Answer: and you're likewise cutting the Older American Volunteer Programs, as well as the ACTION Drug Alliance. How then do you justify your request for a 7.5 percent increase in Program Administration? When we assessed the overall budget For Program Administration, we believed maintaining the same number of staff and Prior to FY 1991, for several years we Approximately 99 percent of the increase in our request for fiscal year 1992 is for personnel compensation and is designed to maintain the staffing levels approved in 1991. Almost $800,000 of the increase is for mandatory civilian pay increases; most of the rest represents the full year effect of the hiring we have undertaken this fiscal Question: Answer: year, hiring that in some cases was For these reasons, we believe that our request for Program Administration is fully justified. SENIOR COMPANION PROGRAM Ms. Kenny, we have more frail elderly in The Senior Companion Program is one of the most cost-effective means of delivering vitally needed home care services. Our Senior Companion Program in Waterloo is helping nearly 300 frail elderly to stay in their own homes and out of expensive nursing homes. Ms. Kenny, in light of growing need, and the cost effectiveness of this program, why are you proposing level funding? We fully recognize the valuable Concerning the fiscal year 1992 budget, we considered several factors in recommending an overall, level budget for the Senior Companion Program. First, in light of the overall budget ceiling, as well as the mandates in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, trade-offs were required. We believed it necessary to respond to the mandatory requirements in our authorizing legislation, particularly those related to the VISTA program. Second, as I indicated earlier the number of SCP projects has increased significantly since 1987. We need to allow those projects to stabilize fully before attempting to add new ones. Indeed, as of the last grant reporting period, these new SCP grantees were spending at an effective rate of approximately 84% of their authorized levels, meaning that 16% of the available monies were not being used and the projects are not operating at full capacity. Third, and finally, we felt that the most important increment at this time was to support whatever portion of the $0.15 authorized stipend increases we could afford within an overall level budget for these programs. That is why we have included a $.05 stipend increase for the Senior Companion Program within our budget request. FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE STATEMENT OF BERNARD E. DeLURY, DIRECTOR ACCOMPANIED BY: BRIAN L. FLORES, DEPUTY DIRECTOR MARY P. DURKIN, BUDGET OFFICER BUDGET REQUEST Senator HARKIN. Now we will hear from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The mission of the Service is to prevent and to minimize labor-management disputes having a significant impact on interstate commerce or national defense for all industries, with the exception of railroad and airline industries. The fiscal year 1992 budget request for the Service is $28.1 million, an increase of $1.1 million over 1991. No funding is sought for labor-management cooperation grants. Welcome, Mr. Bernard DeLury, the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Your statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety, and if you can introduce your companions and summarize your statement, I would sure appreciate it. INTRODUCTION OF ASSOCIATES Mr. DELURY. On my left is Brian Flores, who is Deputy Director of the Service-Brian is a 14-year career mediator with the FMCS-and on my right is Mary Durkin our budget officer, who has 21 years of service with the Federal Government and 18 years with the FMCS. PREPARED STATEMENT Mr. Chairman, if you would like, in the interest of time, we could dispense with reading the opening statement. We are requesting is $1.1 million over last year's budget or an increase of 4 percent, for a total of $28,145,000, which we expect will cover a full-time equivalency of 315, 204 of which will be stationed in the field, and we hope to add to that number by approximately 20 mediators in 1992. [The statement follows:] STATEMENT OF BERNARD E. DELURY Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, it is my pleasure to present to you the fiscal year 1992 appropriation request of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. I would like to describe briefly the Service's mission, detail our work by program area, and outline our request. FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE'S MISSION The Service was established by Congress in 1947 as an independent agency to prevent or minimize interruptions of the free flow of commerce growing out of labor |