Senator ARMSTRONG. I didn't mean to interrupt. I wanted to be sure I had heard that correctly. Mr. Chromy. Yes, sir. That is our calculations. That is what it takes to have a million mentally retarded athletes trained, be coached, practice, compete in sports throughout the year instead of be sitting in State institutions or being hidden at homes in closets because people are ashamed to have them in public. That is just one small program compared to everything that is going on at the Legion and the Junior League and others are doing. So that is my introduction. I am here on behalf of the board of Volunteer, an organization that constantly tries to encourage and assist volunteer movements in the country. I bring you, Senator, greetings from Gov. George Romney, our chairman of the board, a man who you know has committed his life to volunteer service, in addition to his public service and his personal service. Since 1972 when he left his Cabinet post, he formed the National Center for Voluntary Action, which our current agency is a descendant, and he has been fostering volunteer spirit in this country ever since that time. He regrets he cannot be here. He sent me as kind of a third string substitute and I will do the best I can. We, too, have written testimony which I will submit for the record. I will just highlight the key points, and I will do my best not to repeat the things they said because they said them very well. We, of course, support your bill and the bill of Senator Durenberger to raise the volunteer mileage to make it equal to that provided either to private business deductions or to government employees who use their privately owned vehicles for volunteer mileage. We support it because we think it is important to continuing to have the kind of volunteer service that has been identified here this morning. It is important to avoid knocking people out of volunteer service because they no longer can afford the expense. We have some indication that that is starting to happen. We have talked to some of the leaders of the retired senior volunteer program, which has some 300,000 volunteers across the country. They find that some of their volunteers are starting to back out because they can no longer afford the transportation costs that are involved. We would particularly hate to see that with senior citizens who are giving of their time because they most often are on fixed incomes. The people here have already talked about the size of the volunteer community. We know its 92 million people. It is not only that I think it is that number of people-I think it is the thing that they do that really is important here. Our country was founded on volunteer service. It was built by volunteers. They opened the lands; they built the towns; they built the communities; they did the traditional barn raisers. They still do them out where I grew up and come from and where my family still is in Minnesota. I am sure they still do them in small communities in Colorado. Not only that, they man the firetrucks, and they man those ambulance in many of those communities. I live in Prince Georges County, Md., which is a relatively large community. We have some professional firemen, but we have a lot of volunteer firemen. When that whistle blows in Prince Georges County, people still leave their jobs, jump in their cars and drive to the source of that tragedy and go to work to help make it happen. Those are the kinds of people we are continuing to support. They raise the funds to fight cancer. They combat birth defects, and they raise the funds to battle heart disease. Those funds that they raise multiply that that the government appropriates for those kinds of things. The volunteers we are talking about are the ones who filled the sandbags when there are floods; they are the ones who come to the fires and other disasters; they work in support of the local churches, the arts programs that were mentioned. Volunteers give in excess of 11 billion hours of service each year in this country, service which has been valued by the Gallop Poll of 1981 and in the independent sector as a minimum of $40 billion worth if we had to pay the minimum wage to have all these people do these services: $40 billion. If you calculate in any sort of increased level for the various professional services involved, it would be roughly $64 billion as a best estimate of what that is worth if our society had to pay for those services. By comparison to that kind of money, the $100 million deficit in revenue that our Treasury colleagues envision I think is pretty small. We would like to emphasize the other because I think we want to keep that growing. I think the administration does, and certainly those who are committed to the American tradition of a free society and a society that takes care of its own and meets its needs wants to see that kind of thing continue. I think there are two other significant factors that I would like to enter in the record that haven't already been mentioned. As someone who administers a volunteer program and having talked over the years to administrators of volunteer programs all across the country, probably the single most difficult volunteer service to arrange and keep going and consistently make available is that of transportation: getting the people who can drive the kids to the programs; getting the people who will pick up those senior citizens and take them to their medical treatments; get those meals out to the folks who are locked at home; finding volunteer drivers who have access to vehicles and keeping them going and keeping them available is probably consistently the most difficult volunteer assignment to fill. I think my colleagues would agree with that. Part of it is it just costs one whole chunk of money to have a car and to continue to provide that service. As they indicated, the cost of gasoline and everything else, as you rightly indicated to our friend from the Treasury, that 9 cents a mile no way does it come near what it costs you to run that vehicle unless you are driving some sort of a little motor scooter, and then you can't take very many people to the hospital. It is clear that if I am a pharmaceutical salesman and I am in a private business, and I am driving to the hospital to sell my product, I can depreciate 20 cents a mile for my work to go and sell those products. On the other hand, if my neighbor wants to take a sick person to his kidney dialysis at the same hospital, the most he can deduct is 9 cents a mile. As you rightly pointed out, given his tax bracket, we are coming down to 3 cents a mile. Those are very, very serious