The floor has proven to be essential to assure VISTAs survival. In fiscal year 1983. it was the existence of the floor. and only the existence of the floor. that allowed a legal opinion from GAO restoring $1 million to VISTA after the Agency misappropriated it for administrative purposes. Second. although I have no doubt that the amendment is well intentioned. any argument that the funding floor jeopardizes the Agencys new initiatives in areas such as refugees. literacy. alcohol and drug abuse. Vietnam veterans leadership program. and hunger would have no merit. In reality. it is VISTA funding. not part C demonstration grant money. that has been used by the Agency to develop and support these priority areas. Let us look at the record for fiscal year 1983 for each of those areas. On problems of refugees. ACTION demonstration grants in fiscal year 1983 provided absolutely no funding. I repeat: No funding. VISTA resources. however. were used to provide more than 140 fulltime volunteers to 25 projects in 16 States to work on refugee problems. And I would like to remind my colleagues that a VISTA worker is not really a VISTA employee but in reality a VISTA volunteer earning a gross salary of $95 a week on average and on call 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. For literacy work. an area in which this administration has expressed a particularly strong interest.
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refugee refugees