PART I: HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTIPOVERTY PROGRAMS AND STATUS REPORT ON PROGRAMS PRESENTLY AUTHORIZED BY THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1964, AS AMENDED The purpose of Part One of this report is to review for the members of the Subcommittee the history and development of the anti-poverty program and to provide a summary of the presently operated programs and services which are authorized by the Economic Opportunity Act. Programs operated under authority of the Economic Opportunity Act are administered by the Community Services Administration (Titles I, II, III, VI, VII and IX); the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (Title V); the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Administration for Native Americans (Title VII); and the Legal Services Corporation (Title X).* Since each of these programs had its beginnings in the former Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), a short review of the history of OEO/CSA and the philosophies which guided the development of these programs follows. Later in this section the programs and progress of the three agencies responsible for carrying out Titles I through IX of the Economic Opportunity Act are reviewed. HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTI POVERTY PROGRAMS The Office of Economic Opportunity was established by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, pursuant to Public Law 88-452, the Economic Opportunity Act. Under the Direction of then Peace Corps Director R. Sargent Shriver, a meeting of experts in the field was called together in February of 1964 to discuss the development of an anti-poverty program and anti-poverty legislation. The objectives agreed upon by the participants in this meeting were: (1) to attempt to break the cycle of poverty; (2) to establish a mechanism to encourage and support individual and family economic independence; and (3) to focus all the existing efforts of the Federal government on these goals through the interagency coordination capability of the Office of the President. This coordination and program integration theme has been prominent throughout the history of OEO/CSA. In the early stages of planning for the anti-poverty program, the focus on coordination. emerged as a two-pronged strategy. The first element of the strategy Title X is independently authorized and is not discussed in this report. (1) was at the Federal level where, it was believed, a high powered director of an anti-poverty program in the Office of the President could exercise the authority of the President to cut across departmental, agency, and programmatic lines within the Federal Government and to bring together the numerous resources of the Federal Government in an integrated attack on both the effects and the causes of poverty. In his remarks at the swearing in of Director Shriver on October 16, 1964, the President stated that Shriver's duties would be to direct "the activities of all executive departments and agencies involved in the program against poverty." In his March 16, 1964, Message to Congress on Poverty, the President indicated the OEO Director would be "my personal chief of staff for the War against Poverty." Director Shriver stated in testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor on the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (H.R. 10440) that the OEO would be the managerial arm of the President capable of cutting across departmental lines to facilitate coordination. "The President wants this Tauthority] because he wants to be at the focal point with respect to this aspect of our domestic effort." This theme of a national coordinating agency recurred throughout the early years of OEO, including the early days of the Nixon Administration when the President elevated the status of his first OEO Director, Donald Rumsfeld, to Cabinet level and Rumsfeld immediately began a reorganization of OEO to focus the resources of the Agency on planning, research, demonstration, evaluation, and coordination. In hearings before the Ad Hoc Task Force on Poverty of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Congresswoman Mink stated she was pleased with "the President's decision to elevate your position as Director of OEO to Cabinet status, because I think it lends support to the original belief that we need to have a single agency and a single authority to coordinate all of the departments' activities if we are to solve this very serious problem." Congressman Quie expressed similar support and a hope that this elevated status would help Rumsfeld achieve coordination even though previous “subagency" directors had failed. Senator Nelson, during the introduction of the Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1969 [S. 1809], indicated that the Senate bill would set up a high level coordinating agency in the White House to oversee all programs aimed at poverty regardless of which Federal agency administered them. As the Nixon Administration's enthusiasm for the poverty program began to wane and ultimately turned hostile, the hope for a single coordinative agency at the Federal level began to diminish. By 1973, the role of OEO was limited primarily to Federal administration of community action funds. In 1974, a separate agency (CSA) outside the Office of the President, was created by the Headstart, Economic Opportunity, and Community Partnership Act. The primary function of this new agency was to administer Federal funds for community action, special impact programs, and community economic development. In the ten years which preceded the passage of the 1974 amendments, the success of efforts aimed at national coordination of anti-poverty activities |