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Representative Foxx Co-Sponsors Bill To Reinstate IFB Federal Contracts

Workers at IFB Solutions in Winston-Salem. DAVID FORD/WFDD

U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx has co-sponsored a bill to restore federal contracts with IFB Solutions. The Winston-Salem-based company has made eyeglasses for the Department of Veterans Affairs for the past two decades.   

The resolution addresses laws that oversee federal contracts with companies that employ the blind or severely disabled.

IFB Solutions is fighting to keep over 100 positions following an announcement that the VA would end three optical contracts with the agency.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that IFB is the largest employer of the blind in the U.S.

Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, is asking the government to review VA contracts drawn up under AbilityOne, a congressional act giving the federal government preference to award contracts to companies that employ the blind. A recent court ruling sided with veteran-owned businesses over AbilityOne nonprofits.

IFB has appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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