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THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
JOHN W. GARDNER
CHAIRMAN
1819 H STREET, N.W. September 13, 1968
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Public Service Employment (The Emergency Employment and
Training Act of 1968). The Public Service Employment will
be offered in the Senate as an amendment to Manpower Develop-
ment and Training Act extension. The move will be made by
Senator Joseph Clark (D-Pa.), with the support of Senators
Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) and Winston Prouty (R-Vt.). It is
possible that the MDTA will be scheduled for Senate action
late next week. The Clark-Javits-Prouty amendment would
provide for at least 600,000 public service jobs in the next
two years.
The MDTA passed the House on September 4, 1968 by a
vote of 315 to 0.
Appropriations. Final decisions on appropriations for
key housing, education and antipoverty programs will be made
‘soon by Congress.
HUD appropriations will be decided on when House and
Senate Appropriations Committee members begin their confer-
ences on the Independent Offices Appropriations bill Septem-
ber 18.
At stake are the amounts for urban renewal, model cities,
rent supplements, fair housing administration and urban
planning and research (see Appendix A for details). Appro-
priations for the new programs in the recently enacted Housing
Act will be sought in a supplemental appropriations bill that
has not yet been sent to Congress.
The Senate passed the education, antipoverty and man-
power training appropriation bill (for the Departments of
Labor and HEW and the Office of Economic Opportunity) Septem-
ber 6. On the Senate floor major increases were voted over
the House amounts for education of children from poor families
(known as the Title I program), for OEO, the Teacher Corps
and the new dropout prevention program.
TELEPHONE; 202 293-1530 >a
Most of the Senators named to the conference committee
that will decide the final appropriations -- possibly next
week -- opposed the increases the Senate voted (see Appendix
B for details).
HUD Personnel Cutback. The tax surcharge - budget cut
law (the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968) requires
the Executive Branch to cut back its total number of employees
to the number on June 30, 1966. This is to be accomplished
by filling three out of every four vacancies. HUD employment
increased by only 900 after the 1965 and 1966 housing laws
for rent supplements and model cities were enacted. This
900-person increase will be wiped out and no provision made
for administering the new programs in the giant 1968 Housing
Act.
The cutback is a harsh restriction on agencies such as
HUD which have been assigned major new programs in the last
two years. Congress has already taken steps to exempt the
FBI, post office and air traffic controllers from the cut-
back.
APPENDIX A
Housing Funds. In the conferences on the HUD-Independent
Offices bill, these are the major programs on which the House
and Senate conferees must settle their differences. (The two
programs for which the House did not grant any appropriations
were not yet authorized by law when the House passed the funds
bill, so money could not be voted at the time.)
Budget House Senate Senate
Committee Passage
(in millions of dollars)
Urban Renewal $1,400. --- $1,300. $i1.,,.250%
Urban Planning S55 38.8 38.8 47.5
Model Cities 1,000. 1,000: 1,000.
Urban Research 20. LSv Ls
Rent Supplement
Contract Authority 65. 65.
Fair Housing 9. 96
APPENDIX B
Education, Labor and Antipoverty Funds. The Senate de-
bated the Labor-HEW Appropriations bill September 4-6 and
adopted four key amendments providing more funds for education
and antipoverty programs than the Senate Appropriations Com-
mittee and the House had recommended (see table below). No
change was made in the House figure for manpower training
programs, which is $400 million, some $13 million below the
Budget.
These were the key amendments: Title I education funds .
were raised to the Budget figure of $1.2 billion after Senator
Hill (D-Ala.), the bill's manager, agreed that each state
should receive as much money for this program in fiscal 1969
as it did for this year. The amendment was offered by Senator
Hart (D-Mich.) and met no opposition.
Senator Pastore (D-R.I.) sponsored the amendment raising
antipoverty funds $215 million over the House and Senate Com-
mittee figure. Hill opposed the amendment and it was adopted
on a narrow 37-26 vote. Although the Senate figure was $92
million under the Budget, Pastore said it was acceptable to
OEO.
Senator Nelson (D-Wis.), original sponsor of the Teacher
Corps, presented the amendment increasing appropriations to
the Budget level. Hill proposed that Nelson settle for
$24,667,000, a compromise sum mentioned by HEW officials, but
Nelson stuck by his higher figure and the Senate went along
WE Ati
The dropout prevention program, which was written into
the 1967 antipoverty bill by Senator George Murphy (R-Calif.),
will get its first appropriations if the House goes along with
the Senate. Murphy's amendment raising the funds to $20
million was adopted on a 42-21 vote.
Appropriations for the four programs, from Budget request
to Senate passage:
Budget House Senate Senate
. Committee Passage
(in millions of dollars)
Title I Education $1,200. 91,073. $1;,1L23% $1,200.
Teacher Corps 31%.2 15.0 17.3 31.2
Dropout Prevention 310). 00. 105 20.
OEO Antipoverty 2,180. 1,873: 2,873. 2,088.