Box 7, Folder 12, Complete Folder

December 1969
The Urban Coalition Calls For
Health Care Reforms
The Urban Coalitibn has called for a combination of national and community action to bring
about sweeping medical reforms, aimed at improving health care for all Americans, particufarly those in the cities.
In a comprehensive 76-page repqrt prepa red
by its health task force , the Coalition maintained'
that while the United States spends a bigger
proportion of its gross national p,roduct on
health than any other country, its health services are inadequate. The report , Rx for Action,
was prepared under the direction of Dr. George
A. Silver, the Coalition's Executive Associate
for Health.
According to the report, Americans spend
more than $53 billion a nnua lly on a "potpourri"
of public and private hea lth programs. If these
fund s were spent more efficiently, the report
Dr. George A. Silver, Coa1ition Executive Associate f or
Health; John W. Gardner, Urban Coalition Chairman; and
Dr. Roger 0 . Egeberg, A ssistant Secretary for Health and
Scientific Affairs of HEW at p ress conference to announce
Rxjor Action.
concluded , many more people would be ·ser'ved
and better services could be assured for all.
Poor health affects all Americans, regardless
of income, the report said. Not only· the poor,
but middle income families, blue collar workers,
welfare mothers, and all city residents- black,
white and brown - suffer fI:.Q_m substandard
health care.
Community action, according to the Coalition,
can generate more immediate i,mprovement for
its citizens than almost any national effort.
Local successes would also stimulate needed
national reforms.
The repo ; t urged the local urban coalitions
that have been formed in nearly 50 cities to
establish their own health task forces . But the
Coalition emphasized that the study's findings
and recommendations could be used in whole or
in part by any local community organization concerned with.the quality of health care.
These would include local chambers of commerce , labor and religious groups, local bus-
�inessmen and women's organizations. The same
consultant and technical assistance services
that the national Coalition intends to make available to its local health task forces would be
available to ,these groups . The Urban Coalition
will consult with the major voluntary health organizations to obtain their cooperation.
The Coalition also plans to meet in a series
of regional health conferences with local coalitions and other groups.
The report decried the lack of participation
of the poor and the non-poor in health services
planning and said that no serious effort had yet
been taken to train individuals outside of professional groups in this area.
"In both the Jong and short runs," the report
stated, "advances in the health field depe.nd on
the will of the.American people."
· The study emphasized that the "middle-class
white community has been too infrequently represented in hospital board membership and in
public health bodies, or even on the boards . of
voluntary agencies."
It said that the poor, specifically blacks,
Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans, had
been left out of the decision-making process.
The Coalition urged more representation from
these people on hospital boards, health and
welfare councils, insurance bodies and public
health advisory councils.
Following are some of the prindpal findings
and recommendations of the report:
Malnutrition: With estimates placing the
yearly cost of the consequences of malnutrition to the economy at substantially more than
the $3-4 billion needed to eliminate hunger,
coalitions should work to make more of the
proper food more readily available to the public.
Environment: The well-being of the urban
poor is being directly threatened by bad housing and air and water pollution. Citizens groups
should be formed to educate the poor on such
basic matters as housing and health code requirements, their legal rights to services, safety
practices and rat and vermin control.
Access to Facilities: More local money is
essential to help meet the need of the many
communities for more health facilities. Transportation systems and emergency ambulance
services could be studied to see if they are
geared to the needs of the poor.
Interpreters: Interpreters could be used in
clinics and information centers for Spanishspeaking people.
Occupational Health Clinics: Hospital boards
could arrange for the development of occupa2
tional health clinics to serve local industry and
provide advice for health and safety programs
for working people from the local community.
Manpower Deficiencies: Through the system
of routine volunteer assignments, medical societies could undertake· to supply doctors in
areas where sufficient numbers are not -available. Sub-professionals could be trained to handle many of the duties involved in health care.
The Coalition's study emphasized that many
local programs could be immediately launched
without waiting for action by the Federal government. But it also pointed out that effective
local action will always have to be supplemented
and strengthened by effective Federal action.
The report called for a national system of
financing medical care costs that . will give
e~ery American access to services without any
economic barrier.
Dr. Roger 0 . Egeberg, who is the Assistant
Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs, commented on the Coalition's recommendations.
He said: "The country should be grateful to the
Urban Coalition for this type of analysis of the
nation's health needs, and planning for the nation's health services.
"The Coalition's proposal recognizes that
solving the medical needs of America is not
the job of the Federal government al~ne, but
also requires effort and change by everyone."
In compiling its Rx for Action the health task
force of the Urban Coalition has laid down a
battle plan for the war against poo r health care
in the United States.
Copies are available from the Urban Coalition, 2100 M Street, N . W., Washington, D.C.
20037.
New Members Added to
Coalition Steering Committee
Fourteen new mem bers have been added to the
Steering Committee of the Urban Coalition. The
new additions to the Coa lition's policy-making
bod y include businessmen, mayors, a state senator a nd a physician.
T he new members anno.unced by Urban Coalition Chairman John W. Gardner are:
State Senator Joe J. Bernal of San Antonio,
Texas. Senator Bernal, an educator and social
worker as well as a legislator, is executive director of the Guadalupe Community Center in
San Antonio.
Mayor Frank Curran of San Diego, California. Mayor Curran is president of the National League of Cities.
�r
Hector P. Garcia, M.D., a Corpus Christi,'
Mayor Jack D . Maltester of San Leandro , CalTexas physician and a former commissioner of
ifornia. Maltester is a lso president of the U.S .
the U. S. Civil Rights Commission.
Conference of Mayors.
'
Ben W. _Heineman of Chicago, president of
James Roche, chairman of the board of Gen~
Northw.est Industries Inc. Heineman is chafrman
era! Motors Corp., and member of the board of
of the President's Commission on Income Maintrustees of the New Detroit Committee, an urban
tenance.
coalition.
Samuel C. Johnson, president ofS. C. Johnson
H. I. Romnes, chairman of the board of ;\ T & T ,
& Son lrrc. and president of the Racine EnvironNew York. Romnes is a lso vice-chairman of•the
ment Commitee, a local urban coalition.
Nati-onal
Industrial Conference Board and is a.
,
Mayo r Eric Jonsso n of Dallas.
member of the Urban Coalition's task force on
Stephen F. Keating, president of Honeywell , ed°i.ication.
Inc., and former chairman of the Mi nneapolis
Martin Stone, president of Monogram Industries Inc. and chairman of the Los Ange les UrUrban Coalition.
ba n Coalition.
·


