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JOHN W. GARDNER
CHAIRMAN
1819 H STREET, N, W.
THE URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006
FROM:
May 16, 1968
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT
(Current as of May 16, 1968)
The Staff
Action Council Legislative Goals
The present legislative goals of the Action Council's program
for this year are:
Substantive Legislation
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Passage of the Administration's tax increase as part
of the Tax Adjustment Act of 1968. (H.R. 15414)
Passage of the Administration's Housing and Urban De-
velopment bill substantially as introduced.
Passage of the Emergency Employment and Training Act
of 1968 as introduced by Senator Clark and alternately
reconciled to similar bills introduced by Senators
Javits and Prouty.
Appropriations
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Full funding for OEO's Poverty Program with $75 million
in additional funds authorized for summer job programs
and an additional $25 million appropriated for year-
round Head Start programs.
Full funding of programs, particularly Rent Supplements,
Public Housing, Model Cities, and Urban Renewal.
Exemption of all education programs from budget cuts and
additional funding for Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Teacher Corps.
TELEPHONE: 202 293-1530 -a)
The Status of Substantive Legislation
The Emergency Employment and Training Act of 1968
Senate hearings are already in progress. Spokesmen for
the Poor People's Campaign appeared before the Committee
on May 8. Further hearings ended May 15.
The following parties, among others, have been asked to
appear before the Subcommittee and testify on the proposed
legislation: the Secretary of Labor; the Secretary of
Commerce; Mr. Leo Beebe, the Coordinator of the national
JOBS Program; Mr. I. W. Abel of the United Steelworkers;
Whitney Young; William Zisch; Robert F. Cannagen of
General Dynamics; the National Association of Manufacturers;
and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Subcommittee will hold its Executive Session during
the last week in May. The target date for Senate floor
action is late June -- before the July 4 recess.
The basic strategy is to amend the Administration's bill
S.2938 (with 33 co-sponsors) which is, in effect, a simple
extension of the Manpower Development and Training Act
Program. The bill will be a Clark-Javits-Psouty compromise
which, in effect, amends the National Manpower Act.
Subcommittee members expect the compromise manpower bill
to be voted unanimously out of Committee.
Administration Position
All indications are that the Administration will take
no action to support the Clark-Javits-Prouty bill.
Coordination with House of Representatives
At this point, the Senate has moved on the legislation
without any specific reference to similar legislation
which has been introduced in the House and has not
Made any effort to coordinate its activities with the
House Education and Labor Committee.
The Status of House Legislation
The Select Subcommittee on Labor scheduled hearings
on H.R. 12280, the Guaranteed Employment Act, sponsored
by Congressman James O'Hara (plus 80 others), beginning
Tuesday, May 7, for a week; to be continued May 20,
for a week, with one additional week scheduled sometime
during the month of June.
Witnesses who have testified before the Subcommittee
are as follows: May 7, George Meany; May 8, Bayard
Rustin and representatives of religious groups; and
May 9, Ron M. Linton, representing John W. Gardner,
Chairman of the Urban Coalition Action Council.
The Subcommittee has scheduled separate hearings on
H.R. 15045 which is the Administration's bill introduced
by Representative Elmer Holland to extend the Manpower
Development and aTraining Act. The hearings took place
on May 15 and 16.
The outlook in the House for enactment of this legislation
appears quite grim, according to House proponents.
The Tax Adjustment Act of 1968
The Senate-House Conferees agreed on a 10 percent tax surcharge
with $6 billion in budget cuts. They have completed action
on the report and it is evident that if the $6 billion is
cut from the budget, it will seriously affect many of the
programs in which the Coalition is interested.
Included in the Conference report are other important measures
in the Social Security field.
(1) The freeze on aid to dependent children (AFDC)
which would have gone into effect July 1, 1968 is postponed
one year to July 1, 1969.
(2) Unemployed fathers will be entitled to receive AFDC
(welfare) benefits for those weeks in a month for which they
do not receive unemployment compensation. Under existing
law they cannot receive payments under both programs in the
same month,
The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
Hearings have been completed on both the Senate and House
versions of urban development legislation.
The Senate filed the report on the bill (S.3497-S.Report
1123) on May 15. However, the Omnibus crime bill now
before the Senate probably precludes action on the Hous-
ing bill for a week.
The Housing Subcommittee of the House begins its executive
mark-up of the bill on May 21.
The subcommittee hopes to complete its mark-up of the bill
that week, then go to full committee consideration the week
of June 3. It should be reported out on or about June
15,
House floor action will most likely be delayed until the
Senate has a chance to pass the bill.
Appropriations
The proposed schedule of action on the part of the Appropri-
ations Subcommittees concerning legislation of interest to
the Coalition is:
1. The Housing and Urban Development Appropriation
bill for fiscal year 1969 was passed on May 8,
in the House of Representatives. Our objective
was to hold to the Committee reported bill with
$400 million for Model Cities, $100 million for
Urban Renewal add-on, and $25 million for Rent
Supplement. We achieved our objective.
2. The House Labor-HEW Appropriation bill for fiscal
year 1969 is being marked-up in the subcommittee
now with the hope of reporting it out of the full
committee the first week of June.
3. The committee is holding up the Regular Supplemen-
tal Appropriation for 1968 until it receives the
Federal Pay Supplemental. It is in this latter
bill we hope to get funding included for Head
Start and summer job programs.
The House Appropriations Committee is probably
20-40% more conservative by voting record than
the House as a whole. To the extent that the
Urban Coalition Action Council members, parti-
cularly those from the business sector, can per-
suade "swing" members of the House Appropriations
Committee of the need for the OEO appropriations,
the Housing Appropriations, etc., and also
persuade them that they are willing to see
cuts in other less critical domestic areas,
there is some possibility that the 90th
Congress could close having provided the
narrow minimum of resources needed to meet
the most pressing urban needs.