Arbitration Panel Decisions Under the Randolph-Sheppard Act

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

For the purpose of providing individuals who are blind with remunerative employment, enlarging their economic opportunities, and stimulating greater efforts to make themselves self-supporting, the Randolph-Sheppard Act, 20 U.S.C. 107 et seq. (Act), authorizes individuals who are blind to operate vending facilities on Federal property and provides them with a priority for doing so. The vending facilities include, among other things, cafeterias, snack bars, and automatic vending machines. The Department administers the Act and designates an agency in each participating State—the State licensing agency (SLA)—to license individuals who are blind to operate vending facilities on Federal and other property in the State.

The Act provides for arbitration of disputes between SLAs and vendors who are blind and between SLAs and Federal agencies before three-person panels, convened by the Department, whose decisions constitute final agency action. 20 U.S.C. 107d-1. The Act also makes these decisions matters of public record and requires their publication in the Federal Register . 20 U.S.C. 107d-2(c).

The Department publishes lists of Randolph-Sheppard Act arbitration panel decisions in the Federal Register . The full texts of the decisions listed are available on the Department's website (see below) or by request (see 82 FR 41941 (Sept. 5, 2017)). Older, archived decisions are also added to the Department's website as they are digitized.

During the first and second quarters of 2024, the Department received four new decisions issued by Randolph-Sheppard arbitration panels that were made publicly available during the second quarter of 2024. The following table lists these four decisions from most recent to oldest based on their decision dates.