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Title
Box 7, Folder 10, Document 19
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Text
House Hearings on Poverty
Forecast Floor Fight on OEO
Hearings on legislation to
extend the antipoverty programs of
the Office of Economic Opportunity
(OEO) for five years began in the
House Education and Labor Commit-
tee March 24. Comments at the
opening hearing made clear that
committee members will be sharply
divided over a one-year or five-
year extension of OEO.
President Nixon has asked for
a one-year extension, saying that
would allow time for his Adminis-
tration to conduct a comprehensive
review of antipoverty programs.
However, the House chairman, Rep.
Carl D. Perkins (D Ky.), favors a
five-year extension and has intro-
duced HR 513 to accomplish that.
Continued on Page 2
ESTIMATED DISTRIBUTION OF THE 25.9
MILLION POOR PERSONS IN 1967 BY
STATUS OF HOUSEHOLD HEAD
HEAD WORKED | AGED HEAD
FULL YEAR 5.9 MILLION
8,2 MILLION
HEAD WORKED
PART YEAR
6.5 MILLION
25%
* Employment Status of non-disabled ,
non-aged household heads
oT ee Te
EE
LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN OF THE
URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
April 11, 1969 -- Vol. I, No. 4
HEW Proposes Increased Funds
For Community Health Centers
Much larger federal grants
for outpatient clinics, neighbor-
hood health centers and skilled
nursing homes have been proposed
to Congress by the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare.
HEW Secretary Robert H. Finch
asked the House Subcommittee on
Public Health and Welfare March 25
to rewrite the Hill-Burton Hospi-
tal Construction law to put in-
creased emphasis on outpatient
health care.
"The distances traveled and
hours spent in waiting for such
services by millions of our people
testify to the critical nature of
this need in almost every commu-
nity," Finch said.
Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R. NY)
has introduced a bill (S 1733)
that carries out the HEW propos-
als. It authorizes $150 million
this year for allocation by the
states to the facilities Finch
suggested. However, the present
federal program of grants for
acute-care hospital beds would be
changed to a federally guaranteed
loan program, without interest
subsidy to the hospitals.
The Action Council Letter reports legislative developments in the urban field. It is published by the Urban Coalition
Action Council, which seeks needed urban legislation
Continued from Page 1
In opening the hearings, Rep.
Perkins said a one-year extension
would be "demoralizing" to the
poor who have found hope in the
government's antipoverty efforts.
He said that OEO programs needed
the "stability" that a long ex-
tension provides. He also criti-
cized the President's plans to
transfer four OEO programs, in-
cluding Head Start and the Job
Corps, to long-established Depart-
ments.
GAO Report
A lengthy and generally fav-
orable report on the OEO was is-
sued March 18 by the General Ac-
counting Office. The GAO, which
is often referred to as Congress'
"watchdog" over the executive de-
partments, was directed by Con-
gress in 1967 to determine the
efficiency of OEO programs and the
extent to which they achieve the
objectives of the Economic Oppor-
tunity Act, the basic antipoverty
law of 1964.
The major recommendation of
the GAO was that the President es-
tablish in his Executive Office a
well-staffed office responsible
for broad planning, coordination
and evaluation of all the govern-
ment's antipoverty efforts. The
OEO would continue as an independ-
ent agency to operate the Communi-
ty Action Program and closely re-
lated activities, such as VISTA.
Other programs should be trans-
ferred to established Departments,
the GAO report said.
Comments by Sen. Nelson
The report was dismissed by
Rep. Perkins as "not worth the pa-
per it is written on," but more
favorable comments came from his
Senate counterpart, Gaylord Nel-
son (D Wis.). Sen. Nelson is
chairman of the poverty subcommit-
tee of the Senate Labor and Public
Welfare Committee.
In a statement March 19 Nel-
son said: "Some enemies of the war
on poverty apparently had hoped
that this report would justify a
surrender of this under-financed,
late-starting effort to help mil-
lions of Americans escape from
poverty. It does no such thing.
