1. Substitutes for the centralization of authority which would
otherwise become inevitable under the pressure of emerging
national problems, a sharing of responsibilities for those prob-
lems among the three levels of the federal system.
2. Enlarges the capacity of state and local governments to deal
with these problems by supplementing their resources with
federal resources.
This development has not been an unmixed blessing, of course.
Federal, state, and local administrators do not always work well
together.
These problems have been magnified by the proliferation of
grants-in-aid in recent years. As a result, there is a pressing need to
improve the planning, management, and coordination of our federal
aid activities and to assure to state and local governments a full oppor-
tunity to share in both the formulation and the administration of
programs affecting their vital interests.
The year 1967 has seen very significant progress in this direction
at the federal level.
Our Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations has continued
its series of hearings on the general subject of creative federalism,
providing a forum for governors, mayors, county managers, and
students of government to discuss at length and in depth the issues
in intergovernmental relations that have arisen in their experience.
The subcommittee has held hearings on the intergovernmental
manpower legislation. That legislation is addressed to one of the most
crucial problems of them all—the manpower gap. It provides for
grants to state and local governments to finance programs and proj-
ects for improvement of their systems of personnel administration
and to finance training for professional, administrative, and technical
personnel. It also authorizes the exchange of personnel between the
federal government and state and local governments.
Another bill before our subcommittee, on which hearings have
not yet been held, is the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, combin-
ing a number of measures to facilitate productive collaboration among
members of the federal system in the ongoing work of government.
But the most hopeful development of this year has been the re-
surgence of interest on the part of the national administration in
more effective government through closer collaboration with states
and localities.
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