Thomas Mott Osborne: “I would like to particularly address title VIII of the Older Americans Act, entitled ``The Federal Youth Coordination…”

“I would like to particularly address title VIII of the Older Americans Act, entitled ``The Federal Youth Coordination Act,'' which has been referred to previously. I, along with Pete Hoekstra, Mr. Payne and Mr. Ford, introduced the Federal Youth Coordination Act at the request of many organizations such as America's Promise, American Youth Policy Forum, Campfire USA, Learn and Serve America, Volunteers of America, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and the Child Welfare League of America. These groups were united in feeling that something needed to be done concerning the large number of youth-serving programs in the Federal Government. So these groups believe that young people could be better served if Federal youth-serving programs were coordinated, better targeted and streamlined; and we really appreciated their help. The Federal Youth Coordination Act establishes a council chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services composed of representatives of youth-serving agencies within the Federal Government. These 150-odd youth serving programs are spread over 12 agencies, so as you might suppose, they have kind of grown like Topsy. Sometimes they duplicate. Sometimes they are not very efficient; sometimes they are. So this council simply tries to coordinate these different programs.”