholders is necessary before any recommendations are submitted.
3. Forward this email to everyone associated with your agency—individuals with disabilities, families, board members, staff, etc. We need everyone who supports the full spectrum of employment opportunities and the AbilityOne Program to take action.
(Note that if you did all three steps, you should have responded individually to two separate alerts and forwarded this email)
On Monday, we will reinforce this call to action and distribute draft comments prepared by SourceAmerica. We will also ask you to send another, more detailed response to the Advisory Committee as part of the formal, written comment process in advance of their upcoming meeting. It is critical, however, everyone take 30 seconds today to respond to the 3 items above.
Your collective voices make a difference….make yourselves heard.