[Arizona-students] Fw: Good Article on RSA Goings On

[Allison Hilliker]

Hi all,

Just passing this along for those who are interested.  I think this article 
is very clear and concise about the issues and the actions being taken. 
I've found some articles rather complex and cumbersome to read, but I really 
liked this one.  Easy to follow I think.

Best,
Allison

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>


> FYI - from GovExec.com:
>
>
> GovExec.com
>
>
> DAILY BRIEFING June 13, 2005
>
>
>
>
> Advocates for blind fight reorganization of Education agency
>
> By Brian Friel, National Journal
> bfriel at nationaljournal.com
> The restructuring of a federal agency, if it registers at all outside the
> bureaucracy, usually produces a stifled yawn.
> But on May 26, a thousand or more blind and disabled people -- some with
> guide dogs, others in wheelchairs -- circled on the sidewalk in front of 
> the
> Education Department's headquarters in southwest Washington. The 
> protesters
> came to vilify the assistant secretary responsible for the planned
> reorganization of a 125-person branch of the department, the little-known
> Rehabilitation Services Administration.
> "If you listen to John Hager, you are bound to be a beggar," the
> sign-wielding crowd chanted at the behest of James Gashel, head lobbyist 
> for
> the National Federation of the Blind.
> Protesters pushed a 7-foot-tall Grim Reaper, festooned with a "Department 
> of
> Education" label, into a casket and then six protesters in top hats served
> as pallbearers to carry him away. "This must be the vestige of John 
> Hager,"
> Gashel said. "We can take him down."
> The melodramatic display and the singling out of Hager -- a former
> lieutenant governor of Virginia who has been bound to a wheelchair since 
> he
> contracted polio from a vaccine in the 1970s -- shows the lengths to which
> advocates for the blind will go to protect obscure programs that deliver
> hundreds of millions of dollars a year in services.
> In this fight, the Bush administration says the scheduled changes are just
> necessary streamlining, but the blind have pulled out all the stops to
> prevent what they call a concerted effort to diminish a program built
> specifically to help them. Most Americans with disabilities are served by
> broad federal programs administered for all categories of disabled people,
> not by disability-specific efforts. But "there's a long-standing 
> precedent"
> for blind-specific programs," Gashel said in an interview.
> At issue is Hager's announced plan to close the RSA's 10 regional offices
> and to cut half of the agency's staff. The agency oversees 80 state
> vocational rehabilitation programs -- about 25 administering only to the
> blind -- which dispense about $2.7 billion a year in federal grants to 
> help
> the disabled live independently and get jobs. Hager, a Republican, wants 
> the
> remainder of the RSA staff to oversee the programs from Washington.
> Hager also told disability advocates at a May 24 meeting that the
> administration plans to eliminate the RSA's Division for the Blind and
> Visually Impaired, rolling its responsibilities into offices that oversee
> programs for people with other disabilities. "The blind are only 4 percent
> of all disabilities," Hager said in an interview. "We're restructuring in 
> a
> functional manner ... to adopt a standard approach."
> The reorganization will free up $8 million in administrative expenses that
> can be used to provide more direct services to people with disabilities,
> Hager argued. The changes will also ensure standard practices across the
> country and eliminate regional offices as the "middlemen" between state
> rehabilitation agencies and RSA headquarters, according to an Education
> Department fact sheet. Hager is also pushing Congress to demote the RSA
> commissioner's post from one that requires Senate confirmation, and 
> instead
> make the position an executive branch appointment.
> As assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services,
> Hager oversees the RSA as well as $11 billion a year in grants that Uncle
> Sam gives to states for special-education programs in public schools.
> Eliminating Senate confirmation would make the line of authority at the 
> RSA
> clearer, Hager said. RSA commissioners have tended to clash with their
> superiors; in a recent example, RSA Commissioner Joanne Wilson, a Bush
> appointee, resigned in March in opposition to the proposed changes.
> Wilson has since gone to work for the Baltimore-based National Federation 
> of
> the Blind to lobby against Hager's plans.
> Speaking at the protest outside her former office, Wilson said the 
> proposal
> is part of a strategy to diminish specialized services, not just for the
> blind, but for all people with disabilities. Her fears are partly based on
> another administration proposal that would give governors the power to 
> lump
> vocational rehabilitation grants into a larger pool of federal 
> job-training
> money. That proposal, pushed primarily by the Labor Department, has failed
> to gain traction in Congress, which is currently working on a
> reauthorization of federal job-training programs, including the RSA, 
> through
> the Workforce Investment Act.
