ning factor should be the needs of the individual and of the area,
and not an arbitrary national regulation. Our bill would require
that an assessment of need be made for anyone seeking home-
delivered meals. If the person is in fact homebound he or she would
be eligible. The nutrition program would be authorized to contract
this function through existing meals-on-wheels organizations.

We also propose that the new title VII home-delivered meal program be opened to the handicapped. Now, this is going to be controversial. Some similar proposals, which have been introduced to date stipulate a maximum percentage of meals which may be set aside for the handicapped. We would recommend instead that the assessment-of-need principle also be applied to handicapped individuals who desire to participate in the program. I am recommending this because there is such a gigantic need and there seems to be no other way to meet that need. I would be willing to concede that it might be optional at the local level, but I see no reason to have a national guideline that precludes it when we are trying to give flexibility to the local groups to make this kind of decision.

With reference to the employment programs under title IX, we are going to propose that we enlarge and redefine the role of the national contractors by placing expanded emphasis on job development. The contractors can explore innovative approaches to job creation and second-career training, including work-sharing within the private sector. We hope they will work closely with labor unions, the National Alliance of Businessmen, and industrial leaders, in an ongoing effort t expand job opportunities for older Americans. The State aging and employment and training offices should work together to expand training and public service employment opportunities under title IX and under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act-commonly known as CETA. The reauthorization of CETA will be coming along in the not-too-distant future, Mr. Chairman, and I plan to introduce legislation that will address the problem of expanding job opportunities for older workers. My CETA legislation will contain a new provision which will attack structural unemployment through a comprehensive program of training, supportive services, and part-time public service employment. Such an approach, I believe, will involve prime sponsors in a search for ways to keep older Americans actively and productively involved in the economic life of their communities.

Services to the Indian elderly-I am concerned about the need to improve services for older American Indians who live on tribal reservations. I have just mentioned that we will propose amending the Indian education legislation to permit the Bureau of Indian Affairs to convert these surplus facilities into extended care facilities, senior centers, and so forth. The tribe or the nonprofit organization could apply for the use of the building. Grants from the Older Americans Act and other sources should then be made available to renovate and make these facilities worthwhile.

We are also studying a very controversial issue, and that is the issue of direct funding of the Indian Tribes. I am not today prepared to give you a recommendation. I think you will get, as a committee, from the Indian leaders of this country a strong recommendation that they be funded directly. They have a difficult time

working with the States, but I suggest that we have to look very carefully at various ways of approaching direct funding. The truth is that and it is a disgraceful truism-the longevity of the Indian people is much lower than that of the rest of Americans. Therefore, if we aren't careful, we may allocate these funds on the bases of the number of aged Indians, and it could very well turn out that such a direct funding allocated would give them even less than they are getting now.

We will work with your committee on that issue and with the Indian leaders from our part of the country.

I will conclude, Mr. Chairman, by telling you that there is a general feeling in rural America that it is more difficult and more expensive to deliver services, of the type presently permitted, to rural areas than it is in the larger cities. Therefore, we are considering ways to change the allocation formula to give some kind of a bonus to rural areas. In that one also we will be working carefully to try to come up with an approach that will be helpful and workable. The problem we have however, is that it is constantly a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We don't want to be cutting funds to cities in order to give some bonus to those States and locales with a heavy rural delivery need.

I bring it up because I know it's a problem; I know you will hear testimony on it. From my experiences in New Mexico, I believe it's quite obvious that it is much more difficult to take care of 50 senior citizens in a rural area than a similar number in an urban setting. I don't, however, have an exact recommendation at this time.

I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and ask, once again, that my prepared remarks be made a part of the record.

Senator EAGLETON. Your entire statement will be made part of the record. And thank you, Senator Domenici. I know you have played a very vigorous and participatory role in matters pertaining to senior citizens, and I know that you are a distinguished Member, and the ranking minority member on the Special Committee on Aging.

And I think you have made some useful comments and recommendations to this committee.

[The prepared statement of Senator Domenici follows:]

STATEMENT BY SENATOR PETE V. DOMENICI REGARDING THE
1978 AMENDMENTS TO THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT
BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGING, FEBRUARY 1, 1978

MR. CHAIRMAN, I AM PLEASED TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO
APPEAR BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGING TO TESTIFY ON A
NUMBER OF INNOVATIONS WHICH I BELIEVE SHOULD BE INCORPORATED
INTO THE 1978 AMENDMENTS TO THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT. AS

THE RANKING MINORITY MEMBER OF THE SENATE'S SPECIAL COMMIT-
TEE ON AGING, I HAVE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY A WIDE RANGE
OF PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS WHICH CONFRONT OLDER AMERICANS.
MANY OF THESE PROBLEMS CAN BE ADDRESSED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK
OF THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT, AND THOSE ARE THE POINTS I WOULD
LIKE TO STRESS TODAY.

I AM WORKING CLOSELY WITH SEVERAL OTHER SENATORS FROM
THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING ON A BILL WE WILL INTRODUCE
NEXT WEEK WHICH WILL EXTEND AND EXPAND THE OLDER AMERICANS
ACT FOR THREE ADDITIONAL YEARS. I WOULD ESPECIALLY LIKE TO
ACKNOWLEDGE AND THANK SENATOR PERCY FOR HIS INTEREST AND
CONTRIBUTION IN THIS UNDERTAKING. IF I MAY, MR. CHAIRMAN,
I WOULD LIKE TO OUTLINE BRIEFLY SOME OF THE MAJOR PROVISIONS
WHICH WILL BE CONTAINED IN OUR LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL.

INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY OF THE ADMINISTRATION ON AGING

OVER THE YEARS IT HAS BEEN THE GOAL OF CONGRESS TO STRENGTHEN THE ADMINISTRATION ON AGING, INCREASE ITS VISIBILITY, AND PROTECT ITS INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY IN THE FACE OF CONSTANT DEPARTMENTAL REORGANIZATIONS. OUR LEGISLATION WILL MOVE THE ADMINISTRATION ON AGING OUT OF THE OFFICE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (OHDS) AND MAKE THE COMMISSIONER ON AGING DIRECTLY

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RESPONSIBLE TO THE SECRETARY OF HEW. THIS ACTION IS DESIGNED

TO STRENGTHEN THE ADMINISTRATION ON AGING AND UNDO SOME OF

THE DAMAGE THAT HAS BEEN DONE TO IT BY THE RECENT RESTRUCTURING OF ONDS.

NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE ON AGING

IN THE 1973 AMENDMENTS TO THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT, CONGRESS
CREATED THE NATIONAL INFORMATION AND RESOURCE CLEARING HOUSE
FOR THE AGING. THE CLEARING HOUSE, UNDER SECTION 204. (a),
WAS GIVEN A MANDATE TO COLLECT AND DISSEMINATE VARIOUS TYPES
OF INFORMATION WHICH WOULD BE OF INTEREST AND ASSISTANCE TO
THE ELDERLY. IN ADDITION, THE CLEARING HOUSE WAS DIRECTED
TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL AND OTHER FORMS OF ASSISTANCE TO STATE
AND LOCAL INFORMATION AND REFERRAL NETWORKS. CONGRESS, IN
ENACTING THIS PROVISION, EXPECTED THE NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE
TO MAKE INFORMATION READILY AVAILABLE TO OLDER AMERICANS ON
VARIOUS CONSUMER CONCERNS. IT IS OUR OPINION, MR. CHAIRMAN,
THAT FOR FOUR YEARS THE NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE HAS FAILED
TO ADEQUATELY AND VIGOROUSLY CARRY OUT ITS CONGRESSIONAL
MANDATE. AS ONE WHO BELIEVES THAT MOST OLDER PERSONS CAN
SOLVE MANY OF THEIR OWN PROBLEMS IF THEY HAVE ACCURATE INFORMA-
TION IN A TIMELY FASHION, I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT AOA AND THE
NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED TO CARRY OUT

THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN A VIGOROUS AND EFFECTIVE MANNER.
MY BILL WILL SEEK TO STRENGTHEN THE CLEARING HOUSE AND REQUIRE
IT TO "GO PUBLIC" IN A MANNER THAT WILL GET THE WORD OUT TO
OUR 23 MILLION SENIOR CITIZENS THAT THEY CAN CONTACT A
SINGLE POINT AND RECEIVE VALUABLE CONSUMER INFORMATION AND

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MATERIAL ON VARIOUS GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.

FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING

DURING HIS RECENT STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, PRESIDENT
Proposed The abolition of
A

CARTER ANNOUNCED THAT HE HAD ALREADY

APPROXIMATELY 500 ADVISORY COUNCILS IN HIS ONGOING EFFORT TO STREAMLINE

AND REORGANIZE THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY.

I SHARE THE PRESIDENT'S

DESIRE TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF OUR
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, AND I SHARE HIS BELIEF THAT MANY OF THE
ADVISORY COUNCILS WE HAVE CREATED OVER THE YEARS CAN BE
ELIMINATED WITHOUT ANY DETRIMENTAL IMPACT ON THE PROGRAMS
THEY OVERSEE. IN 1973, CONGRESS ESTABLISHED A 15-MEMBER
FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING AND GRANTED IT A BROAD JURISDICTION
AS IS COMMONPLACE WITH ADVISORY COUNCILS.
IN ADDITION, THE

STATUTE REQUIRED THE FEDERAL COUNCIL TO UNDERTAKE A NUMBER
OF SPECIFIC STUDIES, SUCH AS A REVIEW OF THE TITLE III FUNDING
FORMULA, THE IMPACT OF ALL TAXES ON THE ELDERLY, AND A STUDY
OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF VARIOUS FEDERAL, STATE, AND
LOCAL BENEFIT PROGRAMS FOR THE ELDERLY. THESE STUDIES HAVE
NOW BEEN COMPLETED, ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHERS WHICH WERE UNDER-
TAKEN AT THE COUNCIL'S OWN INITIATIVE. I BELIEVE THAT THE
COUNCIL HAS SERVED WELL AND HAS HELPED GUIDE US THROUGH THE
TRANSITION TO THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE CONCEPT OF SERVICE DELIVERY
FIRST ENACTED IN 1973. THE COUNCIL HAS SERVED WELL AND EFFEC-
TIVELY, BUT THE TIME HAS COME FOR US TO TRANSFER THE ONE-HALF
MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR WE ARE CURRENTLY BUDGETING FOR THE
FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING TO THE DIRECT DELIVERY OF SERVICES.
$500,000 ADDED TO THE ELDERLY NUTRITION PROGRAM COULD PROVIDE