In fiscal year 1992, under these programs we will continue certain initiatives contained in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act Amendments of 1989, including: (1) Carrying out programs of national significance, where funds are spent on certain national priorities, and (2) Earmarking $250,000 on promotional activities. We will support these initiatives at the prior year level.

În addition, ACTION will continue to explore partnerships with other agencies and organizations in order to carry out the purposes and intent of the Older American programs. For example, in fiscal year 1990 we entered into an agreement with the Administration on Aging (AoA) to undertake a joint effort in the Senior Companion Program to assist seniors 80 years of age and older. Grants under this effort will require matching funds from private sector sources.

INSPECTOR GENERAL

In fiscal year 1992, we are requesting $1 million and 12 positions for the Office of the Inspector General.

Funds will be used in fiscal year 1992 to carry out an audit plan and to conduct investigations as required. Audits will focus on Agency operations as well as any particular issues that may arise with respect to grants and contracts.

PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION

For Program Administration, we are requesting $30.4 million, an increase of $2.1 million above prior year amounts. The increase reflects a level that is essential to assure sound administration of ACTION's programs, as well as to carry out certain recruitment and public awareness functions contained in the 1989 Amendments to the Domestic Volunteer Service Act. The increase will cover mandatory cost increases, mostly in the areas of personnel and benefits, as well as support the Agency at a full-time equivalent level of 438 positions, a level consistent with the hiring plan being conducted in fiscal year 1991. Hiring will occur primarily in the regional and state offices to enhance program development, the recruitment of volunteers, and project monitoring.

The request for Program Administration also provides staff travel funds at the same level as that available in fiscal year 1991. These moneys are necessary to carry out VISTA recruitment and training responsibilities, project monitoring trips, and training conferences. Moneys are also requested to implement a new payroll/personnel/project information system to support VISTA Volunteers.

Mr. Chairman, that summarizes ACTION's budget request for fiscal year 1992. I am available to answer any questions that the Subcommittee may have.

OLDER AMERICAN VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS

Senator HARKIN. Thank you very much. Again, let me thank you for your very good stewardship of the ACTION agency and the fine job you have been doing there. We appreciate it very much.

Senator Gorton, I know you have to leave for other committees. Do you have any questions?

Senator GORTON. I echo your statement about the quality of the operation and the importance of the operation. I have no questions. Senator HARKIN. I have a couple of questions about the Older Americans Volunteer Program. As you know, people are living longer, the older population is growing every day. A lot of them are healthy and they want to volunteer. I see it all the time when I go out and I am sure you do too. The administration has promoted that, also.

And, yet, for the Older American Volunteer Program it is flat or maybe even a cut, I do not know, flat funding. I suppose we could take into account inflation as probably a little bit of a cut, I sup

pose.

Again, I just want to know how you can justify that in light of the fact that these volunteers, for a very small expenditure of money, they do a lot of good work out there and they want to do it. But they just need a little bit of support sometimes in these pro

grams. And I am sure you have seen the benefits of this program, like I have.

I just wonder if you would want to comment upon that aspect of your budget, the Older American Volunteer Program.

Ms. KENNY. Senator, I would like to state that first and foremost, there is nobody that has a greater awareness of the benefits that are derived from these programs than the ACTION staff. We see it every day and it serves as an inspiration to us.

Our decisions with regard to our fiscal year 1992 submission were solely budgetary. We are faced with a situation, as a result of the Budget Reform Act and other difficulties facing us financially, that has caused us to give serious review to our submission.

I can say that collectively, over the last 2 years, the ACTION agency has received an increase of over 13 percent in its appropriation. So, over a 2-year period, we are ahead, rather than behind most Federal agencies.

With regard to the specific budget that we submitted for fiscal year 1992, I would have to say that one of the overriding considerations in preparing this budget was the requirements in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act Amendments of 1989. There are many requirements in the VISTA Program which mandated that we submit a budget asking for increases.

When we had to weigh those requirements against the overall impact on the budget, it put us in a position where, except for the VISTA budget, in practically all cases we had to maintain current level of services. Consequently, we do have a significant variance between the VISTA budget and the OAVP section. But it is primarily driven by the requirements in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act.

Senator HARKIN. So you are saying that act is what drives the budget allocations?

MS. KENNY. That is correct. Our amount of discretion is very limited.

There is one other thing I would point out with regard to the Older American Volunteer Programs. In perspective, I think it should also be noted that over the last decade the ACTION agency's budget has increased by 25 percent. Within that same time period, the Older American Volunteer Programs budget has increased by 39 percent. So, although this year it is obviously not getting an increase in relation to the VISTA budget, when they are compared together, historically, the Older American Volunteer Programs have received considerable increases, especially over the last 3 years.

SENIOR COMPANION PROGRAM

Senator HARKIN. What I just said about the Volunteer Program, also I would say about the Senior Companion Program. I am sure your response is the same on that, also.

Ms. KENNY. Yes. One thing related to that, Senator, I think you should know. Since 1987 the Senior Companion Program has been increased by more than 47 percent. That program has grown_the most significantly of all the three Older American Volunteer Programs. But that is not to say that the need is not also great.

