The Secretary shall provide by regulation for procedures to assure that registration under clause (3) above shall occur upon presentation of the jobseeker to the Job Guarantee Office unless a placement process is begun under clause (1) or (2) above which presents a high probability of success within five days.

(g) For the purposes of this Act, any jobseeker who presents himself or herself in person at the Full Employment Office shall be considered prima facie "willing and able" to work. This specifically includes persons with impairments of sight, hearing, movement, coordination, mental retardation, or other handicaps. This subsection shall be implemented by the Job Guarantee Officer, pursuant to regulations issued by the Secretary. Such regulations shall provide for

(1) an initial determination by the Job Guarantee Officer as to the jobseeker's ability to work;

(2) compliance with section 703 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; (3) such administrative appeal procedures as may be appropriate to review such determination where adverse to the jobseeker;

(4) termination of such appeal procedures within thirty days; and

(5) placement of such jobseeker on the payroll of the Standby Job Corps pending such appeal or any judicial review thereof.

(h) The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction of any action brought seeking relief pursuant to this Act, including injunctive, declaratory, and other forms of relief as well as damages. Any person deprived of rights secured by this Act shall be entitled in an action brought against the United States to recover damages, together with costs and attorney's fees.

STANDBY JOB CORPS

SEC. 6. (a) There is hereby established a Standby Job Corps which shall consist of jobseekers registered pursuant to clause 5(f) (3) above. Such Corps shall be available for public service work upon projects and activities that are approved as a part of community public service work reservoirs established by community boards pursuant to section 4 (c) ( (2).

(b) The Secretary, by regulation, shall provide for—

(1) a requirement that jobseekers registered in the Standby Job Corps (hereafter called Corps members) maintains a status of good standing, which status shall include attendance and performance standards; (2) a system of compensation for Corps members which shall:

(A) provide that Corps members shall receive a monthly rated sum based upon their employment at a suitable and comparable job (as defined pursuant to paragraph (B) below);

(B) contain a definition of a "suitable and comparable job" which shall take into account, among other factors, the following:

(i) No Corps member shall be paid less than the minimum wage in effect in the area; and

(ii) Corps members shall receive compensation (a) that bears a positive relationship to their qualifications, experience, and training; and (b) that is such that will effectively encourage them (from an economic standpoint) to advance from the Corps to other employment;

(3) the fullest possible planning and operational control of the local Standby Job Corps program at the community and neighborhood level (consistent with 4(c) (1) (B) above);

(4) full and effective prohibition of (A) discrimination on grounds of sex, age, race, color, religion, or national origin and (B) improper political activity;

(5) reasonable oversight and reporting in respect to projects utilizing Corps members; and

(6) assurance that no activities undertaken pursuant to this subsection shall adversely affect prevailing wage rates in the area.

CONGRESSIONAL JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

SEC. 7. (a) In addition to its responsibilities under the Employment Act of 1946, as amended (15 U.S.C. 1022), the Joint Economic Committee shall

(1) annually review the activities of the executive branch under all sections of this Act;

(2) regularly conduct on its own behalf, or in cooperation with or through the facilities of the appropriate legislative committees or subcommittees of the Senate and the House, public hearings in as many labor market areas as feasible, with special emphasis on opportunities for hearing petitions and complaints by individuals and groups who feel that they have been denied their rights to employment opportunities or have been injured directly or indirectly by policies and programs designed to guarantee the exercise of rights; and

(3) annually report upon, with its own conclusions and recommendations, the development and administration of the policies and programs mandated by this Act.

(b) (1) In addition to its responsibilities under subsection (a), the Joint Economic Committee shall, within thirty days of the submission of the biyearly full employment and production program as required pursuant to subsection 3 (a) — (A) review such program and suggest whatever modifications the committee deems advisable;

(B) submit such modified program to the respective Houses of the Congress, together with the committee's comments on all parts thereof, including a justification for all modifications made in the program as submitted by the executive;

(C) submit a recommendation to both Houses of the Congress as to the sums needed to be appropriated to finance such program as submitted pursuant to clause (B) above (hereafter called the employment deficit recommendation).

(2) The full employment and production program, as modified pursuant to paragraph (1) above and as submitted pursuant to clause (b) (1) (B) above, and the employment deficit recommendation submitted pursuant to clause (b) (1) (C) above shall be forthwith referred to the Appropriations Committee of the respective Houses for a period of thirty days. Said committees shall (1) recommend appropriations consistent with the employment deficit recommendation and (2) make such other recommendations as they deem advisable.

(3) At any time after the expiration of the thirty days specified in paragraph (2) above it shall be a highly privileged motion in both Houses of the Congress that may be made by a Member of either body for the immediate consideration of the employment deficit recommendation of the Joint Economic Committee submitted pursuant to clause (b) (1) (C) above as a joint resolution of the respective body appropriating the sums specified in the employment deficit recommendation.

