TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1980.

COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM THE BLIND AND
OTHER SEVERELY HANDICAPPED

WITNESSES

CLYDE C. COOK, CHAIRMAN

CHARLES W. FLETCHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Mr. STEED. The committee will be in order.

The committee is meeting to take up the 1981 budget request for the Committee for Purchase from the Blind and Other Severely Handicapped.

The appropriation to date, is $481,000, with a pay supplemental pending of $14,000, which would bring the 1980 total to $495,000. The budget estimate for 1981 is $516,000, an increase over 1980 of $21,000.

We are very pleased to have Mr. Cook and Mr. Fletcher with us. Gentlemen, we will be pleased to have your statement in support of this budget request, and we will put your written statement in the record as read or you may highlight it.

MR. CLYDE C. COOK, CHAIRMAN
COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM THE BLIND

AND OTHER SEVERELY HANDICAPPED

Mr. Chairman, we are pleased to appear here today to present the appropriations request of the Committee for Purchase from the Bl ind and Other Severely Handicapped for fiscal year 1981. With me today is Mr. Charles W. Fletcher, the Executive Director of the Committee.

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This Committee was created by the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (Public Law 92-28) in 1971. The Committee is the successor the Committee on Purchases of Blind-Made Products established by the Wagner-O'Day Act of 1938. Its purpose is to increase employment opportunities for blind and other severely handicapped, and whenever possible, to prepare these individuals to engage in normal competitive employment. The Committee's primary means for achieving its objective is to direct the Government's procurement of selected commodities and services to qualified workshops serving the blind and other severely handicapped.

The 15 members on the Committee are appointed by the President. Eleven members represent various Government agencies and four are private citizens who are conversant with the problems in employing the blind and other severely handicapped.

Under the Act, the Committee has the responsibility for determining which products and services are suitable for provision to the Government by qualified workshops serving the blind and other severely handicapped, and for establishing the price which the Government will pay for

those commodities and services.

During the past year, the Committee has continued its progress in expanding the benefits of the Javits-WagnerO'Day Act to increasing numbers of blind and other severely handicapped individuals.

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Workshop sales the Federal Government under the Committee's program during fiscal year 1979 were $84 million. In addition, sales through the military resale program were about $8 million for a total of over $92 million under this program.