this section. Special advisory and technical experts and consultants appointed pursuant to this subsection shall, while performing their functions under this section, be entitled to receive compensation at rates fixed by the Secretary, but not exceeding the daily pay rate, for a person employed as a GS-18 under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code, including traveltime and while so serving away from their homes or regular places of business they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence as authorized by section 5703 of such title 5 for persons in the Government service employed intermittently. (g) The Board shall, at the end of each fiscal year, report its activities under subsection (b) during the preceding year to the Congress. Such report shall include an assessment of the extent of compliance with the Acts cited in subsection (b) of this section, along with a description and analysis of investigations made and actions taken by the Board, and the reports and recommendations described in clauses (4) and (5) of subsection (b) of this section. The Board shall prepare two final reports of its activities under subsection (c). One such report shall be on its activities in the field of transportation carriers of handicapped individuals, and the other such report shall be on its activities in the field of the housing needs of handicapped individuals. The Board shall, prior to January 1, 1975, submit each such report, together with its recommendations to the President and the Congress. The Board shall also prepare for such submission an interim report of its activities in each such field within eighteen months after the date of enactment of this Act.

(h) There is authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the duties and functions of the Board under this section such sums as may be necessary for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1974, and June 30, 1975.

EMPLOYMENT UNDER FEDERAL CONTRACTS

SEC. 502. (a) Any contract in excess of $2,500 entered into by any Federal department or agency for the procurement of personal property and nonpersonal services (including construction) for the United States shall contain a provision requiring that, in employing persons to carry out such contract the party contracting with the United States shall take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified handicapped individuals as defined in section 7(7). The provisions of this section shall apply to any subcontract in excess of $2,500 entered into by a prime contractor in carrying out any contract for the procurement of personal property and nonpersonal services (including consrtuction) for the United States. The President shall implement the provisions of this section by promulgating regulations within ninety days after the date of enactment of this section.

(b) If any handicapped individual believes any contractor has failed or refuses to comply with the provisions of his contract with the United States, relating to employment of handicapped individuals, such individual may file a complaint with the Department of Labor. The Department shall promptly investigate such complaint and shall take such action thereon as the facts and circumstances warrant consistent with the terms of such contract and the laws and regulations applicable thereto.

(c) The requirements of this section may be waived, in whole or in part, by the President with respect to a particular contract or subcontract, in accordance with guidelines set forth in regulations which he shall prescribe, when he determines that special circumstances in the national interest so require and states in writing his reasons for such determination.

NONDISCRIMINATION UNDER FEDERAL GRANTS

SEC. 503. No otherwise qualiged handicapped individual in the United States, as defined in section 7(7), shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Mr. BRADEMAS. The Select Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor will come to order for the purpose of conducting an oversight hearing into the present status, and the future directions, of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), and, in particular the vocational rehabilitation program which is under the jurisdiction of RSA.

The Chair wants to observe that the 52-year-old rehabilitation program, which has been almost universally acclaimed as one of the most successful Federal-State cooperative endeavors, has found itself in a state of limbo in the past few years. In this regard the Chair recalls that the Vocational Rehabilitation Act was to expire on July 30, 1971. and several members of this committee, including myself, wanted to extend and amend the act.

The administration, however, was unable to make its recommendations to the Congress in time for us to act, so in an effort to be accommodating to the administration the Congress approved a simple 1-year extension of the program in order to give the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare further time to develop proposals and have them approved by the Office of Management and Budget.

Early in 1972, however, Congress still had not received any recommendations from the administration with regard to amending the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and the members of this committee, as well as the members of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee in the other body, decided that the time had come to improve this pro

gram.

Not until March 17, 1972, did the administration submit its proposals for extending and amending the Vocational Rehabilitation Act-almost a full month after H.R. 8395, the Rehabilitation Act of 1972, had been reported from the Committee on Education and Labor. The Chair thinks he can say, in all candor, that the members of this committee, on both sides of the aisle, tried to work in a bipartisan, cooperative fashion with the senior officials at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as the Rehabilitation Act of 1972 moved through the Senate and we continued that cooperation as well during the conference on this legislation. Evidence of our success was the unanimous vote of approval which the conference report received in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Chairman believes, therefore, that he can safely assert that most of us were surprised, not to say absolutely astonished, when the President vetoed that measure after Congress went into recess last October and could not, as a result, vote to override. We all know, as well, that a compromise measure, subsequently approved by Congress, was also vetoed by the President, and the Senate voted to sustain that Presidential veto.

Now we find that the President's proposed 1974 budget would allow less than a 2-percent increase in the basic grant program for vocational rehabilitation and would, indeed, virtually dismantle the Federal role in research and training in the area of rehabilitation.

Let the Chair here point out that he does not recite this dismal litany for any partisan purpose for he is pleased that the rehabilitation program has always enjoyed at least on the part of the members of this committee and in the House and in the Senate-broad bipartisan sunnort.

The Chair raises these issues only to illustrate his own concern that these developments may have had profound effects on the administration of this highly successful program. So we have asked several administration witnesses to meet with us today so that we might engage in a little colloquy as to the state of the rehabilitation program in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the future plans of the Department for the program.

We are very pleased to have with us today Mr. William Morrill, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; Mr. James Dwight, Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service; Mr. Corbett Reedy, Acting Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration; and Mr. Frank E. Samuel, Jr., the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Liaison.

Gentlemen, we are very pleased to have you with us. Since this is the first time, as I recall, that any of you have testified before this subcommittee in the official positions that you presently hold, the Chair wonders if you would be kind enough to give the subcommittee a brief rundown of your professional background and experience and then we will be pleased to hear your statement.

Who wishes to lead off?

STATEMENT OF JAMES S. DWIGHT, JR., ADMINISTRATOR, SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICE, ACCOMPANIED BY WILLIAM A. MORRILL, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR PLANNING AND EVALUATION; CORBETT REEDY, ACTING COMMISSIONER, REHABILITATION SERVICES ADMINISTRATION; AND FRANK E. SAMUEL, JR., DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CONGRESSIONAL LIAISON Mr. DWIGHT. I would like to present, Mr. Chairman, a prepared statement to you.

[The prepared statement follows:]

STATEMENT OF JAMES S. DWIGHT, JR., ADMINISTRATOR, SOCIAL AND

REHABILITATION SERVICE

I am very pleased to respond to your request, Mr. Chairman, to discuss the Vocational Rehabilitation program. I am particularly happy to have this opportunity to meet with your subcommittee so soon after my June 15 confirmation as Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service. I am aware of your sustained interest in the VR program over the years, and I look forward to working with you and the subcommittee to strengthen and improve this most important program.

I would like to state at the outset my strong belief in the goals and activities of the rehabilitation program. It is one of the oldest and certainly one of the most successful of the Federal human resources programs. Vocational rehabilitation has consistently enjoyed strong Presidential and public support for its valuable contributions to this Country. In my role as Administrator of SRS, I will work closely with the Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation to continue this long pattern of service to our vulnerable handicapped citizens.

I am pleased that extension of the VR legislation is nearing completion in a conference between Members of the House and Senate. We are hopeful that the new legislation will represent a basis for continued delivery of vocational rehabilitation services consistent with the success of this program over the last 53 years.

The subcommittee may be interested in the objectives that we have recently set for vocational rehabilitation. HEW operates under an operational planning system. Rehabilitation objectives set for 1974 will concentrate more program attention on services for the severely disabled and disabled public assistance recipients.

In addition, under the HEW long-range planning process, possible longer-term future directions are being continuously explored. During the next two to three years the VR program will, of course, be governed by the legislation which you are now discussing in conference. Any HEW recommendations for long-range changes would be developed for presentation to the Congress so that a joint discussion between the executive and the legislative may reach accord on future direction.

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My education was at the University of Southern California and I am a certified public accountant.

I am very acutely aware of this sustained interest in the program which this committee has had and I wish to state very clearly my strong belief in the goals and objectives of the rehabilitation program. As you pointed out, this program is one of the oldest Federal programs and I believe one of the most successful of the Federal human resource programs. The program has consistently enjoyed support from the public and from the President for its valuable contribu

tions.

In my role as Administrator I will work very closely with the Commissioner of Rehabilitation and continue this long pattern of service to our vulnerable handicapped citizens.

I am very pleased that the continuation legislation which you referred to earlier seems to be nearing completion in the conference between the Members of the House and Senate and I am hopeful that this new legislation will present a basis for the continued success of this program consistent with its record of success over the last 53 years.

The subcommittee may be interested in some of the things which I am aware of in terms of recent happenings, if you will, in the administration of the current vocational rehabilitation program. Mr. Chairman, you may be aware that the Department of HEW uses an operational planning system for the management of programs and during the development of those objectives which we have recently concluded for the fiscal year just commencing we have determined to add to our specifically stated objectives a greater emphasis on services to the severely disabled.

In addition, in HEW we have a long-range plannnig process where we consider possible longer term directions, and this is under cost and exploration. During the next 2 to 3 years of course the program will be governed by legislation which you referred to earlier, Mr. Chairman. Any recommendations that we are able to develop under our long-range planning exercise will serve as a basis for the administration to bring recommendations to the Congress so that the dialogue between the executive and the legislative branches can go forward.

We are also initiating a much closer association with the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs so that the resources of the Department in the health and medical components can be brought to bear more closely on the rehabilitation program and so that the benefit of that body's thought as it relates to health policy can be more closely coordinated with the program.

In closing this very brief statement I would like to reiterate my very sincere commitment to the vocational rehabilitation program and to the Rehabilitation Services Administration. We are hopeful that our present efforts to recruit a permanent Commissioner will fairly shortly bear fruit. However, in the meantime we are very privileged to have Mr. Corbett Reedy acting as the Commissioner.

With that statement I would be very pleased and my colleagues would be very pleased to answer any questions that you may have to pose to us this morning.

Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you very much, Mr. Dwight.

Just following that last observation, Mr. Dwight, how long have you been in your present position?