NCD letter to SASC and HASC regarding AbilityOne
April 1, 2024
The Honorable Senator
Jack Reed, Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Senator
Roger Wicker, Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Representative
Mike Rogers, Chairman
U.S. House Committee on Armed Services
2216 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Representative
Adam Smith, Ranking Member
U.S. House Committee on Armed Services
2216 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Re: NCD’s opposition to any legislative efforts in the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) process that may increase the AbilityOne program’s congressionally mandated contract set-aside goal.
Dear Chairmen Reed and Rogers and Ranking Members Wicker and Smith:
I write on behalf of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent nonpartisan federal agency with the statutory authority to advise the President, Congress and federal agencies on all policy matters affecting people with disabilities in the United States and in our territories. NCD continues to oppose an increase to the Department of Defense’s contract set-aside goal for the AbilityOne program – a program that perpetuates a segregated work model that undermines modern disability employment policies. NCD also remains concerned that the AbilityOne program remains ineffective at increasing job opportunities for people who are blind or have significant disabilities.
As federal advisors on policy matters affecting people with disabilities, NCD has offered two reports that examine the AbilityOne Program in recent years.[1] NCD’s 2020 report, *Policies from the Past in a Modern Era: The Unintended Consequences of the AbilityOne Program in a Modern Era, *2 found that the program’s mandatory seventy-five percent direct labor hour ratio inherently creates pressures on the AbilityOne non-profit agencies to assign employees with disabilities to segregated settings, whether as work crews or on the production floor and regardless of their knowledge, skills, and abilities. While there have been recent efforts to modernize the program, the statutory framework governing the AbilityOne program remains unchanged and continues to limit job opportunities for people with disabilities. The AbilityOne program undermines the goals of current disability rights laws like the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which intends to transition people with disabilities into competitive integrated employment. Contrary to this and similar modern disability policies, however, the AbilityOne program requires employees with disabilities to perform 75% of the “direct labor” on each contract,[3]while excluding them from supervisory, administrative, inspector, and shipping positions[4]. These statutory restrictions discourage employers from promoting employees with disabilities into higher-paying positions for fear of losing federal contracts.[5] Any federal program that limits employment growth for people with disabilities undermines Congress’s intent to promote inclusive employment opportunities in the community. As a result, NCD continues to remind policymakers that the entire AbilityOne program perpetuates a separate work system for people who are blind or have significant disabilities.
In addition to these concerns, in 2019, NCD’s report, A Cursory Look at the AbilityOne Program, found that in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, the percentages of AbilityOne employees who achieved supervisory positions were only 0.87%[6] and 1%[7] respectively. Even more troubling, NCD found that in fiscal year 2016, only 18.6% of the $3.3 billion of the annual Federal Government purchases through the AbilityOne Program actually went to wages paid to employees with disabilities. The remaining 81.4% of these funds paid for other expenditures.[8] NCD also found that between FY 2011 and FY 2018, the number of employees working in the AbilityOne program declined from 50,500 to 44,000, and the number of hours worked declined as well. Recent figures show that the number of employees working in the AbilityOne program was 39,690 in FY 2021 and 36,377 in FY 2022,[9] showing a continued downward trend in creating job opportunities. Meanwhile, in 2023, the AbilityOne Commission reported that revenue generated from sales to the federal government had grown to $4 billion annually.[10] This is a $700 million increase in revenue since 2016, despite a steady decrease in jobs.
NCD continues to caution policymakers against increasing the mandatory contract set-aside goal for the AbilityOne program. Congress should instead focus federal funding towards employment programs that successfully transition employees with disabilities into competitive integrated employment to give all employees equal opportunities for career advancement as Congress intended. In its Policies from the Past report, NCD advised Congress that it should phase out and replace this outdated program and provided recommendations on ways to create a new contracting requirement under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, a nondiscriminatory employment model that policymakers should consider.
Again, NCD stands by its 2020 recommendations to Congress and welcomes the opportunity to brief the Committees on the content of our research into the AbilityOne program.
Respectfully,
Claudia Gordon
Acting Chair / Vice Chair
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Kimie Eacobacci
Legislative Affairs Specialist
National Council on Disability
KEacobacci@ncd.gov
[1] NCD’s 2020 report, Policies from the Past in a Modern Era: The Unintended Consequences of the AbilityOne Program & Section 14(c), available at: ncd-abilityone-2020 (2).pdf and NCD’s 2019 report, A Cursory Look at the AbilityOne Program, available at: a-cursory-look-at-abilityone.pdf (ncd.gov).
2
National Council on Disability (“NCD”), *Policies from the Past in a Modern Era: The Unintended Consequences of the AbilityOne Program & Section 14(c).
[3] 41 U.S.C. § 8501(2011).)
[4] Id.
[5] See Id.
[6] NCD, A Cursory Look at AbilityOne (Feb. 22, 2019) 16, available at: https://www.ncd.gov/report/a-cursory-look-at-abilityone-1/ (citing the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, FY 2017 Performance and Accountability Report).
[7] U.S. AbilityOne Commission staff written responses to NCD research questions (on file with author)
[8] Supra note 6 at 17 (citing Committee for Purchase, “FY 2019 Budget Justification,” 25.)
[9] U.S. AbilityOne Commission Fiscal Year 2023 Performance and Accountability Report available at: U.S. AbilityOne Commission FY23 Performance and Accountability Report.
[10] Supporting Competition in the AbilityOne Program, 88 Fed. Reg. 15360 (March 13, 2023) (to be codified at 41 C.F.R. 51)