Page images
PDF
EPUB

The two legislative proposals we have introduced are designed to meet a need and to provide additional guarantees so that our Nation's schools will be the best housed, equipped, and operated in the world, even in time of disaster. Mr. President, I send to the desk the bill for introduction, and ask unanimous consent that its text be inserted at this point in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the bill will be printed in the Record.

The bill (S. 1374) to revise the provisions of Public Law 874, 81st Congress, providing assistance for current school expenditures in case of certain disasters, introduced by Mr. Mansfield (for himself and Mr. Metcalf), was received, read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

"S. 1374

"A bill to revise the provisions of Public Law 874, 81st Congress, providing assistance for current school expenditures in case of certain disasters

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 7 of the Act of September 30, 1950 (Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress), is amended to read as follows: "'ASSISTANCE FOR CURRENT SCHOOL EXPENDITURES IN CASES OF CERTAIN DISASTERS "SEC. 7. (a) In any case in which—

(1) (A) the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning determines with respect to any local educational agency that such agency is located in whole or in part within an area which after August 30, 1965, and prior to July 1, 1967, has suffered a major disaster as the result of any flood, drought, fire, hurricane, earthquake, storm or other catastrophe which, in the determination of the President pursuant to section 2(a) of the Act of September 30, 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1855a (a)), is or threatens to be of sufficient severity or magnitude to warrant disaster assistance by the Federal Government; or

"(B) the Commissioner determines with respect to any local educational agency that public elementary or secondary school facilities of such agency have been destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, storm, malicious action of any person known or unknown, or other catastrophe; and

(2) the Governor of the State in which such agency is located has certified the need for disaster assistance under this section, and has given assurance of expenditure of a reasonable amount of the funds of the government of such State, or of any political subdivision thereof, for the same or similar purposes with respect to such catastrophe ; and if the Commissioner determines with respect to such local educational agency that

(3) such agency is making a reasonable tax effort and is exercising due diligence in availing itself of State and other financial assistance, but as a result of such disaster it is unable to secure sufficient funds to meet the cost of providing free public education for the children attending the schools of such agency, and

66

(4) in the case of any such major disaster to the extent that the operation of private elementary and secondary schools in the school attendance area of such local educational agency has been disrupted or impaired by such disaster. such local educational agency has made provisions for the conduct of educational programs under public auspices and administration in which children enrolled in such private elementary and secondary schools may attend and participate: Provided, That nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to authorize the making of any payment under this Act for religious worship or instruction, the Commissioner may provide to such agency the additional assistance necessary to provide free public education to the children attending the schools of such agency, upon such terms and in such amounts (subject to the provisions of this section) as the Commissioner may consider to be in the public interest. Such additional assistance may be provided for a period not greater than a five fiscal year period beginning with the fiscal year in which it is determined pursuant to clause (1) of this subsection that such agency suffered a disaster. The amount so provided for any fiscal year shall not exceed the amount which the Commissioner determines to be necessary to enable such agency, with the State,

local, and other Federal funds available to it for such purpose, to provide a level of education equivalent to that maintained in the schools of such agency during the last full fiscal year prior to the occurrence of such disaster, taking into account the additional costs reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions of clause (4) of this subsection. The amount, if any, so provided for the second, third, and fourth fiscal years following the fiscal year in which it is so determined that such agency has suffered a disaster shall not exceed 75 per centum, 50 per centum, and 25 per centum, respectively, of the amount so provided for the first fiscal year following such determination.

"(b) In addition to and apart from the funds provided under subsection (a), the Commissioner is authorized to provide to such agency an amount which he determines to be necessary to replace instructional and maintenance supplies, equipment, and materials (including textbooks) destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of such disaster, and to lease or otherwise provide (other than by acquisition of land or erection of facilities) school and cafeteria facilities needed to replace temporarily such facilities which have been made available as a result of the disaster.

