SOCIAL WELFARE The Federal Government should assume full financial responsi- 57 Partially implemented by State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972, PL 92-512, under which Federal government took over adult categories.] Employment Services The governors and the Secretary of Labor should assure that public employment services are provided to all job applicants and employees within each metropolitan area labor market regardless of State lines. (Report A-25, 1965) [Implemented by administrative order of Secretary of Labor February 1970.] The Economic Opportunity Council should establish the necessary machinery to assure integrated planning at State and Federal levels of the anti-poverty impact of job-creation and jobtraining programs. The Office of Economic Opportunity should take positive steps to interest States in acting as prime or supporting contractors for Job Corps facilities. (Report A-29, 1966) [Recommendation moot; Job Corps discontinued.] Poverty Program General units of local government are preferable to private nonprofit groups for organizing community action agencies except where they have refrained from undertaking antipoverty programs where there is a clear need. 1 "Maximum feasible participation" of the poor should be retained. EOE should require Community Action Agencies to initiate comprehensive plans to guide anti-poverty programs as a condition of Community Action Program funding. (Report ? A-29, 1966) OEO should encourage Community Action Agencies in metropolitan areas to conduct community action planning and other services on a joint basis to take advantage of economies of scale, pooled leadership resources and a proper interrelationship among the various social-economic factors in the areas. (Report A-29, 1966) Concept not working well in a number of metropolitan areas where tried; recommendation should be considered rejected through experience.] OEO should accelerate efforts to achieve cooperation of Federal departments in implementing Section 612 preference provision. (Report A-29, 1966) The Economic Opportunity Act should be amended to retain 10 percent non-Federal matching for 57 Fountain, Ullman, Knowles, Mc Donald dissent. Mundt, Finch, Romney, Mayo abstain. Community Action, Neighborhood Youth Corps, and Adult Basic Education.58 The States should dully utilize grants available from OEO to undertake broad programs of technical assistance. (Report A-29, 1966) [Section 612 preference provision dropped by Congress; Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1967, PL 90-222, increased non-Federal share to 20 percent for the community action program and Neighborhood Youth Corps and to 30 percent for Adult Basic Education roll effective July 1, 1967.] Provisions which permit the director of OEO to override a governor's veto of Community Action, Neighborhood Youth Corps and Adult Basic Education programs should be retained.59 OEO and other Federal departments involved should establish uniform procedures for notifying governors regarding status of applications and for fulfilling gubernatorial and veto requirements. (Report A-29, 1966) [Partially implemented by Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1967, PL 90-222.] OEO, State technical assistance agencies, the Council of State Governments and its affiliates in cooperation with IRAC staff should study State administrative and legislative barriers to anti-poverty programs and develop model State legislation as needed. Steps should be accelerated to collect and make available new and more current data relating to the incidence of poverty and anti-poverty resources being applied. (Report A-29, 1966) Implemented through OEO publication of catalog of assistance programs in human resources field by county.] TRANSPORTATION (see also Interlocal Relations, Fiscal Management) Mass Transportation States should develop mass transportation plans, and provide technical and financial assistance to metropolitan areas for planning and implementation. (Report A-34, 1969) Congress should provide grants to States and localities to develop mass transportation plans for urban areas and underwrite demonstration projects for innovative facilities, and initiate long-term low interest rate loans for mass transportation. The special demonstration projects should be restricted to those undertaken at the initiative of the administering agency.60 (Report A-4, 1961) [Implemented by Housing Act of 1961, PL 87-60.] Congress should give advance consent to interstate compacts to be responsible for mass transportation planning in interstate metropolitan areas.61 (Report A-4, 1961) States should authorize local governments in metropolitan areas to establish areawide Fountain dissent. Blaisdell, Naftalin, Walters dissent, calling for abolition of governor's veto. Ribicoff no position, Muskie and Fountain reserve positions, Burton not concur. metropolitan transportation facilities.62 The States should provide technical and financial aid for mass transportation planning in these areas.63 (Report A-4, 1961) Highways States should allow the flexible use of State highway-user reve- The Federal-Aid Highway Act should be revised to replace the URBAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (see also Housing) National Urban Growth Policy The President and Congress should direct an appropriate executive agency-in consultation with State and local governments to develop a national urban growth policy incorporating social, economic and other considerations to guide specific decisions at the national level. Implementation of the national urban growth policy could include: Federal financial incentives for business and industrial location in certain areas; placement of Federal procurement contracts and construction projects to foster urban growth; Federal policies and programs to influence the mobility of people, to neutralize factors producing continued excessive population concentrations and to encourage alternative location choices; strengthen existing voluntary Federal-State programs of family planning information; and Federal involvement and assistance under certain conditions for large-scale urban and new community development. To facilitate development and implementation of the national policy, the policies and structures of existing and proposed multistate economic planning and development agencies should be reassessed. Such agencies should take national policies into account in the formation of their regional programs. (Report A-32, 1968) Congress should establish the principle of Federal interagency coordination in the full range of programs affecting urban development (Report A-20, 1964). The Federal Government should coordinate and interrelate the various programs which impact upon orderly planning and development within large urban areas.64 (Report A-5, 1961). 