"Tt simply tells the White
House that fighting poverty is
such a big task that it must be
supervised by the President and
that the fight must be coordinated
throughout the vast federal bu-
reaucracy. It tells the Congress
that programs cannot function if
appropriations are withheld or
seriously delayed. It tells both
OEO and the many agencies -- fed-
eral, state and local -- with
which it works that meticulous re-
cordkeeping and evaluation are
vital if the poverty program is to
achieve its objectives."
Nelson said the GAO's recom-
mendations on the whole were "con-
structive and forward-looking."
Discrimination Study Cites
Obstacles in Upgrading Jobs
The need to upgrade employ-
ment opportunities for members of
minority groups is getting increas-
ed attention. It is buttressed by
statistics in a recent government
report showing that racial discrim-
ination, rather than lack of skills
or education, holds back the ad-
vancement of Negroes, Spanish-
speaking Americans and Indians.
The president of the National
Alliance of Businessmen, Donald M.
Kendall, told an April 1 meeting
of businessmen participating in
the JOBS program for the hard-core
unemployed that the major need is
to provide jobs with marketable
skills, not just menial jobs. As
evidence of discrimination in
upper-level positions, Kendall
said that of some 50,000 corporate
officers in this country, only two
dozen are blacks.
The statistical report on dis-
crimination was issued in March by
the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. Among industries
where discrimination is most pre-
valent, the report said, are those
with a large proportion of well-
paid employees with better-than-
average educational backgrounds.
The EEOC found that minority group
employees who succeed in getting
jobs in such companies "can expect
few promotions."
Proposals for developing mar-
ketable skills in lower-level jobs
were made in the General Account-
ing Office's review of antipoverty
programs. It found that "inten-
Sive classroom and work-experience
programs" are essential to develop
skills needed to rise above the
helper and laborer categories for
workers. ;
Congressional Liaison Men Named for HEW, HUD, Labor
The Departments of Health,
Education and Welfare, Housing and
Urban Development, and Labor have
new appointees in charge of car-
rying their legislative programs
to Congress.
The Urban Coalition Action
Council has had meetings with
these officials and plans to keep
in close touch with the legisla-
tive programs they develop.
HEW liaison with Congress is
in charge of Creed C. Black, Assis-
tant Secretary for Legislation. A
newspaperman and editor, with an
M.A. in political science from the
University of Chicago, Black was
executive editor of the Chicago
Daily News until he joined HEW.
His principal deputy, with
responsibility for education leg-
islation, is Charles B. Saunders
Jr. Saunders has been assistant
to the president of Brookings In-
stitution since 1961, and before
that was an assistant to former
HEW Secretary Arthur S. Flemming.
The Assistant for Congression-
al Affairs for the HUD Secretary,
George Romney, is Jack Woolley,
former director of government re-
lations for the TRW Systems Group,
a Redondo Beach, Calif., space and
defense contractor. A graduate of
>
Aa.
Two Departmental Congressional Liaison Officers
Creed C. Black, HEW Jack Woolley, HUD
the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy,
Woolley gained Washington experi-
ence as legislative affairs assis-
tant to the Secretary of the Navy
and to the Secretary of Defense in
the Eisenhower Administration.
The Labor Department's new
Special Assistant for Legislative
Affairs is William L. Gifford, a
former student of the law and po-
litical reporter. From 1959 to
1968 he was the administrative as-
sistant to then-Representative
Charles E. Goodell, now a U.S.
Senator from New York. Gifford is
a graduate of Fordham University.
Democratic, GOP Urban Plans
Issued by Economic Committee
Recommendations for action
in the urban field were made in an
April 1 report by the joint Con-
gressional Economic Committee.
Democratic Recommendations
Employment, manpower and
training programs should be ex-
panded and improved by:
-- providing comprehensive
coordinated assistance;
-- meeting critical skill
shortages such as medical services
and housing;
-- adding to the JOBS Pro-
gram, conducted by private busi-
ness, a public sector program to
hire the disadvantaged for public
service jobs.
Income maintenance (welfare)
programs for those unable to work
are underfunded and uncoordinated.
