Make the Law Work for Everyone with Disabilities
Floor Speech
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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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