package related programs.

Committee jurisdiction is another important

point. Finally, a review of programs authorized but not funded over a period of years would provide a basic clue as to some prime candidates

for consolidation.

While

The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, at its May 1977 meeting, called upon the Congress to reduce the number of categorical grants to state and local governments through consolidations. To further encourage serious debate on grant consolidation, the Commission urged that careful consideration be given to mergers in 24 subfunctional areas. ACIR staff has identified 172 programs in these areas with enough similarity to merit in-depth examination for possible mergers. further scrutiny may reveal that some of these programs are not good candidates, this list provides a reasonable point of departure for discussion of this much needed grant system reform. Attached is a sample of the categorical grants taken from this listing, and these further underscore the existing narrowness and overlap evident in many program areas. The fundamental need for reform of the federal assistance system cannot be disputed. Unnecessary costs, confusion, and inefficiency caused by proliferating categorical grant programs all contribute to poor service delivery and undermine citizen confidence in their government. They make a mockery of Congress' capacity to mount any real oversight efforts and they have converted the Federal domestic departments into disbursers of funds over which they have little genuine monitoring ability. What is worse, the perennial Administration efforts to standardize administratively and simplify this non-system can never succeed if the number of separate program thrusts and the range of recipients

continues to escalate. Surgery is needed to treat this patient, as well as Consolidation here is one appropriate form of

incrementalist band-aids.

surgery.

Other legislative proposals currently under consideration by this

subcommittee also would do much to cure the ills of the grant system.

But, Title V of the proposed Samll Communities Act would provide a fundamental and essential approach to dealing with these systemic problems. Efforts

to consolidate categorical programs, after all, would force those
involved to ponder which domestic efforts at this point in the history
of the Republic really need federal assistance and which ones do not.
We believe the grant consolidation approach in Title V represents an
effective and politically feasible tool for streamlining the structure
of federal grants-in-aid, and for making these programs more responsive
to the needs of state and local governments, of the people they serve,
as well as of the Nation.