Donald M. Kendall, president of Pepsico, Inc. ,
and chairman of the Na tional A llia nce of Busi- · , Mr. Gardne r said the Urban Coalition adds to
the Steering Committee periodically to ass ure
nessmen, New York.
Mayor Richard Lugar of Indianapolis.
broad and dynamic representaJio n from the CoDonald S. MacNaughton, president of Pruden- alition's constituent elements- local government, !Susiness, labor, minority gro up s and retial Ins ura nce Co. and former cha~rman of the
ligion.
Newark Urban Coalition.
M. Carl Holman, vice-president of the Urban Coalition/or
Policy and Program Development; Peter libassi, Coalition.
executive vice-president; and Nicho /asdeB. Katzenbach,
former U.S. Attorney General and chairman of the Coalition 's
· law and government task/orce discuss new approac_hes to
the reform of the criminaljustice system spelled out in the
Coalition's report Taking the Blindfold off Justice.
3
�Urban Coalition Action Council
Supports Welfare Reform
I
"The time has come to discard the existing
patchwork of ineffective and in many ways de"'
structive public assistance programs. You have
the opportunity to replace them with a national
system of income maintenance that will help
people to help themselves but preserve individual dignity in aiding those left behind by
society."
With these words, John W. Gardner, Chairman 9f the Urban Coalition Action Council, began his testimony last month before the House
Ways and Means Committee, which is considering President Ni_x on's p_roposal~ to reform the
nation's public assistance programs.
At the same time, Mr. Gardner said the Urban
Coalition and the Urban Coalition Action Council will give ,the issue top priority for the
months ahead. "It is of the highest importance," he said, "that such lingering myths as
the one that the poor in America are people
who don't want to work-able-bodied loafersbe erased and that our public assistance programs be overhauled."
In his congressional testimony, Mr. Gardner
_ termed the Administration's reform proposals
"extremely important and on the whole well
designed," but suggested strengthening them at
several crucial points.
"If the proposals are accepted," he said, "the
Federal government will for the first ti;;e in
history accept responsibility for providing a
minimum level of payment throughout the nation
and for financing it. J would have been very
proud had I been able to establish that principle
during my tenure as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. It is an historic step."
Mr. Gardner also praised the proposals for
their emphasis on children, their work incentive
features and their greatly broadened coverage.
"Of special significance," he said, "is the
inclusion of the working poor for the first time.
The complete omission of the working poor is
surely one of the strangest anomalies of the
present system. A society which values work
should surely make some provision for the six
million adults who work full-time, year-round,
and yet cannot earn enough to bring themselves
above the poverty line."
"The strengths of the President's proposals,"
he said, "could lead us on to an immeasurably
sounder and more equitable system of income
maintenance. But if the promise of the propo4
sals is to be realized, they m_u st be strengthened at a number of points," among them:
I. Provision should be made for "a nationwide increase in benefits to the poverty level
over a specified period of time," with the $1,600
floor proposed by the }>_resident serving as a
starting point for a phased program.
2. "Adequate provision should be made for
'one-stop' administration of the proposed Federal-state system."
.
3. While "the improved benefits for the aged,
disabled and blind are a welcome step," Mr.
Gardner's statement said, "it may be that
our ultimate goal should be a single income
maintenance system which provi_des for uniform
adequate assistance for all of our impoverished citizens, including ne~dy individuals and
couples without children."
4. "Given the elasticity of its tax base; and
the economies of scale and efficiency offered
by Federal administration, a shift of the welfare
burden to the Federal government is clearly
one means of res~lving the fiscal dilemmas of
state and local government."
5.
The work requirement provisions of the
legislation "should specify job standards and
wage rates for 'suitable employment.'"
Finally, he said, "I would emphasize that
there must be provisions for job creation, so
that the training opportunities won't be a revolvingdoor into continued unemployment. The
ideal solution is a public service employment
program."
While Mr. Gardner praised the work requirement proposals, he made it clear that there are
limits to what can be expected of it.
"Many Americans sincerely believe that
people living in poverty are people who don't
want to work- or people who don't want steady
work," he said. "In other words, able-bodied
loafers. That is a long way from the truth. Of
the 25 million persons living below the poverty
line, 15 million are either under J8·or over 65."
"Of the remaining IO million, nine million
fall within the scope of the Administration's
family assistance proposals (as being adults
in poor families that include children).
"Let us look at that nine million. The Administration estimates that 7.9 million are already
working, but earn too little to bring them above
the poverty level, or are the wives of uch men,
or are disabled , or are women who mu t stay
home because of very young children.
"That leaves I.I million adults who the Administration feels can significantly help themselves and would thus be required to register
�for jobs or work training-600,000 men and
500,000 mothe rs of school-aged children."
Mr. Gardner also emphasized that "no welfare program can cure underlying conditions."
"Th€ poverty that makes a public assistance
program necessary," he said, "is rooted in a
variety of historical and contemporary' conditions; discrimination, the pathology of the urban
and rural slum, inadequate education, insufficient job opportunities in the locality, low pay
in jobs not covered by the minimum wage, inadequate social insurance benefits, inadequate
provisions for" manpower training and so on."
If we are to get to the root of the problem
we shall have to do so through education, health
and nutrition programs, the -creation of job
opportunities, the elimination of slum conditions and similar measures."
Mr. Gardner's testimony, delivered by Ambassador George McGhee, special representative of the chairman, elaborated on the position
taken i~ late June by the full Policy Council
of the Orban Coalition Action Council.
Copies of Mr. Gardner's testimony and of the
Action Council booklet on welfare reform Toward A Full Opportunity" are available from
the Urban Coalition Action Council, 2100 . M
Street, N. W.,Washington, D. C. 20037.
Coalition Begins Probe
of Credit Practices toLow Income Consumers
A preliminary study which examines efforts by
commercial banks, credit unions and retailers
- to make credit available to fqw-income consumers,· has been made p~blic by the national
Urban Coalition. · The study, entitled, "Consumer Credit and the Low Income Consumer,"
was prepared after more than five months _of
field and research work by William G. Kaye
& ·Associates, consultants in the area of consumer affairs.
.
A major finding showed that the poor can and
do pay their bills. "The low-income consumer
may at times encounter som<:: difficulty in paying bills when due, but in the end, his perform_ance in paying his full obligation is nearly as
good as his more affluent suburban counterpart," the report said .
The 105-page study formed the basis of a
November meeting called by the Coalition to
look at models that may be successful in extending credit to the poor. The meeting was
chaired by Edward C. Sylvester, Jr. , former
Assistant Secretary. in Community and Field
Services, Department of Health, Education and
On a recent visit to the Greater
Miami Urban Coalition, Chairman
John Gardner met with Coalition leaders.
He is shown here visiting with some
of the m inority representatives of
the Miami Coalition.
5
/
�Welfare, and attended by approximately 100 vided by David M. Thompson, Assistant to the
leaders from retailing, the poor, Federal agen- Chairman; Douglas Lawson, Financial Developcies and the White House, banks, organized ment Officer; and Walker Williams, Associate
ljtbor, social action groups, lawyers and con- Financial Development Officer.
sumer and credit organizations. ·
T he report ~ill be further considered at a
series of regional meetings, the first of which Newark Love Festival
took place in Minneapolis, December 7-8.
Mr. Kaye, former executi; e director of the Salutes "The Summer Thing"
President's Committee on Consumer Interests,
stated that "Hopefully, this report-in addition Through efforts of the Greater Newark Urban
to increasing the availability of low-income"' Coalition, New Jersey's largest city had a Love
credit-wiU shec;I some light on the realities and Festival on October 5th . . A video tape replay
mytho logies about the performance of the low- of the event was shown on an hour-long, primeincome person in seeking, utilizing arid repay- time, NBC national telecast on November 14th.
ing consumer loans and other forms of conBased on a series of free , outdoor concerts
sume r credit."
first given in Harlem, the Love festiv_al was
brought to Newark by WNBC-TV, which se. cured the help of the Harlem Festival producer,
Local Coalitions Get
Tony Lawrence. The Love Festival was WNBC's
way of honoring Newark's Recreation Planning
Fund-Raising Guidelines
Council, better hown as The Sum mer T/:zing.
Fund-raising guidelines will be the subject of
The Newark Love Festival turned out to be
two national Urban Coalition conferences for quite an autumn event. It turned on as one of
local coalition chairmen, fund-raising chair- the largest happenings in the city's 302-year
history. Between 70,000 and I0G,000 "beautimen and executive directors.
At these how-to-do-it" sessions members ful, beautiful people" attended.
Not a single incident marred the massive
of the national Coalition's Financial Deve lopment Advisory Council and- other experts will outdoor spectacular held in Newark's Weequashare their expertise in raising 01oney-a vital hic Park. For six hours, rock bands, folk and
ingredient behind any successful coalition pro- soul singers, comedians and mod entertainers
gram-with loca l leaders.
gave performances. Twenty thousand phonoT he first conference, to be held in Philadel- graph records_were given away. WNBC said the
phia in December, is for coalitions in the north- Love Festival was "a major community relaeast and southeast regions. The other is planned tions project."
for January for coalitfon representatives from
The community effort grew out of Newark Cothe mid west and west.
alition pres ident Gustav Heningburg's plea to
Co nference speakers will highlight the keys to New York television stations, just LO miles
successful fund-raising: identifying community away, to devote ome coverage to ewark's
leaders; de veloping a "case"; organizi ng vol- brighter side. The city had received con iderunteers for fund-raising, and the "nuts and a ble adverse publicity since the 1967 riot. In
bolts" of solicitation.
response, WNBC-TV Channel 4, a ked HeningBased on these guidelines, workshops will burg to suggest an activity worth televi ing that
enable coalition representatives to pinpoint might offset coverage of ewark's problems.
areas for further guidance and to exchange Heningburg's recommendation wa the R creaexperiences .
tion Planning Council or The Summer Thing. a
The 29-member Financial Development Ad- program which involves ghetto youth in recreavisory Council comprises to·p financial devel- tiona l opportunities.
opment officers from colleges and universities
The Summer Thing was born in late May as
across the country. One of its primary roles is Newark looked toward another long hot summer
to counsel local coalitions in organizing suc- with little in the way of programs to offer outcessful fund-raising programs. Thus far Coun- of-school, inner-city youth.
cil members have individually advised coaliSupported by the Newark Coalition's Steering
tions in 13 cities.
Committee, Heningburg put together a prestiCoalition staff support for the Advisory Coun- gious, five-man, voluntary group of co-chaircil -and national fund-raising . efforts 1s pro- men. It included both deputy mayors, Paul
6
�l
r
Reilly and Lewis Perkins. The re_presentative participation of social agencies "was a joy to
of business and industry was Al DeRogatis, a -: behold,"stated Heningburg. Medical sch00! inPrudential Insurance Company vice president te.rns worked with welfare mothers, hip teenagand former football great. John Scagnelli, a ers manned lost and found stations with senvice president of the Couricil of Social Agen- ior citizens, radical students and conservative
cies, served as delegate for more than 150 pr_ofessionals joined hands to organize shuttle
- United Fund agencies and State Assemblyman buses. Ideological, age, language, and racial
George Richardson, a black legislator, repre- differences seemed unimportant and for that
sented the coalition.
aftern~on friendship, lo~e and pride prevailed
Office space was donated by the Newark and everybody"Gave A Damn!"
Housing Authority. One of the local manpower
Shortly after the November 14th national
programs donated office equipment. The Newark telecast, Gus Heningburg went do~n to Fayette,
Chamb~rof Commerce agreed to raise $234,000.· Mississippi to help black Mayor Charles Evers
The Summer Thing contacted more than 100 plan a Thanksgiving Day, Love Festival for his
community organizations asking them to sub- town.
mit their recreation proposals. Through care-;.
ful screening and much negotiation, the cochairmen approved 29· proposals for . funding.
In less than six weeks, an office wa set up,
a volunteer staff .was secured, work began on
fund raising and a directory was compiled of
more than 70 community-sponsored youth programs, public and private. A communications
center was established to which anyone could
call on any giyen day and get a listing of recreational activities going on in town. The center
also published. a daily newsletter listing special
events of the day for distribution to almost
JOO points in the city. Local radio station WNJR
taped and broadcasted daily events all through
the summer.
By the end of the summer, the Chamber of
Commerce raised almost $200,000. T he Engelhard Foundation provided the first $1 ,000 and
an additional $57,000 came from the New Jersey
State Department of Community Affairs.
More than 50,000 youngsters particip,ated in
The Summer Thing. By Labor Day, it was
clear that partially-polarized Newark could
get diverse people to work together and get
things done well and fast.
NBC, impressed with The Summer Thing,
looked for a fitting salute. It. hit upon the Love
Festival concerts in Harlem that had attracted
hundreds of thousands of New Yotkers. Tony
Lawrence agreed to get the talent and WNBC
promised to film the gala for television.
The Recreation Planning Council -was asked
to secure a suitable outdoor location and help
attract crowds that would reflect the black/white
cooperation that made The Summer Thing so
meaningful to Newark.
In a scant three · weeks, hundreds of details
had to be bandied. For the first time, the Newark police cooperated with the Black Panthers Gustav Heningburg, president of the Greater Newark Urban
in crowd control. T he city administration and Coalition at the Newark Love Festival.
7
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Call For Action
Director Named
Grass Roots News
R. Alexander Grant, the former national di- The Greater Kansas City Urban Coalition has
rector of recruitment for VISTA (Volunteers inaugurated a program of tours of the inner-city
in Service to America), has been named as the to give interested citizens, parti~ularly white
suburbanites, a first hand view of inner-city
Executive Director of"Call for Action".
"Call for Action" is a project in coopera- · housing, schools business development and
tion with the national Urban Coalition, and is recreation facilities. Small groups travel in a
operated by a radio station and a staff of volun- modified bus, are given a running description
teers in a number of cities.
of inner-city conditions, and told of the activities
Mr. Granl was born in Newark, N. f. in 1933. of the Urban Coalition. The tours began with the
He has a B. A. from Bloomfield College and an _Greater Kansas City Urban Coalition board of
M. A. from Montclair State College.
- directors and has since included members of
In announcing Mr. Grant's appointment, John the Real Estate Board and service clubs.
W. Gardner, the Coalit'ion's Chairman, said the
The Greater Kansas City Urban Coalition has
Coalition hoped to have "Call for Action" pro,
.
k.
· 8 10 . . . - h
h
h
formed a womens task force, believed to be the
grams wbor hmg md f- h cities t roug out t e - first such among local coalitions. The task force
d·
· t · h h w lf
R. h
country y t e en o t e year.
,
· ·
U d
h
·
· ct· ·ct 1
ll 1 1 1s mvo 1ve ma proJec wit t e e are 1g ts
. n er t_ e proJect, m IVI ua s may ca oca Organization and will concentrate in the housrad10 stations for referral to the proper agen- · fi ld · 1970
· for he 1p wit
· h sueh pro blems as poor h ous- ___
mg ie. _m
c1es
_ _ _· _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
ing, crime, narcotics, hospital care and sanita- The Greater Kansas City Urban Coalition is
tion disposal.
publishing a voter information booklet for the
"Call for Action" was begun at radio station January 20 school board elections, reviewing
WMCA in New York City by Mrs . R. Peter the qualifications of the candidates and containStraus, wife of the station's owner and co- ing their views on key issues.
chairman of the nationwide program.
The new South Bend Urban Coalition already
The project is now on the air in New Yark,
has received preliminary reports from five task
Chicago, Denver and_Utica.
forces and this month expects final reports outMr. Grant's duties will include policy forlining action programs for 1970. The task
mulation and coordination for the various "Call
forces are for education, housing, employment,
for Action" projects.
racial attitudes a nd conflict, and youth.
Mayo r Carl Stokes of Cleveland has announced
plans for a "Call for Action" program on station
WERE under the coordination of the Cleveland
Urban Coalition. "Call for Action" programs,
now in operation in several cities, enable listeners
to call volunteers at the station to register
complaints about deficient city services. The
Cleveland program will begin early in 1970.
The Urban Coalition of Minneapolis has a new
president, Phillip Harder, senior vice president
of the First National Bank. He succeeds Dean
McNeal, vice president of the Pillsbury Company, whose term expired .
R. A lexander Grant
8
The Mayor of Winston-Salem, NOith Carolina
proclaimed the week of December 8-12 as
"Family and Child Development Week" in conjunction with a project sponsored by the Day
Care Association of the Urban Coalition with
the co-operation of other child-related agencies.
Symposiums on child development and educa-
�tion were held throughout the week for parents,
school administrators, businessmen, representatives from social service agenci_es and other
interested groups.
of the Greater Miami
The
housing task force
/
.
Coalition has completed development of a curriculum for a new-course offered at the University of Miami on housing management. The 15·week course followed by on-the-job-training
will open up new careers for disadvantaged persons in the management of housing complexes.
Key feature of the plan is job commitments
for those finishing the course.
The El Paso (Tex.) Urban Coalition has been
holding open fo rums each month on problems
affecting the El Paso community. The forums,
officially known as Area Council Meetings for
Public Information, have dealt with such matters
as poli_ce protection, street paving, housing,
schools and public safety.
to . determine their major .grievances. This information is _presented to the businessmen on
the coalition's steering committee, who then
take it to the city agency that can do something
about the problems uncovered in the interviews.
Three VISTA lawyers, working under a program
co-sponsored by the national Urban Coalition
began working in Denver in mid-October.
They're working on bail refqrm.
"Call for Action" got off to an action packed
start in Denver in late October with radio station KLZ getting about 150 calls in itJ, first
week of operation.
New Urban Coalitions
Since the end of the summer local coalitions
have sprung up all over the map. The five new- •
est are South Bend, Rhode Island, Wilmington,
El Paso and Chattanooga.
Officially the South Bend (Ind.)' c;oalition is
known as the St. Joseph County Urban Coalition. The local Chamber of Commerce in South
Bend is staffing the coalition while the search
goes on for a full-time executive director. The
coalition's chairman is Frank Sullivan, chairman of the board o( Frank Sullivan Associates,
The bail refo rm program of the Riverside Coa- an insurance firm.
lition, operating since mid-September, has reRhode Island shows there may be some adduced the average length of jail stay from 37 vantages to being small, at least in the sense
to 4 days. Five coalition representatives were of coalition. The Rhode Island coalition is the
·among the Riverside officials attending the only statewide coalition. It bas an executive
national Coalition's briefing on new approaches director-designate, Anthony Agostinelli and a
to criminal justice in New York in April; liked president, Elwood E. Leonard J r. Leonard is
what they saw, convinced the Riverside police president of the H & H Screw Company, and also
department to give bail reform a try and since chairman of the United Fund Drive.
its inception, nearly 60 persons have been reWilmington (Del.) is looking for a n executive
leased on their own. recognizance under the director. Rodney Layton, a Wilmington attorney
project.
and vice-chairman of the United Fund in that
city
is chairma n of the new coalition.
In San Ysidro (Calif.), a small, green colored
In
the west Texas town of El Paso they call
stucco house has been converted into a health
the
coalition
the Council for Social Action beclinic for some 7,000 Mexican-Americans. The
cause that was what it was called before it beclinic treats about 150 persons a week and
came a local urban coalition in the beginning of
operates with one full-time nurse, Miss J eannie
Powers. The San Diego Coalition played a major September. Three weeks after it was recognized
as a coalition by the national, William Pearson,
role in creating the clinic and a lso refurbished
El Paso's executive director was in Washington
and furnished the entire house.
with 30 other local executive directors. They
In San Antonio, (Tex.) the coalition bas formed a met with John W. Gardner.
group that it calls the "clearinghouse committee."
The Reverend James I. Oliver is the chairman
The committee is interviewing ghetto residents of the coalition, which is the third in Texas.
The Riverside (Calif.)Coalition, under its vivacious and energetic executive director, Mrs.
Ruth Pepe, has convinced the school system
that it doesn't have to keep going to such fa raway places as Arizona and Texas to hire
minority teachers. Through a program set up as
a result of coalition efforts five black instructors have been trained and hired from within
th_e Riverside community.
9
�The others are San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
In Chattanooga they had to wait more than
two years before a coalition was actually formed.
Interest in creating a coalition in that southern
city began with the August 1967 convocation
of 1,200 of the nation's leaders that gave birth
to the national Urban Coalition.
Co:chairmen of the new Chattanooga coalition are John Slack, general manager of Com-
bustion Engineering ~nd Roy Noel, city youth
coordinator.- One of the members of the Steering Committee is Mrs. Ruth S. Golden, publisher of ...the Chattanooga Times and sister-inlaw of Andrew Heiskell, chairman of th1:: board.
of Time, In~. and co-chairman of the national
Urban Coalition.
See page I I for complete list of established
urban coalitions.
Miami Case Study
What They Are Saying
Last fall there were some 340 serious ·disturbances in high schools in 38 states. One of the
most seri_o us-in terms of potential consequences-occurred in Dade County(Miami), Florida,
where an integration dispute at Palmetto High
School threatened to escalate into a black student boycott of the entire school system.
Trouble was averted: however, when the
• school board asked the Greater Miami Coalition to step in, establish the facts and make
recommendations. A panel of inquiry named by
the Coalition did so-:-quickly and decisively. Its
report resulted in important reforms not only
at Palmetto, but at other schools in the district,
prompting one newspaper editor to comment
that "a major breakthrough in better race relations" had been made in Miami education.
A case study of the episode and its aftermath
will be published by the Urban Coalition this
year. The study wi ll describe the dispute, its
resolution , and the key role played by the Greater Miami Coalition.
Copies will be avai_lable from the national office of the Urban Coalition.
Miami Coalition Pane/ of Inquiry members Gurth Reeves,
publisher of 1he Miami Times; Henry King Stariford, presidem
of 1he University of M iam i; and John Hallibur1on, pres idem
of 1he Gremer Miami Urban Coalition and a vice presidem
of Eastern A irlin_es.
JO
Frederick J. Close, chairman of the board of
the Aluminum Company of "America, to the annual meeting of the American Mining Congress:
"All [urban coalitions] offer the businessman
a unique opportunity to involve himself in a
grass-roots, down-to-earth operation that enables him to apply his problem-solving abilities
to problems that demand solution as much as
they often seem to defy it. They help him to really understand what the problems are and what
it will take to get at them. In sport, they give
the businessman a chance to show .that our system can work for everybody. It's a chance that
many mo(e businessmen ought to take. I think
they are.taking a far bigger chance if they don't."
Ambassador George C. McGhee, special repre-·
sentative of the chairman, the Urban Coalition,
to the St. Lou is Round Table: ·
"A turn-arouncf must be made and a start
towards a reordering of the priorities which
will bring up to adequate levels the basic requirements for our national life . In this process
other public expenditures, which have hithe rto
enjoyed high priorities, must be reduced."
Charles W. Bowser, executive director of the
Philadelphia Urban Coalition, to a conference
of the National Municipal League:
"The direct involvement of the corporate citizen in the initiation and formation of the national
Urban Coalition was clear evidence that the corporate commitment to help was emanating from
self-interest, rather than the traditional charitable concern. This recognition of self-interest
in the solution of the nation's urban problems is,
in my opinion , the ·most dramatic result of the
urban crisis of the sixties."
Martin Stone, chairman of the board of Monogram Industries Inc. and chairman of the
Greater Los Angeles Urban Coalition, at com-
�mencement exercises of Immaculate Heart Established Local
College:
Urban Coalitions
"Each day that we postpone reconciliation
of our actions with objectives motivated by a
California .
desire to restore quality of life to our nation,
Fresno
we come a step closer to inevitably extremist
Los Angeles
solutions. Almost invariably we hide our heads
Pasadena
in the sand until our problems become crises
Riverside
which cannot be solved without painfully ex- · Sacramento
treme remedies."
San Diego
San Jose
Charles B. Wade Jr. , vice president of R .J . Stanford Mid-Peninsula
Reynolds Tobacco and chairman of the educaColoradotion committee of the Winston-Salem Urban
Denver ·
Coalition, at the First Anniversary Meeting of
the Norfolk Urban Coalition:
Connecticut "Leadership is an attitude, an ability to size Bridgeport
up a situation, and then make a decisive move Hartford
rather than sitting back and doing something Stamford
after the fact. It's easy to find leaders after
Delaware
som~thing happens, they rise to the occasion,
Wilmington
but it's something else to marshal people with
foresight, with the ability to see an oncoming District of Columbia
crisis and make a concrete move for the good Florida
of the community to avoid a potential problem." Miami
Arthur Naftalin, professor of public affairs,
University of Minnesota, former mayor of
Minneapolis, and Coalition Steering Committee
member, to the conference of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials:
"A few months ago the housing authority
submitted a request to the city council to increase from 250 to 500 the number of homes it
might acquire under the low-rent housing program for scattered site housing and that acquisition be permitted .citywide. The council
approved the increase but refused to a llow
cirywide acquisition, restricting the program
to officially-declared renewal areas. This action struck me as a rather opeFl act of discrimination and I vetoed the entire measure,
risking the loss of the additional units. At
this point our Urban Coalition of Minneapolis,
in which many top business leaders actively
participate, called upon the council to sustain
my veto a nd to accede to the authority's original request. The council accepted the coalition's ur.ging and we accomplished a social
gain that simply would not have been possible
without the interest of key businessmen. We
may be the only city in the nation in which publi_c housing is possible on an unrestricted citywide basis ..."
Illinois
Springfield
Indiana
Missouri
Kansas City
New-Jersey
Montclair
Newark
Plainfield
New York
New York
Niagara Falls
Westchester County
North Carolina
Winston-Salem
Ohio
Cleveland
Lima
Oregon
Portland
Pennsylvania
Erie
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Reading
Rhode Island
Gary
South Bend
Tennessee
Louisiana
Texas
New Orleans
Corpus Christi
El Paso
San Antonio
Maryland
Baltimore
Massachusetts
New Bedford
Pittsfield
Michigan
Detroit
Saginaw
Chattanooga
Virginia
Norfolk
Washington
Tacoma
Wisconsin
Racine
Minnesota
Minneapolis
St. Paul
ll
�}
(
The Urban Coalitio n
ort~
Nonprofit O rg.
U .S. Postage
PAID
Washington, D .C.
Permit No. 43234
2100 M Street .W. Washington D.C. 20037
Third Class
MR. DAN SWEAT
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
- CITY HALL
30303
ATLANTA. GA
�~
THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
2700 M Street, N .W. • Wa shington , D . C. 20037
(2 02) 293 -7625
JO H N W. GARDN ER
Chai rm an
ANDREW HEIS KELL
A. PHILIP RAN DOLPH
Co-chairm en
LOWE LL R. BECK
Execu t iv e D ir ecto r
December 24 , 1969
The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor of th e City of Atlanta
Ci ty Hall
Atlanta, Georgia
30303
Dear Ivan:
Several days ago the Senate voted 53 to 35 to allow foundation
funds to be used for voter registration programs, thus overriding
the Finance Committee's move to prohibit the use of tax-exempt
funds for this purpose. We had asked your help on this important
issue, and many of you responded.
Two weeks ago the federal anti-poverty program was threatened by
a move in the House of Representatives to channel all federal
anti-poverty funds and programs through state governors. Thia
amendment would have had a serious impact on many urban programs .
A delegation from our Policy Council called on Secretaries Finch
and Shultz, OEO Director Ru...~sfeld, and several members of Congress
to urge continuation of the present anti-poverty program.
In addition , telegrams signed by each Policy Council member attending last week's meeting were sent to President Nixon and each member
of Congress. Local coalitions were urged to support the campaign
to save OEO. Many local coalition officials contacted their
Congressmen immediately.
These efforts capped the very effective work that many policy
Council members and their rep resentatives, together with other
organizations, had been doing for several weeks. We are very
pleased to report that on December 12 the House rejected the
amendment which we opposed and voted to extend present OEO prog~ams.
The last two weeks have shown us what can be done when m ny work
together to accomplish a common result. We are grateful to those
who took part in this effort.
Sincerely,

John

w.
Gardner
Chai rman
�TH F. cv ct-JI G STAR
\Va~hi ng ton, D. C.
Sc: urday, Dc :em bar 73, 1969
_.., NEW YORK TIMES, SA T U RD A Y, DECE M B E R. 1-1, 1969
HOUSE BARS SHIFT
Or,: POVERTY PLAN
Lib erals Block G.O.P. Move
to Giv e Ru le to States
By MARJORIE HUNTER
S ptc!a! to 'fh e :-.:cw York T ;mes
W AS HfNGTON, Dec. 12
Dem ocrati c libera ls s ucceeded
toni g ht in blockin g .a Rcpt.:blican m o,:e th a t w ould s hift
contro l of a key antipoverty
prog ra m to the states. The vole
was 23 1 to 163.
The aCLi on m a rked » stu nni r,g
defea t for a powe rf ul coa lition
of Re publi ca n a nd Southe rn
Dem oc rats seeki ng to give
Governors con tro l over the
co mmunity ac ti o n programs.
, Earlier, Democ ra t ic lead ers
ha d sent up a loud cheer w hen
th ey learned they had defeated
the sta te-control pla n by a nonre cord ed vo te of 183 to 166.
Backe rs of t he state-contro l
pl a n then ma de a fina l try, fa iling this tim e on the 23 1- to- 163
roll-c all vote.
'.i"he ui ii -calling for a twoye a r, $2 .343-b illi on ex tens ion
the
ant ipove rty
proof
g ram v ir tu a ll y unchanged-th en
passed the !·louse by a vote
of 276 to 11 7. The bill now
goes to con fe rence with the
Se na te, w hi ch passe d a simil a r
meas ure earlier thi s fa ll.
Throughou t the day -long debate, Demo cratic libera ls all
but conced ed tha t th ey did not
J1 ave th e votes to turn bJck
the u s ua lly domin ant coali tion
of Republ ica ns a nd So uthern
Demo crats.'
Yet th ey scored a double
victo ry, not only b lock in g th e
sta te-control p la n, but a lso succe_edm g in reta ini ng $295mlll 10n ad ded in comm ittee to
th e Adm inistrat ion 's p roposed
$2.048-billion bill.
It _w_a s appare nt th a t· ma ny
Repu olt ca ns, con fide nt of v ic1ory, had decided t hei r votes
wou ld not be needed a nd h ad 1
left fo r home before t he crucial
v ote.
·
For days, Democratic libe ra ls
J13d ins isted · th at Pre si de nt
Nixon a lon e he ld the key to the
futur e of t he anti p(wcr ty prog ra m. He ha d ca ll ed for ·a s imple t wo-yea r extens ion of the
prog ram, wit hout c ha nges.
Howc,·c r, w ith t he Ho use Republica n leaders hip fi rml y committed t o shi ftin g cont ro l lo the ·
sta tes, th e Pres ide nt did not
personall y seek to lin e u p Repu blica n s upp or t for a s imple
two -year extensi on.
·
In st ead, at hi s n ews confe ren ce on Mo nd ay, l\'lr. Nixon
said he ho ped t ha t hi s a nti - 1
poverty dir (;c tor, Donald Rumsfeld, coul d take so1o1c kind of
" accomm oda ti on;: wi th cri ti cs
of the progra m . ·
Heedi ng the Pres ide nt's ad vi ce, spon sors of t he state co ntrol pla n m odif ied t heir
earlie r propc:sa l by perm itting
the direc tor of t he Ofiice of
Econom ic Oppo rtu nity grea ter
leeway in OYCrriclin° \'Clocs of
Go ve r'no rs ove r ioc":i! communi ty action progra ms.
Th ey a lso provided the
O.E.O. dire cto r with severa l
meth ods of by-pass in g s ta tes
th a t fa il ed to adequ ate ly fu nd
loca l p rog rams .
Even .wi th t hese m od ifications, . r.-rr. Rum sfeld spo ke out
tod ay · a ga in s t th e Republica n
substitute proposal.
Exemptions Pile Up
.
In h our after hour of drbate
toda y;. severa I ~node rate Rep ub- I
li ca ns and Democ ratic li be ra ls
st rip ped th e state-con t ro l pla n
eve n ·fur the r.
T h<! Head Start progra m of
pre-school t ra inin g for th e poor
was exem pte d fro m st;; tc contro l by , ·oice vote.
The fami ly pl a n nin g progra m
w as a lso exe mpted by a vote,
of 75 to 26.
And th e House voted !)6 to
41, to exe mpt fr om sta te control all com munit y ac t io n prog rn ms on India n reservat ions .
in the e nd . th e proposed
s t ae -co ntro l pl a n was limit ed
pri ma'ri ly to non-In dian co mm unity act ion progra ms a nd to
Vol untee rs in Sc r, ·ice to America (VISTA).
Of ·all the a nt ipove n y programs_. enac ted fi ,·e years ago
un de r a De mocra ti c Ad minist ra tion, comm unity ac t ion h as
d rawn th e most fire , pa rti c ularly in urba n areas whe re t he
new ly orga ni zed poo r hav e
staged ren t st ri ke s and other
demons tra t ions .
This year, the an tirove r ty
a ge ncy h as fun ded 969 comm uni ty act ion programs se rving
abou t s ix m ill io n poo r in so me
2,000 coun t ies, both urban and
rural...
Th e co mmun ity progra ms
va ry.fro m place to p lace, offering suc h a.id as hea lth services,
e merge ncy food and mc!dical
s ervi~s. aid to m ig rant wo rkers, legal serv ices a nd cons umer.
coun se ling.
H. Quie, H-Minn. , ind Edi th
Green, D-O re ., that would ]ia·;e
sh arply ch anged O:CO's cours;,o .
lp to the mome nt when Hou,~
m embers fil ed down th~ ce:·1tt::aisle in a n un official " tel ler
vote. fri enrls and foe s of OE :)
alike were p redicting victory for
the substitutr,.
A}Tes, who acted as floor 1e,.1der for the Qnie-Greeu biU, S?.id
he knew they were losing when
· cbsters of Renublicans and cc:nBy SHII LE Y ELDER
s er Va t i V eDemo-::rats ioined
Sta r Slaff Wrilcr
•
· OEO suppor ter s. The "teller"
In a n upse t that s tartled nea r- i vole was 183 to 166.
ly everyo r.e in volved, the House J
Ayres called the vote personhas vo ted to g ive th e Office of I al t riumph for Rumsfeld w 1..i
E conom ic Opporlunitv a two~ent him a . !elcgram : "T~0
io P 1 _ • l"
,

