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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 Committee March 24. Comments at the opening hearing made clear that committee members will be sharply divided over a one-year or fiveyear extension of OEO. President Nixon has asked for a one-year extension, saying that would allow time for his Administration 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 introduced HR 513 to accomplish that. Continued on Page 2 ESTIMATED DISTRIBUTION OF THE 25.9 MILLION POOR PERSONS IN \Qb7 BY STATUS OF HOUSEHOLD MEAD 32% 23% ~EAD•WORKED i:ULL YEAR AGED ~EAD 5.9 MILLION 8.2 MILLION ~EAD,,WORKED PART YEAR 6,5 MILLION 14% 2.50/4

Employment status oF non-disabled,

non-aged household heads ACTION COUNCIL LETTER 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, neighborhood 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 Hospital Construction law to put increased 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 community," 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 deve lopments in the urban fie ld It is published by the Urban Coalition Action Counci l, which seeks needed urban legislation �ty Action Program and closely related activities , such as VISTA . Other programs should be trans~ ferred to established Departme n ts , the GAO report said . Comments by Sen . Nelson 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 extension provides. He also criticized the President's plans to transfer four OEO programs, including Head Start and the Job Corps, to long-established Departments. GAO Report A lengthy and generally f a v orable report on the OEO was is sued March 18 b y the Gene ra l Ac coun ting Offic e. The GAO, which i s often ref erred to as Cong r es s' "watchdog" over the e x e c ut ive departments , was di r ected by Cong r ess in 1967 to dete r mine the efficiency of OEO p rograms and the e x te n t to wh i ch t h ey a ch i eve t he obj ec tiv es o f the Econ omic Oppo r tunity Act , the basic antipo v e r t y law of 1964 . The ma j o r reco mmendati o n o f th e GAO wa s that the P r esident es tab lish in h is Ex ecu t ive Office a wel l - s t aff e d off i ce respo n sible f o r broad plann i n g , coo r d i nation and evaluati o n of all the g o v e rnme nt ' s a n tipove r ty effo r ts. The OEO would c ont inue as an indepe nde nt agen cy to ope r a t e the Communi - The report was dismissed b y Rep. Perkins as "not worth the paper it is written on , " b ut mo r e favorable comments came from h is Senate counterpart , Gay lord Ne l son (D Wis.) . Se n . Nelson is chairman of the poverty subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Publi c Welfare Committee . In a statement Mar ch 19 Nelson said : "Some enemies of the war on poverty apparen t ly h ad h o p e d that this report would j u st i f y a surrender of this u n der - f inanced , late-starting effo r t to he lp millions of Americans escape from poverty . It does n o s u c h thing . " It simp ly t e ll s t h e White House that fighti n g pov e rty i s such a big tas k th a t i t mu s t be supervise d b y t h e Pre side nt a n d t h at t h e f i gh t mu s t be coord inate d throughout t h e vast fed e ral bur eaucracy. I t tells th e Con g r ess th a t programs c annot functio n if approp r i ati o n s are wi thh e l d o r s er ious l y delay ed . I t te ll s b oth OEO a nd the many age n c i es -- f ederal, s tate and local -- with whi ch i t work s that met iculo us r e co r d k ee ping a nd evaluat i o n a r e vita l if the p o ve rty prog r am i s t o achieve its objec tives . " Nelso n said the GAO's recommendati o ns o n t h e whole were "construc t ive and fo rward - l o oking." Discrimination Study Cites Obstacles in Upgrading Jobs Th e n e ed to upgrade emp l o yme n t opportunities for membe r s of mino r ity gro up s is getting inc r ease d atte ntion. It is b u ttresse d by s t atistics in a recent g ove rnme nt r e port showing that racial di s crimination , rathe r than lack o f s kills or education , holds back the ad- �vancement of Negroes, Spanishspeaking Americans and Indians. The president of the National Alliance of Businessmen, Donald M. Kendall , told an April 1 meeting of bus i nessmen participating in the JOBS program for the hard-core u n employed that the major need is to provide jobs with marketable s kill s , not just menial jobs. As e vidence of discrimination in u pper- l evel positions, Kendall s ai d that of some 50,000 corporate o ffi c ers in this country, only two dozen are blacks. Th e statistical report on discr i mi n ation was issued in March by the Equal Employmen t Opportunity Commi ss i o n. Amon g industries where discrimination is most prevalent, the report said, are those with a large proportion of wellpaid employees with better-thanaverage educational backgrounds. The EEOC found that minority group employees who succeed in getting jobs in such companies "can expect few promotions." Proposals for developing marketable skills in lower-level jobs were made in the General Accounting Office's review of antipoverty programs. It found that "intensive 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 Depar tments of Health, Educat ion and Welfare, Housing and Urba n Deve l opment, and Labo r h ave n e w appoi n te es in c harge o f car r ying their legislat~ve programs t o Con gre ss. Th e Ur ban Coalition Ac ti o n Council ha s had me e ting s with these officials a nd plans to k e e p in close touc h with the l e g i slative programs t h ey deve l o p. HEW liai son with Congress i s in charge of Cree d C. Black, Assis tant Secretary for Legislati on. A newspaperman and editor, with an M.A. in political science fr om the University of Chicago, Bl ack was executive edito r o f the Chicago Daily News unti l h e joine d HEW . His principal d epu ty, with responsibility for educati on leg islation, is Charles B. Saunders Jr. Saunders has been assistan t to the president of Brookings I n stitution since 1961, and b efor e that was an assistant to fo r mer HEW Secretary Arthur S. Flemming . The Assistant for Congressional Affairs for the HUD Secretary , George Romney, is Jack Woolley , former director of government relations for the TRW Systems Group, a Redondo Beach, Calif., space and defense contractor. A graduate o~ Two Deport mentol Congressional Liaison Officers Creed C. Block, HEW Jock Woolley, HUD t h e U.S. Me rchant Marine Ac ademy, Wool ley g a ined Was h i ngton expe rience as l egis l ative affairs as sis t a nt to the Secre tary of the Navy a n d to the Se cre tary o f Defense in t h e Eisenhower Administration. The La bor Departme n t 's new Special Assistant for Legislati v e Af fai rs is William L. Giffor d, a f o r me r stude nt o f the law a nd politica l re p or t er. From 19 59 to 196 8 he was t h e admi n is t rat ive assistant to t h e n -Representat ive Char l es E . Goodel l , now a U. S. Senator from New York . Gi ffor d is a graduate of Fordham Un i versi t y . �Democratic, GOP Urban Plans Issued by Economic Commit tee dividual and the economy and should be expanded and improved: -- consolidate various approaches 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 rapid increases in the Federal minimum wage may reduce employment opportunities; -- intensify efforts to reduce discrimination in employment. Welfare and poverty: -- recommend guaranteeing employment opportunity rather than guaranteeing income as best approach to alleviating poverty; -- study national minimum level of welfare assistance with increased Federal support; -- e x pand efforts to stimulate welfare recipients to become more self-sufficient. Improving the urban community: -- e x pand resources available to State and local governments; -- revenue sharing should be seriously considered; -- enlist the help of the private sector in community development through approaches such as the Community Self-Determination Act; -- improve the quality of housing through activation of th e National Cor poration of Hous i ng Partnerships and fair housing , zoning and tax r eforms . Recommendations for action in the urban field were made in an April 1 report by the joint Congressional Economic Committee. Democratic Recommendations Employment, manpower and training programs should be expanded and improved by: -- providing comprehensive coordinated assistance; -- meeting critical skill shortages such as medical services and housing; -- adding to the JOBS Program, conducted by private business, 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 treatment of every needy citizen regardless of location; -- establishment of a single local office or representative to whom the needy can turn with assurance for assistance. The highest priority must be given to developing programs for a massive environmental reconstruction of urban and rural America, including : - - allocation of the necessary resources, both public and private , to economic development of max imum social impact; -- achievement of the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American famil y, as provi ded for by the Housing and Ur ban Development Act of 1968 ; -- i n c r eas e d funding for an t i poverty progr ams , especially o n t he neighbo rhood le v el , and fo r the mo de l citi es prog r am. The Urban Coalition Action Council 1819 H St., N.W. Washington , D.C. 20006 Tel : 202 293-1 530 Chairm a n: John W. Ga rdn er Co-Ch ai rme n: Andrew Heiske ll A. Phi li p Rand ol ph Exec utive Director , Lowe ll R. Beck l egis la ti ve Associates: John P. Lag om arcino Rona ld J . James Ass istant for Legis lative Information : Georgianna F. Rathbun Republican Vi e ws Employment , manpower a nd training prog rams b e n e fi t t h e in ~ 31 