it unnecessary for these individuals to become welfare recipients, would free for gainful employment family members otherwise needed to take care of untrained, dependent handicapped individuals, and greatly minimize the need for costly institutionalization. The history of the vocational rehabilitation program under existing law has already demonstrated its value in both human and financial terms of removing dependency of handicapped individuals and harnessing their skills in the productive life of the country. The pending legislation will increase the value of the program by making it available to many more individuals and will prove that funds appropriated to implement it are investments in strenghening our society.

With regard to the criticism that the bill authorizes programs which are essentially medical in character, it should be pointed out that prevention, correction, and amelioration of disability are the major first steps in a sound national rehabilitation policy to make it possible for every American to reach his maximum potential as an individual contributing to the national well-being. More effective programs to prevent, correct, and ameliorate disability in early childhood would eliminate the need for costlier education and rehabilitation services to children and adults.

The criticism that the legislation "would proliferate a host of narrow categorical programs" is not a valid one. These so-called categorical programs should be referred to as target programs designed to meet the special needs of groups of individuals who have been too long neglected to the detriment of themselves, their families, their communities and the Nation. The history of services to special handicapped groups in our population has demonstrated that they are too frequently inadequately served unless there is a target program specifically designed to meet their specialized needs.

The key to effective service to any group is the effectiveness of its administration structure. The legislation would assure the type of organizational structure which would make it possible for the best interests of handicapped individuals to be served. With regard to criticism of the various committees and commissions established by the legislation, it must be remembered that their establishment is dictated by the need to assure effective implementation of their respective responsibilities. Without them, very little has been accomplished in the past; and there is no reason to believe that more would be accomplished unless they are statutorily established.

Of all of the various federally-assisted human services programs, rehabilitation programs for the disabled have demonstrated their value. We believe that the program has come of age and is ready for the increased financing which would make it possible for it to reach and serve the substantial backlog of unserved handicapped individuals who can be restored to the work force of the Nation. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we urge this Subcommittee and the full Committee to take prompt action on the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as introduced. We hope that the Senate and the House of Representatives will send this legislation to the President as soon as practicable. We hope that the President will approve the bill this time, since it has the promise-more than most legislation in the human services area—of assuring handicapped individuals of an opportunity to earn their own way and live normal lives in the best American tradition.

STATEMENT RE H.R. 17-REHABILITATION AMENDMENTS OF 1973 WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATING FUNDS FOR THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR DEAF-BLIND YOUTHS AND ADULTS BY PETER J. SALMON, LL.D., ADMINISTRATIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR THE BLIND, AND DIRECTOR NATIONAL CENTER FOR DEAF-BLIND YOUTHS AND ADULTS, NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y.

Congressman Brademas and Members of the Subcommittee: For clarification, may I say that I am Peter J. Salmon, Director of the National Center for DeafBlind Youths and Adults at New Hyde Park, Long Island. I am also closely identified with the American Foundation for the Blind as a Trustee, the Blinded Veterans' Association as an adviser, and the American Association of Workers for the Blind as chairman of its legislative committee. Mr. Irvin P. Schloss, who is also identified with these organizations and is co-chairman of the legislative committee of the American Association of Workers for the Blind, has presented a written statement relative to H.R. 17, the Rehabilitation Amendments of 1973. I concur in the statement that has been presented by Mr. Schloss in its entirety. To conserve the time of the Committee, I am confining this statement to the operating and construction needs of the National Center for Deaf-Blind

