Washington, D.C. - United States Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) today introduced a bill to protect individuals with severe disabilities employed by the federal government who are at risk of losing their jobs due to competitive sourcing. Van Hollen’s legislation, The Disabled Federal Employees Protection Act (DFEPA), states that in cases where federal jobs are contracted out, a federal employee should not lose his or her job if that employee is an individual with a significant physical or developmental disability and had been hired under a program designed for individuals with such disabilities.
“It is wrong for the federal government to auction off the jobs of individuals with severe disabilities to the lowest bidder,” said Van Hollen. “The federal government has developed certain programs to provide individuals with severe disabilities the opportunity to work with dignity. The DFEPA will protect the jobs of individuals who’ve gained employment through those programs.”
Van Hollen discovered the need for this legislation last fall when he visited the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The Hospital has developed an innovative and successful program which hires individuals with developmental disabilities from the surrounding community to work in its kitchen and cafeteria. Many of these individuals have worked there for more than twenty years. They are hard-working, reliable, and admired by the naval officers and staff.
During the visit, Van Hollen learned that an Office of Management and Budget directive had selected these positions to be subject to competitive sourcing. In other words, these hard-working employees, who had been hired under a federal program designed specifically to hire the severely disabled, would be forced to compete for their own jobs against people who were not disabled, leaving them at serious risk of losing their jobs. Van Hollen wrote President Bush and the Secretary of the Navy about this injustice and as a result, plans to compete these jobs were withdrawn.