62 Ribicoff no position. 63 Ribicoff no position. 64 Ribicoff no position. [Title VII of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1970, PL 91-609 incorporates several essential elements of ACIR's recommended national urban growth policy. The Act directs the President to submit biennial reports to Congress beginning in Feburary 1972-that include assessment of Federal, State and local policies affecting urban growth, analyses of future needs resulting from urbanization and steps being taken to meet these needs; and recommendations for programs to carry out a national growth policy. In addition, the Act declares that new communities must be established to meet an estimated 75 million increase in the nation's population by the year 2000 and provides a growth of financial assistance to new communities, including Federal guarantees of bonds, planning grants to new community developers, loans to new community developers to help them meet interest payments and supplementary grants to States and localities to build public facilities in support of new communities, the ICA of 1968, PL 90-577 established the principle of Federal interagency coordination in programs affecting urban development. To encourage the consideration of alternative locations by business and industry, the Census Bureau publishes the Census of Manufacturing, a detailed geographical information on industrial location trends, including a breakdown among central city, suburban and rural portions of SMSA's.] State Urban Growth Policy States should develop State urban growth policies and implement them by assigning coordination to a State agency, by making State programs conform, and by reviewing State and Federal programs for conformance. Legislatures should establish study committees to review State urban growth policies. National and local views should be taken into account in the process. In implementing urban growth policy, a State should consider: establishing State and regional industrial credit agencies to stimulate business and industrial location; placing State and local procurement contracts and construction projects to foster urban growth; establishing State and State-chartered local land development agencies and State property tax deferral for new community development; regulating development along highways where no effective local control exists; delegating appropriate governmental authority to urban counties; authorizing local government to adopt new and strengthened land use and development ordinances and regulations. (Report A-32, 1968) States should provide financial and technical assistance to metropolitan areas for urban planning, urban renewal, building code modernization and local government organization and finance. States and local government should be able to acquire conservation easements and rights in real property for the purpose of preserving open areas.65 (Report A-5, 1961) 65 Ribicoff no position. Planning The Federal Government should require effective planning at the local level. Section 701 of the Housing Act should be broadened to include all municipalities and counties over 50,000 population undergoing rapid urbanization. (Report A-20, 1964) Federal agencies should use the multi-county planning districts established by the States. (Report A-29, 1965). [Effective planning recommendation implemented by Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968, PL 90-577; broadening of Section 701 implemented in part (for counties) by Housing Act of 1964, PL 88-560; Federal use of State multi-county planning districts implemented by Presidential Memorandum, September 1966.] Section 701 and other planning assistance programs should specifically authorize and encourage economic and social policy planning for the community as a basic justification for physical planning. (Report A-25, 1965) The States should provide financial incentives for multi-purpose regional public agencies in non-metropolitan areas to undertake physical, economic and human resources planning and development (Report A-29; 1965) A National system to collect, analyze and disseminate social statistics should be developed with special emphasis on substate areas. (Report A-31, 1967) (See also Data Needs) Private Enterprise Constitutional and statutory barriers should be removed to involve private enterprise in enlarging and revitalizing economic and fiscal base of major cities. (Report A-31, 1967) STATE ACTION ON ACIR RECOMMENDATIONS Over the years since its creation the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations has directed over 200 specific recommendations to State government. Recommendations for State action are translated into draft bill language. These draft bills constitute ACIR's "State Legislative Program." It is brought to the attention of key legislative and executive officials of all the States, as well as local government officials and other interested groups and influential individuals. A precise assessment of State action on ACIR recommendations is difficult to compile. Information on State legislative action is likely to be somewhat incomplete. Each biennium the fifty State legislatures consider an estimated 150,000 separate pieces of legislation in their regular and special sessions. Usually about one-third of the bills introduced are enacted into law. A detailed analysis of these enactments by ACIR is not feasible. Rather, the Commission must rely heavily on secondary sources of information such as legislative service agencies, State municipal leagues, the Council of State Governments and other groups that prepare summaries of State legislative action. Moreover, the Commission recognizes that its recommendations should not be construed as the sole motivating force behind all enactments of State legislation that do in fact implement ACIR recommendations. |