discrepancies. Our country wants these people to continue to provide these services. We recognize that without these services our society, as we know it, could not continue to exist. Most of the good of Ameri can society would fall by the wayside if we did not have people providing these services. I think we need to make it happen. The other important factor, along with the difficulty of finding people to do this transportation, is that if our organization or the Cancer Society or anyone else had to reimburse people at 20 cents a mile for the miles that they put on—and this happens. When you administer a program, a volunteer comes in and says, you know, Mr. Chromy, "I like doing this, but I just cannot afford to do it so often. I am only going to be able to do it once in 2 weeks or once a month instead of every week because I just cannot come up with the funds any more." What happens, as an administrator, you start to say, "Well, let me see if we can shake out some of the money and reimburse you for more of the mileage," and so on. What that means, of course, is the Cancer Society or the Heart Association or the rest of us have to then raise more money, more cash contributions, to pay the 20 cents a mile. So it becomes a double burden. Not only can't you find people, but you can't pay for it. With that, Senator, I would like for you to know that our organization strongly supports your efforts on behalf of the volunteers. We hope that you will do everything you can to pass it, and we will do everything we can to help make it possible. Yes, the revenue issue is a serious one-and we know the deficit problem is a serious one-I think our organization, Volunteer, and I assume some of our colleagues as well, would be willing to work with you on the passing of legislation that would establish the principal of equity and provide even 1-, 2-, 3-year periods to build up to the equity amount. But it is important that we say to the volunteers and the public we believe in it. It is as important as our private sector. It is as important as the service that government employees provide. And we are committed to raising that allowance up to and equal to those folks. If we do this it will encourage our volunteers to continue this important service. And in addition, it will provide recognition of the special contributions of America's volunteers. It will show that the President, the Congress, and all of our society cares about the work of these special people, and it will show that this legislation like to service our volunteers. Senator, it is not only needed and important but it is right and it is just. Thank you very much. Senator ARMSTRONG. Thank you, Mr. Chromy. [The prepared statement of John Chromy follows:] Testimony in support of S. 1167 and S. 1579 Volunteer Mileage Equity Legislation by John Chromy member of the Board of Directors VOLUNTEER: The National Center for Citizen Involvement Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify on the very important topic of mileage equity for volunteer drivers. I am John Chromy, a volunteer myself, and a member of the board of directors of VOLUNTEER: The National Center for Citizen Involvement. VOLUNTEER is the only national voluntary organization that exists for the sole purpose of encouraging the more effective involvement of all citizens in community problem-solving. We serve as a national advocate for volunteering and work to improve the effectiveness of volunteer management skills by providing a variety of information-sharing, training and technical assistance services to local, community-based volunteer groups. VOLUNTEER maintains a close working relationship with the over 300 local Volunteer Centers and Volunteer Clearinghouses that place more than 250,000 new volunteers in community agencies each year. We serve an additional 6,000 local, state and national organizations through our Associates program and our magazine and we provide training and information services to over 10,000 volunteer leaders annually. I am here today, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of our chairman, Governor George Romney, who sends his regrets at not being with you as you address this important issue. Governor Romney feels very strongly about the unique contributions of volunteers in our society and about the need to provide those volunteers with continuing incentives, as well as with the recognition they so rightly deserve. On behalf of Governor Romney, the entire board of VOLUNTEER and 92 million American volunteers, I strongly urge the passage of legislation to equalize the tax deductions for volunteer drivers. This legislation would relieve a portion of an increasing financial burden which is being shouldered by volunteer drivers and would provide a visible means for our government, the Congress and our society to recognize the enormous contributions of the volunteers who so willingly serve this country. The volunteer community - those individuals who give their time and energy to - help meet our country's needs is broad and far-reaching. A 1981 Gallup survey highlighted the amazing fact that over half of the adults and half of the teenagers in this country are volunteers. These volunteers are from every social, economic, ethnic, age, cultural and religious group in our country. There are 92 million American volunteers. They work in hospitals, libraries, day care centers, nursing homes and neighborhood organizations. They serve on boards of directors and on community councils. They staff our fire departments and our ambulance services. They council troubled youth, work with 4H-ers and train young athletes. They raise the funds that fight cancer, combat birth defects and battle heart disease. They are always there to stack the sandbags, staff the shelters and rescue the stranded during floods, fires and other disasters. their local churches and support the arts in their communities. They work with the rights of others. They feed the elderly, help the disabled and transport the injured. They supply needed services and work for the benefit of others and the communities in which they live. Volunteers give in excess of 11 billion hours of service each year, service which has been valued at a record-high of $64.5 billion annually. Hundreds of thousands of miles are driven each year by these volunteers. Although there are no national surveys on the use of personal automobiles for volunteer work, local statistics speak for themselves. A study coordinated by the Volunteer Bureau in Montgomery County, Maryland estimated that volunteers had driven over 800,000 miles in one year. In Minnesota, a Board on Aging |