The amendments revised the financial arrangement for the basic program of grants to States for vocational rehabilitation services, principally by liberalizing the Federal matching of funds to a flat 75 percent rate. The previous formula for allotting Federal funds to the States, based on each State's population and adjusted per capita income, was retained. P.L. 89-333, however, requires a reduction in Federal funds if a State reduces its expenditures below the 1965 level of program support. These provisions become effective for FY 1966, except that for FY 1966 a State receives its Federal share for 1965 under previous law plus one-half the difference between that share and 75 percent. Effective upon enactment, the amendments authorize Federal matching of local public funds available to the State for making vocational rehabilitation services more widely available to residents of local jurisdictions. For this purpose, existing requirements for statewide applicability of services will be waived. Thus, cities and counties may augment services presently provided for local residents by transferring local funds to the State to qualify for Federal financing of expanded or specialized vocational rehabilitation programs at the local level. To the extent permitted by regulations of the Secretary, voluntary private contributions for these purposes made to local governments, which then make them available to the State, could qualify for Federal funds. Rehabilitation Facilities Planning grants are authorized to assist States and other public and private nonprofit agencies, institutions, or organizations in the cost of determining statewide and specific needs for rehabilitation facilities and workshops. Facilities construction grants are authorized over a five-year period to assist in the cost of construction of rehabilitation facilities by public and private nonprofit organizations. Grant funds may be used for new construction; acquisition, expansion, remodeling, alteration, and renovation of existing buildings; land; and initial staffing. Rehabilitiation facilities will be primarily those of a vocational nature. Restitution must be made for the Federal share of the construction of any facility which ceases to be used for that purpose within 20 years. Financing will be on the same basis as the Hill-Burton construction projects in the State. Under regulations of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, a State may elect to match Federal grants based on one of the following Federal shares, so long as it is comparable with the Hill-Burton rate for the State: (1) a flat 50 percent; (2) a percentage between one-third and two-thirds based on the State's per capita income level or, if lower, the State's allotment percentage under the Hill-Burton legislation; or (3) a variable percentage between one-third and two-thirds, based on economic differences among regions within the State. Grants may be used for initial staffing for up to four years, with the Federal share declining, by 15 percent annually, from 75 percent for the first 15 months to a share of 30 percent in the fourth year. Construction of residential accommodations is authorized in workshops for the mentally retarded and for such other groups as the Secretary may designate. Several types of support designed to foster workshop improvement are included in the new law. A new five-year program of workshop training services grants to States and to public and private nonprofit organizations and agencies authorizes project grants, with 90 percent Federal sharing of the cost, for training services to handicapped persons in workshops and rehabilitation centers. A project may provide training in occupational skills and other services directly related to training--work evaluation and testing, occupational tools and equipment required by the trainee to engage in the training, and job tryouts. Training allowances may also be provided for up to two years, with a weekly allowance of $25 for the trainee and $10 for each dependent up to a maximum of $65. The new provision will become effective July 1, 1966; grants will be made only for projects in facilities which meet standards to be set by the Secretary on advice from the National Policy and Performance Council. This new 12-member body is to be appointed by the Secretary from among recognized experts in vocational rehabilitation, workshops, government, business, organized labor, related professions, and the general public. The Council will advise the Secretary more generally on workshop improvement and on the extent to which pertinent provisions of the new legislation are accomplishing their purposes. The new law authorizes a five-year program, beginning in FY 1966, of workshop improvement grants to pay part of the cost of analyzing, improving, and increasing professional and technical services to handicapped individuals, business managmenet, and other parts of workshop operations to raise their capacity for providing employment and services for handicapped clients. A provision for technical assistance to workshops, effective upon enactment, authorizes the furnishing of technical assistance of various kinds to aid workshops in solving operating and technical problems. On request, individuals, panels or groups may be detailed for a limited period to consult with a workshop on professional, business, and related aspects of workshop improvement. In some States this service will be furnished, by agreement with the Secretary, by the State rehabilitation agency. Planning, Administration, and Training The new law authorizes a two-year program of planning grants to States to help plan the development of statewide comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services in each State. The ojbective of this program is to make vocational rehabilitation services available by July 1, 1975 to all handicapped individuals needing services in the State. Supported by grants set at an annual maximum of $100,000 for any one State, the planning will be directed to the orderly development of public and private vocational rehabilitation in the State. Grants may be made to the State rehabilitation agency or to a planning agency established by the Governor for this purpose. The new law also broadens the choice for the location of a State rehabilitation agency within the State government. Under previous law, the State agency could be located either under the State board of vocational education or as a separate agency or commission. This law broadens the choice to permit location in a State agency which includes at least two other major organizational units, each of which administers one or