September 15, 1971 A.. STATEMENT BY LABOR DEPARTMENT The Need for Manpower Reform Legislation Manpower reform legislation is urgently needed to overcome the two basic limitations of current program authority: (1) the restrictions placed on programming and funding by the maze of categorical programs, and (2) the centralized decision-making which is remote from the manpower needs of workers. To overcome these limitations, the President's proposal for Manpower Revenue Sharing would authorize the tailoring and funding the entire range of manpower activities to meet specific needs of workers, with decisions made by State and local officials who can best perceive these needs. Manpower is an area in which the need to adapt to diverse and changing local conditions is especially compelling, and in which the advantages of local discretion are correspondingly great. When nationwide categorical programs are applied to diverse job markets, some cities and States may find their needs approximately met-but many others, inevitably, will come off second best. They will, in effect, be penalized for differing from the models according to which Federal programs are designed. They find themselves forced into accepting projects of low local priority ahead of those of higher priorities simply because Federal program inflexibilities mean undertaking the "available" ones or none at all. Those who suffer as a result are not governmental Enclosure No. 1 2. units in the abstract but the intended beneficiaries of the programs-real people with bills to pay and families to feed. Categorical programs grew during the 1960's and filled a great need, as the Nation experimented with various approaches meeting manpower problems. But one of the great lessons of the dramatic Federal program growth in the 1960's is that even a good idea like this can fall short of its promise if the way in which it is carried out runs against the grain of the Federal system. By converting the Nation's manpower programs from categorical grants to flexible funding and decentralized decisionmaking, we can play to the strengths of the Federal partnership, teaming Federal dollars with State and local operational responsibility. The imperatives of manpower program reform call for establishing a system in which State and local governments would be given wide discretion in determining how the manpower funds provided should be used. The Federal Government puts up the purse and sets out the broad purposes of authorized spending, while the detailed local program decisions are turned over to the responsible elected officials of State and local government. There would be no piece-meal daling out of funds project by-project in response to lengthy Federal program applications to complete. New manpower legislation should neither mandate nor terminate any specific categorical programs. It should provide that the continuation, Enclosure No. 1 3. expansion, or modification of each local project would be determined, as it ought to be, by the test of performance and local priorities--and determined by the State or community which the program serves. Programs that have proved themselves in practice could be continued with the use of the Federal funds provided. Indeed many current categorical programs probably would continue and expand in response to local needs once arbitrary Federal restrictions were removed. On the other hand, programs whose claims of effectiveness are not borne out by their record of performance deserve to be replaced by others more responsive to community needs. Vesting the program authority in governments close to the people will make it harder for programs to coast along on their momentum from year to year, and easier to tailor manpower assistance to on-the-scene realities. In summary, manpower reform legislation is needed to give more effective employment-related assistance to those who need it, and to give Americans full return for their tax dollars spent on manpower development in the years ahead--full return in the form of unemployment brought down and kept down, and in the form of new income and achievement opportunities for millions of deserving men and women. Enclosure No. 1 |