"(c) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year such amounts as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. Pending such appropriation, the Commissioner may expend (without regard to subsections (a) and (e) of section 3679 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 665) ) from any funds heretofore or hereafter appropriated for expenditure in accordance with other sections of this Act, such sums as may be necessary for immediately providing assistance under this section, such appropriations to be reimbursed from the appropriations authorized by this subsection when made. "(d) No payment may be made to any local educational agency under this section except upon application therefor which is submitted through the appropriate State educational agency and is filed with the Commissioner in accordance with the regulations prescribed by him. In determining the order in which such applications shall be approved, the Commissioner shall consider the relative educational and financial needs of the local educational agencies which have submitted approvable applications.

"(e) Amounts paid by the Commissioner to local educational agencies under this section may be paid in advance or by way of reimbursement and in such installments as the Commissioner may determine. Any funds paid to a local educational agency and not expended or otherwise used for the purposes for which paid shall be repaid to the Treasury of the United States.'"

AMENDMENT OF PUBLIC LAW 815

Mr. METCALF. Mr. President, I send to the desk on behalf of my distinguished colleague, the majority leader, and myself a bill to amend Public Law 815. At all levels of government-local, State and Federal-we share a responsibility for the education upon which democracy rests. We meet that responsibility in many ways. We have State equalization programs, which spread the costs of education among local school districts, some of which have larger tax bases than others. And we have Federal programs aimed at guaranteeing to all American youngsters an equal opportunity for educational excellence.

One of these programs helps local school districts replace and rebuild schools in the areas proclaimed by the President to be disaster areas at the request of the Governor of the State. In this way, we meet our responsibility for education in broad areas hit by a flood, a hurricane or other major disaster.

But to the student, the loss of his school is a disaster-whether or not that loss can be so classified under existing legislation. He must go to class in makeshift classrooms, with little or no equipment, sometimes without even textbooks. This situation can go on for months, even years, while insurance is collected, plans and specifications are prepared, bids called for, contracts let and a new school is built or the old one is repaired. During this period, the students who went to that school are being educationally short-changed. This in itself is a serious situation. Even more serious is the problem facing the district which operates the school. The insurance carried on most of the schools with which I am familiar is a percentage of the average value of the plant. Seldom, if ever, is it enough to replace the structure. And frequently the district is at or near statutory or constitutional bonded debt ceilings which prevent residents of

the local district from bonding themselves for enough money to replace their school.

This problem was pinpointed recently in Wolf Point, Mont. There fire destroyed the high school operated by School District 45 of Roosevelt County. Some 470 youngsters were going to the school, built in 1952 at a cost of $1 million. It was built in part with funds available under Public Law 815 of the 81st Congress, now scheduled to expire at the end of June.

A horseback estimate is that it will cost $2 million to replace the structure. At the very most, I am told, the district may collect $750,000 on its insurance. Recently the residents of the district voted a $530,000 bond issue to add 10 classrooms to the existing school. That money has not yet been obligated so it may be available for rebuilding. So the district has $1,280,000 available for $2 million worth of school construction. The district has an additional bonding capacity of $215,000. If this were voted, the district would have $1,495,000, or $505,000 less than it would need to replace the structure which burned-with no provision for the needed enlargement.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Spong in the chair). The time of the Senator from Montana has expired.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my colleague may have as much time as he desires to finish his remarks.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. METCALF. I thank my colleague.

Mr. President, this is not an unusual case. When my office called the Office of Education to discuss the situation, we were told that this was the third such case in a week. Fire, tornadoes and other storms, and malicious mischief regularly damage or destroy school buildings across the Nation.

With the great mobility of population in the United States, we can no longer refer to problems of this sort as being a local problem. Apart from the humanitarian reasons that we simply must do all possible to educate all of our children, it must be noted that the youngster who is deprived of education because of disaster, will undoubtedly become a worker and citizen of another locale. In short, it is to the mutual interest of the entire Nation to support this type of assistance.

