The state of Oregon accuses the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of breaking a law that gives preference to blind people to run vending operations on government property.
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, acting on behalf of the Oregon Commission for the Blind, has sued the VA for failing to follow the law at its Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City, about 10 miles north of Medford.
At issue is the Randolph-Sheppard Act of 1936, which is intended to provide economic opportunities and job stimulation for people who are blind, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Medford’s U.S. District Court.
For more than 40 years, the VA’s White City facility has employed up to 600 employees and maintained a food court and 28 vending machines, according to the lawsuit. In recent years, those machines have generated a net profit of about $6,000 a month.
The Oregon Commission for the Blind accuses the VA of failing to follow the Randolph-Sheppard law. The dispute has dragged on since 2009, when the state agency requested a permit to provide vending services at the White City facility.
Veterans Affairs denied the request, saying it was exempt from the law, according to the lawsuit. But a panel of arbitrators found that the law did apply to the facility and that the VA was in violation of the law.
“Notwithstanding the issuance of the arbitration panel’s decision, the VA continues to maintain that the (Randolph-Sheppard Act) does not apply to its facility and refuses to take any remedial action to issue the permit sought by the OCB or to otherwise prioritize blind vendors,” the lawsuit alleges.
The VA facility, contacted about the lawsuit on Monday, had no immediate comment.