,ua~feld Raider s rode agai-1.

Yea r , ··0~.,·i bi!J
'
• ~ase 11 '. , <::.
I· · Ccm~i'alulations. Good luck on
It was a rebut f ~., t-l ous~ Re- · the m ess vou inherited but don't
pub lica n lea der~:, a victory for . : s ay you did n' t ask fr,r it."
former m cmtc:r , O -:n Di rector , Ilep.
J oe D. \Vn.ggonner ,
Donald Ru msfcid . and a m ixed l D-La ., a leader of the ~outhern
blessing for President Nixo n.
1 • fo rces, s aid niany congr,.s:3men
The ke_y vote c ame yesterday 1: · from Border States broke mv?._
on a m otion lo subs titute a bi ll
shif ting m os t OE O pro grams to Ifrom the su!.Jstitute bill, e,·en
'thou;:;h critical of OEO, becm1se
the s tates . lt los t, 231 Lo i63 .
they did not want to turn auti'l11e anti poverty measur e the n
programs over to
poverty
was ap proved , 276 to il7, a nd
sent to a conference with the publican governor s. He rnenlioned Arkansas, West Virginia ,
Senate .
Oklahoma , Florida aud Kentuc"I am pleased a nd darn gr a te- ky.
fu l," Ru m sfe ld s aid after the
·. yr es s a id he had assumed
vo te.
that nearly all n epublicans, long
He said he would war!: for
c 0.,unitteci to dec:entraiiiaw.on cit
continued r efor m withi n OE O
and :aid the bill 's ap prov3 l ic, .cral pro~rams , wo uld vote
fo · the substitute. Iu the end . 63
shouldn't be in terpre Lcd as full
Rep Jblicans voted a gainst it. · j
approval of what has gone on in ' , A breakdown on the key vote
this agency."
~hows those 63 Republic~ns jmn- •
mg 168 De mocrats against the
Allhou~h Nixon had asked
Con gress for a simple two-year , s 1bslilute an d 60 Democrats voti.;1g with 103 Repub!kans for it.
$2-bilikn-a-year extension oI
Both Reps . Joel T . Broyhill,
OEO, his support in recent days
R-Va., and William Scott, R-Va. ,
was _cen as less than enthusias1;o~cd against extending the antitic. At hls ·press conference last
pc,vcrty r,rogram. Reps. La\\"Monday the Presi<leut s·1id be 1r c-:ca J . Hogan, R-!IId., and Gilbacked Rumsfeld but urged him ibv t Gude, R-Md ., voted for it on
to se~k an accommodation with fir1~l. passage, although Hc·;;an
vot e-a for the earlier sub titute, .
House leaders .
Credit for the OEO vi ctorv
There was no eviden e that
als0 mu~t go, Wag!ionner sa\d.,·
the White House took an active
lo OEO itself and it.'> constiluenrole in lobbying fo1• the bill.
c_y in urban areas where opposiR umsfeld c arried the fi ght in
dozens of meetings wit h con- twn to the substitu te was oro-a.
nizc-<l hur riedly over the l~st
gressmen, fr equently urging
th a t he be g iven a chance to week.
Te legr ams, letters an d tele-·
correct OE O problems on his
phone c a lls from mayors all
ovm.
added up. "After the prP-5 m e
Vote for Substitnt.e
was on, we. neve r had a
On the House floor , t.he opposi- chance," he s aid.
tion was led by GOP Leader
Gerald R. F'ord of Michigan and
William H . Ayres of Ohio, the
top R epublican on th e Education
and Labor Committee.
They joinr>d forces with South- ,
ern Democrats behind a substi~~1te bill drafted by Reps. Albert i
0
l
i· ·
?
re--
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CONTI NUED NE XT PAGE:
I
�20NTINUED FR . PREVIOUS PAGE:
Head Start Funds
The bill that passed leaves
OE O as it is and authorizes $295
million extra for Head Start, job
train ing and health services.
The bill now goes to coo.fer6nce with a similar Senate version passed Oct. 14 tha t authorizes $4.8 billion over two years.
Joining in t he end-of-session
rush , the Senate Appropria tions
Committee went ahead yes terday and put nearly $2 billion into
an appr opriation bill for OEO
even though fin al a ction on the
authorization cannot come until :
some time next week.
Snturdny. Dec. 13, 1969
THE WASHINGTOl\ POST
I
Began A Week Ago
The pressure began. more than
a week ago whe n Quie and Mrs . j
Green unveiled their s ubstitute
bill. Debate was scheduled for
the next day but Educa tion and
Labor Comm ittee Chairman
. Carl D. Perkins, D-Ky., yanked
the administration bill off the
calendar to barga in for time.
As yesterday's long day of
poverty talk began, OEO critics
were optimistic and its defenders gloomy. Both Democratic
whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana
and Majority Leader Carl Albert
of Oklahoma said they did not
have the vote-:,: to win .
Perkins s aid strong Republican support was essential for
victory. He urged at least 55
Republicans to "come for ward
and support your President." No ·
one expected that a ny where!
near 63 would answer the c all.
· The tone of the debate reflected the preva iling a ttitudes. OE O
backers offfered little r esistance
to t he substi tute. A few re latively minor amendments were
adopted. There were fr equen t
shouts of " vole, vote" to keep
the action m oving.
The substi tute would have given governors a veto over VISTA
and community action progra ms
and would have permitted s tates
to establish separate agencies to
operate the anti-pover ty pr ogra m .
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.
By Richar d L . Lyons
w a,'lln ~to n Pos t St a !! Write r
The House voted to extend the wa r on poverty through
mid-1 971 last night after r ejecting-in a spectacular up set- a proposal to giv e the states control ove r most anti.
po verty pro gra ms.
Th e state-co ntro l plan , supported by most Rep ubhcan s
and Sout hern Democ rats, was defea ted 23 1 to 163 on :t
roll i.: <1 11 vo te.
The House went on to pass
t he bill exte ndin g th e life of
t he Offi ce of Economic Opport unity by a vote of 276 to 117.
Th e bill now goes to a HouseSenate confere nce where t he
m ajor di fference is a Sen ate
a me ndment giving gove r nors
a veto ove r lega l services fo r .
th e poor .
Re jection of th e slat e-co ntro l pla n was a sho ck to bo t h
supp orte rs a nd op pon ents. It.s
approval h ad bee n co nceded i n
ad vance by almost e ver yone, :
espe cia lly afte r its spon sors
of f e re d las t-minute con cessions.
P res ide nt Nixo n h ad asl;cd ,
for a simpl e exte nsio n of t he
prese nt p ro gra m . But whe n
the b ill was t nken up ycsl cr·· ;
· day after six mo nt hs of ma- j
ne uverin g. his princip al .;. up·
port cam e fr o m libe ra l De mo ·
cr a ts who d is tru st th e ab iiit y
or will of t he states to ope r ate
meani ngful antipoverty progra ms.
Do nald R umsfold . direc tor
of t he Office .or l~con omic Opporl un il:v. wl u ch run s t he pro- 1
gr am , slr on ;;i ly opposed t h•: !
sta te-con t rol pl an . At h is news .
con fe re nce i\ Ionda y m ght. thr
Presi de nt ex pressed supp ort
for Rumsfcld, but also expresse d hope th a t an "acco mmod a tio n " could be reac he d.
This made it see m even more
like ly t ha t some vers io.n of
state co ntrol would pass t he
House .
·
Sever a l re ason s we re off er·
ed for defeat of the sta te-control pla n. One was th a t the
week 's de lay De mocrats won
wh en the su bstitute was introdu ce d las t wee k allowe d t ime
for a ma il a nd persona l lob bying ca mpaign.
I
I
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Ji ,1 t , ·1,cn · K. c p. 11 u1 1;;m u . 1


.\ n umbe r or con serv;n i1·e . 1
A~Tc:s (R-Oh io), a lc:icl in i_; co;;- j
' Dem oc rats fro m sta tes with
Re publican govern ors Yole d · no n~o r of the st atc-con! r ol i
p la n, \': as ask ctl by r e po rte rs ii j
a :!ai ns t turni ng Lh e pro gra m
it wouldn 't lake ;;1·, a:, most of l
01·c r lo the m. Some Rc pu bli·
OEO 's nutl!ority, he sa id:
c ::i n votes prob ably we nt t o
"We a r e onl y tabn g away
lium s fe ld , the ir form e r colleague, as a personal matte r. ' hi s mum sfeld's) cnnoe . lle 's
. r;ti il got hi s p:idcll c."
And several mcmbrrs who I
In an effort to nt tracl vo les
had roted a gai ns t a s lron ~ 1 of moderat e 11cpubli ca ns sup- ;\
voting ri ght s bill Thu rscl :iy : port in 6 Rum sfclcl , a for me r
sw itche d to o ppo., c s!:ite con. ; m embe r of the House. th e I
!r e l, perh a ps n ot wi shin g to r s, c1tc-control forc e~ offered
cas t 11·ha l could lJ~ reg ar cl cr! : ,·cs tc rcl ny to m a ke co ncess ions
as ,· otes n;:nin st th e poo r o n , ti i :tl would .[!:vc hi m some i
con secuti ve cl c1 >·s.
power to ac l if s t:i tcs did not i
On th e k <'y n 1tc·. J G8 Dc mn- · o;:ic i·;i te ci fcc\.i ve pi-o gr ams.
j
crats and G:l Hc publi ra ns , Dul He p. Carl P c r·kin s (D. 'j
Yoted a ga in 5t s tate co ntrol, : K y .), ch a irm ap of th e House
1 !Eclucnti o n and L abnr Co mmi t- ;
whi le 103 Hrpublic an. and GO I ' t N· nn d flo or ma na ger of th e
Demo crats voted for it.
I ,acim inis lr::i lion 's exlr mion b ill .
O EO d ra ls directly wilh J ca lled t he r ev ised s ubs tit ute
ro mmnniti cs. with a m inimum i •·a., cl e lruclive ·· :i s tlle o r igiof s tate su pc n ·i s ion. T ll c sub- i na l sta te -co ntro l !)Inn.
st itutc proposa l would have , S peake,
J oh n
\\'.

\lcpermitled gci\-c rnors lo take : Corma ck CD-:'l l ass. ) urged decon trol of mos t of th e coutro- ' feat of th e subs titute, sa~·ing

