Washington, D.C. - Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) held a press conference today to highlight the impact of the Bush Administration’s agenda on people with disabilities, specifically in the areas of healthcare, Social Security, education and employment and housing. David Goodman of Rockville, MD, and Aaron and Jay Kaufman, of Chevy Chase, MD joined Van Hollen at today’s press conference. David, who has autism, is an employee at NIH whose job is threatened by the Bush Administration’s privatization initiatives to outsource government jobs. Aaron and Jay have cerebral palsy and are concerned about how they will be affected by GOP policies on people with disabilities.
Van Hollen recently introduced legislation to protect individuals with severe disabilities employed by the federal government who are at risk of losing their jobs due to outsourcing. Van Hollen’s legislation, The Federal Employees With Disabilities Protection Act (FEDPA), 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.