Senator HARKIN. What was last year's funding for the Senior Companion Program?

Ms. KENNY. For fiscal year 1991, the Senior Companion Program was funded at $27,569,000.

Senator HARKIN. And again, when we get into these things, I know a 47-percent increase sounds like a lot, but when you start with zero and you go to one, that is an infinitum.

Ms. KENNY. One thing related to that increase should also be noted with regard to the unexpended balances. The increase was so steep that we were not able and still are not able to achieve the full volunteer capacity that has been appropriated. The Senior Companion Program continues to have a large unexpended balance. We still have a significant number of senior companion projects that are not operating at their full capacity because of start-up difficulties.

Senator HARKIN. That is something that I can understand.

So if you have a problem in getting the volunteers out there, it seems to me that that would push you more towards asking for some more money to get them out there to help them, rather than level funding.

Tell me what you just said again.

Ms. KENNY. I am saying that senior companion projects are not able to use all of the money they are receiving. We have a significant portion of unexpended balances that are coming back to the agency and being redirected to one-time funding activities that are in keeping with the mission of the program.

Say hypothetically we give a grant to a project in Iowa and it provides funds to place 60 volunteers. Because it is a new project, it takes a while for them to get established and to recruit those volunteers. Right now, we have a significant number of projects such as the hypothetical one in Iowa where, even though they have been awarded funds to place 60 volunteers, they are only able to recruit 30, 40, or 50 volunteers.

Part of the reason for the difficulty in recruitment is the serious nature of the volunteer work they do. To have a low-income senior volunteer commit to provide 20 hours a week of service to a homebound elderly person, to receive the amount of training necessary, and to be able psychologically to do the types of assignments this work calls for, takes an exceptional senior. And, again, that is all the more reason why we should commend them for the work they do. But the recruitment and placement of such volunteers require considerable expertise within the geriatric community in which these volunteers serve.

Senator HARKIN. Are you doing anything? What are you doing, I should say, to increase recruitment? Do you have some programs out there?

Ms. KENNY. I am pleased to tell you that we are having a national Senior Companion Program conference. In fact, it will be taking place within the next month here in Washington. It is cosponsored by both ACTION and the University of Maryland Center on Aging. It will be 5 days of training that will deal with a number of issues, but one of them will be recruitment activities among seniors.

VOLUNTEERS IN SERVICE TO AMERICA

Senator HARKIN. That is very good. Could you also tell us, in terms of VISTA, what are you doing through the media, television, radio, magazines, newspapers to heighten public awareness of volunteer opportunities in VISTA? Or is your budget too low to do that? Do you have funds to advertise?

Ms. KENNY. In the authorizing legislation for the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, it does provide that 1.5 percent of the VISTA program appropriation will be directed to marketing and public awareness activities. And for this fiscal year, including Literacy Corps, that accounts for approximately $524,000. For next year, in the 1992 budget, it will be approximately $611,000.

In order to fully meet the intent of Congress with regard to increased VISTA marketing and recruitment of recent college graduates, we have done a number of things. The most significant was to award a contract last fiscal year in anticipation of this increased amount of funding. The contract had three phases to it.

The first phase was to conduct a survey, both on college campuses and among current and recent former VISTA volunteers, to determine what is was about the program that appealed to them and what would cause them to make the decision to be a VISTA volunteer.

Based on that data, the second phase of the contract was to develop a marketing plan specifically targeted toward recent college graduates. We have just received that plan from the contractor and are in the process of seeking out an ad agency to implement it.

The plan includes doing a considerable number of campus visits, developing new posters and brochures, running ads in national magazines such as Time in the college issue, and increasing visibility with college placement and finance offices concerning our opportunities for service.

I would say that we are making a lot of progress. One other thing related to that, which goes back to the increase you approved for us in the program administration budget last year, is we now have 13 additional positions on the ACTION staff that are devoted solely to VISTA recruitment activities. We expect to have all of those people placed by April. Their placement is a major achievement and I think we will see some real results from their efforts. Senator HARKIN. Did you just mention anything about public service announcements?

Ms. KENNY. Yes.

Senator HARKIN. Are you finding much support for that? It seems to me that rather than spending money, you can get radio and television stations to run these as public service announcements, right?

Ms. KENNY. We are going to run them on campus radio stations. We think that will be a much more targeted audience and it will be cost-effective.

Senator HARKIN. That is true.

Ms. KENNY. On targeted campuses, as well.

Senator HARKIN. Do any of the television stations around the country run these as public service announcements?

Ms. KENNY. No; we have not explored that. The findings were that it was not cost-effective because we could not determine when they would show it or how frequently they would show it. For the limited audience we are really trying to reach, it just was not costeffective.

Related to that, Senator, I attended a briefing this week at the White House concerning a major media campaign that the Points of Light Foundation is about to initiate that will focus on the general issue of volunteerism. We are hopeful that one of the residuals of that initiative will be that it will help our programs as well.

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE

Senator HARKIN. Ms. Kenney, we have some other questions that we will submit to you in writing. But I want to thank you for being here.

[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but were submitted to the Agency for response subsequent to the hearing:]