Mr. FOGARTY. Is there anything else you want to say, gentlemen? Very well, thank you, gentlemen.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1964.

OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

WITNESSES

OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

R. SARGENT SHRIVER, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT JACK T. CONWAY, COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM

JOHN W. CARLEY, JOB CORPS

GLENN W. FERGUSON, VISTA

WILLIAM P. KELLY, MANAGEMENT

CHRISTOPHER WEEKS, PROGRAM

WILLIAM T. WOLFREY, BUDGET

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

HOWARD BERTSCH, ADMINISTRATOR, FARMERS HOME ADMINISTRATION

CLARE HENDEE, DEPUTY CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

FRANCIS KEPPEL, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

JOHN HUGHES, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, OFFICE OF EDUCATION ELLEN WINSTON, COMMISSIONER OF WELFARE

JAMES F. KELLY, COMPTROLLER, HEW

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

DWIGHT F. RETTIE, STAFF ASSISTANT, OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF INTERIOR

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

JACK HOWARD, ASSISTANT TO UNDERSECRETARY OF LABOR SAMUEL GANZ, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION

Mr. FOGARTY. Mr. Shriver, I believe you are the next witness.

Before this subcommittee, we generally ask the principal witness to identify himself if he has not been before the subcommittee previously, but I think everyone on this committee knows who you are and if they do not, they certainly should.

Now that you have been eliminated as a prospect for Vice President, I assume that you can speak very freely.

Mr. SHRIVER. I always speak as frankly as I can.

With me, Mr. Chairman, on my left is Christopher Weeks who is an employee of the Bureau of the Budget on loan to the special task force to consider the appropriations and legislation on the poverty

program.

On the other side is William P. Kelly, on loan from the Agency for International Development on reimbursable detail to the same task force.

Also in the room this morning we have a number of people from various departments of the Federal Government and agencies who have participated in the formulation of different parts of this program and who are ready to answer questions concerning details of various sections of the program.

BUDGET REQUEST AND PROPOSED ACTION THEREON

Mr. FOGARTY. The request for this program is $947.5 million and this is contained in House Document 337. The request was sent by the President to the Speaker of the House the day before yesterday. We plan to run as late as necessary today to complete the hearing. We have a meeting of the full Committee on Appropriations next Tuesday to consider it and hope to complete all congressional action on it before the end of the week.

We shall place the house document to which I refer in the record at this point and you may proceed with your statement. (The document follows:)

[H. Doc. 337, 88th Cong., 2d sess.]

COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING A PROPOSED APPROPRIATION FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1965 IN THE AMOUNT OF $947,500,000 TO FINANCE THE PROGRAMS AUTHORIZED BY THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1964

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, August 11, 1964.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith for the consideration of the Congress a proposed appropriation for the fiscal year 1965 in the amount of $947,500,000 to support activities authorized by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

In my state of the Union message to Congress in January, I called upon the Congress and all Americans to join with me in an unconditional war on poverty in America. This cause has won the support of community leaders, mayors, Governors, educators, and businessmen throughout America. Now the Congress has given its approval by the enactment of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. We must mobilize all of our resources in this struggle for equal opportunity for all Americans. We must harness and utilize local effort, enthusiasm, and resources. For this is an American program designed to help people held themselves. It is a prudent program which has been included in full in my budget for fiscal year 1965. It is a program designed to help create a better America from which all of us will benefit.

The details of this proposed appropriation are set forth in the attached letter from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, with whose comments and observations thereon I concur. I urge the Congress to take prompt action on this

request.

Respectfully yours,

LYNDON B. JOHNSON.

THE PRESIDENT,

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C., August 11, 1964.

The White House.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith for your consideration a proposed appropriation for the fiscal year 1965 in the amount of $947,500,000 to finance the programs authorized by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

"EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

"OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

"ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM

“For expenses necessary to carry out the provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (Public Law 88 · approved August 1964), $947,500,000, of which $412,500,000, plus reimbursements, shall be available for youth programs under title I; $300,000,000 for community action programs under title II; $35,000,000 for special programs to combat poverty in rural areas under title III, part A (which shall be available for transfer to the economic opportunity fund and shall remain available until expended); $150,000,000 for work experience programs under title V; and $50,000,000 for (1) adult basic education programs under title II, (2) volunteer programs under section 603, (3) expenses of administration and coordination of antipoverty programs under title VI, and (4) migrant agricultural employees programs under title III, part B (including transfers to the economic opportunity fund for loans under section 311, and amounts so transferred shall, remain available until expended): Provided, That this appropriation shall be available for the purchase and hire of passenger motor vehicles, and for construction, alteration, and repair of buildings and other facilities, as authorized by section 601 of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: Provided further, That this appropriation shall not be available for contracts under titles I, II, V, and VI extending for more than twenty-four months."

This appropriation will provide funds to implement the various programs authorized by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. These programs include: Job Corps.-Work, education, and vocational training experience in conservation camps and training centers will be provided for approximately 40,000 youths age 16-21 who have dropped out of school and are unable to function effectively in their present environment.

Work training.-Work and vocational training opportunities will be provided for approximately 200,000 youths who can successfully remain in their home communities but who need such work or training in order to remain in school or to prepare for productive employment.

Work study. This program will provide part-time and summer employment for approximately 140,000 low-income college and graduate students who otherwise would not be able to begin or to continue a program of higher education. Community action.-Technical assistance and financial resources will be made available to local organizations for the development and implementation of comprehensive community action programs which will combine existing and new Federal, State, and local programs into a coordinated attack on the problems of poverty.