Youths and Adults. We made a full presentation of these needs when the 1972 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act (H.R. 8395) were being considered. A comprehensive statement of our presentation is contained in the report of Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Handicapped of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate, Ninety-Second Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 8395, Part 2 (June 2 and 6, 1972), page 1423. In addition the direct reference is made to the operating and construction needs of the National Center in the Conference Report (Report No. 92-1581) which Mr. Perkins, from the committee of conference submitted to accompany H.R. 8395, on page 67. There is a typographical error which we call to the attention of the Committee, where the operating needs of the National Center are spelled out on page 67 in this Conference Report, under National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults. line 7, the amount for FY 1975 should be $2,000,000., not $200,000.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, to refresh your memory, we made an urgent appeal for operating funds as follows: $800,000. for FY 1973; $1,200,000. for FY 1974; and $2,000,000. for FY 1975; and for construction funds of $5,000,000. These were concurred in the Conference Report (92-1581) referred to above, on page 67, as follows

"National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults-Both the House bill and the Senate amendment contained provisions for a National Center for DeafBlind Youths and Adults. The House bill had open ended authorizations for FY 1973, FY 1974, and FY 1975, for this provision. The Senate amendment authorized appropriations of $5,000,000. for FY 1973 for construction, and $800,000. for that year for its operation. $1,200,000. was authorized for FY 1974 and $2,000,000 for FY 1975, for the operation of the center. The conference agreement adopts the Senate authorization figures."

1

As to the construction, the following statement in Report No. 92-1601, the Conference Report which Mr. Mahon, from the committee of conference, submitted to accompany H.R. 17034, Making Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1973, and for Other Purposes, on page 9, is pertinent: "Amendment No. 25: Reported in technical disagreement. The managers on the part of the House will offer a motion to recede and concur in the Senate amendment, which provides that $5,000,000, for the construction of the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults shall remain available until expended." It is clear that the conferees recognized the urgency of the need for the construction of the Center and made this separate reference to providing the necessary additional funding up to $5,000,000.

The President's veto of the 1972 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act (H.R. 8395) results in a very difficult situation in that we had proceeded expeditiously and with the knowledge and consent of the Administration in the development of the plans for the construction of the permanent Center, to be located at Sands Point, Long Island. In the interim our plans have been prepared, and except for a last minute review which is well under way, we can proceed to obtain competitive bids for the construction immediately, and it is estimated that the general contractor can be selected by March 15, 1973. This would permit us to get started on construction in early April, 1973. It is important to mention to you that as of November 30, 1972, we had on hand sufficient funds ($2,719,402.) to pay all bills for construction up until December 1, 1973. Our dilemma is that it will not be possible, unless a special letter of commitment is received from the Administration, to let bids and make a contract for the construction unless we have all of the necessary money to complete the Center in hand or committed.

Another very important point to bring to you, Mr. Chairman and the members of the Subcommittee, is the fact that the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults is a permanent undertaking and it is entirely different from the Research and Training and Research and Demonstration grants, valuable as they are. We feel that the needs of the National Center should be considered on its merits and it should have a separate line in the budget with some assurance of operating funding needs for at least two years, and better, for three years. It is difficult and wasteful to try to conduct a permanent Center and maintain a continuity of operation, including tenure for staff, provision for maintenance costs, and all of the other considerations that go into such an operation, without some assurance of forward funding.

We hesitate to allow ourselves to become emotional and to use any extravagant language or claims as to the desperate need that exists for the building of the As pointed out above, this was erroneously indicated as $200,000.

Center as planned and for doing so immediately. The construction industry as customarily occurs, is negotiating for new contracts which, if history in the past repeats itself, will mean additional costs of 12% to 18% per annum. If the program is delayed for six months or a year, a substantial increase in costs would be indicated.

The agencies for the blind, those for the deaf, and those dealing with other handicapped individuals who, from time to time, come in contact with the needs of deaf-blind persons are standing by ready to cooperate fully in this undertaking on behalf of deaf-blind youths and adults. It is estimated that there are approximately 12,000 deaf-blind children and adults in the United States, about equally divided.

