FEDERAL ROLE IN URBAN AFFAIRS

TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1967

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EXECUTIVE REORGANIZATION, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 2 p.m., in room 3302, New Senate Office Building, Senator Abraham Ribicoff (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Ribicoff and Hansen.

Also present: Paul Danaceau, staff director; Robert Wager, general counsel; Richard Bowen, professional staff member; and Esther Newberg, chief clerk.

Senator RIBICOFF. The subcommittee will be in order.

We do appreciate your being with us again, Mr. Secretary, and you may begin your testimony, sir.

STATEMENT OF HON. W. WILLARD WIRTZ, SECRETARY OF LABOR, ACCOMPANIED BY STANLEY H. RUTTENBERG, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR MANPOWER AND ADMINISTRATOR, MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION

Secretary WIRTZ. Mr. Chairman, I am sorry first, that this statement has arrived here so shortly before the opening of the hearing. It has been my usual practice to summarize it. And, whether you would under the circumstances want me to read it or not

Senator RIBICOFF. You always summarize very well. Your entire statement will go into the record as read. You go along, Mr. Secretary, and make whatever points you would like to make in your own inimitable way.

Secretary WIRTZ. All right, Mr. Chairman. I have noted the difficulty caused by the fact that the length of the record as it has been developed by the subcommittee, creates the possibility of repetition. I will try to keep that down and will try to concentrate on the several points of view or facts which, it seems to me, have not been sufficiently emphasized.

WIRTZ CITES PROGRESS IN BATTLE AGAINST URBAN PROBLEMS

The record shows very plainly the facts of poverty, of ignorance, of the need for revitilization of the cities, but it has seemed to me that the record has not properly developed the extent to which we have in the past 3 years made gains against these enemies far beyond any which we have ever made before. So I have suggested on page 2 and the pages

following, some of the things that have happened in these 3 years with respect to our educational and economic conditions.

There are 2 million more people at work today and a million more in high school and college than the population increase alone in these last 3 years accounts for.

It is significant that during these 3 years, 3 million people have either received training in one form or another, or have been helped to stay in school, or have been employed under the new programs. This does not include the summer employment program or the Headstart programs.

I think it is probably true, Mr. Chairman, that today between 11⁄2 and 2 million people are in school or in training, or at work who would be out of school and out of work if it had not been for these recently developed programs.

It is a significant fact that in 3 years the number of hard-core unemployed has been a good deal more than cut in half.

MORE REMAINS TO BE DONE

Now, these facts warrant, as far as I am concerned, only that limited recognition which the facts of partial, incomplete, and often disappointing, accomplishment are entitled to. And, it is the other facts of continued high youth and minority group unemployment, of a continuing gap between white and nonwhite earnings, of equal employment rights for entry level jobs but not for promotions that are going to keep all of us who are decently concerned awake at night. But, Mr. Chairman, it does seem to me that we are tough minded enough and fair minded enough and levelheaded enough to check benchmarks of what we are getting done as well as the road map of our intentions. And, I think, quite frankly, that the repeated suggestion that this is going to be another long hot summer because-and I quote from the subcommittee's record-"There are basically no plans and no programs to take care of the pending potentially explosive situation-." I think that suggestion is warranted and advisable to whatever extent the facts support the assessment, and that beyond that it contributes materially to the likelihood of that very explosion.

Mr. Chairman, I note respectfully your development at the subcommittee's April 26 hearing this year of your view that we are overlooking, in your words, "the burning turmoil*** in the cities of America"; that, as you put it, "we are delaying and delaying and putting off and putting off" and not even asking for the funds that are necessary to meet the country's urban and human needs. You drew on that occasion what you consider a contrast between Executive leadership and the fight for freedom in Vietnam, and a lesser leadership in fighting what you referred to as deterioration, decay, and turmoil at home." And then pointing to the appropriations request "to pay for the war," you asked why the President "doesn't ask the Congress of the United States to do whatever is needed to supply the funds that are necessary *** to take care of the problems of the cities".

Mr. Chairman, if I were a young man living in a slum or a ghetto and wondering whether it is my freedom and my family's freedom that I might be asked to fight for, or wondering even how strongly I ought

to protest my not having a job, I think I would find in what you say, pretty convincing support for the feeling that I was being let down, being shortchanged again.

I suppose that the involved figures and facts about Federal appropriations and expenditures would never catch up with the phrases that had been sent racing through my mind.

