Lateefah Simon: “I confess, I have mixed feelings about this bill. There are good things in it. One-stop shopping makes a great deal of…”

“I confess, I have mixed feelings about this bill. There are good things in it. One-stop shopping makes a great deal of sense. Labor market information makes a great deal of sense. My staff, who know more about the Adult Vocational Rehabilitation Act than I do, tell me that provision is very, very sound. And I like the idea of consolidation of programs. We have multiplied too many programs. There is just no question about that. I have to say, I am less than completely enthusiastic about just having block grants to the States. Some years ago we consolidated some education programs and one of those was the school library program. During the whole Depression, not a single library in this Nation closed. But, after we consolidated the school library program into the block grants to the States on education, over half of the school libraries in the State of California, for example, have closed. This idea of simply giving block grants to the States is not one that I am wildly enthusiastic about.”