vr r sial pro r, r ams th at com e it hc iss ue wa s one of '· money
unclcr t he umb re ll a of comm:.i- j · 1·alu es ver s us human vnlu es. "
ni ty acti on on tiic loC'a l lr ,·el. 1
I
lt was rhi cfly a desire to gc t j
f li ghter co nt ro l over lhc loca l
prog r:im s, which the poor
them se lves h elp r un . th at moli vatccl lli e ca mpai gn for sta te
contro l.
Support er. of s la te control
in s i5lccl th c1 t t hey 1•: ere not l
tryin .; lo di sm antl e OE O. but
, r a ther were 11·.vin ;'. t o give nul ho r ity to sta le officials who
, have a bett er gras p of prob: le ms in their sta tes.
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�·--------------
By Eve Edstrom
Was h ingt on Pos t S ta rr Wr it er
Of all the strate gy m e etings that took pla ce durin g
the week that the Offi ce of
Economic Opportunit.v wo n
the b at tl e for: its li fe in t he
Ho u se , on e unpublicized sessio n is fa s t becoming the
ta l k of th e town.
Jt. was set u p by th e Leacl0rs h ip Confcrnec e on Civil
Hi ght s and took pla ce on
Capito l Hill. As 11th-hour
a ss ig nm e n ts lo gai n Cong ress ional s upport for OEO
w e re a bo u t lo b e m a d e, an
ex tra ordin a r _v
pre ca uti o na r y move was ta ken.
Th e r c prese nt at h ·e from
OEO was as k e d to le ;we ll0 e
room .
" \Ve couldn't take anv
cha n ces ," one civi l r igllt's
legi s la th·c
techni cia n
sa id.
" We ju st couldn ' t be s ure
OEO was wa lking do wn t he
same sid e of th e s t re e t with
u s."
D es pi t e
state m e nts
by
OEO Director Donald Rum sfe lcl th a t th e N ixon a d minisstration stood be hind its
bill to k ee p OEO intae t.
th e re we r e num erou s r 0a:
sons w hy O E O 's chi ef suppor te r s di stru ste d th e a d mini s tra tion.
Al a n ews co nference Der.
8, Pres ide nt ;\; ixo n had expre ssed hope that a n "accommod a ti on
cou ld
be
r each e d on the OEO le g is la tion.
To man y OEO suppor t0rs ,
th is
m eant
that
sonw
version of a subs titute bill
g ivin g control of mos t OEO
p rogram s to th e stale s
wo uld b e ac cep ta bl e to th e
administrat io n .
Efforts by the ?\ation 's
m a.v ar s and Urban Coali ti o n
Act ion Counc il me m be rs lo
g l'l i\ Jr. :\"i xo n to m ake a
stron g s tate me n t
a i; ain st
th e sub stit ute b ill fa ile d .
,\nd labo r and ci1·i! ri g hts
leg is lat ive t ec hn ic: ia ns we r e
fru s tr a ted by OEO's failn e
lo eve n com e up w ith a h ea d
count of Re publi can s who
co u ld be r e lie d on to vote
a (:!ai n s t th e s u bs titut e .
' ' ·T he onl y thin g t h a t
m a k es se n se is to sha r e i nformation, " th e AFL-C I O 's
K e nneth Youn g s aid. "But
we g ot n ext to nothin g fro m
OEO .
"Thi s is ju st the oppos ite
of wlu1t h a pp e ne d in th e
las t few d ays wh e n we
work e d t' lose ly with t h e D epa r t m ent of H ealth , Edu cation and Welfare a gai ns t th e
Whit ten amendm e nt to c urta il F e d e r a l sc:h ool d eseg r eg at ion p owers."
T he U r ba n Coaliti on A ction Coun cil's Lo we ll n.
J3 e ck fo un d it lli g lll y unus u a l th a t 1h r r e wa s no overa ll adminis trati,)n st r a tegy l o g uide t h ose who were
fi g h tin g for OEO .
'Not th e '.\Ia in Cog'
"I\· e b ee n a round h ere
fo r 10 y enrs <1 nd y ou us u al],, work to su pp le me nt and
sup p ort a dm inis trat ion effo rt s ." h e sa id . "Yo u' re n ot
the m a in cog in d c\·e lo p i11 g
strategy to pass a cl mi n ist rati o n k g is lati un."
But l hvsc work i11 g fo r
OEO 's s un· in:il fo u nd th ey
n ot on ly \\' Cr e t h e ·'m :i in
co g" in m appinl! out st r ate gy but l h;i( so m e of th e ir
e fforts wcrP. be in g sc u ttled
b,1 O E: O r e prese nt a tiv es .
Wh ile th e c·oa lition o f
O EO s u pporters was wo r k in g to kill t he sta le-c ontrol
s u bs ti t u le , OEO \1·as cons ultin g wi th Ho use m e mbe rs on rt m e nclm e n ts l o
m a ke t he s u bst it u te mor e
pa latab le .
"\Ve were vio le ntl y o pposed lo pe r fecti n g th e substitu te a nd h isto r y pro \·r d
- - -- - -- - - - - · -·--------------------------~-
.
us ri g ht ," ciYil ri g hts lea d e r
.Jo se ph L. Hau b Jr. s a id.
'·Th e admini ~l ration was
r ea rl y to s0 lll e for mu ch
less ."
T h e r efore. th e OEO r e p1'esen la li1·es w;i s as k e d to le ave
t h e L ea ders hip Conference
m e e t in ;:: on D e c. 10, becau se
sup p orte r s of OEO fel t it.
un w is e to sha re th eir strat egy with th e ;igen cy .
'In The Dark'
'·Th ey le t u s work in th e
d a rk, " on e ci1· ic lead e r s a id .
·' Iget sic li r \·r 1·,· tim e I r e ar!
ho w
the
ad m inis tr at io n
pull e d off a great lcg is lali n :
cou p.
" .'\ lo t of bl oo rl , swe a t and
!ca r s Wl' n l into th is ballle .
bu t it would h a ve b een as
cas.v a s pi e if 11·c had rrce i\'P d \rhi! c Hou se sup po r t."
Xo on e di sconn! s th e f ac-t
tha t R um sfelrl w as h ig hly
s ucc essf ul
in
preventin g
so m e of h is form e r <'oi leag u es in ·,he Ho use from
h a n ding m ost of the po ve rty
prog ra ms o \·er l o th e states
\,·h e n th e n uci a l vot e ca m e
on D re . 12.
B ut 11u m0 r ous ot h r ,· fa(' lors w ere i m·o lved . Xot to b t•
under e ti nrn lccl is th e fact
th at 38 m e m bers wh o h ad
vot e d l o sc ra p a stro n g \· o ting ri g hts law t he p re \·iou.s
ni ght s wi tc lw rl t o oppose
s tate c ontrol o f the pove rt y
prog r a m s .
"Th e , 1 just did n ' t wa nt t o
f ire t1rn bul lets in a ro"· a l
· th e p oor," one ohse n ·ed sai d.
"It's e ntirely poss ib le t h a t
we could h a \·e won th e vo tin g ri ght s f ig h t a nd ;os t ~h e
· po vert.1· on e i ( th e legi3 1ation h a d b ee n ta k e n u p in
rev e r se ."
Of equal importan ce wa s
th e i11t e n si1·e lo b by ing e ffort
that the :\'a lion's m ay ors
co ndu cte d agains t takin g
poverty progr a ms awa y from
l ocal officia l .
Their effort was s imila r to
th at mount ed by th e .-\meri can Ba r Associa tion wh e n it
was r e s p on sibl e for knockin g out a Se n a te-p a ssed
amendm e nt to give _governnors con t rol of lega l programs for th e p oor .
A nd i n all th e hubbub
ove r the po \·c r ty bill, sca n t
attention was pa id to th e
rol e that th e governors d id
not play .
With f ew exce p ti o ns. th e
gove rn ors di d not emb ra re
th e ictea of b ein g saddl e d
wit h OEO . As on e r cpo r lcclly s aid :
" H e ll , wh o w ants to h ave
th e Statehouse blamed fo r
O E O's p roblrms. It's mu c h
eas ier lo b last Washingto n. "
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�THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
2700 M Street, N .W. • W as hingto n, D . C. 20037
(202) 293-7625
JO H N W. GAR D NER
Chai rm an
AN DREW HEI SK EL L
A. PHILI P RAN D O LPH
Co- chairmen
LOWE LL R. BECK
Exec uti ve Direc tor
November 21, 1969
Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor of the City of Atlanta
City Hall
Atlanta, Georgia
30303
Dear Mayor Allen:
I am enclosing for your information recent Action
Council testimony on the two closely related issues of
welfare reform and food stamps. John Gardner's statement on welfare was presented to the Way s and Means
Committee by George McGhee.
In his capacity as special
counsel to the Action Council, Mr. Stephen Kurzman presented
our position on food stamps before t h e House Committee on
Agriculture.
I would ap preciate receiving any comments y ou may
have on the positions stated in t h is testimony.
Sincerely,
faJ;!?J?_{,
Lowell R. Beck
�November 10, 1969
MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESS
FROM JOHN W. GARDNER
CHAIRMAN
THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
I wanted you to have an advance copy of my testimony before
the House Ways and Means Committee on the pending welfare reform
legislation. A long-standing commitment will prevent my personal
appearance at the hearing on the date made available by the
Committee; but the testimony will be presented by one of my associates.
It is of the highest importance that we get sound legislation
in this field. We are faced with an extraordinary opportunity to
replace our ineffective, even destructive, public assistance programs with a national system of income maintenance that will help
people help themselves and give hope and dignity to those left
behind by society.
The Urban Coalition and the Urban Coalition Action Council
will give the issue top priority for the months ahead.
�FOR RELEASE UPON
DELIVERY
THURSDAY A.M.
NOVEMBER 13, 1969
Statement of
JOHN W. GARDNER, Chairman
The Urban Coalition Action Council
As Presented By
GEORGE C. McGHEE
Sp~cial Representative of the Chairman
before the
Ways and Means Committee
United States House of Representatives
November 13, 1969
Mr. Chairman, your committee is faced with an extraordinary
opportunity .
The time has come to discard the existing patch-
wo rk o f ine ffective and in many ways destructive public assistance
programs.
You have the opportunity to replace them with a national
s y stem of i ncome maintenance that will help people to help themselves
but preserv e individual dignity in aiding those left behind by
society.
The Nee d
Th e ne e d i s manifest.
This Committee knows all the facts and
statistics of pover t y.
You know the cos t of wel f are , but y ou know also the great c o st
to society of human negl e ct.
The c h i ld who se hea lth n e eds are
denied early me dical a t tent i on b e c ause o f pove rty may s u f f e r a
lifelong handicap and become a life l o ng burden to the community.
The child wh ose attitudes a nd moti v ation are sha ped by the p athology
of extreme poverty may become a ·delinquent or d e r e li ct or addict
l
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and end up as a burden on society.
- to be compared with the human cost.
The cost to society is not
But those who calculate
social costs (and someone must) know that for society the day of
reckoning alway s comes.
It requires a lot of money to maintain
jails, to rehabilitate addicts, to support the victims of early
neglect.
We can serve human values and social providence at
the same time by making such casualties less likely.
Many Americans sincere ly believe that people living in poverty
are people who don't want to wo rk -- or people who don't want
steady work.
In other words, able-bodied loafers.
way from the truth.
That is a long
Of the 25 million persons living below the
poverty line, 15 million are either under 18 or over 65.
Of the remaining 10 million, 9 million fall within the
scope of the Admin is tration's family assistance proposals (as being
adults in poor famil i e s that include children).
that 9 million.
Let us look at
The Adminis tr ation estimates that 7.9 million are
already worki ng, but earn too little to bring them above the poverty
level, o r are the wives o f such men , or are disabled, or are women
who must stay home becau se of very y oung children.
That leaves
1.1 million adults who the Adminis trat i on feels can significantly
help themselves and would thus be required to register fo r jobs
or work training
600,000 men and 500,000 mothers of school-aged
children.
I emphasize those facts because they suggest the limits of
what we may e xpect from the work requirement .
Those who cherish
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the false notion that the welfare rolls are made up chiefly
of able-bodied loafers could easily imagine that the present
p rop osals will b r ing a sharp reduction in the rolls .
If they
believe th a t , t h e y will end up disappointed and angry, because
it won't happen .
Most people who now receive welfare or would
receive it under the new p r oposals are not candidates for the
j ob marke t.
As the a bov e f igures indi c a t e , ei ther they are
already . working or they are too old, too young, disabled, or
mothers of young children.
I n e e d not d e al at length with the we ll-know shor tcomi n gs o f
the present welfare system (or non-system).
In 7 0 % o f the f amilies
r eceiving benefi t s the fath e rs are a b s e nt from the home.
To t he
degree t h at the welfare sys t e m has helped t o c r eate such a situ ati o n
it endangers t h e fabric o f o u r family based soci ety .
And clear l y a
sy s tem in wh ich a n American in one state can re ce i ve o n l y one
eighth of that which his fellow citizen with the s ame need receives
in another state falls far short o f any reasonable standard of
equity.
The level of wel f are benefits paid in most states clearly
will not help any chi l d to escape from poverty.
We know , from
official statistics , that in only two o f the states do AFDC families
receive aid at the $3,500 a year (for a family of four) poverty
level, and in less th an half (21) do they approach 75% o f the
poverty threshold.
The average for all states and the District of
Columbia is almost $1,20 0 below the poverty line.
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Before we consider how the present system might be improved,
I'd like to comment on what may or may not be expected from a
welfare program.
The poverty that makes a public assistance program necessary
is rooted i n a variety of historical and contemporary conditions:
discrimination, the pathology of the urban and rural slum, inadequate education, insufficient job opportunities in the locality,
low pay in jobs not covered by the minimum wage, inadequate social
insurance benefits, inadequate provisions for manpower training
and so on.
No welfare program can cure those underlying conditions.
It
can only deal humanely with the consequences.
If we are to get to the root of the problem we shall have to do
so t h r o u gh e d ucation, health and nutrition programs, the creation of
j ob o pp o r tunities , the elimination of slum conditions and similar
me asures .
We must n ot , for e x ample , imagine that the aid to the work ing
p oo r cont ai ned i n the present proposals is in any sense a substitute
for increases i n and e x tension of the minimum wage .
All parts of
the political spec t rum would agr ee , I suppose , that i n t h e long r un
an adequate minimum wage is h ealth ie r t han a Fede ra l wage subs idy.
Legislative Proposals
Now Mr . Chairman , I sh a ll s p eak to the l e g is l at ive pro p o sa l s
b e f o r e y ou .
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The Urban Coalition Action Counc i l believes that the
Presiden t has put
forward an e x tremely important and on the whole
well-desi gned se t o f p ropos a ls .
The Counc i l also belie ves t h at
the prop osals could b e strengthened at several crucial points.
Let me be g i n by statin g very briefly what it is about t h e
prop osal s th a t s t rike us a s valua ble.
F i rst , we wou ld offer a general wo r d o f p r aise f or the empha sis
on c hildre n tha t is at the heart of t he prop osals under discu ssion .
It ' s a bout time .
Second , we would e mphas i ze that if t h e propo sal s are acc ept ed,
t he Federal Gove r nment wi ll for the fir st time in history ac cept
r e spons i bi l ity for pro v i ding a minimum l evel o f payment t hroughout
t he nation a nd f or fin a n c ing it.
I wo u l d have bee n v e r y proud had
I been a ble to es t a bli s h that princ iple d u r i ng my tenu r e a s
Secretar y of He a lth, Edu cation and We l fare.
It is a h istori c step .
Al l the det ail s o f the p resent proposal s fad e in s ignificance
compared with that ma jor a dva nce in Federal p olicy .
Th i r d, the Coali t i o n Action Council rega r ds the u ni f o rm n ational
standards of e l igib i lity and the great l y broadene d cove r age as
enormously he l pful.
Of spe c i a l s i g n ificance i s the inclu sion of
the wo rking poor f or the fir st time .
The complete ornrnission o f t he
working poor is surely o ne of t h e s trangest a noma l ies of t he present
system.
A society which va lues work shou ld surely make some
provision for the six million adults who work full-time, year round,
and yet cannot earn enough to bring themselves above the pove r ty line.
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Fourth, we welcome improvement and broadening in the incentive
to work.
In 1967 your Committee pioneered in the move to correct
the disincentive to work inherent in the welfare system, and I am
sure that further steps to this end must strike you as wellconsidered.
Fifth, we applaud the proposed assistance to families with
unemployed fathers living at home.
Every critic of the existing
system has commented on the fact that in states without provision
for AFDC-UP, fathers have to leave home to make their families
eligible for welfare.
Mr. Chairman, those strengths of the President's proposals
are great indeed.
They could lead us on to an immeasurably sounder
and more equitable system of income maintenance.
But if the promise
of the proposals is to be realized, they must be strengthened at
a number of p oints.
Can a national commitment to help impoverished families be met
by a program which guarantees uniformity throughout the country only
with respect to the first $1,600 of benefits for a family of four,
even with the commendable inclusion of food stamps?
No doubt the
level was based primarily on what the Administration believes it
can afford under present budget constraints.
I would like to assume
that the President's ultimate goal is to increase that figure until
it reaches the poverty level.
But he has made no provision for
such an increase and, even with the proposed state participation ,
there is no incentive whatever for states to raise their benefit
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Indeed, they are not required to raise them beyond
the July 1969 level.
If state supplementation is to be required,
the legislation should provide an incentive for states to increase
the supplementary benefits (e.g. by Federal matching above the
$1 , 600 floor).
As the best long-term approach, however, I urge the Congress
to make prov ision for a nation-wide increase in benefits to the
poverty level over a specified period of time .
The $1,600 floor
proposed by the President can serve as a sound starting point for
such a phased program .
Adequate provision should be made for "one-stop" administration
of the proposed Federal-state system.
The uniform national eligi-
bility standar ds s h ould help to eliminate the possibility of dispar i t ies i n admi ni str ation among the states , which is so c l early a
prob l e m in the p re sent programs.
However, under the Preside n t's
p r oposal , i f a state chose to cut its supplementary payments o r to
di s regard Fe dera l s tan da r ds for such p a yments, the Federal requ i re ments wou l d be very ha r d t o enforce .
It may be necessary to fi nd
a more enforceab l e Fede r al sancti on , such as admini str ativ e intervention.
The improved benefits for t he aged, d isable d and blind are a
welcome step.
It may b e , h oweve r, t hat o ur ultimate g o al should
be a single income maintenance system which provides for uniform
adequate assistance for alT of our impoverished citizens, including
needy individuals and couples without children.
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It should probably be recognized that we are moving toward
Federal assumption of the full cost of welfare programs.
At a time
when the nation as a whole is experiencing unprecedented prosperity,
state and local governments are facing fiscal crisis.
Largely
dependent upon an inelastic tax base, they face inflation-linked
increases in service expenditures compounded by spiraling welfare
costs.
Given the elasticity of its tax base, and the economies of
scale and efficiency offered by Federal administration, a shift of
the welfare burden to the Federal Government is clearly one means
of resolving the fiscal dilemmas of state and local government.
The fiscal relief offered by this shift would enable state and
local governments to direct greater resources to those functions
they are best fitted to finance and administer.
Another point at which the President's proposals must be
strengthened is the part having to do with the work requirement.
The legislation should specify job standards and wage rates for
"suitable employment".
If this ·is not done, the legislated work
requireme nt could end up providing a steady supply of forced labor
to employers who provide substandard wages and wo rking conditions.
The possibility of abuse by local employment services should be
minimized by extremely careful definition of what constitutes a
"refusal to work", and perhaps also by some system of Federal inspection .
The exemption from the work requirement granted to mothers with
children under 6 and to mothers if the fathers are living in the home
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should be extended to mothers with children over 6.
It may be
quite feasible for such a mother to work, and many do.
But the
feasibility depends on factors that she can best judge: her own
health, the health (physical and mental) of her children, the
presence in the home of adequate mother-substitutes (grandmothers,
aunts) and so on.
No bureaucracy should want to second-guess a
mother in such matters.
In this connection, provisions for day care should be more
explicit.
Federal standards should be set.
No work referral should
be made unless adequate day care is provided.
Responsibility for
and funds for construction of day care facilities should be specified
in the legislation.
Finally, I would emphasize that there must be provisions for
job creation, so that the training opportunities won't be a revolving
door into continued unemployment.
The ideal solution is a public
service employment program.
Mr. Chai r man , that concludes my testimony.
I am extremely
gr a teful for t he opportunity to appear before you.
�Statement by
MR. STEPHEN KURZMAN
Special Counsel to
The Urban Coalition Action Council
before the
Committee on Agriculture
United States House of Representatives
October 31, 1969
Mr . Chairman and members of this Committee :
My name is Stephen Kurzman, and I am appearing on behalf
of the Urban Coalition Action Council .
We appreciate the oppor-
tunity to appear before this Committee on the critical question
of domestic food programs and thei r i mpact on continuing hunger
and malnutrition in the United States .
Our basic thrust he r e
today is to urge you to act promptly and favorably on S . 2547 , the
Senate-passed Food St amp bill a nd to go fo rward , bey ond that
measure , to conside r a b r oad r a ng e o f f u r ther objectiv e s.
The documentatio n is o v e rwhelming a t t his poi n t t hat, de sp ite
u npr ecede n ted p r o s p er i ty and de s p ite a n umb e r of we l l - i n t enti o n ed
food p r ogr a ms, hunger and malnutrition do c o nt i n u e t o e xist in
this c o untry.
A partial listing of this d o cumentatio n includes
the following:
Hearings, Senate Subcommittee o n Employment,
Manpower and Poverty, April, 1967
Hunger U.S.A., Citizens Board of Inquiry Into
Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States,
. 1968
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"Hunger in America", C.B.S. documentary,
Produced by Martin Carr, May, 1968
Hearings, Senate, "Hunger and Malnutrition"
before Senate Subcommittee on Employment,
Manpower and Poverty, May & June, 1968
Hearings, Senate Select Committee on Nutrition
and Human Needs, "Nutrition and Human Needs",
12 volumes of hearings, December 1968-1969
"The Food
United
Select
August
Gap : Poverty and Malnutrition in the
States," Committee Print, Senate
Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs,
1969
Report, Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition,
President's Urban Affairs Council, March, 1969
Report of Dr. Arnold Shaefer, Director, National
Nutrition Survey, U.S. Public Health Service
Poverty, Malnutrition and Federal Funding Assistance
Programs, "A Statistical Summary", Committee Print,
Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs,
September, 1969
The findings in all thes e studi es and all these reports have
electrified the Nation.
Dr. Arnold Shaefer, Director, National
Nutrition Survey, U.S. Public Health Service, has testified before
this Committe e that p re l i mi n ary data fr om hi s survey indicated,
"Malnutrition is a health p r oble m i n t he United States, and our
preliminary f indings c learly indic a t e that the r e is malnutri tion
in a n exp ectedly l arge portio n of the sampled popula tion . "
Shockingly, Dr. Shaefer's survey a ls o uncover ed 7 cases o f mar as mus and kwas hi ako r which we did not believe exis ted in th is r i c h
country .
The Sub committee on Food and Nutrition of the President's
Urban Affairs Council estimated that half of all infants from poor
families in the United States are likely to suffer from under-
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nutrition and that there is no significant proportion of the
poor who do not suffer from under-nutrition.
Moreover, it
estimates that half of the poor in the Southern states and a
fifth of the poor in non-Southern states suffer from malnutrition and that "scattered evidence indicates five to ten million
(persons) are suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition."
Despite the crying need, documented in all of the forums
cited above and beginning o v er t wo years ago, our current food
programs are still not reaching three fourths of the poor, many
of whom suffer extreme pove rty.
At present, the direct distribu-
tion program is oper ating in 1187 counties and serving approximate ly
3.1 million individual recipients.
Under this program, 22 commo-
dities are made available to the sta tes with a retail value of
$15 per person per month.
Thes e commodities have less than
adequate amounts for energy and Vitamin A according to the National
Research Council's Recommended Dietary Allowances.
Moreover, the
average numb er of commodities di s tributed in the state s is 18,
which means _that e v en t ho se poor persons participating in this
federal food program are being denied an adequate diet.
The f ood s tamp pro gram provides a bonus for f ood purchases
which vari es with the income and family size of the recipient with
an average bonus of $ 6. 7 3 per person per month in food purchasing
power.
3.2 million persons participate in this program.
This
program provides only 60 % o f the minimum needs of those in extreme
poverty who participate .
Both . programs fall far below the Depart-
ment o~ Agriculture's own economy food plan which call s for $25 per
�-
4 -
person per month or $1200 per year for a family of four -- an
amount USDA admits can be utilized by only the most ingenious
of the poor to gain a balanced diet.
Moreover, there remain
approximately 470 counties and independent cities with no food
programs at all, andwhich include about 8 % of the poor.
In areas
where food programs operate, less than one third of the poor are
being reached -- around 6 million of 20 million persons living
in families with le ss tha n $3000 a nnual income .
The Census Bureau estimates that 907,000 families have an
income of less than $1000, $200 less than the $1200 rock - bottom
USDA r e qui r e me nt fo r foo d a lone p e r y e ar .
families have incomes under $2000.
Anothe r 1.7 mil lion
It is safe to assume that
many membe rs of these famili e s are go i ng hungr y .
A famil y o f four
wi t h income s o f $2000 would h ave to s pend 60 % o f th at income on
f ood in o r d er to mee t USDA's economy plan standard s .
Cl ear l y
with the costs o f clothing , shelter, med ic i ne, utilities a nd other
fixe d n ecessary e x p e nses, these p e o p l e canno t eat adequate l y .
After
all, the a v erage Ame ric a n spe nd s only 17 . 4 % of his income for food.
Nor are poo r c h ildren b e ing reached b y the school lunch pro gram .
The r e are 32.5 million school c h i l d ren who do not have
acce s s t o school lunches.
Th e House Committ ee o n Edu cation a nd
Labor says 3 and a quarter mil l i o n of these childr en need f r ee
lunches a nd ano th e r 1 9 and a hal f millio n nee d reduced p rice
lunches.
In sum, current family food programs offer little assistance
and fail to reach the great majority of the poor.
14 million of
�- 5 the poor consume food not meeting recommended dietary allowances and 8 million more are on diets with less than two-thirds
of the recommended allowances for one or more essential nutrients.
Nor are our welfare programs reaching them.
Only 10.2 million
of the country's 25.4 million persons living below the poverty
line receive any form of welfare assistance.
The Family
Assistance Program proposed by President Nixon will, we hope,
he~p to remedy this situation, but at the $1,600 per year level
which has been prop.o sed for a family of four, it is clear that
improved and expanded food programs will remain an urgent need
for many of th e se famili e s.
A graphic way of illustrating what all these studies and
hearings show was presented by a witness before the Senate
Agriculture Committe e last May.
Mr . Robert Choa t e , who is an
exper t in th is fie ld and currently a cons ulta nt to th e White
House Conference on Food and Nutrition, introduced the following
b ar g raph :
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90 - 95 % of the popula tion
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by private food industry
operating at a profit.
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He pointed out that the private food industry adequately serves
90 to 95 percent of the Nation ' s population.
The remaining 5
to 10 percent still must eat, but lack the cash to do so adequately.
The alternatives developed to provide for this 5 to 10 percent
only reach a portion of the need:
cooperatives , soup kitchens
and charity feeding houses, home grown foods, occasional sales
of damaged goods at a loss.
the remaining gap.
Governmental programs have to fill
The largest are the Food Stamp and direct
distribution commodities programs .
But as the graph illustrates,
a substantial gap remains .
What that food gap means in human terms e x tends far beyond
the juri sdiction al lines of this or any other single Committee
of the Co n g r e s s .
Hunger and malnutr iti o n are in many instances
t he u nder l y i ng caus e s o f ill ness and publ i c health problems , of
inab il ity to learn and e duc a tio na l prob l ems , of unemploy ment ,
u nderemploy men t and a loss of p r oductivity.
With its act i on on
i mpr oving and expa nding Fe deral progr a ms that fill the food gap ,
th i s Commi ttee can have a pr o f o und e ff e ct on the whole range of
r el ated pro blems which wou ld o therw i s e be l e ft t o pi eceme al
consideration by other Committees.
Conversely, inactio n by
this Committee would create pressure upo n the other Committe es
to consider the impact of food deficiences on the pro blems with
which they must deal.
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We urge this Committee to devise a strategy for closing
the food and nutrition gap.
We recommend a series of objec-
tives which we believe should be sought by that strategy.
A
substantial step toward these objectives would be taken by
enactment, with some adjustments, of S.2547, the Food Stamp
bill passed on September 24, 1969 by a substantial bipartisan
majority of Senators.
The Senate-passed bill was introduced by a bipartisan group
including nine of the thirteen members of the Select Committee
on Nutrition and Human Needs, which had held hearings throujhout
the country over a ten-month period.
Its sponsors were Senators
McGovern, Javits, Percy, Cook, Hollings, Pell, Yarborough,
Mondale, Kennedy, Hart, Spong and Goode ll.
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The following are the long-range objectives we believe
the Committee should address itself to:
1.
Nutrition Education and Information:
There is a great
need to improve knowledge among the poor, as well as among many
families who are not poor, or healthful nutritional practices , of
how to obtain nutritious foods and maintain a wholesome and balanced
diet.
S.2547 makes a start in this direction in Section 1(10),
which would afford participants:
"such instruction and counseling as will best a ssure
that they are able to use their increased purchasing
power to obtain those nutritious foods most likely to
insure that they receive a nutritionally adequate diet."
This is an effort which should not, in our view, be limited only
to food stamp recipients or only to agencies concerned with food
stamps.
For example, HEW and OEO programs and the age ncies a nd
institutions they fund should also be enlisted in these e ffo rts,
a long with the Cooperative Extension Service.
2.
Nutrition Research:
More precise knowledge is need ed
about the e x t e nt, incidence and location o f malnutr ition o n a
c onti nuing basis.
For e xample, HEW's Nation al Nutr i ti on Survey
should be expanded so that its sample is adequate , its data are
f u l ly analyz e d, and food program e ffecti v e n ess is mo nitored and
evaluated.
Special consideration should be given to t he particu l ar
nut r itional needs of the rura l poor , migrants, Eskimos, Indi a ns
a nd the e lderly .
3.
S. 2547 doe s not deal with thi s s ub ject.
Outreach:
A f ull range of suppo rtive services is needed
at the local l evel t o re a ch mo~e of the Nation's urban, rural and
migrant poor with e x isting food assista n ce programs.
In h i s May 6
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message to the Congress, President Nixon pointed to OEO's "unique
outreach among the poor themselves."
S.2547 would expand avail-
ability of food stamps by permitting certain private non-profit
institutions, including mobile food services, which provide meals
to older persons to accept food stamps (Section 1(1) and 1(16)).
It would spread awareness of the programs by authorizing the
giving of instruction and counseling mentioned above at schools,
retail f9od stores, in homes, through voluntary cooperation, in
Federal, State, local or private agencies which carry out informational and educational programs for consumers, and particularly
through th e national school lunch program and its e x tension
Section 1(10)). The cumbersome pre-certification procedure would
be amended so that an affidavit is s ufficient, subject to subsequent
disquali f icati on f or fraud (Section 1(12) and 1(17)); this parallels
the t e chnique l o ng a utho riz ed f o r t h e Fede ral income tax system.
Issuance of st amps a nd collection of payments for them would be
f a cilita ted by a uthorizin g use o f Pos t Offi ceR , banks , c red it unions,
the mai l s a n d other agencies.
(Secti ons 1(11) a nd 1(14 ) (3 )).
Un de r
limi ted c ircumstance s , whe re the Secr etar y of Agriculture determines
there i s a ne e d a nd no foo d sta mp p r ogra m e x ists , USDA would b e -·
a utho r ized t o admin i ster a foo d stamp program throug h a private
nonpro f it organiz ati o n o r a Fede ral, St a t e o r cou nty age ncy app r ove d
b y t h e Secr~t ary .
In l ine wi t h Pres i dent Ni xon ' s refe ren c e to OEO's
outreach cap abili t ies, we would hope th at OEO would b e g i v en a
substantial role in prov iding the serv ices necessary to fuller
p arti~ip ati o n of t he p o or i n a l l f ood a ss i s t ance p rogra ms - - not solely
the Food Stamp Program .
�- 10 4.
Private Enterprise:
A principal advantage of the Food
Stamp Program is that it utili z es the private food distribution
system rather than creating another distribution system as required
by other types of food assistance prog rams, particularly commodity
distribution.
S.2547 wou l d permit more of the poor to be reached
by the private system by improving the current payment and value
schedules , which require payment in advance on a rigid monthly
basis of u p t o 47 percent of income to participa te in the program.
Free foo d stamps would be issued to families earning less than
one-half the amount determined by the Secretary of Agriculture to
be n e cess ary t o pur cha se a nutritionally adequate diet, at t his
time apfroximate l y $ 6 0 p e r mon t h f o r a family o f 4, o r $72 0 a
year.
In no eve n t would more than 25 p ercent of a h ousehold's
i n come b e char ged f o r stamps ; agai n , t his is still higher than the
1 7 .4 percent o f income pai d fo r f o od by t h e ave rage fam i l y .
State
el igibi l i t y req u irements , wh ich now r a nge f rom $1 , 9 2 0 to $ 4, 1 40 for
a fami l y o f 4 and b e ar n o re l a t i on to geo graphic dif fe ren tial s i n
food p ri c es, woul d b e re placed by a mo re e q u i t a ble nationa l minimum
standar d of $4,00 0 a djuste d to take regi onal var i a tions into
account.
As i mportan t as the s e ch a nge s would be, a number of othe r
programs should a l s o be initiat ed t o enlist the pri v ate sector
more fully in the distr ibuti on a nd e ducation p rocessP. s .
Current
governmental efforts with foo d companies to provide foreign
developing nations with enriched and fortified foods should be
extended t
t his coun try as wel l.
Production, processing and
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distribution by small food businesses in low-income areas should
be encouraged by the Small Business Administration, the Department
of Commerce, and OEO, especially with the aid of local development
corporations.
As the President's May 6 Message recommended, "an
advisory committee of major food processing and food distribution
companies" should be established.
5.
Maternal and Child Nutrition:
As the President stated
and as Dr. Shaefer emphasized in his testimony before this
Committee, malnutrition during pregnancy and in the infant and
young child can cause physical and mental retardation .
The
President called for special package and pilot voucher programs
by HEW and these should be authorized by legislation.
Participation
in free or reduced-price school lunch programs should be increased
by establishing national eligibility and funding standards for
local school districts so that all needy children, less than half
of whom now benefit from these funds , can p a r ti ci pate .
Simi lar
emphasis on poor children should -be mand ated upon the special milk
program .
Private f ood companies shoul d br ing t he i r e xpe r t i se in
processing and distr ibution t o low-i ncome ar ea schools whi ch lack
adequate facilities for preparation o f me a l s.
Again , S.2547 d oes
n ot c over these subjects .
6.
Dire ct Commodity Dis t r ibu tion:
New d irec ti o n should be
give n to co~o dity distribu tion so t h at it supp l e me nt s food st a mp
and scho ol feed ing prog r ams .
Together these prog rams should ensure
that low-income families have available to them a range of foods
nece~sary for a nutritious and well - balanced diet.
National
standards of eligibility, cash payments to States, grants to public
�- 12 and private agencies and use of Section 32 funds for purchase
of nutritional foods not otherwise available under Federal
food programs, should be authorized.
USDA should assist State
and local agencies in outreach efforts to insure maximum participation of low-income families, and distribution should be
facilitated, in conjunction with OEO, HEW, and HUD, through
neighborhood centers.
S.2547 makes one important advance by
permitting a combination of food stamp and commodity programs
under certain narrowly defined circumstances (Section 1(7)).
The objectives we have outlined are not ours alone, by
any means.
Most were identified and recommended to the President
by the Food and Nutrition Committee of the Urban Affairs Council .
Many were embodied in the President's May 6 Message.
Many are
embodied in bills already introduced in both Houses of Congress,
such as S.2789, introduced by Senator Javits and a bipartisan
group of co-sponsors; S.186 4, by Senator Talmadge; H.R. 13423,
the Foley-Green bill; and H.R. 12222, the Administration bill
introduced by Congresswoman May.
We recognize that these objectives will incur additional
cost to the U.S. Treasury; for food stamps alone, $1.25 billion in
the current fiscal year instead of $750 million under the current
projections , and a similar $50 0 ,000,000 difference in fiscal years
1971 and 1972 .
But as Senator Hollings stated on the Senate floor
when S.2547 was passed, "This is no time to holler 'ch aos ' and
' the end of the world is coming' over the e x penditure of $500 million
in the ne x t fiscal year," particularly when compared with e xpenditures
�- 13 for other purposes.
It has been estimated that the objectives
other than those relating to food stamps would cost approximately
$415 million in the first year.
Again, matched against other
expenditures, including some $3 billion in agricultural subsidies
annually, this does not appear to require a major wrenching of
national priorities.
The comprehensive approach to food assistance
we recommend is well worth the additional cost and may well cost
less than the loss of productivity and wasted lives caused by
hunger and malnutrition.
For the record we would like to offer a number of editorials,
local news stories and columns from newspapers, both large and small,
in many parts of the Nation in re cent months.
These indicate
a growing national awareness and concern about food shortages and
deficiencies and the need f or e x panded and improved food programs.
�The Urban Coalition
1819 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20006
Telephone : (202) 223-9500
CHAI AMAN: John W. Gardner
CO-CHAI AMEN : Andrew Heiskell /A.Philip Randolph
August 26, 1969
The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor of the City of Atlanta
City Hall
Atlanta, Georgia
30303
Dear Ivcfu:
At its last meeting the Executive Committee of the Coalition
adopted a statement on the welfare reforms proposed by
President Nixon. A copy is enclosed for your study. A
special subcommittee, chaired by Mr. Whitney M. Young, will
be meeting in September to plan further steps to implement the
position of the Coalition in supporting an income maintenance
program.
The Executive Committee reached other key decisions on housing,
public service employment, a minority contractors institute
proposal, and on several administrative matters. The minutes
of the meeting and supporting papers are enclosed, and I'm
sure will be of interest to you.
A new schedule of Steering Committee meetings for the remainder
o f this year and through 1970 has been adopted. The Steering
Committee meeting originally scheduled for September 24 has
been cancelled. The next Steering Committee meeting will be
December 10 in Washington at 3 : 00 p.m.
I look f orward to seeing you at our next meeting.
Sincerely,
i~Libassi
Executive Vice President
cc :
Mr. Dan Sweat
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MINUTES OF URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
August 13, 1969
The meeting of the Urban Coalition Action Council Eiecutive
Committee was called together at 3 p.m., John W. Gardner presiding ...
I.
Public Service Employment. This is a priority item for
the Action Council. Particular attention of late has been
paid to how business community support can be brought to bear
on this matter.
The concerns of businessmen and what faults they find
with the concept of public service employment were reported
on.
Discussion then centered on how these criticisms can best
be factu a lly answ e red. Attached is a report of the lobby
strategy reviewed and approved by the Ex ecutive Committe e.
II. Foundation Ta x Issue.
The legal implications of the bill
as it now appears and what progress has been made in changing
injurious language in the bill were discussed.
It was the
view of the Action Council that although Foundations are in
better shape than they initially we re when work first started
on the bill, there are still many liabilities to it which
would severely r~strict the Coilition and many other such
organizations' activities.
Continued efforts to win modification of the bill in the Senate were approved. Attach e d is a
repor t on current action of the House Ways and Means Committee.
III . President Nix on's August 8 Statement on Welfar e and Othe r
Domestic Issues. A most spirited discussion ensue d on the pros
and cons of the President's message to the Americ a n p e o p le .
The Executive Committee adopte d a position on the streng ths
and weaknesses of the Preside nt's proposal which were
incor po ra t ed in a statement released to the p ress . A copy of
the statement is attached .
�MINUTES OF. THE MEETING
OF THE
URBAN COALITION EX£CUTIVE COMMITTEE
I. Minority Contractor Institute Proposal. After the history,
current status and details of the Minority Contractors Institute
proposal were presented and discuss ed, the Exe cutive Committee
approved the proposal with the understanding that an advisory
committee made up of all e leme nts of the Coalition will be
formed and consulted. Attached is the proposal.
II. Dates of Future Steering and Exe cutive Committee Meetings.
The attached list of dates was app~oved.
III. Terms of Office f or Steering and Executive Committee Members .
At the present time Steering Committee members do not serve any
fixed term.
The proposal was for two-ye ar terms to be e stablished
for all Steering Committee members and that they be eligible for
reelection.
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The only exc ep tions to the two-year rule would be for those
members who hold public office or are of ficers o f private
organizations. Their term o f o ffice would b e limite d to the
term of their non-coalition position.
In order to initiate this system, ·it was pioposed that the
Chairman be empowered to assign terms of office to all current
Steering Committee members. ·
The proposal was approved by the Executive Commi ttee.
copy is attached.
A
IV. Nominating Committee Report. Three categories were prese nted
Mayors, Businessmen, a nd Mexican-Americans.
A.
Mayors - Nine names representing a range o f g e ography
and party were presented. The entire l ist was approve d
with the autho rity to approach individuals as vacanc ies
occur until the li s t is exhausted.
B.
Businessmen - The list was accepted with one addition
from the floor.
It was also sugge ste d that some
a d ditiona l n a me s r e p~e s e nting the financial community
b e adde d. This was agreed to a nd addit i ona l n a mes will
be circulated.
It was also propos e d to enlarge busine ss repre s e ntation
on the Exe cutive Committe e by three and on the St eering
Committee b y s ~v e n. The li s t o f n a mes a nd the
enlarg ement o f the Steer i ng and Exec ut ive Committee was
approved.
f
�Minutes - Urban Coalition Executive Committee
Page 2
In addition, the Executive Committee authorized the
Chairman to approach individuals on the list as
vacancies occur until the list is exhausted. Care
will be exercised in assuring that geography and
types of industry are fairly represented in the
complexion of the committees.
C.
Mexican-American - Two candidates were submitted and
approved by the Executive Committee.
D.
Announcements - An announcement of the nominees for
the Steering Committee will be made after they have
been contacted and have accepted.
V.
Housing. A report of the Housing Task Force was presented
which outlined the principal effort the Task Force wished to
take in the housing field.
The report was approved by the Executive Committee, a copy
of which is attached .
Whereupon, at 5:25 p.m. the meeting was adjourned.
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N E WS
from
The Urban Coalition Action Council
.1819 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
202-223-9500
August 14, 1969
(Tom Mathews)
FOR RELEASE FRIDAY AM, AUGUST 15, 1969
URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL . STATES VIEWS ON
ADMINISTRATION'S WELFARE PROPOSALS
The following statement was issued on behalf of the Urban
Coalition Action Council today by John W. Gardner, Council
Chairman, following a meeting of the Council's Executive
Committee in Washington, D.C.:
Pi·esident Nixon has taken the initiative to reform
America's outmoded welfare system.
The Urban Coalition Action
Council welcomes this major departure and commends the President
for moving to correct the serious deficiencies of the current
system.
The President's proposals are significant on several
counts:
(a) They will provide assistance to .the millions of
working poor who are totally ignoreq by the present system .
. (b) They will provide income to unemployed parents who
are seeking work or training, thereby keeping families together.
(In most states today unemployed fathers have to desert their
families to make the fam~lies eligible for aid. )
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(c) They remove the powerful barrier to work which
is a gro~s defect of the present system, and introduce a
positive incentive for the individual to enter the job market.
(d) Though the leve-1 of support is modest, they take
the enormously important step of accepting federal responsibility
to place a floor under the income of those eligible for
assistance.
(e) They will provide national eligibility standards
for those receiving federal assistance under the new program.
We have strongly advocated such measure s and we will
_do all that we can to make them a . legislative reality.
If
that is to come about, all who are concerned for the n a tion's
future must work together to ensure that the best program we
can devise is finally written into law.
To assure the ultimate
success of the program; it must be strengthene d in eve ry way
possible during the public d e bate and the l e gislati v e de liberations to come .
He re are s ome o f th e wa ys i n whi c h streng t h eni n g
could be accomplished:
1.
The· Admi nistr ation p r op os a ls could be fur ther
s t rengthened by rais ing the leve l o f f unding i n order t o
inc r ease the level of minimum income, to a f ford r e lief f o r
tho se s t ates and municipa li ties which are being crushed by
the spiraling we l f are burde n and to include s ingle pers ons
and childless couples wh o are no t now covered.
\
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2.
The plan proposed by the Fresident exempts
mothers of pre-school chil~ren from the provision requiring
recipients of assistance to register for work and training.
This is a step forward over the present law and should be
retained.
But the plan could be strengthened f~rther if it
recognized that even mothers of children- over six might serve
the society best by staying home and doing a good · job of
bringing up their children.
It is a decision for the
mother, not the government, to make.
All evidence indicates
that the number of mothers who want .to wo r k.ex cee ds our capabil i ty
to . provide jobs and daycare facilities.
~
3.
The Administration propos~ls · can be _effectively
stre ngthe ned by the fo rmula tion o f expl i ci t
fede r a l s tandards
governing wo rk r e f erral a nd wa g es to b e . p a i d , a nd b y provis ions
to assure that present welfare recipients do not e nd up with
a lower leve l of b e nef its th a n they pres ent ly _r ece ive.
4.
The proposal s could b e ma de more effec tive if t h ey
· were suppleme nted by a job c r eation program.
The r e is a dange r
tha t the new training opportunitie s prop os e d by the P resident
wi l l s i mp l y b e c ome a revolving doo r . throu gh whi c h potential
emplo yees pass without obtaining employment.
The Coalition
has l ong advo cated a p ub l ic s e rvi ce emp loymen t pro gram which
would solve the problem.
5.
Finally, the prorosal should assure that the food stamp
program only be phased out as cash payments approach the ·
minimum necessary to lif± a family out of poverty.
�6 -
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The Urban Coalition Action Council look.s forward
to joining with other concerned citizens in the monumental
task we now face of winning the public and political support
necessary to assure enactment of constructive measures to
meet these problems.


