Obama Requests GAO Report to Determine if Law Providing Opportunities to Blind, Severely Disabled is Being Followed
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Printable FormatFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Obama Contact: Robert Gibbs or Tommy Vietor, (202) 228-5511
Illinois Contact: Julian Green, (312) 886-3506
Date: November 3, 2005
Obama Requests GAO Report to Determine if Law Providing Opportunities to Blind, Severely Disabled is Being Followed
Senator Will Also Ask President to Remind Agencies of Requirement to Purchase Items from JWOD Programs
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today, following a meeting with Mr. Steve Schwalb and Mr. Leon Wilson, Chairman and Executive Director, respectively, of the Committee for Purchase from People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled, requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issue a report to determine if the spirit of a law designed to provide opportunities to the blind and severely is being followed. Obama will also ask President Bush to clearly communicate to all Federal agencies that purchases from the Lighthouse and other JWOD programs are mandatory, not just recommended.
For more than 30 years, most wall clocks in U.S. government offices have been produced by the Chicago Lighthouse, a nonprofit enterprise devoted to employing the blind. But in the past four years, U.S. imports of wall clocks made in China have increased and sales from the Chicago Lighthouse have substantially declined. And in the last decade, the Chicago Lighthouse has lost 70 of 100 jobs. Clock sales help fund several valuable programs at the Chicago Lighthouse, including a highly advanced medical clinic for the blind, a Braille and large print library that supplies books to Illinois schools, and a radio station that broadcasts daily newspaper readings to blind Illinoisans. Obama toured the facility in September.
The Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act facilitates the government purchase of products produced by nonprofit agencies that employ blind or severely disabled Americans. Currently, more than 45,000 blind or disabled Americans are employed as result of the JWOD program. It is estimated that 70% of blind Americans are unemployed.
JWOD was passed in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide employment opportunities for the blind and amended in 1971 by Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY) to include the severely disabled. The JWOD Program was highly successful until sales began declining as a result of an incorrect interpretation of the purchase requirement as being a “preference.”
“For more than three decades, employees at the Chicago Lighthouse have worked hard to make quality clocks that hang in schools and government buildings across the country,” said Obama. “They have lived up to their end of the bargain, but I’m concerned that the government has not lived up to it’s obligation to them. That is why I have requested a report from the General Accounting Office on the implementation and effectiveness of the program. This report will seek to shed light on why Lighthouse sales have declined and what we can do to improve the program and others like it across the country. I will also ask President Bush to clearly remind all Federal agencies that purchasing goods from JWOD programs is not just recommended, but required by law.”
During their meeting, Obama asked the Committee for Purchase from People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled to investigate why a Chicago Lighthouse proposal to expand their business was denied and then bid to a private, non-JWOD vendor. The Lighthouse had offered to supply blind veterans at VA centers with accessible computer equipment and a helpdesk based at the Lighthouse itself. The Committee Chairman promised to look into the problem immediately and look for opportunities to give the Lighthouse credit for its idea and participation in the program.