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Page 33 in cooperation with community agencies and officials, undertaking actions to improve existing efforts to attack poverty, 42 USC such as improving day-to-day communication, closing service gaps, focusing resources on the most needy, and providing additional opportunities to low-income individuals for regular employment or participation in the programs or activities for which those community agencies and officials are responsible.

(3) Initiating and sponsoring projects responsive to needs of the poor which are not otherwise being met, with particular emphasis on providing central or common services that can be drawn upon by a variety of related programs, developing new approaches or new types of services that can be incorporated into other programs, and filling gaps pending the expansion or modification of those programs.

(4) Establishing effective procedures by which the poor and area residents concerned will be enabled to influence the character of programs affecting their interests, providing for their regular participation in the implementation of those programs, and providing technical and other support needed to enable the poor and neighborhood groups to secure on their own behalf available assistance from public and private sources.

(5) Joining with and encouraging business, labor, and other private groups and organizations to undertake, together with public officials and agencies, activities in support of the community action program which will result in the additional use of private resources and capabilities, with a view to such things as developing new employment opportunities, stimulating investment that will have a measurable impact in reducing poverty among residents of areas of concentrated poverty, and providing methods by which residents of those areas can work with private groups, firms, and institutions in seeking solutions to problems of common

concern.

ADMINISTRATIVE STANDARDS

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SEC. 213. (a) Each community action agency shall observe, and shall (as appropriate) require or encourage other agencies partici- 42 USC pating in a community action program to observe, standards of organization, management and administration which will assure, so far as reasonably possible, that all program activities are conducted in a manner consistent with the purposes of this title and the objective of providing assistance effectively, efficiently, and free of any taint of partisan political bias or personal or family favoritism. Each community action agency shall establish or adopt rules to carry out this section, which shall include rules to assure full staff accountability in matters governed by law, regulations, or agency policy. Each community action agency shall also provide for reasonable public access to information, including but not limited to public hearings at the request of appropriate com

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munity groups and reasonable public access to books and records of the agency or other agencies engaged in program activities or operations involving the use of authority or funds for which it is responsible. And each community action agency shall adopt for itself and other agencies using funds or exercising authority for which it is responsible, rules designed to establish specific standards governing salaries, salary increases, travel and per diem allowances, and other employee benefits; to assure that only persons capable of discharging their duties with competence and integrity are employed and that employees are promoted or advanced under impartial procedures calculated to improve agency 42 USC performance and effectiveness; to guard against personal or financial conflicts of interests; and to define employee duties of advocacy on behalf of the poor in an appropriate manner which will in any case preclude employees from participating, in connection with the performance of their duties, in any form of picketing, protest, or other direct action which is in violation of law.

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(b) The Director shall prescribe rules or regulations to supplement subsection (a), which shall be binding on all agencies carrying on community action program activities with financial assistance under this title. He may, where appropriate, establish special or simplified requirements for smaller agencies or agencies operating in rural areas. These special requirements shall not, however, affect the applicability of rules governing conflicts of interest, use of position or authority for partisan or nonpartisan political purposes or participation in direct action, regardless of customary practices or rules among agencies in the community. The Director shall consult with the heads of other Federal agencies responsible for programs providing assistance to activities which may be included in community action programs for the purpose of securing maximum consistency between rules or regulations prescribed or followed by those agencies and those prescribed under this section.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AND SERVICES ORGANIZATIONS

SEC. 214. Each community action agency shall encourage the establishment of housing development and services organizations designed to focus on the housing needs of low-income families and individuals. Such organizations shall provide the technical, administrative, and financial assistance which is required to help 42 USC low-income families and individuals more effectively to utilize existing programs, and which is required to enable nonprofit cooperative, and public sponsors more effectively to take advan tage of existing Federal, State, and local mortgage insurance and housing assistance programs. Where appropriate, such orga nizations may be nonprofit housing development corporations. Such corporations may themselves become sponsors of housing under existing programs of specialized housing agencies, but un der no circumstances shall such corporations insure mortgages or duplicate the long-term capital financing functions of pro

Page 35 grams now administered by the specialized housing agencies. Housing development and service organizations shall coordinate their efforts with other community action agency efforts so that any programs undertaken under authority of this section shall be closely related to other community action programs.

PART B-FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO COMMUNITY ACTION
PROGRAMS AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

GENERAL PROVISIONS FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

SEC. 221. (a) The Director may provide financial assistance to community action agencies for the planning, conduct, administration and evaluation of community action programs and components. Those components may involve, without limitation, other activities and supporting facilities designed to assist participants including the elderly poor

(1) to secure and retain meaningful employment;

(2) to attain an adequate education;

(3) to make better use of available income;

(4) to provide and maintain adequate housing and a suitable living environment;

(5) to undertake family planning, consistent with personal and family goals, religious and moral convictions;

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(6) to obtain services for the prevention of narcotics 42 USC addiction, alcoholism, and the rehabilitation of narcotic addicts and alcoholics;

(7) to obtain emergency assistance through loans or grants to meet immediate and urgent individual and family needs, including the need for health services, nutritious food, housing, and employment-related assistance;

(8) to remove obstacles and solve personal and family problems which block the achievement of self-sufficiency;

(9) to achieve greater participation in the affairs of the community; and

(10) to make more frequent and effective use of other programs related to the purposes of this title.