They must be improved by:
-- provision for equal treat-
ment of every needy citizen re-
gardless of location;
-- establishment of a single
local office or representative to
whom the needy can turn with as-
surance for assistance.
The highest priority must be
given to developing programs for
a massive environmental recon-
struction of urban and rural Amer-
ica, including:
-- allocation of the neces-
sary resources, both public and
private, to economic development
of maximum social impact;
-- achievement of the goal of
a decent home and a suitable liv-
ing environment for every Ameri-
can family, as provided for by the
Housing and Urban Development Act
of 1968;
-- increased funding for
antipoverty programs, especially
on the neighborhood level, and for
the model cities program.
Republican Views
Employment, manpower and
training programs benefit the in-
dividual and the economy and
should be expanded and improved:
-- consolidate various ap-
proaches into single comprehensive
program;
-- insure that MDTA programs
train people for skills in demand;
-- stimulate job training
through Federal tax credits;
-- improve job information
and worker mobility;
-- recognize that overly ra-
pid increases in the Federal mini-
mum wage may reduce employment op-
portunities;
-- intensify efforts to re-
duce discrimination in employment.
Welfare and poverty:
-- recommend guaranteeing em-
ployment opportunity rather than
guaranteeing income as best ap-
proach to alleviating poverty;
-- study national minimum
level of welfare assistance with
increased Federal support;
-- expand efforts to stimu-
late welfare recipients to become
more self-sufficient.
Improving the urban communi-
ty:
-- expand resources available
to State and local governments;
-- revenue sharing should be
seriously considered;
-- enlist the help of the
private sector in community devel-
opment through approaches such as
the Community Self-Determination
Act;
-- improve the quality of
housing through activation of the
National Corporation of Housing
Partnerships and fair housing,
zoning and tax reforms.
The Urban Coalition Action Council
1819 H St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202 293-1530
Chairman: John W. Gardner
Co-Chairmen: Andrew Heiskell
A. Philip Randolph
Executive Director: Lowell R. Beck
Legislative Associates: John P. Lagomarcino
Ronald J. James
Assistant for Legislative Information:
Georgianna F. Rathbun
Su
Forecast Floor Fight on OEO
Hearings on legislation to
extend the antipoverty programs of
the Office of Economic Opportunity
(OEO) for five years began in the
House Education and Labor Commit-
tee March 24. Comments at the
opening hearing made clear that
committee members will be sharply
divided over a one-year or five-
year extension of OEO.
President Nixon has asked for
a one-year extension, saying that
would allow time for his Adminis-
tration to conduct a comprehensive
review of antipoverty programs.
However, the House chairman, Rep.
Carl D. Perkins (D Ky.), favors a
five-year extension and has intro-
duced HR 513 to accomplish that.
Continued on Page 2
ESTIMATED DISTRIBUTION OF THE 25.9
MILLION POOR PERSONS IN 1967 BY
STATUS OF HOUSEHOLD HEAD
HEAD WORKED | AGED HEAD
FULL YEAR 5.9 MILLION
8,2 MILLION
HEAD WORKED
PART YEAR
6.5 MILLION
25%
* Employment Status of non-disabled ,
non-aged household heads
oT ee Te
EE
LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN OF THE
URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
April 11, 1969 -- Vol. I, No. 4
HEW Proposes Increased Funds
For Community Health Centers
Much larger federal grants
for outpatient clinics, neighbor-
hood health centers and skilled
nursing homes have been proposed
to Congress by the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare.
HEW Secretary Robert H. Finch
asked the House Subcommittee on
Public Health and Welfare March 25
to rewrite the Hill-Burton Hospi-
tal Construction law to put in-
creased emphasis on outpatient
health care.
"The distances traveled and
hours spent in waiting for such
services by millions of our people
testify to the critical nature of
this need in almost every commu-
nity," Finch said.
Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R. NY)
has introduced a bill (S 1733)
that carries out the HEW propos-
als. It authorizes $150 million
this year for allocation by the
states to the facilities Finch
suggested. However, the present
federal program of grants for
acute-care hospital beds would be
changed to a federally guaranteed
loan program, without interest
subsidy to the hospitals.
