Tuesday, June 29, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Advocates for the blind are criticizing Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., for a legislative effort that they feel could hurt blind business owners trying to get federal contracts at military bases.
An amendment Ensign put on the Defense Authorization bill that passed the Senate last week weakens the preference the blind get when competing to run dining halls at military bases, advocates for the blind say.
Richard Saperstein, chairman of the Nevada Committee of Blind Vendors, claims Ensign is trying to help Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas charity that helps people with disabilities find work, keep its contract to run food services at Nellis Air Force Base and said Ensign is hurting the blind in the process.
"This effectively destroys the blind priority throughout the country," said Saperstein, who runs the galley at the Naval Air Station in Fallon under a $1.2 million contract and is the only blind vendor with a contract at a military base in Nevada. "The blind community is in an uproar."
Ensign staffers deny the charge and say the amendment protects current dining hall operators, including those helping disabled people, and they say those vendors could have their contract taken over if a blind operator is given a preference.
"This is to establish a level of fairness," Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said.
Opportunity Village runs the food services at Nellis Air Force Base through a contract it received in May 2001. Contracts usually are awarded for one year, then renewed for each of four additional years.
Ed Guthrie, Opportunity Village executive director, said in 2006 his group and the Air Force will negotiate a new price for the contract, and he said he did not think it would go out for another competitive bid. Right now the value of the contract is between $2.5 million and $3 million. The price varies because of deployments from the base.
Guthrie said when the contract first came up for bid, a blind vendor from Florida wanted to get it by virtue of the Randolph-Sheppard Act preference but his group eventually won the contract.
The issue behind the flap is a conflict between two federal programs that help the blind and disabled.
The Randolph-Sheppard Act, created in 1936, gives blind vendors a preference for certain federal contracts, mainly for vending machines and cafeterias. About 2,716 blind vendors operate 3,292 vending facilities on federal property nationwide, according to the Rehabilitation Services Administration, which oversees the law.
The Javits Wagner O'Day Act created in 1971 offers job training and placement services through nonprofit groups for the blind and severely disabled. About 500 nonprofit groups work through the National Industries for the Severely Handicapped, a nonprofit organization that organizes groups to get contracts under the Javits law. More than 35,000 people with severe disabilities have jobs through the Javits program.
Groups that fall under both acts have contracts at military bases and other federal facilities, but which group gets the most priority is still in question.
Finn said one of Ensign's concerns is that the language of the law appears to allow blind vendors to take away contracts from the groups covered by the Javits act before those contracts expire.
"This is an unfair situation in Sen. Ensign's mind," Finn said.
Ralph Sanders, spokesman for the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America, said case law has established that the blind get a preference for military base food service contracts and take precedence over a Javits program. But groups with contracts under the Javits Wagner O'Day Act contracts say they believe it is still a gray area in the law.
The military takes the preference into account as part of an overall contract proposal, and the preference is a big help in landing a contract.
Ensign's provision says that a non-blind vendor can keep the contract it presently has and maintain it through the life of the contract.
The language was not included in the House bill and it will have to be negotiated in a conference committee, which will determine content of the final bill that will be sent to the president.
Finn said none of the language approved in the bill would apply to future contracts. It only relates to contracts already in place so other vendors cannot renegotiate contracts.
Sanders said the approved language locks contracts in place, even though courts have ruled that the blind have the priority for food services on military bases. Ensign's amendment leaves more room for litigation and doesn't resolve any outstanding questions, Sanders said.
"When a new one (contract) comes open, it's a question on who will get it," Sanders said.
The other question is who works for the vendors.
Saperstein said the problem is that contracts that are covered by the Javits act offer menial jobs where workers can get paid less than minimum wage while the Randolph-Sheppard Act involves management positions. He said the blind manager could hire the blind, disabled or anyone he or she wanted.
Twenty other blind vendors have contracts at Hoover Dam and other federal facilities through the Randolph-Sheppard Act.
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