FEDERAL EXPENDITURES FOR CITIES ARE INCREASING

But, Mr. Chairman, those figures and facts ought to be part of this record. And, what they show is that in the past 3 or 4 years, while the cost of fighting in Vietnam has been going up, this country has increased its Federal appropriations and expenditures for human and urban redevelopment, especially those benefiting the disadvantaged and the poor, in infinitely larger amounts and at a far faster rate than ever before.

These are the facts:

The Federal budget for educational and training programs, taking only those parts of these programs allocable to benefiting the poor increased between 1963 and 1966 from $300 million in 1963 to an estimated $3.1 billion in 1967. That is 10 times what it was 4 years ago. And, in 1968 that figure is going up another 23 percent to an estimated $3.8 billion.

And, then if you look at the administrative budget for all civilian programs for health, cash benefits payments, services, community development, education and training, again taking only that part allocable to the poor, that is almost doubled between 1963, when it was $6.8 billion, and 1967 which is an estimated $13 billion. It will go up to $14.6 billion next year, 1968. And, these figures exclude the trust fund increases.

If you look at the total Federal expenditures for education, training, medical and health-related programs, along with the programs which assist the poor, they have increased from $19.8 billion in 1963 to an estimated $34.9 billion in 1967. That is an increase of 76 percent, $15.1 billion in 4 years, and the estimated increase for next year is another $4.9 billion increase. These figures include expenditures from the trust funds.

FINANCING FOR HUD PROGRAM ASSISTANCE HAS DOUBLED

Then I have looked, too, at the figures for the HUD program assistance. That is the housing program, neighborhood environment, public facilities, comprehensive urban development.

In the past 4 years, Mr. Chairman, those figures have more than doubled. If you take the disbursement figures, which reflect mainly prior-year approvals, there were $2.2 billion in 1963, and that figure estimated for this year is $5.5 billion, up 150 percent. That figure will be slightly lower next year.

On the other hand, the figure for gross program approvals in 1963 totaled $2 billion dollars. The estimate for this year is $4.1 billion, more than double the 1963 figure. And, the estimate for next year is up to $4.9 billion.

EXAMPLE OF FEDERAL AID PAYMENTS TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

I have made another check on this same matter. It is to be found in the annual reporting by the Department of the Treasury of Federal aid payments to State and local units. That data development for 1966 is not fully completed. I have obtained the preliminary data from the Treasury to provide one example. I have taken the State of Connecticut. What these data show is that Federal aid payments to Connecticut and to local units in the State were $159.9 million in fiscal year 1966. This is up 64 percent above what it was in 1963.

Federal aid payments to individuals and private institutions in Connecticut have gone up 47 percent between 1963 and 1966. If you take the Connecticut figures for programs administered by the Department of Labor, HEW, OEO, it is $95.9 million for 1966. That is 70 percent above the 1963 figure. There are comparable gains as far as the highway trust fund is concerned-up 80 percent-and the urban renewal and low-rent public housing programs-up 33 percent.

Now, I know Mr. Chairman, that these are dry statistics. I know it is confusing and that that comes from an attempt to avoid being misleading. But Mr. Chairman, it is the necessary check on any suggestion that freedom's battle in Vietnam is being financed out of the promises made to the poor in America. That isn't so.

Keeping those promises is going to cost a good deal more money than we are all spending and we all know that. But any suggestion that the limitation on our capacity to do it is a financial limitation, is not, in my judgment, right. The difficulties are much more about ways than they are about means.

SUMMER EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

And, now, the rest of my statement is devoted to a suggestion of some of the problems and ways. I testified about that before. I have emphasized more here the questions which you have asked specifically in your letter of May 3. You have asked about our summer programs. The gist of the testimony on this, Mr. Chairman, is this. Our summer youth employment need this year is for jobs for about 13 million 16to 21-year-old boys and girls. About 11 million of them get jobs in the normal course of things.

There is now, has been for the last 2 years, a summer youth apportunity campaign initiated by the President, administered by the Vice President, with administration centering in the President's Čouncil on Youth Opportunity. That will supply another million jobs this year if our previous experience is reliable, and the indications so far indicate that it is.

In addition to that, there is a summer Neighborhood Youth Corps program which provides work training opportunities for another 200,000. I hope that will go up to 275,000. It will if the supplemental appropriation requested by the President new pending before the Congress is approved. There are also 60,000 Neighborhood Youth Corps trainees in projects in the summer as part of the regular outof-school program. There are another 5,000 youths who will be engaged in summer demonstration work programs under MDTA.