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�ACTION COUNCIL ACTIVITY ON PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION
The Urban Coalition Action Council has strongly supported
public service employment legislation since the Council's
formation last year. Public service employment was a primary
goal of the Urban Coalition's Statement of Principles, adopted
in August, 1967.
The Action Council is now preparing for a major effort to
secure enactment of this legislation, and will give public service
employment top priority this fall.
There are three central phases required to assure success:
1.
1)
Preparation of testimony for Senate and House hearings
to be scheduled in late September or early October;
2)
Overall coordination of educational and legislative
ac~ivity; and,
3)
Development of strong business support.
Hearings - Work is now underway to obtain the most current
employme nt facts which prove the case for public service
employme nt. We wish to provide up-to-date information to
the appropriate Congressional committees.
Information is being obtained to show that:
(a) Unemployment and underemployment still loom large in
major cities as well as rural areas; and,
(b) Jobs needed by cities, counties, states and nonprofit
institutions of all kinds can be matched with the
available unemployed and underemployed wi lling and able
to work.
To demonstrate the reality of "matching," we are probing
three major cities through resources available to the Action
Council such as the League of Cities, Conference of Mayors, and
municipal employees' unions. Using the same resources, we will
develop testimony that shows that to do the job properly and now,
Federal funds must be provided for wage subsidy or supplementation
as .well as for training and supportive services.
2.
Coordination - By frequent contact with the Action Council
constituency, we plan to coordinate the overall activity
in order to have the .greatest impact on Congress and the
public.
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Conversations to date with segments"of the Action Council
have indicated a strong measure of support for the effort we
are undertaking. Many of these groups predate the Action Council
in their commitment to greatly ·expanded public service employment
opportunity. The somewhat newer concept of underemployment as a
critical factor has enhanced, ratner than diminished, the interest
and commitment of most of the groups.
3.
Business support - Despite the clear commitment of the
Coalition convocation that included many prominent members
of the business community, we are uncertain about the
support of business as we go down the road.
The uncertainty rests on one major ground. Preliminary and
limited conversations with several business representatives pinpoint
the issue of wage subsidy.
Most who have been contacted would support a JOBS type program
transferred to meaningful work in the public sector with Federal
support for training and supportive services (such as those
programs embodied in MA-3 and MA-4 contracts). Beyond that,
however, shoal waters seem to appear.
~
Resistance to wage subsidy
fear of creating uncontrollable
service institutions, supported
of WPA seems to come to mind as
reaction.
or supplement seems to be based on
inefficiencies in cities and public
by Federal dollars. The specter
the idea of wage support triggers
The cities regard any public service program as meaningless ·
without the wage component.
Therefore, we seek advice on this issue from all segments of
the Action Council constituency, but particularly from the business
community at large and from the business members of the Executive
Committee.
We have had preliminary discussions with representatives of
organization s such as th e National Associ a tion o f Ma nufactu rers ,
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Merchants
Association, and the American Trucking Association.
In addition
to the national business organizations, we have been talking with
representatives of corporations such as AT&T, Kennecott, and Sears
Roebuck .
We are now intensifying our contacts with the business
community on this issue.


