Speech #960277155

I am trying to save a little money at this point in what I think generally is a fine measure. I am urging my colleagues to strike from the $321.300.000 earmarked for the Legal Services Corporation $8.600.000. That sum is not specifically identified in the amendment. but it is the equivalent of the sum spent on the Legal Services for the migrants program. which is a formula expenditure based on the total amount appropriated and the number of migrants served. I have generally supported the Legal Services Corporation. Mr. Chairman. and it is with great reluctance that I have concluded that only in this way can I call attention to what I believe to be a rather serious abuse of the Legal Services Corporation in its handling of the migrant program. In my area we have a modest amount of migrant labor. It is. of course. made up largely of poor people. although some probably would not qualify as such. Most of the year they live at different places in the United States and are subject to the benefits of the Legal Services Corporation in their home States. [ 1440 When they are concentrated in one location for the purpose of performing farm labor. a great concentration of Federal services are provided them. Federal and State services. if I may say so. While they are in that neighborhood. they are also eligible for the benefits of local law such as the local welfare system. In my area we have found from bitter experience that the Legal Services Corporation members have tended to focus their attention on the migrant group in such a way that their performance has been quite disruptive. As a matter of fact in one of my counties this past year. as a result of long experience of contention between the Legal Services Corporation. growers and local agencies as well as the other Federal agencies. I secured from the Law Enforcement Assistance Act a grant which was to establish a mediation services among these various contending agencies. all seeking to press their services upon the migrants during the limited period of time they were there for the potato harvest. Cooperation was outstanding among all the agencies except the Legal Services Corporation which took a position with respect to these migrants that since they were their clients they could in no way compromise their rights by participating in a mediation service designed to make those rights flow smoothly. coordinate with the services provided by other Federal agencies. The effect of this has been one of contention. disruption. and a harvest of very serious ill will for all the Federal agencies striving to provide services to the migrant population during the limited period of time they are in my area. Consultation with some of my colleagues has led me to believe this is true almost all over the country. In the lower Hudson Valley a similar experience has occurred.