The credit for bringing this to our attention goes to:

Nancy O'Donnell
Joe McNulty
Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths
and Adults
141 Middle Neck Road
Sands Point, NY 11050
516-944-8900 ext 326
HKNCNOD@...
www.hknc.org

First, here is what it is all about, and below it,
there will be information on how to contact your
legislators:

We are all familiar with the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In adult services,
the comparable legislation is the Vocational
Rehabilitation Act. And within the U.S. Department of
Education's Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitation Services (OSERS), there are three
units: The Office of Special Education Programs(OSEP),
which monitors the DB State Projects, NTAC and
DB-LINK; The Rehabilitation Services Administration
(RSA), which monitors HKNC and all the State VR and
Blindness agencies; and The National Institute of
Disability Rehabilitation and Research (NIDRR).

The way VR is currently set up, the federal
government provides approximately 80% of the funding
to the States and the States put in approximately 20%.
Similar to the Deaf-Blind children's projects, each
State submits a State Plan and, once the plan is
approved, the State is monitored by the RSA office.
There is a State VR agency in every State and about
half the States also have a separate agency serving
the blind. The VR system was established nearly 85
years ago and is the only national program providing
rehab training to people with disabilities.

Now it gets a bit confusing ... the VR Act
is part of a larger piece of legislation, the
Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which was passed in
1998. What this law did was combine about 25 or 26
federally funded job training programs under one roof.
These are known as the One Stops. The thinking behind
this law is that anyone looking for a job, whether
they have a disability or not, can go to one of these
WIA offices and receive assistance in finding a job.

All of the 25 or 26 partners contribute a
portion of their overall budgets to support the One
Stops. By having everything under one roof, people
would not be shuffled from agency to agency. Thus the
term One Stop. Very few people with significant
disabilities have been satisfied with the new system
and everyone still depends primarily on VR.

WIA is up for reauthorization and Congress
has begun the process. The new WIA bill introduced in
the House a few weeks ago is called HR 27 and they
have added an amendment which calls for the combining
of the entire budgets of 9 of the bigger programs into
1. The nine programs include VR which is the largest,
by far, in terms of how much money the Federal
Government provides.

The plan calls for all the funding to be put
in one pot and sent to each Governor who can then
decide how the money should be spent within the State.

There are too many things wrong with this
approach to list here. Despite what the House staff
are saying as far giving assurances that people with
disabilities will be served adequately, it is not a
good plan. The focus is entirely on job placement
with nothing about training. And there is no focus on
the Independent Living skills that so many people with
disabilities need. Most importantly, it could lead to
the elimination of VR as a program because the
monitoring function will likely be sent over to the
Department of Labor.

If this was a good piece of legislation, they
would have held public hearings and asked for input
from consumers, parents and service providers.
Instead, they've tried to push this in unseen and hope
to have it voted on by next week before any one
notices.

What the disability advocates are calling for
is to have people contact their elected officials and
express their concern over this proposed amendment.
Again, it's called the Workforce Investment Act Plus
Employment and Training Consolidated Grant Program.
And the message is simply that you are opposed to this
amendment because it will not benefit people with
disabilities. It's vital that VR stay an independent
program with it's own funding because it's the only
program that can provide people with disabilities the
training and support services they need in order to
find and
keep a job.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Suter
[mailto:carlsuter@...]
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 7:02 PM
To: Rehabnet@...
Subject: [rehabnet] ACTION ALERT for February, 10,
2005

CSAVR has been working with its Legislative Committee
to develop an ACTION ALERT. There are a number of very
important issues that we have been contemplating being
part of the ACTION ALERTthat deserve our immediate
attention:

* Elimination of the Regions
* An inadequate proposed '06 Administration
Budget that eliminates Supported Employment, Projects
with Industry, and Migrant grants. The '06 Budget,
while proposing a 3.2% increase, falls substanially
short of providing the necessary resources to maintain
the funding of those very necessay programs targeted
for elimination.

However, we have now learned that the House Education
and Workforce Committee will propose an amendment next
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 that could potentially
gut the ability of the VR program to provide services
and employment opportunities to individuals with
significant disabilities. Consequently, this ACTION
ALERT is dedicated solely to this issue.