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We are closely watching other types of legislatiori and
particularly that receiving Administration blessings.
If
alternative solutions to the same problems appear to be emerging,
we will be prepared to reassess our own position in the light
of such developments and make appropriate recommendations to the
Action Council Executive Committee.
We are particularly mindful that the Administration proposes
to announce a large 'package' on August 8. Although the contents
are closely guarded, it is assumed · that it will include some tie-in
between income maintenance and enlarged_ employment opportunity.
Whether this program will satisfy the demand and need for public
sector jobs, and whether it will reach sufficient numbers of the
unemployed and underemployed remains to be seen. We will
scrutinize the program carefully.
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THE NEED FOR PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT
The Urban Coalition Action Council
At the time of the original convocation that created the
nat"ional Urban Coalition in 19_6 7, the Steering Committee of that
convocation stated its position ;n public service employment.
That statement called for immediate legislative action based in
part on the following principles:
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1)
"The .Federal government must enlist the cooperation of
government at all levels and of private_ industry to
assure that meaningful productive work is available to
everyone willing and able to work."
2)
"To create socially useful jobs, the ..• program should
concentrate on the huge backlog of employment needs _in
parks, streets, slums, countryside, schools, colleges,
libraries . and hospitals ..• _"
3)
"The program must provide meaningful jobs--not dead
end, make work projects ... "
·
4)
"Basi c education , training and counseling must be an
integral part o f the program ... Funds f or tra ining
education and counseling should be made available to
private industry as well as to public and private
nonprofit agencies."
5)
"Such a program should seek to qualify new employees
to become part of the regular work force and to meet
normal performance standards~-"
_. 6)
"The operation of the program should be keyed to
specific locali ze d unemployment problems and focused_
initially on those areas where the n eed is most
apparent."
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On April 1, 1968, in testimony before the .Subcommittee on .
Employment, Manpower and Poverty of the Senate Committee on Labor
and Public Welfare, John W. Gardner, chai~man of the n a tional
Urban Coalition Action Council, reaf~ irme d the convoc ati on's
statement.
Mr. Gardner's testimony also made public for the
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�Public Service Employment
Page 2
first · ti~e the preliminary conclusion.s of a study by Dr. Harold
Sheppard of the Upjohn Institute.l Dr. Sheppard was commissioned
by the Urban Coalition to surv_ey the public service needs of a
sample of major cities and to e~amine the general problems of
underemployment and unemployment in'this country in terms of
those -needs.
Sheppard's study, released in final f6rm in January _of
this year, dispell~d ~ome myths which have greatly influenced
past thinking on unemployment and underemployment; about the poor
who do not work and the much larger group of poor who do.
For
example, 85 to 90 per cent of the poor who do not work are ill,
disabled, in school, or in the case of many women, they are
unable to enter the labor market at all because of home respon-
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sibilities.
· Sheppard's analysis emphasized the critical facts about ·
the underemployed, who he defines as those who work and are still
poor.
In any analysis of what constitutes .the poor in this
country, underemployment looms as large--tf· not larger--than
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unemployment.
Sheppard found that, conservatively, ~lmost five
million people in this country were underemp loyed.
This is a
•
significant figure since it includes by definition people who
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work and are still poor, and does not include unemployed as defined
by the Federal government .
. 1 Harold L. Sh e pp ard, The J:Jature o f the Job ·P roble m and t h e Role
of .New Public Service Emp l oyment, the Upjohn Institute, January
1969
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Sheppard advanced an even more startling theory, based on
.Bureau of' the Census stat~stics, on the number of poor families
in the labor force and the per cent having two or more wage earners.
Using this method, Sheppard concluded that in 1966 at least six
million members of families worked on some basis and were poor .
.,
In addition, there were 1.3 million unrelated individuals in the
labor force at the same time.
Therefore, there are perhaps as
many as 7.3 million men and women who are labor · force participants
and yet are poor.
~He concludes that most of them are employed but
still do not earn enough to raise their,families or themselves
out of poverty.
Equally significant weight must be given
to the quality
of the unemployed in terms of age, location, duration, etc.
The quality can have serious consequences for the cities.
At
the time of the Sheppard study, the Office of Economic Opportunity
estimated that the central cities contained nearly 1.3 million
job seekers or underemployed poor persons of whom 33 % were in the
16-21 age group (1966 figures).
•1968 figuies for Detroit show
that the unemployment rate for the city as -. a whole was 3. 8%, but
for 16~1~ year olds it was 13.6%.
Unemployment in the central
city, both white and nonwhite, was 11 . 2%.
•
In round numbers there
were almost 22,000 unemployed in Detroit
between . the ages of 16 - 19.
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In the central city there were 34,000 people of all ages unemployed. 2
In Los Angeles, 35,000 were between 16 and 19 and the total
for-the central 'city was 71,000.
One must conclude that the bulk
2 The data for Detroit and Los Angeles are from the Supplement to
the President's 1969 Manpower Report and are averages for the
calendar year 1968. Data is a lso available for 18 other cities.
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�Public Service Employment
Page 4
of the unemployed are in the central city; and if Sheppard's
· conservative figures on underemployment are ---- considered, there is
today a strong concentration of unemployed and underemployed in
the central city, and many are in the 16-19 age group.
_these fi~ures will startle anyone.
.,
None of
Yet, measured against achieve-
ment much remains to be done.
Sheppards analysis of the "needs" of the cities was done
by a survey of 130 ci~ies with populations of 100,000 or mor~.
'
Althorigh not done in depth, the general conclusions of th~ survey
established the fact that in these cities there were at least
280,000 potential positions which were needed but not filled and
not bu~geted.
Even more significant was the fact that the city
representatives estimated that there were at least 140,000 of
these jobs that did not require technical or professional training
and could be filled by inner-city residents.
Contrary to popular
belief that these jobs by.definition were make work, 30 per cent
were in education of which over 27% were nonprofessional, 12.4 %
were in health and·hospitals of which 13.3 % were nonprof essional,
and 25 % we re in police , fire and sanitatiop o f which over 23 %
could be filled by nonprofessionals.
Most people would consider
these categories of ·w ork to b e essential _ to the efficient and
productive operation o f a city.
.
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It is the conviction of the Urban Coalition Action Council
that the present .require ments of the citi es and the unfulfille d
promises of jobs can be match e d .
Su ch a p rogram will h a v e a
positive impact on the problems of unemployment and underemployment.
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�Page 5
Publ~c Service Employment
But it cannot be done without some Federal support for city
budgets, state budgets, budgets of nonprofit institutions such
as hospitals, all of which are shrinking under th~ pressure of
rising co·sts.
Yet the demand ·for service to the community remains
·and grows.
.,
The private sector is playing a critical role in the employment of the disadvantaged.
The JOBS Program3 has had a substantial
impact in the communities where it has been operating _for more
~-
than a year.
Despite excellent organizational and promotional
efforts ·and ihe dedication of thousands of individual businessmen,
the privai~ sector has not been able to attack the total problem.
No one can expect the private sector alone to do the job.
In
fact, the private sector should not be asked to do the whole ' job.
Not only can they not be expected to do it, they cannot do it.
In June 1969 the Secretary of Labor announced that 2,370
employers agreed to hire and train 71,796 disadvantaged workers
with Federal assistance.
614,_000 by June 1971.
The goal is 238,000 by June 1970 and
This enormous effort must be continued,
•,
but even if we recognize that a much larger group has been employed
through the normal channels of companies, Los Angeles alone needs
more than 71,000 job opportunities for the centra1· ·city right now.
Although several bills relating -,to public service employment were introduced in the 90th Congress, Congress has failed
to act in this important area .
and· manpower
11
Independent pieces of legislation
fall out" from other legislation c6nsidered to be
3 Job Opportunities in the Business. Sector, conducted by the
National All~ance of Busi nessmen
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public s·ervice employment-oriented are on the books·.
and the Work Incentive Program (WIN) are example s~
New Careers
Quite apart
from whether the proliferation of programs, both private and .
public sector oriented, requires a more comprehensive approach
·and a more efficient delive ry systei;n, pre sent programs apparently
are not reaching significant numbers o f the unemployed and underemployed.
The present Administrati on is min dful of th i s.
The Dep art-
me nt o f Labor r e c e nt l y c irculate d f or comme nt t o int~ re sted parti es
a detailed program draft to be called Pub lic Se rvice Careers Program.
The progr am is sche dul e d to be announced in early August, and one
c a n a ss ume th at t he r ecent draft repr esents the Admi n istration's
current thinking on this subject.
The draft paper ·b a sica lly a g r e es with Dr . Shepp a r d 's s tat e ment o f the p rog ram.
1)
Th e Administrat i o n ' s a n a l ysis e mp h asizes t hat:
Th ere i s an increasing need for trai ned man power i n
the publ ic s e ctor at all l e v el s of governme nt
2)
Underemp l oyment is a key problem
3)
A public service pro gram should· not be an ' employer
',
of: t h e las t r es o rt program' nor me r e l y ano t h er trai ning
program
4)
The Administration propo ses ·-~to break down a wide
range o f b arriers t o emp l o yment o f t he disadvantaged
~nd imple ment upgrading of current employees
5)
Federal funds will b e made a vail able f o r s u pportive
seryices, i.e. training and remediation, transpo rtation
and .day care facilities, job res tructuring, sensitivity
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�Public Service Emp l oyment
training for supervisors.
Page 7
Fifty million dollars in
Title I-B Economic Opportunity Act monies will be
requested.
The Secretary of Labor has stated that the Federal government inves t ment per trainee in the JOBS p r ogr am is $2,915 .
Using
three thousand dollars per person and nqt taking into account any
additional investment that may have been made by t~e private
sector for each JOBS trai n e e , t h e p rop o sed Pub lic Se rvice Ca r eers
Pr ogram would g e n erat e ab out 1 6 ,000 jobs f or t h e e n t ire n ati o n.
The justification that . the Labor' Department uses for its
limi ted efforts in the public s e cto r is the as s umed need f o r
e xperime ntation (For e x a mp l e, will the h ire-first t rain- lat er
.
.
principle wo rk in the public s e ctor ), a nd to d e termine whe t her
or no t such p r o g r ams c a n s uc cee d withou t s ome fo rm of Fed eral
wage s ub sidy .
Re pre sen t ati v e s o f ma j o r c i ti e s h ave a lready
indicated to De p a rtme nt r ~pre s ent a tive s t h a t Federal wage subs idies
in s ome fo rm are necess a ry; th a t t h ey f a c e continuing d eteriorat ion
o f esse n tial a s we il as d e s i rabl~ s ervices; t h at bud geta ry p re ss u r e s .
"·
are such th a t th e r e cru iting , tra i ning, a nd s u pp l ying o f s up p ortive
services-is meaningle ss . if t he jobs c annot b e s u sta i ne d i n the
•
c ity s yste m o r the ho s pital , no matte r how badly n e~d e d . 4
The Administration ' s an a ly s i s o f ,. une mp loy me n t a n d undere mployme nt proble ms and the i mpe r a tiv e and g r owi ng need f o r a
publ ic service manpower p r o g r am s u ppo r t s the a n a l ysis o f t h e
4This e x plains t h e reaction o f s ome c i ty representatives who,
a l though cri t ical o f t h e WI N pro gram, regard a t l eas t as
realistic i n this one ·respect f o r i t does provi d e f o r some
fo r m of wage ·s ubsidy for two years .
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�-Public Service Employment
I
P~ge 8
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Urban Coalition.
But the conclusions fro~ the analyses differ.
The Urban Coalition Action Council can'not support the Administration's
present approach in this area, and so informed Assistant Secretary
of Labor Arnold Weber by letter on July 25, 1969.
(See attachment)
The Urban Coalition Actiorr Council is pu~suing a vigorous
_program of support for meaningful public service employment legislation in this session of Congress.
The Action Council is
coordinating and cooperating with its supporting segments to prepare now for Senate and House hearings.
The timetable in the
House calls for hearings sometime in early October.
first order of business.
This is the
Particularly because of the Administra-
tion's approach at the prese nt time, we must undertake to prove
the case for a more rapid and larger eff9rt . in the public employ~
ment field.
We hope th.at all· the varied e lements in the Urban
Coalition Action Council constituency and all others who h ave a
concern about the commitment of this nation to of fer job opportunities
to those willi~g and able to work will assist us in· this effort. ·
In order to prepare caref~lly for the anticipated h earings ,
we would welcome any comme nts or r eactions .that you migh t have
to ·this proposed effort.
We are particularly interested in
cri"tical reactions to the concept of public service emp loyment
as we ll as comme nts on present or propC?sed a lternat i v e methods in
,.
either the public o r private sector for dealing with the problems
of u nderemp loyme nt and unemp loyme nt in 1969.
July 30, 1969 (bs) ,r
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�July 25, 1969 ·
0
Mr. Arnold R. Weber
Assistant Secretary for Manpower
U. S. Department of Labor
Washington, D. C. 20210
Dear Mr. Weber:
Thank you for giving the Urban Coalition Act{on Council
the opportunity to comment on the second draft of the General
Description of the Public Service Careers Program.
The Urban Coalition Action Council strongly advocates an
exten$ive public service empJ.oyment pr0g ram. At its Emergency
Convocation in August 1967, the Coalition called for the creation
of one million jobs in the public sector at the earliest possible
moment. The Convocation Statement urged that a public service
eIJ1ployment program should contain certain essentials such as:
1)
An extensive program at all levels to assure that
meaning f ul and p r oductive work is available to everyone
willing and able to work;
2)
Funds for employment to local and state governmen ts,
and nonprofit ins titutions able to demonstrate their
ability to use labor productively;
3)
Operations keyed to specified localized unemployment
problems and focused initially on those areas where
need is most apparent.
'
·,
As we have studied the Departme nt of Labor proposed Public
Service Careers Program, we find th at your analysis of the presen t
employment" picture is in basic accord with the Coalition's. The
concept of Public Service Caree rs h as merit, but the main short- •
comings are in the implementation. Therefore , · we offer the
following comments in the hope that you might see fit to broaden
your proposal.
~
l)
In not providing for wage supplementation, the progr am
fails t'o realistically fac e the present financial crisis
of most of our citi es. Although cities des perate l y nee d
more people to fill public service jobs, they nevertheless lack the financial resources to add these individuals
to e x isting payrolls.
The Action Council considers wage
supplementation an es~ential ingredient and would urge
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7/25/69
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its addition to the final draft. Without wage