For years, I have included myself among those concerned with the education of our youngsters. As a Member of the other body, I helped write extensions of Public Law 815, under which taxes collected at the Federal level go directly to local districts to help build schools in areas affected by Federal activities.

Public Law 815 now includes a section, under which schools can be replaced in major disaster areas. But there is no provision for replacement of individual schools, damaged or destroyed.

Public Law 815 is scheduled to end on July 1. I am sure Congress will extend it. For the consideration of the appropriate committees considering that extension, the senior Senator from Montana [Mr. Mansfield] and I propose to amend the law to provide for replacement of schools which are victims of pinpoint disasters.

Under our proposal, the Commissioner of Education could offer the school district an advance to replace the facilities damaged or destroyed. The advance would be in addition to the proceeds of insurance and money available from State, local, and other Federal sources, and would be repaid by the district.

This would help districts move promptly to meet an emergency classroom shortage.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that our bill be printed at this point in the Record.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the bill will be printed in the Record.

The bill (S. 1253) to provide loan assistance for the replacement of public elementary and secondary school facilities destroyed as the result of certain disasters, introduced by Mr. Metcalf (for himself and Mr. Mansfield), was received, read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

"S. 1253

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 16 (a) of the Act of September 23, 1950 (Public Law 815, 81st Congress), is amended to read as follows:

"'SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE IN CASES OF CERTAIN DISASTERS

""SEC. 16. (a) In any case in which

(1) (A) the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning determines with respect to any local educational agency that such agency is located in whole or in part within an area which after August 30, 1965, and prior to July 1, 1967, has suffered a major disaster as the result of any flood, drought, fire, hurricane, earthquake, storm

"(2) the Governor of the State in which such agency is located has certified the need for disaster assistance under this section, and has given assurance of expenditure of a reasonable amount of the funds of the government of such State, or of any political subdivision thereof, for the same or similar purposes with respect to such catastrophe; and if the Commissioner determines with respect to such local educational agency that-

“(3) public elementary or secondary school facilities of such agency have been destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of such major disaster;

"(4) such agency is making a reasonable tax effort and is exercising due diligence in availing itself of State and other financial assistance available for the replacement or restoration of such school facilities;

"(5) such agency does not have sufficient funds available to it from State, local, and other Federal sources (including funds available under other provisions of this Act), and from the proceeds of insurance on such school facilities, to provide the minimum school facilities needed or other catastrophe which, in the determination of the President pursuant to section 2 (a) of the Act of September 30, 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1855a (a)), is or threatens to be of sufficient severity or magnitude to warrant disaster assistance by the Federal Government, or

"(B) the Commissioner determines with respect to any local educational agency that public elementary or secondary school facilities of such agency have been destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, storm, malicious action of any person know or unknown, or other catastrophe; and

for the restoration or replacement of the school facilities so destroyed or seriously damaged; and

"(6) in the case of any such major disaster, to the extent that the operation of private elementary and secondary schools in the school attendance area of the local educational agency has been disrupted or impaired by such disaster, such local educational agency has complied with the provisions of section 7(a) (3) of the Act of September 30, 1950 (Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress), with respect to provisions for the conduct of educational programs under public auspices and administration in which children enrolled in such private elementary and secondary schools may attend and participate.

the Commissioner may provide the additional assistance necessary to enable such agency to provide such facilities, upon such terms and in such amounts (subject to the provisions of this section) as the Commissioner may consider to be in the public interest; but such additional assistance, plus the amount which he determines to be available from State, local, and other Federal sources (including funds available under other provisions of this Act), and from the proceeds of insurance may not exceed the cost of construction incident to the restoration or replacement of the school facilities destroyed or damaged as a result of the disaster. In all cases determined pursuant to clause (1) (B) of this subsection, and in any other case deemed appropriate by the Commissioner, such assistance shall be in the form of a repayable advance subject to such terms and conditions as he considers to be in the public interest.'