> The federation for the blind and other disability advocacy groups have
> lobbied against the job-training consolidation plan, telling members of
> Congress that the disabled need a special, dedicated program. The Labor
> Department's arguments that folding the disability program into the larger
> job-training budget would give the disabled access to a larger pool of
> employers and that special services would be protected have thus far not
> proved persuasive. Labor's proposal has not been included in either the
> House-passed or the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
> Committee-approved versions of authorizing legislation.
> While disabled groups have been largely united against the Labor 
> Department
> proposal, less consensus exists about the blind federation's view of the
> threat from the RSA changes. The disabled lobby includes more than 100
> groups, about 40 of which co-sponsored the federation's protest outside 
> the
> Education Department.
> But the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, the largest umbrella
> group for disabled advocates, did not endorse the event, because some of 
> its
> member organizations are willing to give the Education Department the
> benefit of the doubt that its plans for the RSA are designed to improve
> operations. Charles Harles, executive director of the Inter-National
> Association of Business, Industry, and Rehabilitation, who also does work
> for the consortium, said, "We have avoided taking a position, because 
> there
> were divergent views on that issue." Nancy Starnes, vice president for the
> National Organization on Disability, another generally conservative group,
> said her group supports the administration. "If they're telling me this is
> the most efficient way to deliver equitable services, I'm willing to give
> them a chance," Starnes said.
> But the protest did garner the support of several important groups,
> including the National Association of the Deaf and the American 
> Association
> of People with Disabilities. In addition, four former RSA commissioners --
> Wilson, Fredric Schroeder of the Clinton administration, Robert Humphreys 
> of
> the Carter administration, and Edward Newman of the Nixon 
> administration --
> spoke at the rally against Hager's plans. The four also signed a protest
> letter sponsored by the federation that appeared as a full-page ad in The
> Washington Times on May 26.
> In the letter, the four said that eliminating Senate confirmation of their
> former position would weaken disability advocacy within the executive
> branch. "The voice of the executive branch's advocate for people with
> disabilities will be silenced, and Congress's long-standing involvement in
> the selection of the program's leadership will be undermined," the letter
> read.
> The federation also persuaded Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., to circulate a
> letter calling on Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to explain in
> detail the administration's rationale for the RSA restructuring. "We're in
> the dark," Osborne said in an interview. "We're just asking for
> clarification from the administration on its plans. We're concerned if its
> planning was insufficient and if they would let people fall through the
> cracks."
> The federation and other disabled advocates upset by the proposed RSA
> restructuring are urging lawmakers to adopt language in appropriations
> legislation to block the Education Department plans. At the grassroots
> level, activists are contacting members of Congress to fight the changes.
> The House version of the Workforce Investment Act reauthorization includes 
> a
> provision eliminating Senate confirmation of the RSA commissioner 
> position.
> A compromise pushed by Osborne would grandfather in a Senate-confirmed RSA
> commissioner already serving when the act is signed into law, but so far 
> the
> Bush administration has not nominated a successor to Wilson. The Senate
> version of the bill does not change the RSA commissioner's status.
> Hager criticized the protesters for linking the RSA changes to the Labor
> Department's job-training consolidation proposal, saying the two are
> unrelated. The job-training plan "is a Department of Labor proposal," he
> said, "and most people don't think it's necessarily going to pass this 
> year.
> And if it did, they're not taking into account all the hoops governors 
> would
> have to jump through" to consolidate programs, Hager continued. "They 
> mixed
> their issues and got people confused about what they were talking about."
> Gashel said the timing of the RSA changes and the Labor Department 
> proposal
> make Hager's assertion impossible to believe. "It strains credulity," 
> Gashel
> said.
> Asked if the federation-led protest had any effect on his plans, Hager 
> said,
> "Not really."
> Many advocates say their main complaint is that Hager didn't consult with
> them sufficiently on his plans. "Dept. of Ed ignores the voice of the
> disabled," read one of the signs at the recent protest. Hager said he will
> take the advocates' concerns into account. But the federation of the blind
> isn't buying it, and the fight now moves to Capitol Hill.
>
>
>
> David Andrews and white cane Harry.
>
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