Opportunities to Stay in Place for Disabled Workers

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank President Trump and his Department of Labor for stopping an administrative rule that was going to get rid of 14(c) certificates, which are so vital for the lives of our disabled citizens as they pursue good lives of work and self-esteem.

Mr. Speaker, 14(c) certificates are used by people who work in work centers. They may have spina bifida. They may have Down syndrome. That doesn't mean that they can't lead productive lives doing packaging and light manufacturing. I have several facilities in my district, such as Green Valley Enterprises in Beaver Dam and RCS Empowers in Sheboygan, that provide these opportunities for people with different abilities.

Not only does this give them an opportunity to interact with other people who have disabilities, but it also provides them with a little extra money to supplement their SSI income, from which they can buy clothes, buy gifts, and go out to eat from time to time.

In order to allow these folks to work, some of them have to be paid less than minimum wage. Mr. Speaker, if you have never seen one of these work centers, I encourage you to go to the work centers, where you will see people with different abilities at work.

Everybody who works there that I can see is happy to be there and is working there because it is their choice. Nevertheless, I think arrogant people in the Biden Department of Labor had decided that they would get rid of the 14(c) certificates and tell these people, in essence, that they no longer can work, that they can go to a day center and watch television, but they are not allowed to work like their siblings work. They would not be allowed to get out and about in the community where they would get to know people other than their immediate relatives.

Fortunately, Trump's Department of Labor stepped up and said that they are not going to change the rules and continue to allow work centers to exist. Maybe they are making $4 or $5 an hour to supplement their SSI, but if they want to choose, they can still work there. Hopefully, we will expand the use of work centers so that people begin to work there when they are 18 or 19 years old, like they used to.

One of the great things, like I said, about work centers is that not only do they give disabled Americans a little bit more independence, but they give them the ability to form a lot more friendships, both with other people whose abilities are similar to their own and the management staff at these facilities.

The Democratic Party has tried to prevent people from working there, saying that they are being taken advantage of, which is preposterous. Anybody who looks at these packaging or light manufacturing facilities will see immediately why you have to pay some people under minimum wage.

Secondly, my Democratic colleagues claim that people are being isolated among other people with different abilities. Again, there are people with a wide variety of abilities in these places.

There is an opportunity to form lifetime bonds with people in these facilities. I think of The Threshold in West Bend, RCS Empowers in Sheboygan, Green Valley in Beaver Dam, and Ascend Services in Manitowoc.

I think of the lifelong friends that these people form when their parents and guardians frequently worry after the parents are no longer here, what will these people do for socialization? Where will these people find friends? They find friends in the work centers, and it is horrific for the Biden Department of Labor to try to shut these places down.

In any event, one more time: I thank President Trump for preserving the work centers. I hope his Department of Labor continues to look for more opportunities in these facilities for people at a younger and younger age, reminding you all that this is only if these folks choose to work in the work centers. Everybody else can work wherever they want, but they want these folks stuck perhaps in a place where they are just watching TV or playing games all day.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to tour the work centers. If they do tour the work centers, I think they, too, will become fans of them.

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