The grants to the workshops, the work of the Performance Council in helping to develop standards, and the expert technical consultation are all designed to raise the level of performance in this very vital segment of the rehabilitation. entourage. The whole workshop field has been too long neglected and too inad quately supported. We have a long way to go to make up the deficiencies, and a long way to go to bring the workshops to a level where they could be-and where they should be if we are going to take our next step forward in rehabilita ing the more severely disabled.

Research and training

A total of $60.325,000 is requested for fiscal year 1967, an increase of $7.180* over last year. This appropriation is used to fund research and demonstration training program, special research and training centers, and domestic support the international research program.

Research and demonstration.—This program for next year is estimated $21,550,000 and will pay part of the cost of an estimated 449 research a demonstration projects. The fiscal year 1967 estimate maintains the progr level at about that of 1966. The bulk of the funds will go to provide c tinuation costs of the projects started in prior years; the number of 1 projects that will be started will be somewhat less than the total started year. In the main, our concentration in fiscal year 1967 will be on the deve ment of projects to improve our techniques in rehabilitation of the more setdisabled, including the heart disease. cancer and stroke cases, and on pro to explore new ways of improving workshop and rehabilitation fa operations. This latter emphasis stems, of course, from our new respons ties in developing adequate facilities to serve the disabled.

About one fifth of our total projects next year will be for the mo reranded. These, as you know, have been among our most successful ver Our success in this area gives us hope that we can repeat this succes heart disease, cancer, and stroke area where so much still remains to be Irawan- Our request for research and training include $29,800,000 7 training program, an increase of $5 million over this year. The 1945 i ments to ?ře VR Act størved up the pace of growth of the rehabilitation prozam by at least 3 to 3 years.

This pars a tremendous strain on the rehabilitation marpower- phy the counselors, the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech ar ing specialiers, the framed mannewer working with the mentally ran dea?, the bind, and those working with heart disease, cancer, and pations, and with the other disability groups where specialized knes ཨཏྭཱཏ ཨཱམཱཏྟཱནྟི

Our most pressing immed are demands in 1997 fall in two areas rebabe ramen counselors and training more personnel for rehabilita shers and work adibstment evoDES. State genees must inzerug by over 2 40 2 insex r8 Dex* yea7 For this reason we are plaza a number of munwnɛ 71 2.2g programs so that the enzei nens w De a war 1 we ini so that we will get dogt Mõ0 crvimate This w * expansion that the Sans are planning I 1 of wreyshop aim 2 striz a torre de several major types of pers whm tona, ta a DL PREDs mast be fervirred. བྲདྡན ནྟི སྶ... ཨེམཏྟཱ

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Rehabil Study Act authorized a National Advisory al Mar and Training to recommend the actual reThis Cell is now being established and we expect The rant support under this section of the VoAct will go to finance part of the costs of about 15 ditwill study various aspects of the manpower field.

Salorics and Expenses

of VRA are financed out of this one a ested for 1:57 includes $220,000 to be transfer al there is an increase of $1,331,000 and 63 ad

e main. from the additional responsibilities new legislation enacted last year and the

increase in responsibilities which the VRA has assumed. About one-fourth of the increase (15 positions) would go to strengthen our regional offices who are in direct contact with the State agencies and the nonprofit organizations relating to both the old programs and those which are just getting underway.

This year we have been able to staff only one-half of the regional offices with regard to the new authorized program for rehabilitating OASI beneficiaries. Nine jobs are included in the request for staffing the other half of the office.

The increase also includes 15 jobs for beginning work on 2 programs which were authorized in the amendments—the intramural research program and the planning for a National Data Center. The intramural research program is needed to tie together a number of projects working in the same field such as mental retardation and rehabilitating the disabled on public assistance. With regard to the Data Center, this will be vital to the success of the State planning efforts in pinpointing the gaps in services and the identification of the resources which are needed to make real our goal for rehabilitating all disabled persons who need these services. The balance of the increase is related to the additional staff needed to handle the larger workloads on the newer programs in workshop and facility construction, training service grants, workshop improvement, and the increased technical consultation that is needed by our State agencies and the nonprofit groups in the program.

The additional staff requested are a key factor in our ability to reach the goals envisioned by the new legislation enacted last year.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Miss SWITZER. This is a historic budget because it really is the light in the clearing to reach the goal that you have over the years been urging us to reach. Because of our new amendments and the broadened financing, the availability of social security trust funds to rehabilitate disabled beneficiaries and various other aspects of the legislation, we really think in 1967, the fiscal year that this estimate covers, we will reach the 200,000 mark. This will be a great day.

We also feel confident that we can do this, because even though the bill did not go through until quite late in the session, and we did not get our authority to operate on the deficiency appropriation until quite late in the year, we have been very much encouraged by the speed with which the States have been able to organize and use their resources and speed up their rehabilitations.

