Senator CLARK. In other words, if we are going to expand it, let's get it into all of the areas?

Mr. HOLVOET. Yes.

Senator CLARK. We have a comment back here.

Mr. GILBERT. We have had about four people from the area working on the pesticide program. You are right, and this is what we are trying to do. That is how the project got started.

STATEMENT OF ROGER BLOBAUM, SOUTHERN IOWA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS, CRESTON, IOWA

Mr. BLOBAUM. Roger Blobaum.

Mr. Chairman, I am from area 14 to the west and am here on behalf of the Southern Iowa Council of Governments. We sponsor a number of aging programs. I have a statement that I would like to submit for the record.

In terms of the rural aspects of these programs, 77 percent of our elderly live in small towns or rural areas, and more than one-third are below the poverty line.

Senator CLARK. More than a third.

Mr. BLOBAUM. In addition, 25 percent of the people in our seven counties are 60 years of age or older one out of four.

We have a fairly extensive program, but one of the difficulties is the ability, as one of the previous witnesses pointed out, of being sure that the needed funding is available. As we come to the end of each year, we have to scramble around trying to put together enough local money, State money, and Federal money to try to keep our programing level going, at least at its present level, for another year. Programs in rural areas like this are more expensive. With our transportation program, for example, the vans have to travel a lot more distance. The meal preparation at our 12 meal sites has to be done on site-it cannot be done at a central place or catered in.

NEED FOR SPECIAL ALLOCATION

I was asked by our board and our aging agency to come over and make these points and to suggest that there should be some kind of special allocation, or a different kind of allocation, to make it possible to get more money into areas like ours that have a lot of low-income people, a high proportion of rural people, and a very high proportion of people over the age of 60.

Senator CLARK. Well, fine, Roger. I am pleased to have your statement so it can be made a part of the record. I do want to say that I think we do have a fairly good chance of maintaining most of these programs in terms of continuity. I know that if they were authorized for 5 years, 10 years, or so forth, you would be more assured of it. For example, title IX that we have been talking about, we increased this year from $50 million to $90 million. We almost doubled it. Now other programs were not that fortunate, but I really do believe that the interest that older people have had in the organizations that they put together and the kind of things we heard from the first panel has really brought an awareness to the Congress and, I think, to

the Presidency, so that it is given a high priority. It is very doubtful to me that the Congress is going to back off these programs.

I know that is not absolute assurance, but I think it would be very unlikely, because associations, groups, clubs, and centers have organized very effectively for political action.

Mr. BLOBAUM. There is a tendency under those programs, as you know, to get more of the financing taken care of at the local level. Senator CLARK. Yes; particularly the transportation we were talking about.

Mr. BLOBAUM. Yes; boards of supervisors putting in more money; also the city councils. The aging people are raising a lot of money themselves in our area. But even so, every year we are in a really bad pinch to try to line up the money needed to get the program laid out for the next year.

Senator CLARK. Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Blobaum follows:]

STATEMENT OF ROGER BLOBAUM, OTTUMWA, IOWA

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to appear at this hearing as a representative of the Southern Iowa Council of Governments, the sponsoring agency for the area XIV agency on aging.

The local governments in our seven-county area give a high priority to this agency, established in 1973 to make a wide range of services available to the 24.9 percent of the people 60 years of age and older. This percentage of elderly is the highest served by an aging agency in Iowa.

Figures compiled by the Iowa Commission on Aging show that 77.5 percent of the elderly in our area are rural residents, by far the highest percentage of rural elderly in any area in Iowa. More than one-third of the people over 60 have incomes below the poverty level and many of the elderly, particularly those with low incomes, are widows living alone.

Deciding priorities and most of the policymaking is done by the senior citizens themselves and finalized in recommendations to the council of governments from the area aging advisory council. We are the grantee organization and have final responsibility for the agency and its programs.

The agency's first effort was the nutrition program, which the elderly in the area consistently place at the top of the priority list, and we have added others as funding became available. Our services now include congregate and homedelivered meals in 12 towns and cities, an area wide 5-days-a-week rural transportation system, handyman and homemaker programs, home weatherization, information and referral services, and an outreach program.

Our agency has working arrangements with several cooperators, including the two community action agencies serving the area. Others providing assistance include the department of social services, Midcrest Extension, the Southwest Iowa Sheltered Workshop, social security, and Southwestern Community and Graceland Colleges.