Special rural programs.-Loans will be made to poverty-stricken small farmers to enable them to improve their farms and to inaugurate nonagricultural enterprises which will supplement their farm income. Loans will also be made to support cooperatives which serve low-income farmers.

Work experience.-Programs of work and training for unemployed parents of dependent children will be expanded in the States now conducting such programs and will be inaugurated on a project basis in communities in other parts of the country. The programs will be designed to enable over 200,000 participants to prepare for regular permanent employment and hence to become selfsupporting members of American society.

Volunteers in service to America.-This new program will provide an opportunity for volunteers to serve in the vanguard of the war on poverty. It is anticipated that 5,000 persons will enlist in VISTA during this first year. Adult literacy.-Grants will be made to the States to finance programs of instruction for adults whose inability to read and write the English language constitutes a substantial impairment of their ability to secure employment commensurate with their capabilities.

Migrant workers.-Loans and grants will be made to support programs of housing, sanitation, education, and child care for migrant agricultural workers and their families.

36-723-64-pt. 1-21

General administration.-The Office of Economic Opportunity will be created within the Executive Office of the President to administer or supervise the new programs authorized by the Economic Opportunity Act and to coordinate all of the poverty-related programs of the Federal Government.

The amount requested herein, when added to amounts previously requested, will not raise total requests above the totals proposed in the 1965 budget. I recommend the transmission of this appropriation request to the Congress in the amount specified.

Respectfully yours,

KERMIT GORDON, Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Mr. LAIRD. Mr. Chairman, I wonder why one of the chief architects of this program, Adam Yarmolinsky is not here. I thought he would be here to help answer questions.

Mr. SHRIVER. I would like to have had him here but he is attending another meeting and is unavailable. He had to go to that meeting. As you know, he is on loan to this program from the Department of Defense, just as these men seated on either side of me, and some in the room, are on loan from other departments. He is carrying on a mission this morning which was assigned to him by the DOD.

Mr. FOGARTY. After you complete your statement, Mr. Shriver, I have three or four allegations about the program I would ask you to comment on to complete the record.

You go on and take as much time as you want.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. SHRIVER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

Congress has authorized the opening of the war on poverty and appropriations of $947.5 million to fight this war in fiscal year 1965. I appear before you today to discuss three points in connection with our request for funds:

(1) The efforts which have gone into the preparation of our request for funds:

(2) Why the antipoverty program needs the full amount of funds authorized and requested; and

(3) The low overhead nature of this program.

DEVELOPMENT OF ESTIMATES

First, we are requesting funds for antipoverty programs which were developed by the best men we could find in America, both in and out of Government, irrespective of party. The President asked these men to come to Washington from business, labor, our great universities, from our State, city and county governments, and from experienced voluntary agencies already working against poverty. They have served as part of the President's task force, side by side with top men from the Federal Departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture, Health, Education, and Welfare, and Justice, and from the Small Business Administration. These men have worked intensively in preparation and review of the budget estimates which are now before this subcommittee.

Sums requested for programs to be delegated to one of the departments are the product of coordinated efforts of personnel of that agency and the task force. In each case the pertinent department strenuously supports the request for funds.

Each part of every program has been scrutinized to cut out duplication and waste. The funds requested will be used to establish needed new programs such as the Job Corps, work-training and work-study programs, community action programs, adult basic education programs and the VISTA volunteers program. In certain cases the funds will be used to broaden existing pilot programs which have proved their worth; for example, the loan programs of the Farmers Home Administration and the work-experience program of the Bureau of Family Services of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Each of these programs is sound; each is practical. Each will meet a proven need.

Let me turn now to our request for the appropriation for fiscal year 1965. The budget estimate of the Executive Office of the President is $947.5 million. This is the amount authorized in the bill recently passed by the House and the Senate. This is the amount which we need if we are to achieve the objectives set by the Congress. First, we must make a meaningful start in the war to eliminate poverty. Second, we must accumulate evidence in operating each phase of every program so that next year Congress may determine which programs are to be emphasized and whether improvements may be needed. To do this we must begin immediately with the full budget which is before

you.

From last March when President Johnson sent this bill to the Congress, we have planned for operations beginning September 1. We have continually reviewed these plans and are prepared to go ahead on that schedule. To meet our goals we need and will obligate every single dollar authorized and included in these budget estimates.

OVERHEAD

Lastly, I wish to emphasize that this is a low overhead program. It is a "Robert Hall" program which will be operated from "plain pipe racks." There will be no giant Federal bureaucracy for this program. Major development and administrative tasks are to be carried out at the local and State levels and not by the Federal Government.

In the Office of Economic Opportunity, estimates of administrative costs come to a mere six-tenths of 1 percent of the total operating budget. For all of the antipoverty programs authorized by the bill, total overhead is approximately 312 percent. These figures, I believe, compare favorably with any existing Federal program and reflect my convictions that this program must rely on local initiative and manpower, and not on a massive central bureaucracy.

Of course, we ask that you act on our request as promptly as possible and we are grateful to you for this opportunity to testify on its behalf.

Thank you very much.

Mr. FORARTY. As I said, we expect to go to the full committee on next Tuesday and have it on the floor next week. That is acting just. about as quickly as any committee can act under our rules.

ARGUMENTS USED BY PROGRAM OPPONENTS

As I believe you know, there has been some opposition to this legislation in the Congress so I assume there will be some opposition to this appropriation. Before we get into specifics, I think you should have an opportunity, and I think without interruption, to give your best answer to some of the criticisms that have been leveled at this program.