B'nai B'rith Women Center for Community Change (The Youth Project) Church Women United Committee for Legal Services Christian Social Relations, Women's Division, United Methodist Church Day Care and Child Development Corporation of America Department of Social Development-U.S. Catholic Conference Friends Committee on National Legislation Independent Foundation League of Women Voters of the United States Metropolitan Washington Planning and Housing Association National Board of Missions, United Presbyterian Church National Council of Churches Americans for Indian Opportunity Action Council National Council on Aging National Council of Jewish Women National Council of Negro Women National Council of OEO Locals National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers National Jewish Welfare Board National VISTA Alliance Staff Don Shall-National Student Association National Tenants Organization National Urban Coalition National Urban League National Welfare Rights Organization Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, International Union, AFL-CIO Legislative Office Planned Parenthood-World Population Rural Housing Coalition United Auto Workers United Steelworkers VISTA Citywide Tenants Union, District of Columbia Dr. A. W. Ward-Board of Christian Social Concerns of United Methodist Church1 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section Youth Citizenship Fund Youth Project Center for Community Change (Total-50: organization, 47; individuals, 3.) Mrs. HANNUM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator NELSON. Our next witness is Martha Tabor, representing AFGE Local 2677, AFL-CIO. STATEMENT OF MRS. MARTHA TABOR, AFGE LOCAL 2677, AFL-CIO Mrs. TABOR. First I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak before it. My name is Martha Tabor. I am president of Local 2677 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFL-CIO). Our local is the exclusive bargaining agent for all employees working in or out of the Washington, D.C., headquarters office of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Our purpose in coming here today to testify is not to oppose Mr. Carlucci's confirmation, but rather to raise questions which we feel should concern the subcommittee, and which deal with the future of ОЕО. Who runs OEO is not nearly so important as what direction it is running in, and whether it is running at all. I am sure the subcommittee would not like to participate in the charade of confirming individuals to positions which were about to be abolished. Recent articles in the press indicate that the following budget cuts have been proposed to the agency by the Office of Management and Budget-for fiscal year 1972, 23 percent overall cut. This breaks down to cuts of 41 percent in research and demonstration, 100 percent in VISTA, 17 percent in community action, and 100-percent cut of rural loan programs. To prepare for this coming out, OMB has proposed to the OEO that their fiscal year 1971 budget be reduced by $100 million, to prepare for this coming reduction. This stems from the nonmemo referred to previously, and by "we" I mean the union at OEO, that we understand from agency management that this negotiating process with OMB is still going on, that it is a process of give and take, that the cuts may not be so extreme. Frankly, we feel that it appears to be more give than take, that little commitment to the agency or to its goals is shown by operating officials when such cuts are proposed by ÖMB. And I would like to submit for the record a copy of our union's press release which was issued after meetings with agency management failed to answer our concerns. Senator NELSON. It will be made a part of the record. (The information referred to subsequently supplied follows:) FOR RELEASE 12/21/70 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' UNION OPPOSES DE-ESCALATION OF WAR ON POVERTY. AFGE Local 2677 (AFL-CIO), exclusive bargaining agent for all employees in the Headquarters office of the OEO, opposes budget cuts which threaten ≤0,000 jobs, 65% of which go to persons who would otherwise he poor. Disturbed over the proposed loss of jobs both for the poor and the non-poor and appalled by the implicit lack of sensitivity to or concern for the needs of the poor, Local 2677 has empowered its Executive Board to act for it in conjunction with other groups to oppose reductions in the Fiscal Year 1971 and Fiscal Year 1972 OEO budget. Tts first action has been to telegram Senator Ralph Yarborough requesting an opportunity to testify at the Senate Hearings to be held by the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare on confirmation of the newly-named ency director, Frank Carlucci. After reports on a December 18 meeting between the Deputy Director of the OEO and President Martha Tabor and Chief Steward Mickey Carriere, tne Local empowered its Executive Board to act on its behalf. No positive response to questions on the fate of VISTA (OMB proposed cut of 100%) and the Research and Demonstration budget (OMB proposed cut of 41%) was forthcoming at this meeting. After asking about OEO's funding request to OMB for VISTA, the officers were told that OEO requested full funding for the program and that an excellent presentation had been made to OMB. Informal conversations later that day with former OEO director Donald take, of negotiation between OEO and OMB, and that probably some lower level official in the OMB had been responsible for cutting the VISTA budget by 100%. "It appears to be more give than take on the part of OEO," commented one Union official. "We're concerned that those programs which have little political support will be sacrificed in a process of trading off." The administration was represented to the officers as being concerned primarily with inflation and the economy and as having requested cuts in all areas of the federal budget. It was pointed out that, in the past, when budgets are cut, marginal programs are the first to go. Despite the President's request on four different occasions for full funding for the OEO in Fiscal Year 1971, the OMB budget marks submitted to OEO include reductions of $100 million in Fiscal Year 1971 spending. Local 2677 sees these proposed budget marks as one more in a series of crises currently affecting the Office of Economic Opportunity. In November, after the firing of Legal Services Director, Terry Lenzer, and his Deputy, Frank Jones, the membership of Local 2677 voted to support the Committee on Legal Services in its fight for programs free of political interference and to request that its President testify at Sub-Committee hearings into Legal Services Programs. Local 2677 has been in contact with the AFL-CIO both because of its concern for workers, both poor and non-poor who may stand to loose their jobs and also because of labor's historic interest in and concern for the poverty legislation and the poverty programs. "The possibility of 60,000 people, 65% of whom will again be poor, being put on unemployment or welfare roles instead of being able to continue to work in |