Date: 1982-12-16
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. the title V senior community service employment program provides employment and work training opportunities for elderly Americans living at or below the proverty level. who want to work but lack sophisticated job skills. Twothirds of the program participants are older women. the most vulnerable segment of the aging population with the highest percentage of poverty. About half of title Vs beneficiaries are age 65 or older. About half have less than a high school education. Many have found that they cannot live on their social security retirement and. rather than apply for welfare or seek financial aid from family members. these senior citizens search for productive employment. Today. the program provides minimum wage. parttime jobs for 54.000 elderly Americans throughout the Nation. It is a modest jobs program and many participants can just make ends meet with their additional employment income. In my own State of West Virginia. there are about 690 senior citizens employed in such jobs. These workers provide needed community services in hospitals. day care centers and libraries. Many serve less ablebodied elderly Americans at senior centers. in nutrition programs. or by providing other Outreach services. We are just ending the first year of a 3year reauthorization of the Older Americans Act which provides that the scope of the community service employment program should not be limited and that funding should be expanded to preserve the programs operations. This legislation overwhelmingly passed the Congress before national unemployment began soaring to postwar records. Yet. we have just pulled through a difficult battle to save the special jobs program for the aged from extinction. This fight began when the administration proposed dismantling the community service employment program as part of its 1983 budget. I introduced a "Sense of the Senate Resolution." Senate Resolution 340. that no action be taken to terminate or otherwise weaken the program. OMBs proposal was cruel and foolish because eliminating the senior jobs program would force elderly citizens onto the welfare rolls. and savings assumed from its elimination would be borne there. The job losses would have also impaired the ability of local agencies to provide other specificservices authorized under the Older Americans Act. with funding already cut back for such services. The resolution to preserve the senior community service employment program enjoyed bipartisan support. 33 Senators cosponsored it. the Labor and Human Resources Committee unanimously reported it. and the Senate passed it 89 to 6. A similar measure passed the House overwhelmingly. Despite this show of strong congressional support. administration support for continued funding of the jobs program remained such a clouded issue during the appropriations process that some elderly workers were told that their jobs were being terminated. Two appropriations bills containing money for the jobs program were vetoed. When the President vetoed the third appropriations measure. which was $1.8 billion less than the administrations budget request. Congress voted to override it. The community service employment program was an important factor in the vote to override. Now that the finishing touches Are being added to the administrations 1984 budget plans. we are already hearing of still another OMB proposal that would lead to a weakened and less effective jobs program for the aged. OMB wants to move the community service employment program from the Department of Labor to the Department of Health and Human Services. Such a move does not make any sense and could fatally undermine the programs record of costeffective success. Congress carefully hivestigated which agency should administer the special jobs program when legislation to create it was first introduced. In fact. the original bill would have placed it within HEW. After reviewing the proposal in congressional hearings. an almost unanimous consensus was reached that the plan should be administered by the Department of Labor because jobs programs should be run by the cabinet agency with responsibility for. and expertise in. employment and training services. The goals of the senior community service employment program are: employment. job training. and placement in nonsubsidized work. These objectives are currently being met with significant success. Despite the dismal job market of the past year. title V program participants have experienced a 17percent placement rate In nonsubsidized employment. The training and work experience provides a solid stepping stone to selfsufficiency. The Department of Libors small staff administering the program is skilled. administrative overhead is low. and fraud and abuse is rlmost nonexistent. The Congress exceptionally strong support for the program is testimony to its success. If it were transferred to the Administration on Aging (AOA) in the Department of Health and Human Services. significant disruption could occur. AOA has no experience in running a jobs program. Unlike the Department of Labor. the Department of Health and Human Services has no network of Jobs placement or jobs training services In place. on which to build. . Transferring a program from one cabinet department to another does not produce budget savings by itself. I cannot help but question the tactical reasons behind the OMB proposal. Why would OMB want to break up a winning program at this time? The Administration on Aging staff is barely able to meet its current duties under the Older Americans Act. It cannot assume a significant new responsibility. Moreover. the appropriate time to look at substantive administrative changes is when a program comes up for reauthorization. not soon after it has been reauthorized. The community service employment program has proved itself in its capacity to recruit and employ older workers as valuable community resources. It cannot afford any disruptions in program operations. Unemplo~yment among older workers has increased by almost 65 percent during the past 15 months. from 526.000 in August 1981 to 867.000 in November 1982an all time record number. November marks the second consecutive month that unemployment has hit record highs for older workers. Traditionally. unemployment among this segment of the labor force is comparatively low since seniority helps many of these workers retain their jobs. While retirement allows others to leave the work force when their jobs are threatened. However. when these older workers become unemployed. they tend to remain jobless for longer periods of time than younger workers. Regrettably. the Democratic job package I offered as an ainendment to the gasoline tax bill was defeated on a party line vote. Included in that package was $100 million to provide 20.000 additional direct jobs under the title V community service employment program for older Americans. Jobless elderly citizens need this assistance. and communities financially hard pressed by Federal budget cuts would benefit from such aid. I would prefer to see appropriations increased for the community service program. I will fight against any proposal to cut money for the jobs program or to otherwise weaken its operations. I believe a number of colleagues share my thoughts and would oppose any OMB plan to transfer the title V senior community service employment program from the Department of Labor to the Department of Health and Human Services as part of any fiscal 1984 budget plan.