This is what you would do if you want to respond
to the Action Alert:

Contact Members of the House authorizing Committee
(Education & Workforce) and urge Committee Members to
reject any attempts to include the "WIA Consolidated
Grant Program," into HR 27, the House bill to
reauthorize the WIA. HR 27 is tentatively scheduled
for Full Committee mark-up on February 16. If
consumers, advocates, friends and supporters live in
states that do not have a Member on the authorizing
Committee, please have them contact their State
Congressional Delegation and ask them to contact
Chairman Boehner with the same message.

Contact is to be by fax or phone call; please do not
send emails. Attached please find a list of Committee
Members. Contact information for the entire House of
Representatives can be obtained at www.house.gov.
Make no mistake about it, the Public VR Program
intended by Congress to have dedicated resources to
provide individualized services and supports to
individuals with significant disabilities could
potentially cease to exist. If persons with
disabilities are to have a VR program that is
accountable and dedicated to their employment needs,
now is the time to act.

Talking Points for Supporters of the VR Program Say
"NO" to the "WIA Consolidated Grant Program" amendment
The proposed amendment would do away with
accountability and choice for VR consumers Funds
historically dedicated exclusively for services to
persons with disabilities seeking employment could be
utilized for other purposes under this amendment. If
you live in a state with a representative of the
Workforce Committee on it (as listed below), contact
him or her:

House Education and the Workforce Committee

Full Committee Members -- 109th Congress
(updated February 3, 2005)

John A. Boehner, Ohio, Chairman

Republican Members (27)

Democrat Members (22)

Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
(Vice Chairman)

George Miller, California
(Ranking Minority Member)

Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, California

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan

Michael N. Castle, Delaware

Major R. Owens, New York

Sam Johnson, Texas

Donald M. Payne, New Jersey

Mark E. Souder, Indiana

Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey

Charlie Norwood, Georgia

Robert C. Scott, Virginia

Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan

Lynn C. Woolsey, California

Judy Biggert, Illinois

Rubén Hinojosa, Texas

Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania

Carolyn McCarthy, New York

Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio

John F. Tierney, Massachusetts

Ric Keller, Florida

Ron Kind, Wisconsin

Tom Osborne, Nebraska

Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio

Joe Wilson, South Carolina

David Wu, Oregon

Jon C. Porter, Nevada

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey

John Kline, Minnesota

Susan A. Davis, California

Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado

Betty McCollum, Minnesota

Bob Inglis, South Carolina

Danny K. Davis, Illinois

Cathy McMorris, Washington

Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona

Kenny Marchant, Texas

Chris Van Hollen, Maryland

Tom Price, Georgia

Tim Ryan, Ohio

Luis Fortuño, Puerto Rico

Timothy H. Bishop, New York

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana

John Barrow, Georgia

Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Louisiana

Virginia Foxx, North Carolina

Thelma D. Drake, Virginia

John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr., New York

Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness
Members --109th Congress
(updated February 2, 2005)

Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, Chairman

Republicans (18)

Democrats (15)

Jon C. Porter, Nevada
Vice Chairman

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Ranking Minority Member

John A. Boehner, Ohio

Donald M. Payne, New Jersey

Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin

Carolyn McCarthy, New York

Michael N. Castle, Delaware

John F. Tierney, Massachusetts

Sam Johnson, Texas

Ron Kind, Wisconsin

Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan

David Wu, Oregon

Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey

Ric Keller, Florida

Betty McCollum, Minnesota

Tom Osborne, Nebraska

Chris Van Hollen, Maryland

Bob Inglis, South Carolina

Tim Ryan, Ohio

Cathy McMorris, Washington

Robert C. Scott, Virginia

Tom Price, Georgia

Susan A. Davis, California

Luis Fortuño, Puerto Rico

Timothy H. Bishop, New York

Charles W. Boustany, Louisiana

John Barrow, Georgia

Virginia Foxx, North Carolina

Major Owens, New York

Thelma D. Drake, Virginia

George Miller, ex officio, California

John R. "Randy" Kuhl, New York
--
http://todddaniels.blogspot.com/
http://odinslair.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/jamiesandhillcrane


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