(4) After the making of the motion specified in paragraph (3) above, it shall immediately be in order to consider the recommendations made by the Appropriations Committee pursuant to paragraph (2) above.

(5) Three legislative days after the making of the motion specified in paragraph (3) above, there shall be upon motion made no further debate, amendments, or other proceedings in regard to the employment deficit recommendation and a vote on all pending amendments and final passage shall be ordered forthwith.

STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATIONS

SEC. 8. (a) The Congress hereby recognizes that (1) the full objectives of this Act cannot be attained immediately upon its enactment, (2) considerable time will be needed to develop the Full Employment and Production Program, the research work under the National Institute for Full Employment, the local planning councils, the community boards, the Community Public Service Work Reservoirs, the Standby Jobs Corps, the Reservoirs of Public Service and Private Employment Projects, the United States Full Employment Service, the Job Guarantee Offices, and the additional responsibilities of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and (3) the implementation of the Act therefore must be accomplished in a series of stages.

(b) The President is authorized and directed to provide, by regulation, guidelines, and otherwise, for the full implementation of this Act by the end of the fifth calendar year after its enactment. at which time the provisions of subsections 5 (g) and (h) shall enter into effect. This subsection shall not be construed to prevent the President from effecting full implementation of this Act by an earlier date, including the provision of the entering into effect of subsections 5 (g) and (h) by such earlier date.

(c) It is the policy of the Federal Government that the full objectives of this Act be attained no later than the end of the fifth calendar year after its en

actment, and toward this end the Full Employment and Production Programs submitted to the Congress by the President shall include his or her specific quantitative and qualitative targets spelling out these objectives, and the local job councils shall spell out similar quantitative and qualitative targets for their respective geographical areas.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR FULL EMPLOYMENT

SEC. 9. (a) The Congress hereby recognizes that (1) in the absence of genuine full employment, as defined in this Act, many Federal policies and programs have been based on the presumption of the continuing lack of suitable employment opportunities for large numbers of people able and willing to work, and (2) to carry out their functions under this Act, the President, the Secretary of Labor, the local planning councils, the community boards, the Job Guarantee Offices, the Full Employment Service, and the Congressional Joint Economic Committee need the support of long-range, continuing, serious, and objective studies of the many changes required in such Federal policies and programs to gear them more closely to the Full Employment and Production Program, its continuing adjustment and improvement, and its implementation.

(b) To develop and administer a long-range program of such studies, there is hereby established a National Institute for Full Employment (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute") within the Department of Labor, under a director to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, and to operate in continuing consultation with a National Commission for Full Employment Policy Studies. (c) The Director of the Institute shall

(1) serve for a term of three years but shall be removable, with or without cause, by the Secretary;

(2) be compensated at the rate provided for grade 18 of the General Schedule set forth in section 5332 of title 5, United States Code. The position created by this subsection shall be in addition to the number of positions placed in grade 18 of the General Schedule under section 5108 of title 5, United States Code;

(3) appoint a Deputy Director of the Institute; and

(4) appoint, for terms not to exceed three years, without regard to the provisions of title 5 of the United States Code governing appointment in the competitive service and may compensate without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates, such technical or professional employees of the Institute as he deems necessary to accomplish its functions and also appoint and compensate without regard to such provisions not to exceed one-fifth of the number of full-time, regular technical or professional employees of the Institute.

(d) The National Commission for Full Employment Policy Studies shall(1) be composed of fifteen members, which shall be broadly representative of labor, business, education, the social and natural sciences, the humanities, local planning councils, community boards, the professions, and the general public and which shall include the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors as an ex officio member. The members shall be appointed by the Secretary for terms of four years and shall serve at the pleasure of the Secretary:

(2) be provided an executive secretary and other needed staff by the Secretary. The Secretary shall also pay the members of the Commission per diem, travel, and other necessary expenses, together with compensation at a rate not exceeding $100 per day while performing the business of the Commission:

(3) meet at least once every three months and at such other times as requested by the Director or the Secretary;

(4) choose a Chairman and such other officers as required to perform its business:

(5) advise and consult with the Director in respect to all programs and activities conducted pursuant to this section;

(6) regularly consult with the Council of Economic Advisers; and

(7) perform such other functions as are assigned by the Secretary or by the Director.

