Thousands of disabled federal contract workers sent home due to shutdown, managers say

Disabled workers struggling with anxiety after finding themselves out of work.

By Aaron Gregg January 22 at 9:13 AM

Thousands of disabled people employed with the government through a federal contracting set-aside program have been sent home without pay because of the partial government shutdown, nonprofit managers who employed them say, raising new concerns about how the shutdown is impacting those least prepared to weather it.

The people affected include those with “significant disabilities," including learning disorders, who may have trouble coping with the anxiety of losing a job. Some of them say they’ve missed rent payments and skipped medical procedures after their health insurance lapsed. Others say they may have to stop paying for medications they need.

The nonprofit government contractors that employ them operate in almost every U.S. state, highlighting how the shutdown has altered lives throughout the country. Workers, managers and advocates worry that the extended shutdown is threatening a federal program called AbilityOne, which designates certain federal contracts for nonprofits employing people who are blind or have other disabilities.

John Kelly, vice president of government relations and public policy at SourceAmerica, an organization that works with more than 400 such nonprofits, said he is aware of 143 nonprofits across 43 states that have been affected.

“We have more than 2,000 people with disabilities that were working on federal contracts that aren’t today,” Kelly said. “These are people who may have searched for this job for years, it really works for them and is a really key part of their life, and now they don’t know if they’re going to get that job back or not.”

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