The rubella epidemic of 1964 and 1965, for the first time in history, brought into the world a large number of deaf-blind infants, now estimated at more than 5,000; and they will become teenagers in the next six to eight years, and the responsibility of the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults will suddenly have a great demand placed upon it at one time for the planning, with the Office of Education, Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped, and schools and agencies dealing with deaf-blind children, for the rehabilitation goals for these children. The Permanent National Center will deal primarily with the hard core deaf-blind population of youths and adults, but the larger number will be served by cooperative arrangements with the various States, with both public and private agencies who conduct programs of rehabilitation. This cooperation is well advanced, and the National Center has three field offices now operating in Los Angeles, California, Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois, and about April 1, 1973, we will open another regional office in Philadelphia, Pa. If funds are provided and the opportunities for service are expanded, we will be opening additional field offices. In fact, we have a fifth one projected within the next year, to be located in Texas. Through all of these, the Center will serve approximately 500 deaf-blind persons each year. Most of these services, particularly for the hard core deaf-blind persons served by the permanent Center itself, will be based on a one-to-one relationship of staff with the clients. It is the neglect over all of the years with respect to the rehabilitation of deaf-blind persons which has left a void that can only be filled by the development of the program of the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults and, in particular, by the construction of the permanent Center.

Many of the deaf-blind persons whom we have been serving at the temporary Center and whom we will be serving in the future, will come to us with no more than a fourth grade education, some with no language at all, some who have been isolated either in their own homes or, worse still, in homes for the mentally retarded or mental institutions. As we have indicated previously, we have taken a number of deaf-blind persons to the Center from mental institutions, and in no instance should they have been there in the first place. This is not a deliberate or cruel action on the part of persons concerned, but primarily a lack of communication as between the deaf-blind persons and those who would try to do "something" for them. We must say frankly that even with the best and the speediest possible resolution of the needs of the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults, there will still remain a large number of deaf-blind persons who will never receive service. We have demonstrated clearly, however, that given proper opportunity for evaluation, training, and rehabilitation, deaf-blind persons can function well in respect to their needs of daily living, and many of them can be employed. Presently, the largest number of deaf-blind persons, with our help, have found their best opportunity in workshops, but we have broken the barrier with a number of deaf-blind persons who have been placed in industry, and there are at least a half dozen deaf-blind persons who, in recent years, have been able to enter college and receive their Bachelors or Masters Degree. The large number, however, will be those who will never attain these heights, but whose lives will be immeasurably benefited by the substantial group of services that the National Center is prepared to provide for them, but more than this through the experience we are gaining daily and the recruitment of dedicated persons, professional and nonprofessional who have chosen this field as their life's work.

Our plea, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, is this: Since the National Center is a permanent concept initiated and agreed upon by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with the strong support of the late beloved Mary E. Switzer, and the lifetime dream of another great lady, the late beloved Helen Keller, we feel that special consideration should be given to the immediacy of the needs for going ahead with this program for the National Center that over the years will gradually build up services that will become more and more adequate as the years go by. We have had the full support and interest

of the Members of Congress, all of those in the field of work for the blind and the organizations of blind persons as well as allied fields of endeavor. We feel that notwithstanding the overall concern of the President of the United States for carrying out a program that he feels is in the best interest of our citizens, that he couldn't possibly, if it were forcibly brought to his attention, allow deaf-blind persons to languish any longer without a special emergency approach to moving ahead and doing so immediately.

In summary, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, what we need is to have some special consideration by the person in authority in HEW, with the cooperation of the Office of Budget Management, to take special notice of the need for the immediate construction of the Permanent National Center for deafblind youths and adults, utilizing the available funds for the beginning of construction and providing, as needed, the sums up to $5,000,000. So that the construction can move ahead. It is not necessary that the whole $5,000,000 be expended in any one year.

We estimate that it will take about 21 months, barring any undue stoppage of construction through strikes or otherwise, to complete the center, so that the $5,000,000 can be spread over the intervening period of construction, keeping in mind the fact that we do have sufficient funds to carry through until december 1, 1973 1.

The fact that this committee has taken prompt action for consideration of H.R. 17, the rehabilitation amendments of 1973, gives us renewed hope that some arrangement will be made promptly to permit us to go forward with the building of the Permanent National Center without any further delay.

