August 7, 1965
PAGE 20676
THE VISTA PROGRAM
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I support the Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1965. At this time I wish to state my support for the provisions of the bill which would strengthen and expand the VISTA program.
Present law strictly limits the kinds of activities to which VISTA volunteers may be assigned. Assigned volunteers may serve in only a limited list of activities, all of which are connected with the Federal Government -- projects supported under titles I and II of the Economic Opportunity Act; projects for Indians on reservations, migrants and residents of Federal territories; projects in federally assisted mental health and retardation facilities. Impoverished people who are not involved in programs with a suitable Federal association may not receive the services of assigned volunteers.
I have seen, in my own State of Maine, the hardship that these somewhat arbitrary limitations can cause. The Passamaquoddy and Penebscot Indians of Maine do not live on Federal reservations. Some live on reservations provided by the State and some live in distinct communities off the reservations. Many of these people are desperately poor. They need the help that VISTA volunteers can give them to start them on the road to a better life. Yet because they do not live on Federal reservations and because they are not the beneficiaries of community action programs or other programs under titles I and II of the Economic Opportunity Act, it is doubtful under present law whether any of these people may receive the services of assigned volunteers.
The bill now before us would remedy this inequity. It would permit local organizations or groups of citizens to request and receive the assistance of assigned VISTA volunteers in any local anti-poverty program or activity that is of a character eligible for assistance under the act. It would no longer matter whether the program had a Federal connection or was, in fact, supported under another provision of the act.
This bill will, I think, better permit VISTA to fulfill the purposes for which it was created. Volunteers do of course work in existing community action programs and in a wide variety of other federally supported projects. But from the outset it was also the intention of Congress that volunteers should often be the first assault wave in the war on poverty. They should work in communities that have not yet developed community action programs. They should work with the people who have not yet articulated their needs and who have not yet planned a concerted attack on their problems. VISTA volunteers should serve, with the Indians and communities of my State and with the disadvantaged throughout this land, as sources of encouragement and knowledge, as catalysts to help the impoverished develop their own programs for the conquest of poverty.
In many cases, therefore, VISTA volunteers should be assigned to communities before the communities have received any other Federal assistance or established any other Federal tie. The bill now before us would make it clear that the law both permits and intends this.