more of the major public education, public health, public welfare, or labor programs of the States. This provision will become effective July 1, 1967, except where a State has an approved State plan incorporating this provision at an earlier date. A National Commission on Architectural Barriers to Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, established for a three-year period in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,will study existing problems and develop proposals for achieving ready access to, and full use of, facilities by the disabled. In addition, the amendments provide specific authority for: (1) the conduct, directly or by contract, of research, studies, investigations and demonstrations of rehabilitation methods and techniques for the disabled and of greater use of rehabilitants in suitable employment; and (2) the planning, establishment, and operation of an automated data system for vocational rehabilitation programs and related rehabilitation activities. To underscore the fact that the program is designed to serve people who have mental handicaps as well as with those who have physical handicaps, the Act is amended in several places to substitute the term "handicapped" for the term "physically handicapped." The maximum period of Federal training grant support to any individual pursuing a course of professional study in rehabilitation is raised from two to four years. The law lists as examples of the professional disciplines for which training support is available: physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology and audiology, rehabilitation counseling, and rehabilitation psychology. By increasing from $400,000 to $500,000 the maximum annual authorizations of Federal funds for its operations, the amendments also support the work of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. Special provisions have been made to help States meet the costs of determining a handicapped person's vocational rehabilitation potential-whether a handicapped person can reasonably be expected to become able to engage in remunerative employment after receiving vocational rehabilitation services. The amendments provide for assessment of a disabled person's potential for rehabilitation while he is getting services during a trial period up to six months--and up to 18 months for mentally retarded individuals and for others in such categories as many be designated by the Secretary. Prior law required State rehabilitation agencies to determine, after initial diagnostic study--but before services were rendered--whether or not a handicapped person could reasonably be expected to become employable after completing a program of rehabilitation services. As a result, many of the handicapped who might have benefited did not receive services. The amendments authorize a new five-year of project grants to States for innovation of vocational rehabilitation services (formerly extension and improvement projects). Grants will be available for funding projects which: (1) introduce new methods or techniques of vocational rehabilitation services for the handicapped; or (2) are specially designed for development of new vocational rehabilitation services or expansion of existing services to help groups having catastrophic or particularly severe disabilities. Funds are allotted among States on the basis of population only, with a minimum State allotment of $5,000. Ninety percent Federal sharing will be available for the first three years and 75 percent for the last two years. The provision is effective for FY 1966. A five-year program of matching grants to public and private nonprofit agencies for projects to expand vocational rehabilitation programs is also authorized with the objective of increasing the number of handicapped persons vocationally rehabilitated. The previous Federal requirement that an individual's financial need be determined as a qualification for certain vocational rehabilitation services has been eliminated (although States are not thereby restricted from retaining or introducing such a requirement). The Secretary is directed to report to Congress on the effect of this amendment after a year's experience. State agencies are also authorized to use Federal funds to furnish reader services for blind clients and interpreter services for deaf clients, without regard to the individual's economic need. The new law further provides that, effective July 1, 1966, State agencies may use Federal grant funds to pay part of the cost of management and supervisory services for vending stands operated by blind persons under the Randolph-Sheppard Act and for small business enterprises operated by other severely handicapped persons to help improve their operations. FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE With this law the vocational rehabilitation program enters the latter half of the 1960's with a charter for expansion of services essential to meeting the needs of the disabled who have yet to be rehabilitated. Public Law 89-333 will permit reaching the next immediate goal of rehabilitating for suitable employment 200,000 persons annually within the next few years. Beyond that, the 1965 amendments lay the foundation for long-range expansion of facilities, services, and staffing to provide for vocational rehabilitation of larger numbers of disabled persons in an expanding population. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY ON "VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION ACT 89th Congress, 1st Session, 1965 January 7 March 12 March 15 March 18 March 26 March 29-30 March 31 April 13-14 (Wash.); In his Health Message, President Johnson promised a new life for the disabled and Administration proposals to amend the Vocational Rehabilitation Act sent to Congress. H.R. 6476 (Green, Ore.) introduced in House. H.R. 6851 (O'Hara, Mich.) introduced in House. Hearings on S. 1525 before the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Labor and H.R. 6971 (Fogarty, R.I) introduced in House. H.R. 7373 (Sickles, Md.) introduced in House to eliminate economic need as eligibility Hearings on H.R. 6476 and similar bills before the Special Subcommittee on Education, April 30 (Chicago) H.R. 8132; O'Hara (Mich.) reported a "clean" bill. H.R. 8310 (Daniels, N.J.) introduced in House. House Committee on Education and Labor reported on H.R. 8310 (H. Rept. No. 432). May 12 May 20 May 28 July 29 October 21 October 22, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare reported on H.R. 8310 (S Rept. No. 806). Conferees of Senate and House agreed upon compromise bill; Senate passed conference House approved compromise bill. ง |