Remarks of Congressman Bobby Scott

From the Editor: Representative Bobby Scott has been the congressman for the Third District of Virginia since 1993. He has the distinction of being the first African-American elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Virginia since Reconstruction. He currently serves as the chairperson of the Committee on Education and Labor in the United States House of Representatives. From this position he demonstrates his courage and commitment as the chief champion with his commitment to the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, that, when passed, will eliminate unequal pay to workers with disabilities. Here are the remarks he made:

Thank you Mark for your very kind introduction, and thank you for inviting me to join this year’s Great Gathering-In. You know, you gave us all those quotations. Let me give you another one. Martin Luther King frequently said that “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Now others have added in, “The moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, but it doesn’t bend by itself.” The National Federation of the Blind is bending that arc toward justice, and I want to thank you for all of that work. I want to recognize the NFB board and the staff as well as Federation members from around the country. I want to especially thank those who are here from Virginia. How many of you are here? I want to give a shout-out to Tracy, Eureka, Stuart, and everybody from Virginia who are here today. Advancing equal opportunity and independence for the blind and people with disabilities requires us to work together. Thanks to your hard work and some strong partnerships, I’m happy to report that the House Committee on Education and Labor is making progress. Last October we introduced the College Affordability Act or the CAA, a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s higher education system. The proposal not only lowers the cost of college, improves the quality of college, but also expands the opportunities for those students to graduate, including those with disabilities. Specifically the bill provides faculty with the resources to deliver accessible and inclusive instruction and leverage instructional materials and technology. Simply put, the College Affordability Act better aligns our higher education system with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act so that all students can reach their full potential.

We’ve also worked with Congress to guarantee workers with disabilities the right to earn a fair wage. This past July the House passed the Raise the Wage Act, which will gradually increase the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour by 2025. We’ve gone more than ten years without a minimum wage increase, the longest period in history. This bill will increase the pay for over 33 million workers, and lift 1.3 million out of poverty, including 600,000 children. But the Raise the Wage Act does not just ensure that some workers have access to a decent wage. It ensures that all workers receive the full minimum wage by eliminating the Section 14(c) subminimum wage. That 14(c) subminimum wage is outdated and discriminatory. It has not been reformed since 1938 when the Fair Labor Standards Act was created over eighty years ago. The provision continues to allow employers to pay workers with disabilities subminimum wages based not on performance and skill but on their disability status alone. Today more than half the workers with disabilities who are paid a subminimum wage make less than two dollars an hour. In the worst cases, workers with disabilities can be, and some are, paid just pennies an hour. The 14(c) subminimum wage is a relic of those times that assumed that people with disabilities could not perform. Yet, thanks to generations of struggle, federal laws like the ADA now guarantee the right to access and participation in our communities.

This year we’ll celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the ADA, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was even signed by a Republican president. Every member of Congress should now agree that it’s long past time for all workers, regardless of zip code, race, gender, or ability status to have the right to earn a fair wage. But it’s been more than two hundred days since the House passed the Raise the Wage Act, so you need to talk to your senators to tell them to take up this bill. We have to keep up the pressure. Senators blocking this bill must explain to voters why they do not believe that workers deserve a decent wage, especially when studies have shown that if you are working full time at the minimum wage of $7.25, you cannot afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in any county in this country. I didn’t say can’t afford it in San Francisco or Manhattan; in no county in America can a full-time minimum wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

So, while the Raise the Wage Act awaits action in the Senate, the committee is also working on ways to ensure that workers with disabilities can successfully transition out of the 14(c) subminimum wage. Earlier this year I introduced H.R. 873, the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, which is a bipartisan proposal to accompany the Raise the Wage Act. While the minimum wage bill phases out the 14(c) subminimum wage, this bill compels states and employers to work with the disability community toward creating fully integrated and competitive employment opportunities for all workers with disabilities. The bill establishes a competitive grant program to push states to transition workers with disabilities being paid a subminimum wage to competitive, integrated employment. Even in states that don’t want to participate, the bill provides resources directly to businesses to independently form partnerships to meet the needs both of employers and workers. Finally, the bill establishes a nationwide technical assistance center to help transition individuals to competitive, integrated employment.
The evidence is clear: individuals with disabilities are more productive and effective when they are integrated into the general workforce and paid a fair wage. Transformation to the Competitive Employment Act protects the civil rights of individuals with disabilities and encourages businesses to tap into this underutilized resource. With your support, we will continue to work on a bipartisan basis with our colleagues to bring the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act to the House floor. Finally, I’m pleased to see that the members of the NFB were able to offer testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights at a hearing on the subminimum wage last November, where I also testified on the need to support workers with disabilities to end the 14(c) subminimum wage and provide resources to transition workers with disabilities into competitive, integrated employment. Ending 14(c) is a critical civil rights issue that deserves our nation’s attention.

Throughout the last eight decades NFB has been a critical advocate for the rights of blind Americans. Please continue to stay engaged, make your voices heard, and do not back down!

In the words of NFB’s founder, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, “If we work together, we can do more than just guarantee the right to live in this world. We can empower people with disabilities to thrive in this world.” Thank you very much for all that you do.