of Management and Budget in the Office of the President has, in
the words of the statute, authority to "review and submit comments
upon the Corporation's annual budget request at the time it is
submitted to the Congress." But the provisions of the Act make
clear that the Corporation is to come directly to the Congress
with its considered judgment on funding needs.

Finally, and perhaps most significant, nothing in the realm

of legal assistance for the poor should be taken for granted except
the importance of legal assistance itself. Every aspect of every
program will be evaluated fully and carefully, and every effort
will be made to examine various means to provide quality legal
services on the most efficient and effective basis. All members

of the Board of Directors accepted their responsibilities with

that understanding. So did I.

The Need for Legal Services

Approximately 29 million poor people live in this country today. They are unable to afford any legal services. These are the "eligible clients" within the meaning of the Corporation's enabling statute.

Studies made by the American Bar Foundation, and developed more fully in analyses by the Bureau of Social Science Research, indicate that approximately 23% of these 29 million people have a legal problem each year. To provide the most minimal service, two lawyers are required for each

10,000 poor persons. (By contrast, 11.2 lawyers per 10,000 persons serve the nation's population as a whole.)

Only a small fraction of the poor have even this minimal service. Nearly 12 million live in areas where they have no access at all to legal

aid programs.

The mail that the Corporation receives every day puts life into these

cold statistics.

-- an Alabama woman who receives public assistance

totaling $160 a month for her family of five has written for help
in her divorce proceedings: "I called Montgomery to find out if
they have a legal aid I can obtain one through, but they do not have
one. It seems unfair that some states have them....

a New Jersey mother wants help for her son who responded to an ad for "free burial plots for Vietnam Vets" and now finds

himself $1100 in debt.

a Kentucky minister, a diabetic with acute hypertension,

on total disability, writes that he has "been turned down three times on my social security and we cannot afford to keep hiring lawyers. Would love to know if there is any way you could help a citizen of

the United States."

Those people need legal assistance. Some of them wrote to the President, and he referred them to us. In each of these cases, and hundreds more like them, we have to write back and say, "We are sorry, but the Corporation does not fund a legal services program in your community." Even in areas "covered" by legal services programs, most poor persons do not have access to help when they need it. The Corporation has assumed responsibility for 258 legal services programs operating in 638 offices throughout the country. Those programs have been involved in an estimated one million cases each year. Yet empirical studies have shown that among the 17.25 million poor persons living in the areas served by these programs, some four million legal problems arise every year. Three out of four of those problems are unattended, because the programs do not have adequate resources. Since 1971, inflation has increased their costs by 30.8 percent, but there was no money to pay those costs and the result has been a sharp reduction in services to clients.

The Corporation has been corresponding with a man in western

Massachusetts who seeks help from the legal services program in his county. In 1971, the program could have helped him. But rising costs forced the program to limit services to residents of two cities within the county. This man lives in another smaller town only a few miles away. He cannot get help.

The map that is reproduced at the end of this testimony illustrates

how uneven and inadequate legal services to the poor are in this country today. The vast unshaded areas on the map are completely without legal assistance. Only a few areas offer adequate coverage.

Justification for the Corporation's Fiscal 1977 Request

The Corporation's budget request is designed to deal with these disparities. As detailed in the formal budget submission, which you have received, we have developed a four-year plan to provide at least minimal assistance at a level equivalent to two lawyers for 10,000 poor persons throughout the country. Fiscal year 1977 marks the first critical step in implementing that plan.

The bulk of the increase that we have requested, $26.4 million, will be used to provide legal assistance programs where none exist today, or

where services are more theoretical than real

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as in Georgia, where only

one legal aid attorney is available for every 22, 700 poor people in the state.

We have already identified many more needs than can be met with that $26.4 million, and we have carefully designed a procedure for maximum effective use of an increase of that magnitude.

First, each regional office of the Corporation has been reviewing

the needs for services with the poor in various communities, with public officials and private organizations, and with state and local bar associations. Second, many applications for funding new programs have already

been received, and are being carefully considered. In addition, our Regional Directors are determining whether programs may be feasible in areas where

no group has yet formed to submit a new application, but where the need for

services is critical.

Third, the Corporation is taking all of the recommendations from the

Regional Directors and will allocate funds based on two overarching priorities: (1) Priority will be given to regions that have the least coverage and, within regions, to states that are the least well served. (2) Priority will be given to new programs that can establish the most efficient management units for serving the largest number of poor people. Such programs can generally provide services more effectively, and they will be given preference.

Obviously, no final decisions can be made until Congress has decided on the level of funding for the Corporation for fiscal year 1977, and until we have had further consultation with the communities, the bar, potential clients, and other interested groups. But we are ready to move forward as soon as we know how much money for new programs will be available. Most of the remaining increase we are requesting, $13.48 million, will be used to meet the critical needs of existing programs. A substantial share of that amount

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$7.18 million

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will provide an increase of about

10% for programs, to be used to meet urgent office and personnel requirements.

An equalization fund of $4.5 million will be used to provide additional support for the most seriously underfunded and understaffed legal aid offices. Throughout much of the South, Southeast, and Southwest, the average expenditure is less than $2 per poor person living in areas where there are legal aid programs. Some of the programs in the Midwest are also grossly underfunded. The result

unequal access to justice

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is obviously unfair

to the poor in those areas, and the equalization fund will enable the Corporation

to move toward eliminating that discrepancy.

Finally, the Corporation will use a relatively small amount

to meet special situations in which a relatively modest amount

of money will substantially improve the lawyers' ability to assist their clients.

Examples include the consolidation and merger of existing programs to provide more efficient management and a higher quality of assistance.

The Corporation has kept its requests for other priority needs to an
The items listed are all, in our considered judgment,

absolute minimum.

required to ensure that the legal assistance provided is of high quality, and

also needed to find more efficient and effective ways to deliver legal assistance at the lowest possible cost. We are convinced that substantial economies may be possible through the use of paraprofessionals, and better training and technical assistance, as well as through the use of various delivery systems. The funds requested under these categories are essential if the requirements of the Act are to be carried out with maximum efficiency and economy.

Response to the Action of the House Appropriations Subcommittee

Action Approving $110 Million

Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Justice, Commerce, and the Judiciary approved $110 million of the Corporation's fiscal year 1977 request. We appreciate the fact that the Subcommittee was working within serious budgetary constraints, and that it did agree to a figure substantially above the Corporation's fiscal year 1976 funding level. We have carefully reviewed our budget projections to assess the impact of that proposed reduction in our request.

Very simply, an appropriation of $110 million would make it virtually impossible for the Corporation to undertake significant expansion into areas of the country where the poor have no legal services. Any expansion into those areas could be accomplished only at the expense of equally pressing needs of existing programs. The Corporation could fund a program in a previously unserved area only by postponing support for critically under