GRANTS TO STATES

The first and most important part of our program, of course, is section 2, the support titles for the grants to States. The appropriation has been retitled, as you have undoubtedly noticed. It is an enlarged version of our old grants to States.

The new appropriation includes sections 2 and 3. It also has grants for the new programs authorized by the 1965 amendmentsprojects to expand rehabilitation services and to construct rehabilitation facilities, and to improve the workshop projects. In other words, it has sections 2 anud 3 of the act, section 4(a) (2) and section 12 and 13. It is a much more comprehensive appropriation than it used to be.

1965 AMENDMENTS

The new act, as you recall stipulates authorizations for various programs. In 1966 the authorization for section 2 grants was $300 million; and for 1967, $350 million. This, in effect, is the same device that the old allotment base was for dividing the available Federal money.

We are requesting a total this year of $259,060,000, for grants for rehabilitation services and facilities which is an increase of about $88 million over fiscal 1966. The increase is due to two factors-the higher allotment base, the higher authorization in the bill, and the increased Federal matching. We are matching at 75 percent, and 1967 is the first full year of operation under that. The Federal share changes. very radically the availability of funds in a great many States.

It is for that reason-all of this new money going into the program-that we are confident that the goal of 200,000 can be reached.

1966 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION

This estimate also indicates a need for supplemental appropriation for 1966 which recognizes the increased availability of Federal funds under the new act, at a rate halfway between the 1965 marketing rates in the States and 75 percent: It is estimated $39 million additional is required for 1966.

There will be almost $79 million available in State funds for section 2, the basic support grants. This will require the $236 millin in Federal marketing funds we are asking for.

NUMBER AND KINDS OF REHABILITATIONS

If things go as we anticipate, and as the States seem certain they will, we probably will go over the 200,000 mark in rehabilitations in fiscal year 1967 and have about 40,000 more rehabilitations next year than this year.

The new amendments not only made the financial basis of the program much more generous and provided a greater spread of available resources, but also made provisions that broadened the program sharply in many ways, and made it possible for us, in the revision of our regulations and the design of the standards for the new program, to emphasize the inclusion of people rather than the exclusion, putting the emphasis on all types of disabilities and all age groups.

The new regulations contain absolute prohibitions against making any exclusions on these two bases-which most of the States did not do anyway. Thus emphasizes again the importance of getting at young people as soon as possible. Many of our research projects have demonstrated how effective this is. We aim also to get at the older group and keep up the pressure to work with the older handicapped citizens. After all, we have a program for the aging which you were so responsible for accomplishing, Mr. Chairman. We want to keep our program beamed to this group as well as to the other groups. In other words, an inclusive program.

LIBERALIZED PROVISIONS OF 1965 AMENDMENTS

In addition, the new amendments include a most important provision, enabling a State agency to undertake a period of evaluation for a case before the final determination of a vocational objective is made. This has the effect of broadening the whole base of intake so people can be taken into the program and given services, and a

better evaluation can be made of their rehabilitation potential. This period can be up to 6 months for any case that needs this, and up to 18 months for severely disabled people.

The mentally retarded are specifically mentioned in the act. Our regulations include additional groups like heart disease, stroke, and cancer victims, paraplegics and other groups that need a great deal more study than can be given in the usual diagnostic period.

MENTALLY RETARDED

We feel the mentally retarded continue to be an outstanding example of what can be done when you concentrate your effort both in terms of research projects, and translating findings into service, and making it clear that a great deal is expected. It is not too long ago that we had just a handful of mentally retarded. In 1967 we hope we will have as many as 19,000.

The employment of the mentally retarded in the Federal Service is also very encouraging. With the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, Mr. Macy, working along with us and being more and more flexible in the way the regulations can be modified, we feel that this is a very encouraging development.

REDUCING DEPENDENCY THROUGH REHABILITATION

Another emphasis which is more and more important as we go ahead into the rehabilitation of the more severely disabled and dependent group, is the emphasis on taking people off public assistance. We have had a consistent record in this. We have tried in every way we know to dramatize the importance of vocational rehabilitation in reducing dependency. We expect that in 1967 this will continue and our estimate is that we will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 37,000 rehabilitants who are receiving public assistance or are supported from some other tax supported institution at the time they are accepted for rehabilitation.

This is an important economic gain. This morning you recall in the paper it was said we have the lowest unemployment figure in our history. Many now say that faster economic growth and getting the benefits of our fast-moving economy, and the accelerating defense spending is often impeded by the lack of available skilled people. We think the record of the vocational rehabilitation program in providing trained manpower is one of the important contributions it makes to the economy.

VARIETY OF OCCUPATIONS

The rehabilitants are in a wide variety of occupations, ranging all the way from professionals to unskilled. Based on last year's experience, the 1967 rehabilitants are likely to have 9,000 teachers, engineers, and professional people, 23,000 skilled workers, and 32,000 clerical and sales persons. This is a real contribution in places where it really counts.