SMALL COMMUNITIES ACT OF 1978: Dr. E. F. Shumacher has noted that "sma'l is beautiful". Unfortunately, until very recently, most Washington officials have not Small communities are especially impacted recognized the importance of the small comby federal grants procedures, as they tend to munity. There is growing awareness of the have fewer resources that permit them to re- importance of the small community as evispond to requests, regulations, rules, audit denced by the creation of the Congressional procedures, etc. Special treatment has been Rural Caucus, a special council within the given in a few instances in the past to small League of Cities; a full-time staff person communities. But there is a growing need working on small community matters within to give specific attention to the serious and the National Association of Counties; a comincreasingly complex problems that face most mittee created within the National Governors' Association headed by Governor Hunt small communities. of Towns and Various purposes are to be met by this act. of North Carolina; the recent activities of These include the minimization of regula- the National Association tions and rules, eliminating reports, simpli-Townships; and the recent attention to small fying and standardizing programs, providing in the Community Block Grant program and for certification of across-the-board require- in President Carter's urban policy. Most national policy-makers define ments, advance funding, and simplified financial management procedures. "small community" as one which is less than There is a tremendous demand for funds 50,000 in population. Some federal officials from the federal government by small com- have gone even further and decided that a munities that far exceeds the amount of township of under 100,000 is "small". In cerfunds available. The burdens imposed on the tain instances, the figure used to charactersmall communities in applying for and re- ize a "small" town is still more remarkable. The Department of Transportation, for exceiving and in maintaining the programs once funded are much greater than larger ample, released a report last year entitled communities face. A higher percentage of Small City Transit, which used a population program cost must be spent in meeting audit- of 200,000 to distinguish "small" cities from ing standards, reporting requirements, plan- nities Act of 1978" defines a small community other larger localities. The "Small Commu ning, etc. Therefore, special treatment of Can programs be simplified and standard ized? Will all "across-the-board requirements" be administered with flexibility? as being made up of 50,000 people. Definitions are also given for the following terms: administrative action, agency and office. Federal agencies and departments have often required State and local grant recipi ents to satisfy burdensome and overlapping requirements. In an effort to simplify the re porting necessary to meet these require ments, consolidation of major sources of to small city grant programs would be degeneral national policy objectives applicable veloped by a single federal agency. The Small Communities Act of 1978 will reorganize the executive branch of the government to provide for a more effective In order to expand the Presidential effort and efficient utilization of resources by small to gather together for the first time these communities. Specifically, the act will define small community, permit "across-the-board" of citizen participation, labor practices, pubcross-cutting requirements within the areas certificates of compliance, provide for small lic employer standards, equal services, access community set-asides for all federal pro- to government information prohibiting disgrams which provide domestic assistance for crimination in employment by State and the purpose of aiding small communities, each amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 local governments, procurement, planning, providing for advance funding of programs relocation and real property acquisition, and providing financial assistance for State and environmental quality protection, the local governments, provide for five-year pro- Act identifies a single agency for jections of new budget authority and outlays for State and local governments, encourage consolidation of federal grant programs, provide for the appointment by the President of three elected officers of small communities to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, provide for flexible grants formulae, provide for regulatory flexibility and provide for small community crosscontracts. Small communities, interpreted broadly to include cities, counties, towns, townships and special districts, include 98 out of 100 of all State and local governments. Over 62% of the U.S. population lives in communities under 50,000. A small proportion of the federal grants to State and local governments is received by these small communities and the few grants that are received by the small communities pose a heavy burden on them in terms of auditing standards, reporting requirements and across-the-board requirements. Therefore the time has come for a systematic review of the problems facing small communities and based on this review, solutions to the basic problems that small communities fate should be designed and imple mented. of these subject areas. Small communities would certify that they satisfy these reporting requirements. All other federal departments would then accept the certification by small communities to these agencies as satisfying any requirements mandated by statute or regulation. In future statutes, the federal agency responsible for setting national standards would have to be designated in any legislation setting forth general national policy objectives applicable to small community grant programs. The Act provides for systematic review by the President of the separately administered State and local government grant programs. If he finds that program should be consolidated, he may submit to the Congress in a manner similar to the Executive Reorganization proposals, a plan for consolidation of current federal statutes which will allow small communities to apply for funds from a single source whereas today they must apply to five, six or even a dozen agencies or departments for aid. Small communities set-asides are also provided for in this legislation. It provides for a single cash grant to small communities in lieu of grants presently received if the small community desires such an option. These funds would be set aside as a part of current allocations of block grant or categorical grant programs. The grant would be based on the average of the last two years of federal funding. The small community would receive these funds for five years and would not have to meet any federal requirements or standards. The financial management title of this act authorizes policies needed to improve the management of federally assisted programs administered by State and local governments. This title recognizes the capacity of State and local governments while at the same time sufficiently protecting the Federal Government's interest. Flexible grants formulae are provided for small communities through a process of consultation between representatives of small communities, Congress and the Executive Branch. Regulatory flexibility is provided by this | act for small communities. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget may provide for the waiver of any rule, regulation, or order of any instrumentality of the U.S. government in order to accommodate the special needs of small communities. This section recognizes the importance of waivers and/or flexibility of regulations, rules, requirements placed on small communities with the particular objective of making it easier for them to conform to the above. Small communities would be allowed under this act to contract with other units of government that may be better able to meet their need and federal requirements. The regulations and procedures implementing this section would be established by the Director of OMB. 95TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3277 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 11 (legislative day, MAY 17), 1978 Mr. DANFORTH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred jointly to the Committees on the Budget and Governmental Affairs with instructions. A BILL To reorganize the executive branch of the Government to pro vide for the more effective and efficient utilizations of resources by small communities, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That this Act may be cited as the "Small Communities Act 4 of 1978". 5 6 TITLE I-FINDINGS AND PURPOSES Sixty-two per centum of the people in the United States 7 live in small communities. Over 96 per centum of all State' 8 and local governments are small. A very small portion of 9 Federal grant dollars distributed to State and local govern10 ment is received by small communities. Small communities II 2 1 have great difficulty complying with Federal grants proce2 dures, because they tend to have fewer resources to respond 3 to requests, regulations, rules, and audit procedures. There4 fore, a growing need exists to give specific attention to the 5 serious and increasingly complex problems that face most 6 small communities. 7 The purposes to be met by this Act are: the minimiza8 tion of regulations and rules; the elimination of unnecessary 9 reports; the simplification and standardization of programs, 10 providing for certification of across-the-board requirements; 11 the provision for funding Federal programs one year in ad12 vance; and the simplification of financial management 13 procedures. TITLE II-DEFINITIONS As used in this Act the term (1) "administrative action" includes an action, omission, decision, or recommendation of an agency; (2) "agency" means each authority of the Government of the United States, whether or not it is within or subject to review by another agency, and any officer, or member thereof acting or purporting to act in the exercise of his official duties, including the following functions: (A) housing and urban development; (B) small business; 33-313 O 78 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. 19 20 21 22 228 (C) health; 3 (D) education; (E) welfare and social security; (F) antipoverty programs; (G) veterans affairs; (H) nutrition programs; and (I) programs for the aging, but does not include (i) the President; (ii) the Congress; (iii) the courts of the United States; (iv) the governments of the territories or possessions of the United States; (v) the government of the District of Columbia; (vi) agencies composed of representatives of the parties or of representatives of organizations of the parties to the disputes determined by them; or (vii) court-martial and military commissions; (viii) military authority. (3) "small community" means counties, cities, 23 towns, townships, special districts or other communi 24 25 ties having populations of less than fifty thousand ac cording to the most recent decennial census or a valid |