The programs authorized by the Older Americans Act meet genuine needs of elderly people. This is important because the senior citizens in our area are proud and fiercely independent and would rather be self-reliant than utilize most government programs. The aging programs have a good public image in our area, most of our senior citizens accept them, and we feel they make sense. Our main concern as local sponsors is coming up with the money needed to maintain the programs we have. Sufficient funding was provided the first year when the allocations took into consideration the high percentage of elderly and low-income people in the area.

In the second year, however, the method of allocating Federal funds was put on a 60-plus population basis. The result was a 50 percent cut in title III funds for the period beginning in February 1975, and a 27 percent reduction in title VII funds for the period beginning in October of the same year.

Part of this deficit was covered when the legislature, for the first time, provided direct assistance to aging agencies. A substantial amount of money also

!

was raised locally. In the nutrition program, for example, 35 percent of the money came from county boards of supervisors and contributions received from the senior citizens themselves at the meal sites.

STATE COMMISSION SUPPLEMENTAL GRANT

For the coming fiscal year, we were able to fund current programs only because the agency obtained a supplemental grant of $40,000 from the State Commission on Aging, because meal site contributions again were greater than anticipated, and because larger quantities of commodity foods are available. What we are suggesting is that programs for the elderly in rural areas require a stable, long-term Federal funding commitment. Once begun, these programs become very important in the lives of those who use them and their continuation should not be left in doubt at the end of each year. Once elderly people begin counting on the congregate site for their noon meal, or the vans to take them shopping or get them to the clinic, everything possible should be done to maintain these services.

Although we are grateful to the Iowa Legislature for starting direct assistance to area aging agencies, this funding cannot be relied on as a basic level of sup port. The $15,165 in administrative funds and $42,438 for congregate meals received from the initial funding saved this year's aging program in our area. But the legislature appropriated less money this past session and only $12,250, rather than $57,603, is available to our agency from this source for the year beginning October 1.

We have no choice, therefore, but to continue to look to Congress for basic funding for these programs. Further reductions in Federal support, combined at any point with discontinuation of State funding, would force our agency to make drastic cutbacks in some programs and to drop others.

Beyond the need to maintain present programs, there are many unmet needs. They include opening two additional meal sites to provide complete area wide coverage, upgrading several sites from the present three meals a week to five, providing more home-delivered meals, and providing more homemaker, home repair and other services that help older people remain in their own homes. There also is interest in programs involving health care and legal aid services and we would like to do more to stimulate construction of low-cost housing for the elderly. We urge the committee to look into the possibility of making additional funding available to areas with a high proportion of low-income, rural elderly. This could be done by changing the present allocation formula, by special allocations, or by earmarking funds for rural aging agencies. A specific suggestion would be making agencies in economic development districts eligible for higher funding levels.

This special consideration is justified by lack of local services and financial resources in low-income rural areas with a high percentage of elderly people and the fact that programs in rural areas are by necessity more costly. The need for on-site meal preparation in the nutrition program and the long distances traveled daily by vans in the transportation system are just two examples.

Another important point, particularly in rural areas, is that services are quite limited, or not available at all, for people regardless of income. Many services simply do not exist in many rural counties. A large number of southern Iowa towns do not have mass transportation, dentists, doctors, low-cost housing, restaurants, and grocery stores. These services typically are available in urban

areas.

We also would like to call your attention to a problem that has developed as a result of passage of the Joint Funding Simplification Act. We are aware of this because we are involved in funding simplification as the Nation's first rural IGA (Integrated Grant Administration) area. We have seen how well this approach can work, for example, in the way several Federal agencies have gone together to fund our area wide rural water system.

The problem is that HEW, and specifically the Administration on Aging, has insisted on writing a provision into the Older Americans Act to keep its funds from being integrated in areawide governmental units like ours. This creates administrative problems for our staff and we feel it is against the intent of joint funding.

We have been able to cut administrative costs and provide more services in our area by integrating all available Federal, State, and local resources. We would arge you to support the joint funding approach to all rural programs and to oppose the effort by the Administration on Aging to write itself out of the funding simplification legislation.

