May 1, 1972
Page 15139
U.S. SENATE, Washington, D.C.,
April 17, 1972.
Hon. WARREN G. MAGNUSON,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations,
United States Senate,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR Mr. CHAIRMAN: We are writing to request that the Subcommittee recommend a supplemental appropriation of $291.4 million, under the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962 for the Neighborhood Youth Corps summer job program, and for related transportation and recreational activities to meet the needs of poor youths in urban and rural areas during the coming summer. If added to the $175.7 million now available, the supplemental would bring to $467.1 million the aggregate amount available for the coming summer.
As you know, the Administration has requested an additional supplemental appropriation of $95 million for a total of $270.7 million, the same amount as last year, or $196.4 million below the amount which we request.
The following is an itemization of our request in each of the major components of the program, which is administered by the Department of Labor:
$268.3 million for the Neighborhood Youth Corps job program which provides work experience with public and non-profit private agencies, for poor youth between the ages of 14 to 21, giving them earnings enabling them to complete or to continue their education. This amount, together with the $175.7 million available, would fund 947,928 ten-week job opportunities; the Administration would apply $82.2 million of its requested supplemental for this purpose, to fund an additional 194,600 nine-week opportunities or an aggregate of 609,300 nine-week opportunities, the same funding and opportunity levels as last year.
$1.2 million for related transportation necessary for poor youth to participate in the job program; the Administration would provide $1.5 million out of existing manpower and transportation funds.
$21.9 million for the recreational support program providing opportunities to children eight through thirteen years of age; no funds are now available for this program. The Administration has requested a supplemental appropriation of $12.8 million for this component, again the same amount as was made available last year.
Our requests are based in each case upon what the National League of Cities-U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing most of the Nation's cities, has documented as required for this summer.
Enclosed is a copy of a letter from the National League-U.S. Conference dated February 23, 1972, together with charts documenting these needs on a city-by-city basis: in the job program they show a need for 410,035 opportunities in the fifty largest cities and 537,893 in other areas.
It should be noted that the National League of Cities' figures represent in each case the number which may be effectively used; actually the number of youth who could benefit if funds had been made available earlier is much greater; for example, there are 1.7 million youth who could benefit in the job program – almost twice the aggregate number to be covered if our request is granted.
We submit that the supplemental appropriation of the amounts for the Neighborhood Youth Corps summer program, and related transportation, is essential to meet the very difficult employment situation among poor youth: while the current national unemployment rate is at 5.9 percent, the most recently available statistics show a jobless rate among teenagers in poverty neighborhoods of 25.7 percent, with the rate among black teenagers in such areas at 34.7 percent.
Experience indicates that even if the overall employment situation improves, as we hope it will, poor youth will continue to have unemployment ranging from four to five times the norm; already there are substantial signs that increases in the number of returning veterans, economic cut-backs, and other factors will aggravate further the youth unemployment situation in the coming summer.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to look substantially to other public or private resources to deal with the problem. The Emergency Employment Act of 1971, which will provide approximately 130,000 public sector job opportunities in this fiscal year and a similar number in the coming year will not focus upon the needs of poor youth; according to a preliminary survey taken by the Department of Labor only 14 percent of those now covered are in the age group below 21 years of age. Moreover, despite efforts which we hope will be successful, it is likely that general economic conditions will continue to make it difficult for the private sector to take up the slack through such voluntary job programs as those conducted by the National Alliance of Businessmen. The National Alliance – which has a goal of 175,000 jobs for this summer – was able to provide only 150,000 in each of the last two summers, even during times when economic conditions were generally more favorable.
We do not consider it advisable to cut the program to nine weeks, as proposed by the Administration. It was reduced to a nine week program for the first time last summer only as a temporary compromise made in the last hour to make very inadequate funds spread as far as possible. From the standpoint of the poor, the difference between ten and nine weeks is more than academic. Poor youth depend upon the wages derived from the program to contribute to the costs of returning to school and, in many cases to the support of their families.
Of course, these programs will help to reduce welfare dependency by permitting many parents to engage in employment and training programs while their children participate in these programs.
We appreciate very much the consideration which the Committee has extended to the program in the past, and we urge favorable consideration of these requests so that public and non-profit sponsors will be able to plan effectively and provide youth with meaningful alternatives to continued frustration and restlessness.
Sincerely,
Jacob K. Javits, Lloyd Bentsen, Quentin N. Burdick, Robert C. Byrd, Howard W. Cannon, Clifford P. Case, Alan Cranston, Thomas F. Eagleton, J. W. Fulbright, Fred R. Harris, Philip A. Hart.
Hubert Humphrey, Henry M. Jackson, Frank E. Moss, Edmund S. Muskie, Bob Packwood, Claiborne Pell, Abraham Ribicoff, Robert Taft, Jr., John Tower, John P. Tunney, Harrison A. Williams, Jr., Robert P. Griffin, George McGovern, Walter F. Mondale, William B. Saxbe, Richard S. Schweiker.