GovernmentExecutive.com

ksaldarini@govexec.com

Agency leaders need to make sure their employees are buying products and services from the blind and disabled through the federal Javits-Wagner-O'Day program, President Clinton said in an executive memo issued last week.

The JWOD program, operated by the Committee for the Purchase From People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled, uses the government's purchasing power to generate jobs and training for more than 34,000 blind or disabled individuals. Under the 1971 Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Act, federal agencies are required to purchase certain products and services from nonprofit agencies that employ blind and disabled workers.

"I call upon you to recognize the contributions made to the federal government by individuals with disabilities under the JWOD program and to take steps to ensure that your agencies' procurement executives, and other employees who acquire supplies for your agency, purchase JWOD products and services, consistent with existing law," the President wrote.

Government purchase card holders need to be particularly vigilant about remembering to purchase JWOD products, Clinton said.

Under procurement reform initiatives of the mid-1990s, agencies encouraged their employees to use government purchase cards for small purchases from a variety of sources, instead of relying only on getting items through General Services Administration warehouses, a primary distributor of JWOD products. JWOD product sales have dropped as an unintended consequence of such reform.

The recently announced closure of several of these warehouses, along with a long-term trend towards online purchasing, the ready availability of commercial, rather than federal products, and other reforms in the federal marketplace, have forced JWOD agencies to find other ways of getting their products into federal customers' hands.

"Participants in the JWOD program are taking steps to adjust to these and other changes in the federal procurement environment, but the transition is a dynamic and far-reaching process that requires strong support from government customers," Clinton's memo said.

The JWOD program recently launched a Web site, www.JWOD.com, that sells office supplies, cleaning supplies and other business products made by the blind and disabled as part of its ongoing efforts to transfer business to new distribution channels.