supplementation, we believe the program is marked

for failure.
2)
We would strongly fav·or a more extensive program .
.The $50 million appropriation is so small as to be
ineffectual.
If we read page 30 correctly, the ·present
allocation is only $28~million of fresh money, as some
·funds were already budge ted for New Careers in fiscal
year 1970. The need for such an employment program far
exceeds the approximate 17,500 jobs that would be
provided.
3)
Clearly the program is experimental in nature.
It is the
Action Council's position that we are beyond the experimental stage. There is already an excellent precedent
in the JOBS program for the hire-first and·train-later
concept . Relying on Department of Labor and National
Alliance of Businessmen statistics, it worild appear that
the concept and program have been well received. The
- practical effect of such experimentation will delay
moving toward an extensive , well-funded program in the
public servic~ career area.
~
· we would welcome the opportunity to meet with you ~o amplify
a_ny of our conunents.
Since rely,
Lowell R. Beck
Executive birector
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�FUTURE STEERING COMMITTEE MEETINGS
1969
December 10
1970
May 27
Nobember 18
�'/
Report of th e Housing Task Force
CHANGING '1'HE SUBSIDIZED HOUSING-SYSTEM AND
11
B.Al\JKING LAND 11
TO MEET NATIONAL-HOUSING NEEDS.
The nation 1 s metropolitan areis consist, generally speakingi
of land~poor central citi es containing poor families li vin g
in substandard, overcrowded housing and l and -rich suburbs
which exclude hou s ing for th ese fami li es. The n at ion's need
for at l east six million houses for l ow- and mod~rate-income
families in the nex t dec ade will not b e met unl ess majoi
steps are taken to break this impasse -- to build substantial
amounts of housing wh ere the vacant l and is available .
Suburban enclaves could pe r h aps be tolerated when they were
few in number, when u rban population p ress u res were l ess, and
whe n urb a n l a nd was more plenti f ul . But the rapid incr iase in
restrictive zoning regulations in recent years and the grow ing
scarcity of urb a n land now greatly r educe the opportunities
of low- and mod erate - income city dwellers to leave the city
for decent shelter and better public and comme rci a l faciliti e s
ne a r expanding job opportuniti es in the s u burbs.
Restrictive z oning, high l and -prices , and the inability of
federal programs to operate effectively in suburban areas are
major constraints to increa s ing the supply of low- and moderateincome housing to mee t our nationa l ne eds .
As h e lpful as the 1968 Hous ing and Urban Developme nt Act ma y
prove to b e , it makes no imp6rtant changes in a syste m that we
know cannot meet our nationa l n eeds .
The power to place limits on zoning and building code powers of
local ities r es ts with the states. Yet there is little press u re
within the stat es to make th e n e c essary changes . Federa l block
g rants to the States , should the y b e e n acted, could b e premised
on basic r eforms b y state governme nts in reg ard to zoning,
building codes and other archaic features of local goveinment.
However, ou r l1ousing situation gro~s increasi ngly severe, and
action to mee t our housing n eeds c~nnot wait ~pon all these
desirable r eforms.
·
Ac cordingl y , th e Task Force on Housing, Recon s t r u ction and
Investmen t me t on ~uly 2s; 1 969, a nd resolved that The Urban
Coalition move imme diately to ur ge u pon the nation and the
Federal Governme nt immediate.steps to meet this problem.
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With t he approva l of t h e Executive Crnmni ttee , the Housing
Tas k Force wi ll draft a program indicating that the Federa l
Government must exercise a far greater degree of le ade rshi p
than it h as in the past by:
1 ) Restructu r ing the upsi de-down h o u s in g subsid i es sys t em
whe reb y many l ocal i ties may i gnore th e nation a l housing
ne ed.fo r low-i ncome f~milies , on the one hand , while those
which want to act are entangled in se lf- defeatin g r egul a 7
tion s , on the othe r.
Thi s system combines the worst disadvantages o f decentralization with th e worst disadvan tages
of c ent r alization.
2 ) Reo rg an izing the low-rent public housin g progr am to re move the stigma attached to it , and to en a b l e it to perform
in a state-wide a nd region a l conte :x,;t in acc ord a nce with
re gional and sta te-wide housing goa ls.
3 ) Empower in g the F edera l Government to cu t th ro u gh the re strai nts of restrictive zoni n g and building codes and i nad e quat e sites by meet ing housing n eeds directly when the states
or l ocalities decline to do so.
4) Adopting a ma ssive 11 l and banking 11 program fin anced on a
r evolving-fund basis to enable localities to acquire l and in
advanc e of need for public purpos e s, in c luding low -income
hou sing, in th e face of spiraling land costs.
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�TERMS OF OFFICE
At the current time Steering Committee members and
Executive Committee members are elected for indefinite terms,
terminated only by a member's resignation, death, or upon a
vote of the Steering Committee to remove him from office.
In
order to assure the continued vitality of the Committees and
an orderly process of turnov~r, terms of office should beestablished for all members.
It is therefore recommended that the Executive Committee
approve the following policies and authorize the Chairman to
implement them, including the incorporation . of changes in the
by-laws as may be n ecessary:
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1.
Ex cept as noted in Paragraph 2, all Steering Committee
members shall be nominated to serve for a term of two
years and shall b e eligible for re-election to additional
terms.
2.
The terms of office of members who hold public offic e or
are offic ers of private organizations or businesses shall
be up to two years but shall not e x ceed the term of their
non-Coalition position.
3.
The chairman and co-chairmen shal l serve in that capacity
for 2-year terms and shall be eiigible for re-election.
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�4.
Executive Committee members shall be elected for a term
equivalent to their term on the Steering Committee and
shall be eligible for re-election.
5.
The Nominating Committe e shall be established as a
permanent committee of the Ex ecutive Committee.
Its
m~mbers shall serve for a term equivalent to their term
on the Executive Committee · and shall be eligible for
re-election .
The size of the committee . shall be fixed by
the Chief Ex ecutive Officer but may not be less than five.
6.
Individuals will be elected to ~he Steering Committee,
Executive Committee and the Nominating Committee by a
majority vote of the Steering Committee which may be
taken either by mail or at a regularly scheduled meeting .
7.
The Chairman is authorized to assign terms of office to
all current members of the Steering Committee in
accordance with the policies stated above.
�Na tion a l Minori t y Cont ractors I n st1·tu t e
Backgro und~
Hi s tor ic a ll y , mi riority group co nstruct i o n contra ctors
h ave b ee n outside t he ma in streafu o f the c ons t ruction industry .
Al t h o u g h t he n at i on has approximately 870 ,000 genera l and spec i a l ty
con trac tor s , f ewer t h a n 2,0 00 o r two-ten th s of one percerit are b l ack,_
Whil e a r e li ab l e e s t i ma t e of the number o f contractors among other
minori ties is no t availab l e , i t s eems safe to assume th at the y too
h ave littl e representati on.
The developm e nt of minority contractors · in th e past has not kept
p ace with the indu s try ' s growth and th e re is no reason to assume
th a t withou t assistan ce t he gap betweeri minority contractors a nd
othe r contracto rs will not continue to d ras tic a lly widen.
The press i ng n eed is for a program to develop minor ity contr ac tor s
and t o enable them to d evelop the entrepreneu ri a l ski ll s required
t o sustain a ma jor constru ction progr am.
I n t h is way , we c an b eg i n
to crea t e oppor tuniti es not only for en tr a nce into t h e construction
i ndustry as general and s u b-cont ractors, b ut a l so for th e deve l opme nt of skill ed craft job and union members hip op~ortunities.
•r h e Proposal:
To establish a Na tion a l Minority Contractors
Institute which will promote and facilitate the development of
mino rity construction contra ctors in the major u rban areas and
e nha nce opportunities for minority e ntre~reneu rship a nd emp loyme nt
in this industry .
�r
-
(
Specific Goa ls:
1)
2 -
To increase th e par ticipation of minority
group contra ctors in th e building and c-ons truction indu stry;
2) to multiply a t a ll skill l eve l s the minority group work forc e
in that ind u stry; and 3) to ass i st core city r es idents
1
partici-
-p ation in the rebuilding p r oce ss in their communities.
• '
Me thods:
These goals will be achiev ed by:
1) inform ing _rel evant
in s titutions o f the problems of minority contr~ ctors and stimulating
solutions e ssenti a l for the i r gr eat e r p a rtici p a tion in th e c onstruction i ndustry;
2 ) serving as a f~cal poi nt and sou r c e foi
getting technica l as s istanc e to l ocal contract or associations and/or
contra ctors ; 3 ) p r ovid ing f or di ssemination of informati o n to contr actors and excha ng es of e x perienc e ; 4 ) ass i sting , as n eed ~d , t he
National Minor ity Co ntractors Associ ati oµ;
5) as~ istiny
i 11
lhe
de ve loprn.ent of lo ca l minori t y contracto rs a ss o c i a tions v1h erever th e
d emands indicate; 6) a id in d ev e l 6ping funding sources to pro~ i de
resources n e cess ary for loc a l s t aff sup port and loca l working.
capital n e eds of a ss oci a tio~ me mb ers ; 7) d e v e lopme nt of ma npower
progr ams r e l e vant to the n eed s o f th e c ontr a ctor s a nd to th e
communities which they serve.
Ope r ati o ns o f th e In s titut e :
The thre~ ma jor compone nt s will b e
a ) Re volving Capit a l Fund, b ) Techn ical As s ist a nce, and c) Ma npower.
A working ·c a pita l r e volving fund will h e lp minor i ty contr a ctors
over come c r i t i cal f in a n c ing a nd bond i ng obs t ac l es.
C
Tec hn ical
�-
3 -.
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as si stance wil l help minor ity c o n tr a cto rs d e ve l op the bu s iness
and ma nagement sk ill s nec e ssa r y t o c ompe t e more eff e ctive l y fo r
a gr eater share o f th e n at i o n ' s construction bu s i n ess .
Manpower
t rai n i ng p r ogr ams wil l be d ev ~l o ped - - in c l o s e coop e r a t i on wi th
th e b ui ld i ng t rad e s u n i on s -- to d e v e lop and upgr a de c raft sme n at
all s k i ll . l evel s.
Urb a n Co a liti o n ro l e :
The Coa li t ion wil l assume a cat a l ys t role
in th e estab l i s hment of the I n s ti tute with t h e goal o f sp i nning i t
o ff as a separa t e non-profi t o r gani zat i on as s o on as fe a sib l e .
The Co a lition 1 s effor t wi ll include f u nd -r a i s i ng , loc a t ing private
s e c tor repr ese n tat i ves willing t o ass is t Ins titu t e programs , di s -
(
s em i nat i ng i nform a t ion about th e I nstitute , a nd h e l p ing i dent i fy
local commun i ti es for priority at tention .
Organi za tion :
The Bo a rd o f Directors of t he Institu te wi ll r e fl ec t
a p a rtn e r s hi p b e t ween mi nor ity · c ontra c tors and tho s e c onuni tt ed to
a s sis ti ng the m.
St a f fin g :
The In s ti tute st aff will cb n si s t i nit i al l y o f a Dir e ctor
and a sectet ary.
As programs r ea ch th e d eve lopment and imp l eme n -
t a ti o n stage - - a n d as f u nding resou rce~ become ava ilab l e -additiona l s t aff wi l l b e added t o a dmi n i s t er t h e r e volv ing capit a l
f u nd, t echnic a l ass i s t a n c e , a nd ma npower p rograms of the I nstitu te.
�FOUNDATION TAX ISSUES
Report of Action by House Ways and Means Committee
as of Wednesday, Au g ust 6, 1969
The House Ways and Means tax reform bill, which will be debated
on the House floor this week, contains several important provisions
relating to foundations and their grantees.
At its last me eting ,
the Action Council went on record. in o pposition to many of -the
Committee' s earlier proposals.
This is a report on the final action of the Ways and Means CornmittP.e
1.
Definition of Private Foundations.
Priva te founda tion s have
bee n newly defined to include groups such as the Urban Coalition
and the Brookings Institution,-
in
addition to groups such as
th8
Ford and Carnegie f oundations . . As such they are now subject to
an income t ax and n ew limitati ons on t heir activitie s.
2.
An annual tax of 7 1/2 per cent was imposed on net invest-
ment income .
Explanation:
\
The origina l t e ntative proposals h ad recommended
a tax of 5 per cent.
It is estimated tha t revenue increases at
7 1/2 per cent will produce $6 5 million in the first year.
This is, in fac t, a t ax on b e n ef iciaries of foundations r ather
than on foundations.
The Coalition may now have to pay a tax
on its next investment income.
�3.
Restrictions on Activiti es.
The newly def i ned foundations
(incl uding the Coalition) would be prohibited from:
a ) Carrying on propaganda or otherwise attempting to
influence legislation.
b) At tempt in g to influence le gislat ion through attempting
to affect public opinion, and through private communication with a member or employee of a legisl at ive
body , or with any o ther person who may participate
in the formulation of le gislation (Except through
·making avai l ab l e the results of nonp ar ti san analysis
or research).
Explana tion:
This is a modificat i on of the o rig in al t entative
proposals which prohibited foundations from engaging in any
activiti es intended to influence the decision of any governmental
body.
It is intended to tighten up the rules . against lobbying.
Under present law~ a foundation ~ay influence legislation if
this is not a substantial part of its activity.
The new l egis lation
would remove this test and allow no in fluen cing of l eg islation.
The Cammi ttee Report e xplains ,·that these provisions are designed
to prohibit grassroots camp aigns for the purpose of influencing
i
legislation .
Further, foundations may discuss broad policy
�I -
·- --_!' - · -- - ..
..,
q u estions with congressmen and government agenci~s; they are
precluded from "direct attempts to persuade congr_essme n and
g o vernment o fficials to take positions on specific legislative
issues."
4. Voter Regis tra tion.
Foundation s would be pr6hibited from
engaging in voter re g i s t ra tio n drives unless gr a nts are made .to
a 50l(c) (3 ) _ group th a t:
. a) opera t e s in five or more states
b} receives support from five or mo~e orgatii za tions, none
.
of whi ch provides mo r e than 25 per. cent of its suppor t.
.
./
· Ex~lanation:
~he t entative propo sa l s would h ave prohibite d
foundations from engaging in any voter registratiori activity or
payi n g for any such activity.
strict view.
The bill moves away from th a t
The League of Women Votei s Education Fund and the
Southe rn Regional Council are specifically mentioned in the
Committee Rep ort as e xamp les of organi zat ions which would be
permitted to engage in voter registration.
But other registration and education prog rams~-n ow conducted b y
numerous smaller groups in l ess than five states --will be prohibited from receiving foundation supp ort.


e_··,


* *


The House bill will, in all probability, be p~ssed by the full
House this we ek unde~· a "c lo sed" rule. ·
Floor amendments to tax
.-,
�f'
'•
bills generally are not permitted, and passage of the tax reform
bill seems assuredo
The Action Council and many of its cooperating groups have worked
t o modify the tentative proposals of the Ways and Means Committee
so that the vital activity of found~tions and foundation - related
organ izations can go forward o
Our attention now turns to the Sen ate and the Fina nce Committee
in particular which will begin consider i ng tax r efo rm proposals
after the Augus t Congressional Recesso
(
)
('-.-~


