Statement on Reorganization of the Manpower Administration.

A MAJOR AIM of this administration is to eliminate duplication, to consolidate functions, to bring better management to all areas of the Federal Government. Today we are announcing one of the first steps toward that objective: a reorganization of the Department of Labor's Manpower Administration.

If there is one area of Government that should serve as a model for the best use of manpower, it is the Manpower Administration. Accordingly, the Secretary of Labor has moved quickly to overhaul and to modernize operations of this $2 billion per year agency.

The new Manpower Administration will decentralize its functions; a single line of authority from Washington to the field will be established; the regional offices will assume greater responsibility; the overlapping of functions among various bureaus should largely disappear.

This administrative reform opens the door to reorganization of the Job Corps and an elimination of those phases of the program which have proved both inefficient and ineffective in meeting the problem of job training.

In the short run, as well as long run, the reforms will make for a more efficient operation; they will provide more in the way of job training for less in the way of tax dollars.