NFB Letter to the Secretary of the Army Regarding the Randolph-Sheppard Program

Letter to the Secretary of the Army Regarding the Randolph-Sheppard Program

November 3, 2025

The Honorable Daniel Driscoll
Secretary
United States Army
101 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310

Dear Secretary Driscoll:

The National Federation of the Blind is the transformative membership and advocacy organization of blind Americans. As the President of the Federation, I write this letter on behalf of the approximately 1,400 blind entrepreneurs participating in the Randolph-Sheppard Program. I specifically write to address negative comments attributed to you in recent publications and to remarks you made on the Ruthless podcast.

We are deeply concerned about your mischaracterization of the Randolph-Sheppard Program. It concerns us that you have been provided such erroneous information and we’d very much like the opportunity to meet with you to set the record straight about the program and to have constructive dialogue about how Randolph-Sheppard can better serve our troops.

Two things you said on the podcast stood out to us. First, you asserted that chicken costs the Army twice as much because it has to be purchased from a blind vendor. The reality is that blind vendors who manage these troop-dining contracts do not purchase the food, nor do they sell it to the Army. The Army purchases the food, including chicken, directly from traditional food suppliers via standard Department of War procurement procedures.

The blind vendors simply receive the food, prepare the food in accordance with Army recipes, serve the food, clean up the dining room, and provide other auxiliary services associated with the operation of a cafeteria. Put simply, troop-dining contractors provide staffing for the DFACs. These are essentially labor contracts with the bulk of the price fixed in accordance with union contracts and/or prevailing wage requirements.

The second comment referenced the process for qualifying as a blind vendor. You stated that someone only needed to start an LLC with their blind grandma, put 51% of the shares in her name, and then set up an irrevocable trust and they qualify for these contracts. Again, this in no way reflects the way the program operates. The Randolph-Sheppard Act is a federal law that gives qualified blind individuals—not companies or trusts—the opportunity to operate vending facilities on federal property.

Each vendor must be personally licensed through their state program after receiving training and are assigned to manage these contracts based upon their knowledge and experience. We are very familiar with all of the dining contracts operated by blind vendors and are unaware of the existence of any irrevocable trusts. As far as we are aware, such an arrangement would be illegal.

We would like to make one final point. These contracts are awarded to Randolph-Sheppard vendors either through a competitive bid process, where the Randolph-Sheppard proposal is found to be within the competitive range, or through direct negotiations whereby the contracting officer has the authority to determine a fair price for the government.

Either option ensures the military is getting quality service at a reasonable price with direct negotiations actually saving the government hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative costs associated with doing a lengthy solicitation. Contracts are a maximum of five years and then the blind vendor must compete again for the contract, ensuring fairness and equal opportunity for other vendors.

We can understand and appreciate your frustration based upon the picture of the program that was painted for you, but that picture is simply not an accurate depiction of the Randolph-Sheppard program. We are in no way suggesting the program cannot be improved upon.

As a matter of fact, we know that it can be, and we would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss those improvement possibilities. Working together, we are certain that we can bring about positive change that benefits the blind of America, you as the customer, and most importantly, our men and women in uniform.

Sincerely,
Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the Blind

cc:

The Honorable Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War
The Honorable Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education
The Honorable Roger Wicker, Chairman, Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Honorable Mike Rogers, Chairman, House Committee on Armed Services
The Honorable Jack Reed, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Honorable Adam Smith, Ranking Member, House Committee on Armed Services