The Action Council Letter reports legislative developments in the urban field. It is published by the Urban Coalition
Action Council, which seeks needed urban legislation
Continued from Page 1
In opening the hearings, Rep.
Perkins said a one-year extension
would be "demoralizing" to the
poor who have found hope in the
government's antipoverty efforts.
He said that OEO programs needed
the "stability" that a long ex-
tension provides. He also criti-
cized the President's plans to
transfer four OEO programs, in-
cluding Head Start and the Job
Corps, to long-established Depart-
ments.
GAO Report
A lengthy and generally fav-
orable report on the OEO was is-
sued March 18 by the General Ac-
counting Office. The GAO, which
is often referred to as Congress'
"watchdog" over the executive de-
partments, was directed by Con-
gress in 1967 to determine the
efficiency of OEO programs and the
extent to which they achieve the
objectives of the Economic Oppor-
tunity Act, the basic antipoverty
law of 1964.
The major recommendation of
the GAO was that the President es-
tablish in his Executive Office a
well-staffed office responsible
for broad planning, coordination
and evaluation of all the govern-
ment's antipoverty efforts. The
OEO would continue as an independ-
ent agency to operate the Communi-
ty Action Program and closely re-
lated activities, such as VISTA.
Other programs should be trans-
ferred to established Departments,
the GAO report said.
Comments by Sen. Nelson
The report was dismissed by
Rep. Perkins as "not worth the pa-
per it is written on," but more
favorable comments came from his
Senate counterpart, Gaylord Nel-
son (D Wis.). Sen. Nelson is
chairman of the poverty subcommit-
tee of the Senate Labor and Public
Welfare Committee.
In a statement March 19 Nel-
son said: "Some enemies of the war
on poverty apparently had hoped
that this report would justify a
surrender of this under-financed,
late-starting effort to help mil-
lions of Americans escape from
poverty. It does no such thing.
"Tt simply tells the White
House that fighting poverty is
such a big task that it must be
supervised by the President and
that the fight must be coordinated
throughout the vast federal bu-
reaucracy. It tells the Congress
that programs cannot function if
appropriations are withheld or
seriously delayed. It tells both
OEO and the many agencies -- fed-
eral, state and local -- with
which it works that meticulous re-
cordkeeping and evaluation are
vital if the poverty program is to
achieve its objectives."
Nelson said the GAO's recom-
mendations on the whole were "con-
structive and forward-looking."
Discrimination Study Cites
Obstacles in Upgrading Jobs
The need to upgrade employ-
ment opportunities for members of
minority groups is getting increas-
ed attention. It is buttressed by
statistics in a recent government
report showing that racial discrim-
ination, rather than lack of skills
or education, holds back the ad-
vancement of Negroes, Spanish-
speaking Americans and Indians.
The president of the National
Alliance of Businessmen, Donald M.
Kendall, told an April 1 meeting
of businessmen participating in
the JOBS program for the hard-core
unemployed that the major need is
to provide jobs with marketable
skills, not just menial jobs. As
evidence of discrimination in
upper-level positions, Kendall
said that of some 50,000 corporate
officers in this country, only two
dozen are blacks.
The statistical report on dis-
crimination was issued in March by
the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. Among industries
where discrimination is most pre-
valent, the report said, are those
with a large proportion of well-
paid employees with better-than-
average educational backgrounds.
The EEOC found that minority group
employees who succeed in getting
jobs in such companies "can expect
few promotions."
Proposals for developing mar-
ketable skills in lower-level jobs
were made in the General Account-
ing Office's review of antipoverty
programs. It found that "inten-
Sive classroom and work-experience
programs" are essential to develop
skills needed to rise above the
helper and laborer categories for
workers. ;
Congressional Liaison Men Named for HEW, HUD, Labor
The Departments of Health,
Education and Welfare, Housing and
Urban Development, and Labor have
new appointees in charge of car-
rying their legislative programs
to Congress.
The Urban Coalition Action
Council has had meetings with
these officials and plans to keep
in close touch with the legisla-
tive programs they develop.