Thank you.

DECEMBER 8, 1972.

Dr. JAMES F. GARRETT, Assistant Administrator, Research and Demonstrations, Social and Rehabilitation Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C. DEAR DR. GARRETT: After the 1972 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act were passed by Congress, and prior to the veto by the President, Dr. Fenton was in touch with me concerning possible cash requirements for the construction of the National Center. I understood that he was working with the Budget people. Immediately after the veto, I had a call from Administrator John Twiname, who had a number of matters to discuss, one of which we touched on was the funding requirements for the Center. I told him that I had had some contact with Dr. Fenton on this, and he said it would be well then to continue to discuss the matter with Dr. Fenton and with you.

I immediately requested our architects, Frederic P. Wiedersum Associates, to prepare schedules for cash requirements. These have just become available and are attached. One, you will note, is entitled, "Estimated Cash Flow Schedule," and the other, "Supplement to Estimated Cash Flow Schedule." You will notice that the Supplement to Estimated Cash Flow Schedule has pertinent comments and also gives the amount of available funds for the construction of the Center, including architect's fees. I am attaching several copies in case you wish to distribute some, and I would request that you send copy to John Twiname.

Our understanding is that no contract can be made for construction of the National Center unless funds are available. I am not sure whether this means cash in hand or a commitment from Social and Rehabilitation Service that the funds for the construction will be available as needed.

I am looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you on Thursday, Dec. 14, at 9:39 A.M. in your office.

With all best wishes and thanks for so much needed cooperation, especially in connection with the funding requirements for the National Center.

Sincerely yours,

PETER J. SALMON, Administrative Vice President.

1 I am attaching hereto letter dated December 8, 1972, to Dr. James F. Garrett, Assistant Administrator, Research and Demonstrations, Social and Rehabilitation Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, together with "Estimated Cash Flow Schedule" and "Supplement to Estimated Cash Flow Schedule."

NOTE.-I am enclosing for the record copy of a telegram which we sent on January 17, 1973, to Secretary Richardson, with copies to Dr. James F. Garrett and Mr. John Twiname.

ESTIMATED CASH FLOW SCHEDULE

NATIONAL CENTER FOR DEAF-BLIND YOUTHS AND ADULTS, SANDS POINT, N.Y.

Supplement to estimated cash flow schedule

NOTE.-Funds available for construction as of November 30, 1972: $2,719,402.

NOTE.-Drawings of the final design and specifications were delivered during the week of December 4th. They are being reviewed by the Regional Engineer of DHEW, Region II, and his staff, two members of the Committee of the Board of Trustees of the IHB concerned with the construction of the National Center (one of these is a retired architect and the other is a construction contractor), and the Director and the Associate Director of the National Center. Some time next month, we will meet with the Committee of the IHB Board, the DHEW Regional Engineer and our architects for a final review and approval of the design and specifications for the construction of the National Center. Bids should be ready to be sent out by February 1st and we hope to be able to sign a construction contract in time for construction to begin early in April. We have been advised that a number of construction unions' contracts will be negotiated during the first six months of the year and that the earlier we can complete our construction contract, the better are its terms likely to be. In addition, the development of our direct service and research programs will be dependent to a very large extent on the time required to make adequate facilities available for them.

Approximately $2,500. per month, beginning with the first month of construction, should be added to the Estimated Cash Flow Schedule for construction and architectural service to cover the salaries of a clerk-of-the-works and his assistant. The estimated Cash Flow Schedule does not include allowances for construction contingencies ($300,000. have been budgeted for such contingencies) but we may reasonably expect that the approximately $2,719,000. now available to the National Center for construction purposes are sufficient to meet cash requirements through November, 1973.

Expenditures of an estimated $420,000. for furniture and equipment, possible expenditures for project contingencies unrelated to construction and other relatively small expenditures are not likely to be required until near the end of or following the estimated 23 month construction period.