Mr. MANSFIELD. I wish to concur wholeheartedly with what my distinguished colleague has just said.

There is a situation of grave importance at Wolf Point, Mont., in the northeastern part of the State. It calls for prompt and effective action. My distinguished colleague has indicated a way and a means by which this can be achieved at the earliest possible moment, so far as the Senate is concerned. I join him in expressing the hope that action will be forthcoming shortly, to the end that

this very difficult situation can be successfully resolved so that the youngsters who attend the Wolf Point High School in Roosevelt County can be given the utmost consideration as speedily as possible.

Mr. METCALF. I thank my colleague. The people of Wolf Point in this particular situation find it just as serious as if it were a countrywide or regionalwide disaster under a Presidential proclamation.

The whole point of the bill is to provide equality and equity so that we can pinpoint the local disaster as well as the larger, regional disaster.

Mr. MANSFIELD. And, as the Senator has said, there is precedent for the action proposed.

ANNISTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
Anniston, Ala., June 8, 1967.

Senator JOHN J. SPARKMAN,
New Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR SPARKMAN: It is my understanding that the House and Senate Conferees on the second supplemental bill met last Wednesday, May 24th, and agreed to only $30,000,000 for P.L. 815 (School Construction). This, of course, cancelled out $18,000,000 for school construction and the full $20,000,000 for P.L. 874. The Conference Report was agreed to by both the Senate and the House on Thursday the following day and is now law.

Also, on Thursday the House acted on a 1968 appropriation for Health, Education and Welfare. Again, the Bureau of Budget recommendations were followed and the bill which passed includes $416,200,000 for P.L. 874 and $22,938,000+ for P.L. 815. These sums were the same as appropriated for the current year and of course are insufficient to meet the need for 1968.

In the case of P.L. 874, a need of $461,000,000 is estimated, which is 110.8% of the appropriation approved by the House. This will simply mean a proration in excess of 10% for all applicants including the large cities which will share in whatever appropriation is made.

In the case of P.L. 815, you will recall that the part of this law applying to children whose parents only live on or work on Federal property, expires June 30, 1967. Thus, the $22,937,000 appropriated by the House is sufficient only to meet the estimated need resulting from children who both live on and work on Federal property. Last week the House enacted amendments (HR-7819) to the Elementary and Secondary Act which extend the expiring provisions of P.L. 815 to June 30, 1968. However, unless the appropriation for P.L. 815 is increased, there will be insufficient funds to pay applicants under this extension. We will be in exactly the same position we have experienced the current year.

I understand that the Senate Committees on Education and Appropriation will be considering both HR-7819 and the 1968 HEW Appropriation Bill immediately, and I feel you want to know our need in the hope that you will make the necessary changes in both pieces of legislation. The changes are:

1. Ask the Senate Education Committee to extend the expiring provisions of P.L. 815 for two years instead of one year, or until June 30, 1969. This will avoid the problem of the authorization being made after the appropriation bill clears the House, which results from a one year at a time extension.

2. Ask the Senate HEW Appropriation Committee to

(a) Increase the appropriation for P.L. 874 to $461,000,000 the amount estimated to pay full entitlements without proration.

(b) Increase the P.L. 815 appropriation to take care of the estimated amount needed if the Education Committee extends the temporary previsions for P.L. 815 for either a one or two year period.

I am sure any Senator of the Senate Appropriations Committee can obtain this estimate from the U.S. Office of Education, even though it may not be permitted to recommend such an amount.

The administrator of an impact area school has a big job, and certainly the responsibility to inform his Senators of his individual need as regards these requests. I have prepared a page of definite facts regarding this request and ask that you present it to the proper Senate Committee when it takes testimony on this legislation in the very near future.

I would like to remind you that our major obstacle during the last few months has been the fact that the Bureau of Budget had not recommended legislation to meet our needs from either an authorization or appropriation point of view. This same condition exists today and our members of the Congress, both House

« PreviousContinue »