CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE
April 11, 1967
Page 8893
INTERGOVERNMENTAL MANPOWER ACT OF 1967
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators GRUENING, HART, INOUYE, JACKSON, NELSON, and RANDOLPH, I introduce, for appropriate reference, a bill to improve intergovernmental cooperation and grant-in-aid program administration to assist State and local governments in strengthening their staffs by improving personnel administration and extending merit principles and by providing support for training of public employees; to permit temporary assignments of personnel between Federal, State, and local governments; and for other purposes.
Mr. President, this bill, known as the Intergovernmental Manpower Act of 1967, embodies the proposals of the administration. It closely resembles S. 699, the Intergovernmental Personnel Act which I introduced on January 26 of this year, and which is cosponsored by some 15 Senators.
The administration bill which I now introduce would do the following:
First. Make Federal training programs available to State and local personnel;
Second. Authorize special Federal programs, including graduate fellowships, for those administering grant-in-aid programs;
Third. Provide grants to State and local governments for their own training of administrative personnel;
Fourth. Authorize the President -- to the extent he determines practicable -- to require personnel merit standards as a condition for receiving Federal grants;
Fifth. Provide grants and technical assistance for the strengthening of State and local personnel systems;
Sixth. Authorize Federal cooperation with State and local recruitment and examining activities;
Seventh. Encourage interstate compacts to improve personnel administration and training;
Eighth. Provide authority for the exchange of employees between Federal, State, and local levels of government;
Ninth. Direct the Civil Service Commission to coordinate all Federal training activities so as to avoid duplication and insure maximum effectiveness of Federal personnel assistance to State and local governments.
Mr. President, this is an across-the-board Federal program to meet a serious -- and too often hidden -- crisis in intergovernmental relations. It goes to the heart of creative federalism. It recognizes the fundamental fact that Federal, State, and local services are only as good as the people on the firing line who administer them. And it seeks to strengthen this administration by grants, technical assistance, and training support, without injecting Federal controls over State and local personnel administration. This flexible feature of the bill is an important one.
Last year, State and local governments received $15 billion in Federal aid, and spent nearly $80 billion of their own resources for domestic development and services: By 1975, State and local expenditures are expected to rise over $130 billion, administered by some 11 million employees.
The sheer magnitude of State and local administration today, and its projected rate of growth to meet the needs of a population of over 300 million by the year 2000 -- just 33 years away, makes it critical that Congress, so long concerned with substantive programs for State and local development, now turn to encouraging better management.
To those of us who for many years have been studying the growing problems and conflicts between our several levels of government in the federal system, this broad effort by the administration to come to grips with the intergovernmental manpower problem is most encouraging.
Mr. President, the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, which I chair, has been studying the personnel aspects of intergovernmental administration intensively since its inception in 1962. Last year, it completed a 3-year survey of Federal, State, and local officials on what they saw as the weak points in our Federal system. A part of this survey involved intergovernmental personnel, and from it were developed a series of recommendations for improving the State and local manpower situation.
The administration bill which I introduce today contains many of the recommendations contained in the survey and includes some valuable additional features. It is the result of careful and sharpened analysis by experts at the Civil Service Commission, the Bureau of the Budget, HEW's Division of State Merit Systems, the staff of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, and other agencies and individuals knowledgeable in the field of intergovernmental personnel.
I feel that out of Senate consideration of this administration bill and S. 699, the proposed Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1967, there will come a strong, effective, and far-reaching piece of legislation which will contribute to the creative future of federalism in this country.
Mr. President, President Johnson in his excellent message on the "Quality of American Government" stated the challenge:
Today's public servant -- at all levels of government -- is a servant of change. He works to make the American city a better place to live. He strives to increase the beauty of our land and end the poisoning of our rivers and the air we breathe. In these and countless other ways he seeks to enlarge the meaning of life and to raise the hopes and extend the horizons for all of us.
The work to be performed in the years ahead will summon trained and skilled manpower in quantities -- and quality -- we have never needed before.
Nowhere is the magnitude of government manpower greater -- and the accompanying challenge more critical -- than at the State and local levels.
In the last decade, Congress has passed more programs and appropriated more money than in all the preceding Congresses going back to the beginning of this Nation. Now it must concern itself with the methods and systems by which those programs are carried to the people, in the fastest most effective way possible. Strengthening State and local personnel administration and training is a fundamental step in the right direction.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following these remarks there be printed the text of the proposed Intergovernmental Manpower Act of 1967, a statement of purpose and justification, and a section-by-section analysis.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the bill, statement of purpose and justification, and section-by-section analysis will be printed in the RECORD.
The bill (S. 1485) to improve intergovernmental cooperation and grant-in-aid program administration; to assist State and local governments in strengthening their staffs by improving personnel administration and extending merit principles and by providing support for training of public employees; to permit temporary assignments of personnel between Federal and State and local governments; and for other purposes, introduced by Mr. Muskie (for himself and other Senators), was received, read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Government Operations, and ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: