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[[caption]] Bro. Ed Brooke conferring with Bro. James R. Williams, General President of Alpha Phi Alpha. [[/caption]]

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HEW Subcommittee report for FY 78 encourages HEW to give special consideration to funding disadvantaged assistance programs at Meharry.

The Senator also was successful in getting the Howard University Hospital included in both the interim and final federal End Stage Renal Disease program, pointing out that it was one of the most active kidney transplant centers in the District of Columbia and had been unfairly excluded from the program. 

Senator Brooke has taken a strong interest in the development of the Howard University Cancer Research Center, fighting for the funds needed to allow construction to begin. The Senator was the key speaker at ground-breaking ceremonies for that center in March, 1977.

The Labor-HEW Subcommittee also has jurisdiction over the annual budget for Howard University. In fiscal 1978, the approved budget level is $99.1 million, or $11 million more than the 1977 appropriation. 

In the health area, Senator Brooke has been a strong supporter of research into sickle cell disease and screening and treatment of victims. A total of more than $21 million will be made available for these purposes through the HEW budget in fiscal 1978.

Senator Brooke led the successful effort to secure increased funding for Local Initiative under the Community Services Administration which administers the anti-poverty program. His amendment, co-sponsored by several other Senators, resulted in a $39 million increase in operating funds for the 900 local Community Action Agencies nation-wide, the first increase in several years. And, last spring he received an award from the Community Action Program Directors for his efforts in this field. 

Senator Brooke also played the key role in the annual appropriation of $200 million for the emergency energy assistance program to aid disadvantaged families and senior citizens hard hit by last year's severe winter. And he has simultaneously tried to eliminate the need for fuel payment assistance by proposing expanded programs to weatherize the homes of the poor.

The Senator sees unemployment as one of the major issues. 
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Senator Brooke has consistently spoken out against a national unemployment rate that hovers around 7%. And he has found the 40% unemployment rate for black youth to be particularly appalling. For as he has stated, "The dislocation, the degradation, the anxiety and the waste of human resources, which is caused by our consistently high unemployment, are tragic."

It is for this reason that the Senator has supported massive federal job creation through Public Works Jobs Programs. These federal programs have accounted for more than twenty billion dollars in job creation moneys. However, the Senator feels that this immediate response cannot obscure the need for serious, federally sanctioned incentives to encourage job creation and training in the private sector. In view of this, he voted for the congressionally enacted two-year jobs tax credit as part of the 1977 Tax Reducation and Simplification Act. Under this provision, businesses are allowed a tax credit of up to twenty one hundred dollars ($2100) for each new employee hired in 1977 and 1978. This credit will not only create jobs but also increase the amounts if[[of]] internally retained funds held by business. 

In addition, while Brooke was pleased that President Carter has endorsed a compromise version of the so-called Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill, he was deeply disappointed that the proposed legislation does not require the Administration to take any specific steps to reach that goal. For as the Senator has pointed out, "Words alone will not solve our pressing unemployment problems."

And, indeed, Senator Brooke has provided more than mere words to the plight of our nation's labor force. Just last year during the consideration of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("The Minimum Wage Bill"), Senator Brooke introduced an amendment which reduced the number of hours restaurant, hotel and motel employees must work before receiving overtime compensation from 46 hours to 44 hours in 1978 and to 40 hours in 1979. Thus, this amendment, which affects an estimated 2.4 million cooks, dishwashers, waiters and waitresses, removes an unjustifiable and discriminatory exemption from the law.

And Brooke fights to go beyond employment for the disadvantaged to a policy which gives the heretofore dispossessed a 
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