In closing, we would like to mention one additional problem that is not new where government programs are concerned. That is the problem of too much paperwork. We have the professional staff capability to submit the large amounts of paperwork necessary to bring services to the elderly in our area. But we also have highly competent people, both staff and policymakers, who could be delegated much more authority and responsibility. We feel the staff time involved could be much better spent in direct services to the elderly than in paperwork and would suggest a review of the Federal requirements for detailed plans, reports, and records.

Senator CLARK. I want to call on Jim Murphy, since we are talking about employment programs, because I know that he is with the Iowa Farmers' Union and they have had the Green Thumb program. Could you give us a little bit about what that has done in employment and what you know of it?

STATEMENT OF JIM MURPHY, IOWA FARMERS UNION, GREEN THUMB PROGRAM, DES MOINES, IOWA

Mr. MURPHY. The National Farmers Union is a Department of Labor contractor for the Green Thumb program. This program is 11 years old and is being funded now by Congress to work in Iowa for the first time. We have the money for 49 part-time jobs for people 55 years old and older. We are going to have 15 of these jobs here in Wapello County.

I will be working with your area agency on aging people for these positions. We can provide the wages for workers 212 days a week to help with winterizing poor people's homes or to help with public projects-work on parks and recreation areas.

Fifteen in Wapello County are about a third of the 49 new positions that Iowa has for this fiscal year. If we can make it a successful program with the older workers, Congress may extend and expand the program in the future.

I believe I should now ask for questions.

Senator CLARK. Any questions about Green Thumb?

Mr. HOLVOET. Yes. Again, on this particular point, we were to be able to solicit some comments from the State and we have not heard anything since then, but we are going to have 15 in area 15 already, so you know there is a communication thing here.

Senator CLARK. Between the State?

Mr. HOLVOET. Between the State commission.

Senator CLARK. State commission on aging?

Mr. HOLVOET. Yes. So I would like to have him address himself to that. I am wondering if our area-area 15-is going to have any of these slots.

Senator CLARK. Do you know the answer to that offhand?

Mr. MURPHY. I believe I do, Senator Clark. I have written to Mrs. Ryan, the director of area 15, agency on aging, and I have her reply when she acknowledges the 15 jobs, and she sent me her suggestions of what areas they should be working.

GREEN THUMB PROGRAM

Now I intend to meet with Mrs. Ryan at her convenience to work on these jobs. This is a federally funded Green Thumb program sponsored by the National Farmers Union. This is not the Green Thumb program that works with the State conservation commission funded by the Iowa Legislature.

Mr. HOLVOET. That is fine, but how many agencies did you contact and talk with?

Mr. MURPHY. We contacted the area agencies where we have jobs available. With only 49 positions available, we want to concentrate them where they can be effective, probably 15 jobs at each county. I think if we tried to cover the entire State, we would have one person in every other county.

Mr. HOLVOET. The point I am trying to make is that it is not systematic. Everyone was not given the chance to make comments on this. Mr. MURPHY. Yes, you are right, but by selecting Wapello County, I left out 97 others.

Senator CLARK, Mr. Gilbert.

Mr. GILBERT. I would like to address this question to you. This Green Thumb Farmers Union has a title IX project. Now, the Older Americans Act here in Iowa-why would they put out duplication of service to start duplicate administration when this is actually duplication of our programing?

Senator CLARK. I think under the new title IX authorization and appropriation, it is administered at a national level. I mean, it is not a separate program.

Mr. GILBERT. This is what I cannot understand, though. Green Thumb is one of the five contractors for title IX, so why would they move Green Thumb into Iowa when they are so heavy in Minnesota, and the Dakotas?

Senator CLARK. I think that a part of the great increase in funding, from $50 million to $90 million; a part of that increase went to Green Thumb. So obviously they are trying to go out and find additional slots as well.

Could you speak on that?

Mr. MURPHY. I think that is the major reason. The other is that Green Thumb workers on the project are restricted to rural areas. This is an attempt to expand work and find work for older people who are out of work in rural areas.

Mr. GILBERT. Do you generally work in crews on your program?
Mr. MURPHY. That is what we hope to do.

Senator CLARK. We have time for a couple more.

STATEMENT OF EDNA MORRIS, STOCKPORT, IOWA

Mrs. MORRIS. I have a comment to make. We have not talked much about the hundreds of congregate meals today. I am Edna Morris from Van Buren County in which a study was made with the senior citizen group. We found that congregate meals are quite effective, and we did have some very good interviews. They were planned. There was

1 See report, appendix 3, p. 141.