is my intention to press in committee for reform of this and other inequitable allocation formulas. Under present law, the Federal share of construction projects varies from 33% to 66% percent among the States. Thus, an organization or community with modest resources would receive the minimum Federal share if located in a high-income State and, conversely, a well-to-do community or organization would receive the maximum Federal contribution if located in a lowincome State. This obviously is unfair and demands correction. I urge all who are concerned with the well-being and rehabilitation of the mentally retarded to join in this effort to bring to these unfortunates the care and training they require and which, all too often, overburdened State, local and private agencies are unable to provide. The VICE PRESIDENT. The bill will be received and appropriately referred. The bill (S. 389) to amend the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963 to provide grants for costs of initiating services in community mental retardation facilities, introduced by Mr. Javits (for himself and Mr. Prouty), was received, read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. (The text of S. 389 appears on p. 16.) DADE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DADE COUNTY, FLA., RESOLUTION No. R-334-67 RESOLUTION ENDORSING IN PRINCIPLE PROPOSED FEDERAL LEGISLATION PROVIDING FUNDS FOR SUPPORT OF COMMUNITY TREATMENT, EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF THE MENTALLY RETARDED Whereas, the Honorable Senators Jacob K. Javits and Winston L. Prouty have proposed and introduced a bill in the United States Senate on January 17, 1967 under which Federal aid up to 75% of the cost of staffing and operating public or non-profit mental retardation care, treatment, education and training facilities; and Whereas, local governments throughout the United States spend more than $650 million annually for the treatment, education and training of the mentally retarded; and Whereas, the enactment of such proposed Federal legislation would be of great value to Dade County and to the citizens and residents of Dade County: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, that the proposed legislation sponsored by the Honorable Senators Jacob K. Javits and Winston L. Prouty, to provide Federal aid for community programs and facilities designed to care for, treat, educate and train the mentally retarded, is hereby endorsed and approved in principle. The Clerk of this Board is directed to furnish certified copies of this Resolution to the Honorable Senators Spressard Holland, George Smathers, Jacob K. Javits and Winston L. Prouty, and to the Honorable Representatives Dante Fascell and Claude Pepper. The foregoing Resolution was offered by Commissioner Earl M. Starnes, who moved its adoption. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Alexander S. Gordon, and upon being put to a vote, the vote was as follows: Joseph A. Boyd, Jr., Absent R. Hardy Matheson, Absent Earl M. Starnes, Aye Lewis B. Whitworth, Absent Chuck Hall, Aye The Mayor thereupon declared the Resolution duly passed and adopted this 20th day of March, 1967. E. B. LEATHERMAN, Clerk. 85-230 0-67- -5 U.S. SENATE, Hon. JOHN W. GARDNER, COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, DEAR MR. SECRETARY: Recently, one of the Chapters of the New York State Association for Retarded Children indicated its intention to apply for funds under P.L. 88-164 to augment its complex of services for the mentally retarded. The facility for which they intend to apply is a sheltered workshop which would be part of a complex that includes a clinic, counseling, school for pre-school, school-age and post-school age retarded youngsters, camping and recreation. The organization was informed that a sheltered workshop must be erected on the ground of the general services for the mentally retarded being maintained by that organization. This statement is purported to be based on a ruling by counsel for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. I am informed by professional opinion in the field of mental retardation that the one facility which should not be part of a school, clinic, etc., is a sheltered workshop, which is vocational ind industrial in character. On the contrary, it is important that this be in an industrial part of town, to provide the retarded with a normal manner of work rather than tie them in with children forever to a "school" situation. The State Plan in New York State, accepted by the Federal government, clearly states that a mental retardation center may be a complex of services, not necessarily centralized and, in fact, in many areas decentralized. May I have clarification of this situation as such a ruling, if it exists, is contrary to the New York State Plan, is not contained in the Regulations for P.L. 88-164, and is contravened by all professional opinion I have been able to adduce. Sincerely, JACOB K. JAVITS, U.S. Senator. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, Hon. JACOB K. JAVITS, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR JAVITS: Your letter to Secretary Gardner dated October 4, 1967, regarding a proposed sheltered workshop for mentally retarded persons has been referred to me for reply. You advise that one of the chapters of the New York State Association for Retarded Children had indicated its intention to apply for funds under P.L. 88-164 (Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963) to construct a sheltered workshop which would be part of a complex offering many other services, but located at a different site. As a result the potential applicant was informed, on the basis of a "ruling" of counsel of this Department, that a sheltered workshop must be erected on the same site at which general services for the mentally retarded are provided. There are certain limitations in P.L. 88-164 applicable to the construction of sheltered workshops which are not applicable to the construction of other facilities for the mentally retarded. Thus, the statute expressly provides for Federal assistance in the construction of a sheltered workshop "only if such workshops are part of facilities which provide or will provide comprehensive services for the mentally retarded." After full consideration of the statute and the legislative history, and after advice from the Office of the General Counsel, we have concluded that a project for the construction of a sheltered workshop alone is not eligible where the applicant does not own or operate other facilities providing comprehensive services, even though the applicant might be able to enter into arrangements with other separately owned and administered facilities for access to such other facilities by patients in the sheltered workshop. We believe that the statutory requirement that the sheltered workshop be "part of facilities" providing comprehensive services, was intended to require more than that the workshop be part of a community program under which comprehensive services would be provided by independent and separate organizations. Congress has provided elsewhere (section 12 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act) for grants for con ́struction of rehabilitation facilities and workshops for the physically and mentally handicapped without the requirement that they be part of facilities providing comprehensive services. However, after further discussion with the Office of General Counsel, we are of the view that an applicant which operates facilities providing comprehensive services for the mentally retarded would not be precluded from receiving Federal assistance for construction of a sheltered workshop by reason of the fact that the workshop is not on the same site as that used to provide general services for the mentally retarded by the same organization. I hope this clarifies our position in this matter. Sincerely yours, Senator JAVITS. That is all. Forgive me, Miss Switzer. MARY E. SWITZER, Administrator. Miss SWITZER. It is wonderful to have your statement in the committee. STATEMENT OF MARY E. SWITZER, ADMINISTRATOR, SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Miss SWITZER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I welcome this opportunity to once again appear before this committee in my new role of Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Social and Rehabilitation Service was established to bring needed services to our citizens in a more coordinated and comprehensive manner. By combining the functions of the Welfare Administration, the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, the Administration on Aging, and the Mental Retardation Division of the Public Health Service into a single agency, we believe that greater progress can be made to solve the special problems faced by this Nation. The area of mental retardation is one example of that type of problem into which we must put our wholehearted combined efforts in order to meet the tremendous challenge facing us. During the last few years much has been done to help the mentally retarded. However, much remains to be done. Our increased concern with mental retardation in recent years has enabled us to see something of the depth of the problem. As the President's Committee on Mental Retardation has said, "we have learned that problems ignored or neglected do not go away. On the contrary, they grow, both in urgency and cost, until at last we are forced to contend with them, often at enormous expense for measures that can only hold the line." This applies not only to mental retardation, but as we found in the whole field of physical disability, this applies across the board in the field of public welfare also. The CHAIRMAN. We have waited all too long in attacking these problems, have we not? Miss SWITZER. That is right. A few weeks ago the report of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation was released to the public. That report pointed to the fact that three-fourths of the institutionalized mentally retarded live in buildings 50 years old or more-many of the "hand me down" mental or tuberculosis hospitals or abandoned military installations. In addition, the committee estimated that the full-time staff now in public facilities for the mentally retarded must be almost doubled to reach minimum adequacy. These are indeed sobering facts. The committee further indicated that the mentally retarded in disadvantaged neighborhoods often receive significantly less service from public and private agencies than do the retarded living in other neighborhoods and that an estimated 2 million retarded persons capable of learning to support themselves need job training and placement services. Even at minimum wage, these individuals have a potential annual earning capacity of $6 billion. I was in Hartford, Conn., last Saturday at the annual meeting of the Connecticut Association of Retarded Children, and this very question came up in a very dramatic way. The voluntary organization in Connecticut has determined to try to reach out to the inner city of Hartford which has many problems, because it was clear from the discussion at that