Opinion ID: 308598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Education and motivation of school-age children.

Text: 48 It is impossible to deny that attainment of these goals, or even of some of them, would meet the test of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1315. Appellants' criticisms, apart from those already rejected, are rather that the programs simply cannot in fact achieve the objectives or any of them. In its comprehensive letter submitted to the Department and transmitted to the Secretary along with the Action Memorandums, the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law criticized the projects on numerous grounds, among others, alleged differentials between the payments to the participants and those to regular employees, 25 the coercive effects of the programs, lack of adequate standards with respect to child care, the absence of specificity concerning the types of jobs to which welfare recipients will be assigned and the standards that would justify refusal to participate, the unlikelihood that experience in the types of jobs indicated as likely candidates would qualify a welfare recipient for employment in the general economy, and the improbability that many such jobs will be available. 26 It also developed other possible and less harsh means for improving public attitude toward the welfare program, e. g., by demonstrating how large a proportion of the recipients were in fact unemployable and the absence of employment opportunities. As indicated, the State submitted two memoranda, which were also transmitted to the Secretary, one identifying the objections and the other endeavoring to answer them, an endeavor that was successful at least to a substantial degree. 49 We are satisfied that the materials before the Secretary sufficed for a consideration of the relevant factors by him and that there was no clear error of judgment on his part. Overton Park, supra, 401 U.S. at 416, 91 S.Ct. 814. While the Center's arguments were impressive, they were to some extent contradictory-that the programs would have a massive adverse effect on welfare recipients, and that there were so few employables and employment opportunities that the programs could not prove anything. Ascertainment by actual demonstration whether the latter claim is true would itself be a legitimate objective. Moreover, as previously indicated, we think the Secretary could properly give weight to the fact that the programs were of limited duration and would remain under the on-going supervision (with the power to terminate approval) of HEW. Experience will be the best test of the reality of appellants' fears, and a strong showing would be required to demonstrate that the Secretary could not properly subject them to it. In this respect, appellants ask us to administer a prophylaxis against possible adverse results from the Secretary's determination far beyond the limited review outlined in Overton Park. Whether we would have been convinced by the State's case if we had been in the Secretary's shoes is immaterial. The court is not empowered to substitute its judgment for that of the agency. Overton Park, supra, 401 U.S. at 416, 91 S.Ct. at 824. 50 Still another set of objections by the individual and welfare organization appellants is that the Secretary had inadequate information concerning many details. However, the material furnished by the State in justifying the programs and applying for approval 27 adequately covered the policy, budgetary and logistical essentials, and the statute-speaking in terms of an otherwise unfettered judgment-does not require that, before the Secretary approves an experiment, every i must be dotted and every t crossed. A more important objection is that the material before the Secretary affirmatively showed the incapacity of state and local welfare and employment agencies to take on this added task. New York City eagerly joins in claiming it cannot do the job the State has assigned it. Appellants call attention to the phrasing of a letter from HEW's Assistant Administrator, Research and Administrations, to the Center saying only: 51 We have no reason at this time to assume that New York will be unable to carry out the provisions of the demonstrations 52 and argue that this is a far cry from a finding that the ability exists. But this case does not involve adjudication required by statute to be determined on the record after opportunity for an agency hearing, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 554(a), to which alone the requirement of findings, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 557(c), applies. Moreover, the same letter continues: 53 A major purpose of the evaluation will be to assess the administrative feasibility of IFI and PSWOP. 54 If, for example, the programs succeeded in some districts and failed in others, this might reveal whether a difference in the quality of administration was the reason and whether increased expenditure on or better organization of administration was essential. Only if the materials showed such administrative incapacity as to negate any appreciable possibility of success would the Secretary's approval be arbitrary and capricious. This was not the case. Rather, as indicated in our summary of HEW's review, supra, HEW, as conditions to implementing the programs pursuant to its November 1971, and June 1972 approvals, demanded assurances of the State's capacity to perform, with which it was presumably satisfied. 28 55 Appellants' final statutory claim 29 is that the Secretary's action is ineffective because it did not expressly waive compliance with 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(19), which requires every State plan to provide for the prompt referral 30 of certain welfare recipients to the Secretary of Labor for participation in the WIN program. It is not immediately apparent from the language of Sec. 602(a)(19) whether this merely demands such a program, which the New York State AFDC plan has, or outlaws any other state work program, as held by a three-judge court in this circuit in a decision, Dublino v. New York State Department of Social Service, 348 F.Supp. 290 (W.D.N.Y.1972), now on appeal to the Supreme Court, consideration of jurisdiction postponed to hearing on the merits, 41 U.S.L.W. 3391 (Jan. 16, 1973); see also Jeffries v. Sugarman (S.D.N.Y.1972), an appeal from which is now pending before this court; Woolfolk v. Brown, 325 F.Supp. 1162 (E.D.Va.1971), aff'd 456 F.2d 652 (4 Cir. 1972). If the Supreme Court should reverse or seriously restrict the holding in Dublino, appellants' argument would be largely drained of force. However, it would be quite improper for us to endeavor to anticipate the Court's decision, and we think it undesirable to decide an issue now pending before that Court and this if decision can be avoided. We believe it can be. 56 The stick in the WIN program is the provision, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(19)(F), whereby individual aid may be reduced (or, in one instance eliminated) whenever an individual has been found by the Secretary of Labor to have refused without good cause to participate in a project established under the program, or has refused without good cause to accept employment in which he is able to engage which is offered through public employment offices of the State, or is otherwise offered by an employer if the offer of such employer is determined, after notification by him, to be a bona fide offer of employment. Although on their face the two latter provisions, the first of which would be here applicable, do not seem to be limited to employment procured through the WIN program, in which event waiver of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(19) clearly would not be required here, they appear to have been generally read as limited to persons participating in WIN programs see e. g., Woolfolk v. Brown, supra, 325 F.Supp. at 1169, and we shall assume, without deciding, that this is what they mean. However, there is force in the defendants' contention that the Secretary's waiver of the basic requirement for payment of assistance to all eligible individuals, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(10), includes waiver of any further conditions to eligibility implicit in the program. It is clear, both from the entire context and from specific references in the materials before him, that the proponents and opponents of the projects and the Secretary were well aware that the PSWOP and IFI work programs differed in some respects from WIN; indeed their very purpose was to provide employment for AFDC recipients not participating in a WIN program. It would elevate form over substance to issue a temporary injunction against the operation of these projects until the Secretary went through the formality of adding 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(19) to the list of sections compliance with which was being waived.