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THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
JOHN W. GARDNER
CHAIRMAN
1819 H STREET, N. W. October 4 1 196 8
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Education, Labor-and Antipoverty Funds. Congress has
cleared the final appropriations for the HEW and Labor
Departments and the Office of Economic Qpportunity, the
antipoverty agency. The antipoverty appropriation was the
largest Congress has ever approved, but funds for schools
attended by educationally deprived children were below last
year's appropriation.
The House narrowly defeated a Southern-backed provision
that would have encouraged resistance to desegregation of
schools. The Urban Coalition Action Council joined other
organizations and HEW in working for defeat of the segre-
gation provision.
Program Budget House senate Final Below
Budget
(in -millions of dollars)
Title I
Education $1,200. $2,073. $1,,2003. 81,223:, 8.=7%5
Teacher Corps 31.2 Ls. Sh sZ 20.9 -10.3
Dropout
Prevention BIOs 0 20. 5a -25.
Bilingual
Education 30. 0 10. 735 =22.5
OEO Antipoverty 2780. pel 3 2,088. 1,948. -232.
Manpower Training,
Labor Department 413. 400. 400. 400. =33%
The Title I funds for schools teaching educationally de-
prived children -- an important program for schools in big
cities -- were $68 million less than last year's appropriation
and allowed the schools only 92% of the amounts they received
for che past school year. Congress also gave advance authority
for appropriations in fiscal 1970 but limited the funds to 90%
of the amount received this year.- This was intended to help
TELEPHONE: 202 293-1530 >a)
schools plan their programs before the opening of schools next
Pails
The Teacher Corps appropriation was the largest Congress
has allowed so far, and the funds for teaching bilingual
children and for preventing school dropouts were the first
made for these purposes.
The antipoverty appropriation, which was not earmarked
for any specific OEO programs, was $170 million more than
Congress allowed last year. Funds for OFO have risen each
year since the first appropriation in fiscal 1965.
The Labor Department's manpower appropriation was only
$1.5 million above last year's fiscal 1968 figure but some
manpower training programs, such as JOBS and Concentrated
Employment, are financed from OEO appropriations.
Funds Exempted from Budget Cut. HEW's education funds
will be exempted from the over-all $6 billion spending re-
Guction required under the tax surcharge-budget reducticn
law if Congress has its way. A section of the vocational
education bill (HR 18366) that Congress sent to the President
October 3 exempts education appropriations from the $6 billion
reduction in spending and the $10 billion reduction in obli-
gations (committed money) voted for all Government agencies
in June. However, the President still retains authority to
hold down spending on any education program no matter what
amount Congress may have appropriated.
Segregation Amendment. The key part of the Southern
provision opposing desegregation of schools prohibited HEW
from “forcing" children to attend any particular school a-
gainst the choice of their parents. The provision was
sponsored by Mississippi Rep. Jamie L. Whitten (D), a high-
ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. The Senate
amended this provision by adding language that prohibited
forced attendance at a particular school “in order to overcome
racial imbalance."
This phrase was already a part of civil rights law. It
allowed the Government and the courts to put an end to "free-
dom of choice" school plans that were perpetuating racial
discrimination,
When members of the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees met in conference on the Labor-HEW appropriation
bill, Southerners had a majority of the votes and they struck
from the bill the Senate language limiting the prohibition to
plans to overcome racial imbalance. In effect, Whitten's
purpose was achieved. ;
Action Council Chairman John W. Gardner wrote House
Speaker John W. McCormack (D Mass.) and the Republican leader,
Rep. Gerald Ford (Mich.), October 2, asking them to help de-
feat the Whitten amendment on the House floor. He said the
amendment “raises the real threat of resegregation in many
Southern school districts" and "implicitly sanctions racially
dual school systems."
On a close, 167-175 vote October 3, the House rejected
the Appropriations Committees' recommendation and adopted the
Senate language nullifying Whitten's amendment. This will en-
able HEW to continue to withhold funds from school districts
that are not making real progress toward desegregation.
New Housing Funds. The President sent to Congress October
3 a request for supplemental appropriations that included
funds to begin some of the programs in the new Housing Act
and to administer the fair housing law. These were his
housing proposals:
Home Ownership Contract Authority $75 million
Rental Housing Assistance 75 million
Grants for Tenant Services 15 million
Planned Areawide Development 5 million
Low and Moderate-Income Sponsor Fund 5 million
Fair Housing Program 8 million
Flood Insurance Administration Eo MEeLLien
The House is expected to take up the supplemental appro-
priation bill October 7 or October 8 and the Senate will act
shortly thereafter.
HUD Personnel. Another attempt is expected to be made
next week in the Senate to exempt the Department of Housing
and Urban Development from the cutback in personnel required
by the tax surcharge-budget reduction law. For the effect
the law now has on administration of the new housing programs,
see the September 27 Legislative Report of the Action Council.