(e) The Institute is authorized and directed to make, or have made through grants to or contracts with individual researchers and private or public research

organizations, universities and other Government agencies, studies that shall include, but need not be limited to, such subjects as

(1) the policies and programs needed to reduce whatever inflationary pressures may result from full employment, to manage any such inflationary pressure through appropriate fiscal policies and indirect and direct controls, and to protect the weaker groups in society from whatever inflationary trends cannot be avoided or controlled;

(2) the identification of human potentialities that are hidden, undeveloped, or underdeveloped because of the lack of suitable job opportunities, encouragement, education, or training and of various ways of releasing such potentialities;

(3) the forms of education and training needed to help provide people with the skills, knowledge, and values required by existing employment opportunities and technologies and needed to assist in developing such new types of goods, services, technologies, and employment opportunities as may better meet human needs;

(4) the policies and programs needed to substantially eliminate substandard employment, wages, and working conditions and the techniques for establishing standards for employment, wages, and working conditions in accordance with changing levels of national output and resources, and regional variations in output, resources, and other relevant factors:

(5) the improvement of the quality of employment, in both the private and the public sectors, in terms of (a) satisfactions for employees, (b) the efficiency and productivity of work done, and (c) the satisfactions of clients for and consumers of the goods or services provided;

(6) such policies and programs as may be needed to enable small and independent business enterprises to benefit from the provisions of this Act and protect them against any unfavorable consequences that may result from actions taken to implement it;

(7) alternative organizational forms and operating methods for the local planning councils mandated under section 4. as well as additional methods of encouraging participatory and decentralized planning of employment policies and programs;

(8) the standards and criteria to be used by the local planning councils (pursuant to section 4(b) (2)) to monitor and evaluate programs under this Act:

(9) the problems of the special priority individuals and groups referred to in section 5(d):

(10) the integration of existing programs of welfare assistance, income maintenance, and unemployment compensation with the payments made to people under section 6 of this Act;

(11) improved methodologies for conducting studies in all such areas, with special attention to the methodological problems involved in utilizing skills and techniques that may transcend established disciplinary boundaries; and

(12) a comprehensive program for such economic and social indicators, both quantitative, and qualitative, as may be needed for the continuous and objective monitoring of basic economic and social trends in the performance, structure, and environment of the American economy and society.

(f) In developing this program the Institute shall encourage divergent approaches to each area of policy study, shall keep the local planning councils informed on the nature of research in process and shall disseminate widely the results of all completed research.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Nondiscrimination

SEC. 10 (a) No person in the United States shall on the grounds of sex, age, race, color, religion, or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity funded in whole or in part with funds made available under this Act.

Labor Standards

(b) (1) All laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors in any construction, alteration, or repair including painting and decorating or projects, building, and works which are federally assisted under this Act, shall be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing on similar construction in the locality as determined by the Secretary in accordance with the Davis-Bacon Act, as amended (40 U.S.C. 276-276a-5). The Secretary of Labor shall have, with respect to such labor standards, the authority and functions set forth in Reorganization Plan Numbered 14 of 1950 (15 F.R. 3176; 64 Stat. 1267) and section 2 of the Act of June 1, 1934, as amended (48 Stat. 948, as amended; 40 U.S.C. 276 (c)).

(2) The Job Guarantee Office shall not enter into any agreement under section 5 of the Act nor shall it develop any project for the reservoir of public service and private employment projects until it has determined that such agreement or project shall provide―

(A) that appropriate standards for the health, safety, and other conditions applicable to the performance of work and training on any project are established and will be maintained;

(B) appropriate workmen's compensation protection; and

(C) assurances that the project will not result in the displacement of employed workers or impair existing contracts for services or result in the substitution of Federal for other funds in connection with work that would otherwise be performed.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 11. For the purposes of this Act

(1) "Adult Americans" refers to all citizens and permanent residents of the United States who are sixteen years of age or older, plus such younger age groups as may be expressly included by local, State, or Federal law and implemented by administrative regulations under this Act.

(2) "Full employment" is a situation under which there are useful and rewarding employment opportunities for all adult Americans able and willing to work. (3) "Able and willing to work" means possessing the capacity and motivation to perform for pay productive tasks creative of a useful social product. (4) "Opportunity" refers to an available and feasible choice.

(5) "Fair rates of compensation" refers to remuneration at wages reflecting regional levels of compensation, statutory minimum wages, or those wages established by prevailing collective-bargaining agreements, whichever is highest, and under working conditions consistent with trade union or prevailing standards, whichever is higher.

(6) "Secretary" refers to the Secretary of Labor.

AUTHORIZATIONS

SEC. 12. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1977, and for each succeeding fiscal year such sums as may be needed to carry out the various sections of this Act.

Mr. HAWKINS. The Subcommittee on Equal Opportunities, of the Education and Labor Committee, is called to order.

I am confident that there are several members on the way. This morning, the Subcommittee on Equal Opportunities will conduct the first of what will be extensive public hearings on the Equal Opportunity and Full Employment Act of 1976. This bill would establish a national policy and nationwide machinery for guaranteeing to all adult Americans willing and able to work the availability of equal opportunities for useful and rewarding employment.

I was privileged to co-author this bill with the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin, the Honorable Henry S. Reuss. In addition, over