He may also provide financial assistance to other public or private nonprofit agencies to aid them in planning for the establishment of a community action agency.

(b) If the Director determines that a limited purpose project or program involving activities otherwise eligible under this section is needed to serve needs of low-income families and individuals in a community and no community action agency has been designated for that community pursuant to section 210, or where a community action agency gives its approval for such a program to be funded directly through a public or private nonprofit agency or organization, he may extend financial assistance for that project or program to a public or private nonprofit agency which he finds is capable of carrying out the project in an efficient and effective manner consistent with the purpose of this title.

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(c) The Director shall prescribe necessary rules or regulations governing applications for assistance under this section to assure that every reasonable effort is made by each applicant to secure the views of local public officials and agencies in the community having a direct or substantial interest in the application and to resolve all issues of cooperation and possible duplication prior to its submission.

(d) After July 1, 1968, the Director shall require, as a condition of assistance, that each community action agency has adopted a systematic approach to the achievement of the purposes of this title and to the utilization of funds provided under this part. Such systematic approach shall encompass a planning and implementation process which seeks to identify the problems and causes of poverty in the community, seeks to mobilize and coordinate relevant public and private resources, establishes program priorities, links program components with one another and with other relevant programs, and provides for evaluation. The Director may, however, extend the time for such requirement to take into account the length of time a program has been in operation. He shall also take necessary steps to assure the participation of other Federal agencies in support of the development and implementation of plans under this subsection.

(e) În order to promote local responsibility and initiative, the Director shall not establish binding national priorities on funds authorized by this section, but he shall review each application for financial assistance on its merits. Before extending financial assistance to a new community action agency under this section, and in determining the amount of and conditions on which such assistance shall be extended, the Director shall consider the 42 USC extent and nature of poverty in the community and the probable 2808 capacity of the agency to carry out an effective program. In reviewing or supplementing financial assistance to a previously existing community action agency, he shall consider the progress made in carrying on programs by such agency.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS AND ASSISTANCE

SEC. 222. (a) In order to stimulate actions to meet or deal with particularly critical needs or problems of the poor which are common to a number of communities, the Director may develop and carry on special programs under this section. This authority shall be used only where the Director determines that the objectives sought could not be effectively achieved through the use of authorities under section 221, including assistance to components or projects based on models developed and promulgated by him. It shall also be used only with respect to programs which (A) 42 USC involve activities which can be incorporated into or be closely coordinated with community action programs, (B) involve significant new combinations of resources or new and innovative approaches, or (C) are structured in a way that will, within the limits of the type of assistance or activities contemplated, most fully and effectively promote the purposes of this title. Subject

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Page 37 to such conditions as may be appropriate to assure effective and efficient administration, the Director may provide financial assistance to public or private nonprofit agencies to carry on local projects initiated under such special programs; but he shall do so in a manner that will encourage, wherever feasible, the inclusion of the assisted projects in community action programs, with a view to minimizing possible duplication and promoting efficiencies in the use of common facilities and services, better assisting persons or families having a variety of needs, and otherwise securing from the funds committed the greatest possible impact in promoting family and individual self-sufficiency. Programs under this section shall include those described in the following paragraphs:

(1) A program to be known as "Project Headstart" focused upon children who have not reached the age of compulsory school attendance which (A) will provide such comprehensive health, nutritional, education, social, and other services as the Director finds will aid the children to attain their full potential, and (B) will provide for direct participation of the parents of such children in the development, 42 USC conduct, and overall program direction at the local level. 2809

(2) A program to be known as "Follow Through" focused primarily upon children in kindergarten or elementary school who were previously enrolled in Headstart or similar programs and designed to provide comprehensive services and parent participation activities as described in paragraph (1), which the Director finds will aid in the continued development of children to their full potential. Funds for such program shall be transferred directly from the Director to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Financial assistance for such projects shall be provided by the Secretary on the basis of agreements reached with the Director directly to local educational agencies except as otherwise provided by such agreements.

(3) A "Legal Services" program to further the cause of justice among persons living in poverty by mobilizing the assistance of lawyers and legal institutions and by providing legal advice, legal representation, counseling, education, and other appropriate services. Projects involving legal advice and representation shall be carried on in a way that assures maintenance of a lawyer-client relationship consistent with the best standards of the legal profession. The Director shall make arrangements under which the State bar association and the principal local bar associations in the community to be served by any proposed project authorized by this paragraph shall be consulted and afforded an adequate opportunity to submit, to the Director, comments and recommendations on the proposed project before such project is approved or funded, and to submit, to the Director comments and recommendations on the operations of such project, if approved and funded. No funds or personnel made