HEW liaison with Congress is
in charge of Creed C. Black, Assis-
tant Secretary for Legislation. A
newspaperman and editor, with an
M.A. in political science from the
University of Chicago, Black was
executive editor of the Chicago
Daily News until he joined HEW.
His principal deputy, with
responsibility for education leg-
islation, is Charles B. Saunders
Jr. Saunders has been assistant
to the president of Brookings In-
stitution since 1961, and before
that was an assistant to former
HEW Secretary Arthur S. Flemming.
The Assistant for Congression-
al Affairs for the HUD Secretary,
George Romney, is Jack Woolley,
former director of government re-
lations for the TRW Systems Group,
a Redondo Beach, Calif., space and
defense contractor. A graduate of
>
Aa.
Two Departmental Congressional Liaison Officers
Creed C. Black, HEW Jack Woolley, HUD
the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy,
Woolley gained Washington experi-
ence as legislative affairs assis-
tant to the Secretary of the Navy
and to the Secretary of Defense in
the Eisenhower Administration.
The Labor Department's new
Special Assistant for Legislative
Affairs is William L. Gifford, a
former student of the law and po-
litical reporter. From 1959 to
1968 he was the administrative as-
sistant to then-Representative
Charles E. Goodell, now a U.S.
Senator from New York. Gifford is
a graduate of Fordham University.
Democratic, GOP Urban Plans
Issued by Economic Committee
Recommendations for action
in the urban field were made in an
April 1 report by the joint Con-
gressional Economic Committee.
Democratic Recommendations
Employment, manpower and
training programs should be ex-
panded and improved by:
-- providing comprehensive
coordinated assistance;
-- meeting critical skill
shortages such as medical services
and housing;
-- adding to the JOBS Pro-
gram, conducted by private busi-
ness, a public sector program to
hire the disadvantaged for public
service jobs.
Income maintenance (welfare)
programs for those unable to work
are underfunded and uncoordinated.
They must be improved by:
-- provision for equal treat-
ment of every needy citizen re-
gardless of location;
-- establishment of a single
local office or representative to
whom the needy can turn with as-
surance for assistance.
The highest priority must be
given to developing programs for
a massive environmental recon-
struction of urban and rural Amer-
ica, including:
-- allocation of the neces-
sary resources, both public and
private, to economic development
of maximum social impact;
-- achievement of the goal of
a decent home and a suitable liv-
ing environment for every Ameri-
can family, as provided for by the
Housing and Urban Development Act
of 1968;
-- increased funding for
antipoverty programs, especially
on the neighborhood level, and for
the model cities program.
Republican Views
Employment, manpower and
training programs benefit the in-
dividual and the economy and
should be expanded and improved:
-- consolidate various ap-
proaches into single comprehensive
program;
-- insure that MDTA programs
train people for skills in demand;
-- stimulate job training
through Federal tax credits;
-- improve job information
and worker mobility;
-- recognize that overly ra-
pid increases in the Federal mini-
mum wage may reduce employment op-
portunities;
-- intensify efforts to re-
duce discrimination in employment.
Welfare and poverty:
-- recommend guaranteeing em-
ployment opportunity rather than
guaranteeing income as best ap-
proach to alleviating poverty;
-- study national minimum
level of welfare assistance with
increased Federal support;
-- expand efforts to stimu-
late welfare recipients to become
more self-sufficient.
Improving the urban communi-
ty:
-- expand resources available
to State and local governments;
-- revenue sharing should be
seriously considered;
-- enlist the help of the
private sector in community devel-
opment through approaches such as
the Community Self-Determination
Act;
-- improve the quality of
housing through activation of the
National Corporation of Housing
Partnerships and fair housing,
zoning and tax reforms.
The Urban Coalition Action Council
1819 H St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202 293-1530
Chairman: John W. Gardner
Co-Chairmen: Andrew Heiskell
A. Philip Randolph
Executive Director: Lowell R. Beck
Legislative Associates: John P. Lagomarcino
Ronald J. James
Assistant for Legislative Information:
Georgianna F. Rathbun
Su
Comments