\
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·
�ATLANTA VRDAN CORPS
. 30 COURTLAND STREET, N .E .
/
PHONE [404] 524-8091
I NT E R - 0 F F I CE
TO :
FROM:
Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.
Sam Williams
SUBJECT:
/
ATLANT A , GEORGIA 30303
M E MO RA N DU M
DATE:
June 19, 1969
~
Speech to the Atlanta Service-Learning Conference
Thank you for agreei ng to address the initial meet ing of the At lanta
Service-Learning Conference, June 30 at the White House Motor Inn, 30
Houston Street.
As we discussed, all 225 Urban Corps interns will be in attendance as
well as representatives of l ocal colleges, businesses, and government
agencies. We al so expect out-of- town representatives of service programs
such as Peace Corps, VISTA, Teachers Corps, and others .
Speakers for the two day conference include Georgia Tech's new President,
Clark College Student Body Pres ident, Peace Corps Director and White House
staff members .
You are scheduled to welcome the group at 9 :00 a .m. , June 30 . I am forwarding
through Dan Sweat an outline of comment s you might consider appropriate for
your address.
cc :
Dan Sweat
�The Atlanta Service-Learning Conference
invites you
to its inaugural meeting
Urban Needs
= Educational Opportunities
at the
White House Motor Inn, Atlanta
June 30 -- July 1, 1969
T he first in a series of meetings
planned for 1969 by sp onsors of the
Atlanta Service-Learning Conference,
including:
T he City of Atlanta
The Atlanta Urban Corps
Economic Opportunity Atlanta
The Colleges an d Universit ies of A tlanta
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
The Southern Regional Education Board
Volunteers in Service to A m erica
The Peace Corps
�THE ATLANTA SERVICE--LEARNING CONFERENCE
~
Atlanta shares with other major American
cities its needs for increased services and its
large population of college students -- some
40,000 in the metropolitan area. In an attempt
to explore ways to meet urb an needs, to offer
students a more relevant education, and to
bring campus and co mmunity closer together,
Atlanta students, city officials, higher education faculty and staff, regi onal and federal
agency officials are jointly launchin g the
Atlanta Service-Learning Conference.
.. -
R esearch: How are students' educational
and career choices affected through participation in service-learning programs?
Methods and Programs: H ow should a
service-learning program be designed for
implementatio n o n a large scale?
Laboratory
Among th e work group part icipants will b e
m emb ers of the Atlanta Urban Corps and
ot her service-learning programs which will
fo rm a practical lab oratory for the Conference.
Meeting Series
Information Exchange and Results
The meeting on June 30 and July 1 marks
the opening event of the Co nference. The
Conference will co ntinue for six months and
will sponso r periodic meetings to consider major dimensions of the service-learnin g concept.
Th e Co nfere nce will foster the exchange of
information among p articipants and with interested perso ns in other metropolitan areas .
It is a lread y sp onsoring surveys of student
manp ower res o urces in the urban area, of the
needs of the public and voluntary age ncy
sectors for st udent manpower, and of prese nt
college and university program s helping t o fi ll
these needs. A wrap -up meeting and publicati o n is planne d for the co ming winter, when
pla ns for continuing the examina tion of servicelearn ing a nd extending service-learning programs w ill be co nsidered.
Work Groups
In exploring the service-learning concept,
w ork groups will b e formed t o concentrate o n
particular aspects of the idea. These work
groups, and a typical question to b e p osed to
each of them, are listed b elow :
Serv£ce: How can the student make a
maximum co ntributio n in hi s short term
assignment?
Learning: What learn in g can take place
during the assignm en t ?
Curriculum: What are the implications of
the service-learning idea for curricular d evelopment?
Financing: What is an equitab le distributio n of cost among the h ost agency? the
college? the government?
Participation
Part icipat ion in the Con fere nce is open to
a ll perso ns and groups interested in sharing
infor m ation o n service-learning programs.
In quiries may be addressed to:
Atlanta Service-Learning Conference
Peace Corps, So uthern Region
Suit e B- 70
27 5 Peachtree Street, N .E.
At lanta, Georgia 30303
�Urban Needs = Educational Opportunities
Monday, June 30
9:00
Welcome by Mayor Ivan Allen
9:30
A Case Study presented by the
service-learning players
11:00
Service-Learning in Action in
Atlanta -- up-to-the-minute report
12:15
Needs of Urban America
luncheon address
2:00
Seminars on service-learning
concept and programs
5:30
Social hour
7:00
Educational Needs of Young
People -- dinner address
Tuesday, July 1
9:00
Service-Learning and National
Programs, an exchange with
national officials of the Teacher
Corps, VISTA and the Peace Corps
11:00
Workshops
A . Service
B. Learning
C. Curriculum
D. Finance
E. Research
F. Methods and Programs
12 : 15
Servic e by Youth
luncheon address
2:00
Workshops resume
4:00
Workshop reports and discussion
5:00
What Next?
5:30
Conclusion
�April 30, 1969
J
Or. John W. Gardner
Chairman
National Urban Coalition
1819 H Street, N. W .
Washington, D . C .
Dear John:
The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce i planning a special program
beginning in September 1969. The purpose of Leadership Atlanta
i to dev lop a group of identifiable young leader ; acquaint them
with the ba ic problem and ugge ted olutions of the probl m
facing Atlanta; and encoura e participation in po itive community
leader hip.
There will be approximately 50 participant in thi program; 30
ponsored by bu · in s firms, and Z0 cho en from outside the bu ine
community to in ure particip tion from low income Negro groups.
A real effort i · being mad to insure repr s ntative m mbership
among th particip nts.
The e sions will be held once a month. Each one i dev loped by the
Chamber and a different educational in titution. Back round reading
m t rial wUl be required b fore acq e sion. The form t will be
gen rally
follow :
1) Addre
2.) Supper
on topic
3) Panel or aeminar involving local figure
liating ol th
ubj eta to b
cov red i includ d.
�April 30, 1969
Dr. John W. Gardner
Page Two
The first session is scheduled for September 29, 1969.
The
Chamber would like for you to keynote the program with an
opening address. Faank Carter, Chamber President, and l
have been asked to participate in the after-dinner session and
are planning to do so.
On behalf of the Chamber, I hope you can participate in this
most worthwhile undertaking. li you would like, I will be happy
to as;range other engagements for you during the day.
Sincerely yours,
Ivan Allen, Jr.
IAJr :lp
Encleeures
�April 24, 1969
Mr. John W. Gardner
Chairman
National Urban Coalition
Washington, D. C .
Dear Mr. Gardner:
The Atlanta Chambe r of Commerce is planning a special program beginning
in September 196 9 . The purpose of Leadership Atlanta is to develop a
group of identifiable young leaders; acquaint them with the ' basic problems
and suggested solutions of the problems fa cing Atlanta; and encourage
participation in positive community leade rship.
There will be approximately 56 participants in this program; 30 13ponsored
by business firms, and 20 chosen fro m outside t he business community
to insure participation from low income Negro groups. A real effort is
being made to insure representative membership among the participants.
The sessions will be he ld once a month. Ea ch one is developed by the
Chamber and a different educationa l institutiono Background reading
material will be required before each session. The format wil l be generally
as follows:
1) Address on topic
2) Supper
3) Panel or seminar involving local figures
A listing of the subjects to be covered is included .
The first session is scheduled for September 2 9, 1969. The Chamber
would like for you to keynote the program with an opening address.
Frank Carter, Chamber President, and I have been a ked to participate
in the after-dinner session and are planning to do so.
�Page Two
Mr. John W. Gardner
On behalf of the Chamber, I hope you can participate in this most
worthwhile undertaking. If you would like, I will be happy to
arrange other engagements for you during the day.
Sincerely,
Ivan Allen, Jr.
IAJr:jct
Enclosures
�April 2 4, 1969
y'e-
_:.:'.Mt. John
---1_
W. Gardner
Chairman
National Urban Coalition
Washington, D. C.
lb'
j~
19 /-/ 5-t 1 (ucu
~6Dt, b
Dear.M-~
The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is planning a special program beginning
in September 1969. The purpose of Leadership Atlanta is to develop a
group of identifiable young leaders; acquaint them with the basic problems
and suggested solutions of the problems facing Atlanta; and encourage
participation in positive community leadership.
There will be approximately 50 participants in this program; 30 sponsored
b y business firms, and 20 chosen from outside the business community
to insure participation from low income Negro groups. A real effort is
being made to insure representative membership among the participants.
The sessions will be held once a month. Each one is developed by the
Chamber and a different educational institution. Background reading
material will be required before each session. The format will be generally
as follows :
1) Address on topic
2) Supper
3) Panel or seminar involving local figures
A listing of the subjects to be covered is included.
The first session is scheduled for September 2 9, 19.69. The Chamber
would like for y ou to keynote the program with an opening address .
Frank Carter, Chamber President, and I have been asked to participate
in the after-dinner session and are planning to do so.
�Page Two
Mr. John W. Gardner
On behalf of the Chamber, I hope you can participate in this most
worthwhile undertaking. If you would like, I will be happy to
arrange other engagements for you during the day.
Sincerely,
Ivan Allen , Jr.
IAjr:jct
Enclosures
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�ATLANTA,GEORGIA
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Mrs . Ann M. Moses
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FORM 25-6
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�MEMORANDUM
DATE:
April 22, 1969
TO:
Ivan Allen, Jr.
FROM:
Ivan Allen, III
RE:
ATLANTA CHAMBER LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
You are familiar with the Leadership Program which the Chamber is planning
for 1969/1970. I am enclosing some descriptive material on the program,
along with specific topics which will be covered.
In order to properly kick off this program, we would like to ask Mr. John
Gardner, Frank Carter and yourself to participate in our September 2 9 session.
We would like Mr. Gardner to key-note this meeting with a talk before
dinner. After dinner we would like to ask the three of you to participate in
a panel type discussion dealing with the general subjects of urban development and growth.
First I hope that you can be with us on September 2 9. Second, we would
like the official invitation to Mr. Gardner to come from your office. We
will be happy to provide you with whatever background material you might
need in issuing this invitation to him. Opie Shelton can give Ann any
necessary details.
�TO: ~
FROM:
!/) ~
~~
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-'------~1/--( /
'="
~ =-""-.=:.....::;_
=-=--.a"--- - - - -
Ivan Allen, Jr.
D
For your information
D
Please refer to the attached correspondence and make the
necessary reply.
D
Advise me the status of the a ttached.
�,... . .~
.,. The Urban Coalition
1819 H Street, N.W.
Washington , D. C. 20006
Telephone : (202) 223-9500
I
CHAI AMAN: John W. Gardner
CO-CHAIRMEN: Andrew Heiskell/ A . Philip Randolph
February 18, 1969
The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor of the City of Atlanta
City Hall
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Dear Ivan:
The staffs of Urban America and the Urban Coalition are
producing jointly a study of what has happened to the domestic
crisis in the year since the Kerner Commission made its report.
The new assessment, "One Year Later", will not attempt to duplicate the work of the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders.
It will use the report as a point of reference.
It will attempt to report factually and objectively whether or
not we have moved from that reference point; in which direction,
and importantly, whether or not our ability to move positively
has increased or decreased.
Responsibility for content of the new report will rest with the
staffs of Urban America and the Coalition. However, the author
and editors have been assisted by an advisory panel: Senator
Fred Harris; Mayor John Lindsay; David Ginsburg, former executive director of the Commission; Dan Parker, immediate past
chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers; the
Reverend Channing E. Phillips, District of Columbia Housing
Development Corporation; and Tom Wicker, Associate Editor,
The New York Times .
The Kerner Commission reported on March 1, 1968.
"One Year Later"
will be published in early March 1969. Advance copies of the
manuscript and supplementary materials will be released to all
media and interested organizations beginning February 24 for use
no earlier than February 27, on which date a press conference will
be held in Washing ton to release the publication. Copi es of the
manuscript will be sent to you no later than February 24.
Sincerely,
/
�THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
JOHN W. GARDNER
CHAIRMAN
1819 H STREET, N. W.
5 July 1968
WASHINGTON . D . C . 20006
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT
(Current as of July 5, 1968)
FROM:
THE STAFF
THE STATUS OF SUBSTANTIVE LEGISLATION
The Emergency Employment and Training Act of 1968
Senate hearings have been completed.
Review and action by the full Committee is expected
to take place during the week of July 8th.
It is expected that the extension of the Manpowe r
Development and Training Act (MDTA ) as reported by
the Subcommittee will also be conside red by the full
Committee during the week of July 8th.
STATUS OF HOUSE LEGISLATION
The Select Subcomi~ittee on Labor has completed
hearings.
The Committee is expected to mark-up the bill in
executive session probably not before the week of
July 15th.
The MDTA ex tension has been re p orted bv the full
Committee and the measure will be be fo re the Rules
Committee on the 8th or 9th of July . House f loor
action should t ake place shortly thereafter.
The Revenue and Expe n dit ure Co ntrol Act of 1968
(fo rmer l y t he Tax Ad jus t ment Act of 1968)
The ten percent tax surcharge and the $6 bi lli on in
budget cuts is now Pub lic Law 90 - 364. The Pres ide nt.
signed th~ measure on June 28th.
@
�- 2 -
Prevailing sentiment in Congress is for making
every possible effort to accomplish as much of
the $6 billion cut as possible. Many members
view the cuts as basically a Congressional responsibility.
Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
SENATE
The Senate passed its version of the Act (S-3497)
on May 28th. ·
HOUSE
The Banking and Currency Committee's
the bill (HR-17989) was given a rule
and is scheduled for floor debate on
July 8th. Final vote is expected on
July 9th ..
version of
on June 27th
Monday,
Tuesday,
THE STATUS OF APPROPRIATIONS MEASURES
The proposed schedule of a cti on on Appropriation bills concerning
legislation of intere st to the Action Council is:
1.
The Housing and Ur ban Deve lopme nt Appropriations
bill for Fiscal Year 1969 passed the House on
May 8th.
The Se nate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Independent Office s h as comp l e t ed its mark-µ~
o f t h e bill a nd the f ull Commi ttee is expect e d
to complete its revi ew of the bill on Tuesday,
July 9th. The Committee is expe cte d to request a waiver of the three day r ul e and as k f or
Senate floor d e bate on Wedn esday or Thursday.
2.
The Lab o r-HEW (including OEO ) Appropriations bill
passed the House on June 26th . The Whitte n
Amendment, passed by a Teller (un recorded ) vote,
proh i bits the u se of funds appropriate d by the
bill to force busing of school children, to
abolish any school or to force secondary school
students to attend a particular school agains t
the choice of parents.
�-
3 -
The House also approved serious cuts in
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (aid to schools in impoverished areas), the Teacher Corps and the
Office of Economic Opportunity.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Labor- HEW (including OEO) held hearings
on the budget request in May and is not
expected to hold any further hearings.
It is, however, expected to complete
mark-up acition by the end of the week of
July 8th.
Restoration of House cuts of OEO and HEW
requests, including Teacher Corps, and
defeat of the Whitten Amendment .should be
accomplished within Committee.
It is
c r ucial that every effort be made in the
Senate to restore the amounts cut by the
House.
3.
The Second (regular ) Sup plemental
Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 1968
we nt into conference where House conferees
reduced the $75 million requested for
summer jobs to $13 million and reduced the
$25 million requested for Headstart to
$5 million. The bill as amended by the
conferees was subsequently passed by both
the House and Sena te and is now waiting
the Preside nt's signature.
�~·
\Y143.215.248.55
~
E URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
JOHN W . G A RDNER
CHAIRMAN
18 10 H ST R EET. N . W.
27 Jun e 1968
WA SHI N GTON. D . C . 20006
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REP ORT
(Curre n t a s of June 27 ,• 1968)
FROM:
THE STAFF
THE STATUS OF SUBSTANT IVE LEGI SLAT ION
The Emergency Emp loy ment a nd Trai n in g Act of 1968
Se nate h earings h ave been c omp le t ed.
Th e Subcommi tte e repo r ted o ut a c l e a n b ill o n June 26th.
It i s a bi-p a rti s a n measure wh i ch shou ld be re v i ewe d a nd
a c te d u pon by t h e f ull Commi t t ee d u ring the week o f July
8th - 12th.
The Subcommittee s tr a tegy d i c t a t e d r eporting o u t t he
Eme r gency Emp loyme nt meas u re separate f r om th e pro po sed
Man p owe r De v e l o pme nt and Tra ini ng Act (MDTA) ext ens ion .
STATUS OF HOUSE LEGI SLAT I ON
The Se l e ct Subcommitte e on Labo r h a s sche dule d its las t
day o f h earings for J u ly 1s t . The f i n a l mark - up o f the
bi ll b y the Sub c ommittee wi ll prob a bly b e de l ay e d until
afte r t h e July 4t h re c es s.
The La bor Committe e repo r t e d o u t t h e MDTA e x t e nsion on
June 2 7th .
The Re v e nue and Expe nditure Contr o l Act o f 1 9 6 8
( f o rmer l y t h e Tax Ad j u stme nt Act of 1968 )
Th e b il l cont a ins a t e n p e rce nt t ax s u rch arge a n d $6
bil l i o n in b udge t c uts. The me as u re p ass e d th e House by
a vote o f 268- 1 5 0 . The Se n a te approve d t he b i ll o n the
2 1s t a nd the me a s u re is n ow awai t i ng t h e Pres ide nt ' s
si gn ature .
Con gre ss ional l eade rs are s u g g es ting th a t $3 b ill ion o f
t h e $ 6 b i llio n cut wi l l- be approve d by Congression al
action .
T E L E PH ON E: 202 2 9 3 · 1530
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Hous ing and Urban Deve lopme nt Act o f 1968
SENATE
The Se nate passed i t s ve rsion of the Act S-3497 on
May 28th.
HOUSE
Banking and Curre ncy Committee Ch a irman Wright Patman
introd uce d clean bill HR-17989 on June 19th. The
Committe e 's report was filed June 20 t h (House Rep ort
15 85) .
Chairma n Patman . we nt b e fore the Rul e s Committee on
June 27th. An ope n rule (pe r mitting floor ame n dments)
and four hours of g e n e ral debate we re voted. The
measure is e x pecte d to be on t he f loor in the House
for a c t ion right af ter th e July 4th r ece ss (which
conclude s J uly 8th ).
THE STAT US OF APPROP RI ATI ONS MEAS URE S
Th e p roposed s che dul e o f act i o n on th e part of t he Appropr iations
Sub commi ttees c oncerning l egis l at ion o f i ntere s t t o t h e Action
Council is:
1.
The Ho u s ing and Urban Deve l opmen t Appropri at i o ns
b i l l for Fi sca l Year 196 9 passed t h e Ho u se on
May 8. Th e Senate Appropriat ions Subcommittee o n
Independent Offices expe c ts to comp l ete i ts markup of the b ill on the afternoon o f J une 2 7t h . The
f ull Commi t t ee wil l mark the b ill up on J u n e 28 th .
2.
The Labor -HEW (i nc luding OEO) Appropr i a ti ons b ill
passed th e House on June 26th . Th e Wh itten Amen d ment which wou l d prohib i t the use of funds appro priated by the bi ll t o force busing o f schoo l
childre n , to ab ol ish any school or t o force secondary schoo l students to attend a particu l ar school
agains t the choice of parents, passed fairly easi l y
on a Tel l er (unrecorded ) vote.
Serious cuts were made i n many of the education
programs i n the Appropr i ations Committee and were
upheld by the House. Hard hit were Title I of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aid to schoo l s
in imp·o verished areas ) , the Tea cher Corps and Office
of Economic Opport~nity.
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Efforts will h ave to be concentrated on the
Senate to r es tore these funds and de feat the
Whitten amen dment which would subvert the 1 964
Civil Rights Act.
3.
The Second ( re g·ular ) Suppleme ntal Appropriations
bill for Fisca l Year 1968 easily passed the Senate
on June 26th by an 87 to 2 vote. As passed th e
meas ure includes $75 million for summer jobs and
$ 25 million for Headstart as act ive l y sought by
t he Action Coun cil.
The House on June 28th refues ed to accep t the b i ll
and c a lled fo r a Joint Conferen ce with the Senate
n amin g as House Conferees:
House Appropriati ons Chairman George Mahon ,
Congre sswoman Ha nsen, Congressman Wh itten,
Sike s , Natcher , Flood, Jonas , Laird, Lan gen ,
Li pscomb.
Th e Conferees meet June
re ach ed , th e Conference
J uly 1st . Floor ac tion
at the ear liest on July
28th and i f agreement is
report will b e f i l ed on
in t he House wou ld follow
2nd.
LETTER TO CONGRESS
As authorized at th e June 10 meeting of the Urban Co alition Action
Council, the Counci l issued June 27 t h a statement o f con ce rn f or
action on the urban crisis in the form of a l etter from Chairman
Gardne r to each member of Congress. The text o f the l e tter is
at tached . Comparab le communications from memb ers of local coalitions
to Senators and Congressmen are u rge ntly n eed ed.
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