meeting that many of these people were not being reached by the conventional means. And this is a problem all over the country, and we want to get at it as fast as we can. We intend to work hard to meet these needs through the combined programs of the Social and Rehabilitation Service and especially through the Rehabilitation Services Administration. I know that greater progress can be made to solve these problems. We have learned through the years that a pinpointed attack on specific problems is a very important and almost indispensable way to spread the results of good knowledge. The reorganization has brought about a regrouping of several existing programs in the Department into the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the Social and Rehabilitation Service. States and communities that want help in mental retardation programing will now be able to get more help through a single agency. In the brief weeks that I have been Administrator, the stepped-up momentum that comes from being associated with the Bureau of Mental Retardation which came to us from the Public Health Service it is also very significant and something we should repeat over and over again that one of our strongest elements in spreading the improvement of service and the expansion and understanding of services for the mentally retarded is the strong voluntary effort that exists all over the country. The National Association for Retarded Children, particularly the State and local units, are absolutely indispensable. They are responsible for highlighting the problem; they are responsible for bird dogging it, if you will, and their support and their understanding is, to me, one of the most encouraging optimistic aspects of this whole problem. The CHAIRMAN.They are seeking to meet the challenge. Miss SWITZER. Seeking to meet the challenge, and they have met it in their own way, and now they must take satisfaction, as we do with them, at the combined effort of Government and voluntary organizations from the very smallest units in the smallest community in the country up to the mobilization of national public opinion that is really one of our greatest assets. So, I would like to make this very, very clear for the record. A major problem in mental retardation has always been the coordination of services, for many agencies and programs have been involved in meeting the needs of the retarded and their families. I would like to emphasize their families" for which Senator Javits made such a plea. In the Department the Secretary's Committee on Mental Retardation has served well in coordinating the variety of mental retardation programs which we administer. Now, the resources of our specialized mental retardation programs can form an even stronger striking force to attack the problems of mental retardation. Through a central focus on the retarded and their families, more effective approaches can be developed to meet their needs. Professional staff whose work has been well coordinated, even though they were formerly separated by agency lines will have the opportunity to work even more closely together in a unified approach. The CHAIRMAN. You will have a better team, will you not? Miss SWITZER. A better team and better day-by-day relationships, and this makes all the difference. In addition, many activities for the retarded in those programs serving the general population or broader groups of handicapped persons can be coordinated for more efficient and effective operations. Furthermore, many retarded persons who are also multiply handicapped can now benefit from the services of the various agencies joined together in the Social and Rehabilitation Service. Our basic guideline will be the rehabilitation philosophy that each handicapped person should be helped to realize his maximum potential. The President's Committee listed 10 areas as most urgently in need of attention. The program to be extended or initiated by S. 1099 were developed to meet the first two of these areas of need: (1) availability of mental retardation services to more of the Nation's people, and (2) more effective and extensive manpower recruitment and training programs for work with the mentally retarded. The community facilities construction program is probably doing more to stimulate expansion of mental retardation services than any other Federal program. The CHAIRMAN. That bring it home to the community. Miss SWITZER. That brings it home to the community and is visible evidence for the community. The CHAIRMAN. They can see the challenge and see what is being done and what needs to be done. Miss SWITZER. This is what happened in the hospital construction program under the Hill-Burton, and this is what happened in the rehabilitation facilities development program under vocational rehabilitation, and I think we need to have some visible evidence in a good many more of our public programs. The CHAIRMAN. Under the Switzer program. Miss SWITZER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Continuing with reference to the community facilities construction program. This is and will continue to be a formula grant program to States with approval of individual construction projects by the Social and Rehabilitation Service staff in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare regional offices. The Mental Retardation Amendments of 1967 authorize initial staffing grants for these facilities, along with other improvements in the legislation. This will assist States and communities to begin service programs not heretofore developed. In this program, funds will be |