🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear friends and colleagues:

I am passing on a detailed message about the need to prevent deep cuts in the
NLS.  The letter is followed by a sample support letter and a list of House
and Senate addresses for people willing to write in support of continued
funding of the surveys.

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I am writing to seek help in preserving the National Longitudinal Surveys of
Labor Market Experience (NLS).  Recent unfavorable indications from the budget
and appropriations process suggest we need NLS users, as well as members of
the broader social science community, to help prevent serious funding cuts in
the NLS, cuts that could endanger the future of the program.

While the original appropriation for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) had
an increase for FY 93, their budget was reduced by the House Appropriations
Subcommittee for Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies.  Moreover, there
is reason to fear the BLS appropriation may be treated more adversely on the
Senate side.  Acting as Commissioner following Dr. Janet Norwood's resignation,
Mr. William Barron has tentatively identified the NLS as one of a handful of
programs that would be subject to serious cuts to meet the budget reduction at
BLS.  In order to prevent this we must make our case in Congress.

Our immediate need is for all past and present users to help us insert language
on the Senate side that protects the NLS from disproportionate cuts and have
that language accepted by the conference.  Please write to Senator Tom Harkin
of Iowa (chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and
Education) and voice your support for the NLS; if your state is represented on
the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, write your own senator as well.  (We
include a list of subcommittee members on both the Senate and House sides.
When available, we have included FAX numbers.)  If your state is not
represented on the Appropriations subcommittee, please write your senators
asking them to intercede with Senator Harkin (and/or Senator Spector, the
ranking minority member).  Likewise, if your representative or a representative
from your state is on the corresponding House appropriations subcommittee,
please write them and ask them to support equal treatment of the NLS when the
bill goes to conference.  These letters can be short and to-the-point.  Since
the Senate subcommittee will be working on the appropriation on or about
September 10 with a conference very shortly thereafter, and we have had little
warning, these letters should be sent out quickly.  If you are willing, I would
appreciate copies of any letters you send and a copy to William Barron would
also be helpful (see address sheet).  I have also attached a copy of a letter I
have written that may give you some ideas.  Insofar as you can use your own
words the impact of the letters will be greater, showing more concern and
commitment by the writers.

Senator Harkin is known to be more interested in "people" rather than
statistics, so emphasize the use of the NLS to guide policy decisions and to
track the need and contribution of programs.  Your letter will be especially
effective if you can mention your own policy relevant work and state that while
you do not have a financial stake in the program, you feel the NLS is important
to deal with the nation's social agenda.

I hope you will help us overcome this threat.

                Sincerely,

                Randall J. Olsen
                Professor of Economics
                Director, Center for Human Resource Research
                921 Chatham Lane, Suite 200
                Columbus, Ohio  43221-2418
                (614) 442-7348
                FAX: 614-442-7329
                OLSEN@OHSTHR.BITNET


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The Honorable John Glenn
United States Senate
503 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.  20510-3501

Dear Senator Glenn:

        I write to seek your assistance in preserving a data collection program
important to policy makers and researchers throughout the United States, the
National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLS).  This program,
funded by the Department of Labor, was threatened with elimination about seven
years ago, but intervention by the Congress saved the program.  However, the
NLS project is once again in jeopardy.  In response to the recent House
appropriation for Labor, HHS and Education, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has
indicated the NLS may be subjected to unusually deep budget cuts.  We ask that
the Labor, HHS and Education appropriation bill instruct BLS not to single out
the NLS for severe cuts but to change NLS funding to track the overall BLS
general funds appropriation.

        The NLS is a valuable tool for policy makers as demonstrated by the
use of the data in two thousand studies, including studies for the Senate Labor
and Human Resources Committee, the Senate Subcommittee on Children, Family,
Drugs and Alcoholism, and reports to Congress by HUD, CBO, GAO, and the Office
of Technology Assessment, among others.  In addition, the NLS has provided the
raw material for frequent testimony before congressional committees.  Besides
being used within the Department of Labor, the NLS is also the central data
resource in a new policy analysis program at the Social Security
Administration.  By interviewing the same people every year, the NLS provides
an indepth, nationally representative look at the whole-life experience of
Americans, supplying vital information for studying unemployment, retirement
and pensions, substance abuse, and the social, intellectual, emotional and
physical development of children.  The NLS data is the only data set that
collects data linking the child to such factors as maternal and family
background, poverty, community characteristics, and the school environment.
These background factors can be associated with important markers of child
development; substance abuse, adolescent fertility, and math and reading skills
are all related to the ability of the nation's youth to move into productive
positions in the labor force, or to lapse into poverty and social difficulty
that may, in turn, adversely affect the prospects of their own children.

        We recognize that we must all tighten our belts and work more
efficiently in the current budgetary climate, and we feel NLS users are
prepared to share our common sacrifices.  However, severe cuts in the NLS will
seriously disrupt a data collection program that has been going on since 1966
and has been characterized as a "national treasure" at a conference on the NLS
sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  The NLS costs less than $7
million.  This program requires continuity if the data are to be available when
needed.  With the increasing concern for social conditions and the development
of the nation's children, it seems unwise and not in the national interest to
cut the NLS severely.

          In this way the NLS will share in the necessary sacrifices that must
be made without threatening the integrity of this vital national resource.

Sincerely,

Randall J. Olsen
Director and Professor of Economics
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Labor -- Health and Human Services -- Education


The Honorable William H. Natcher (Kentucky)
United States House of Representatives
2333 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-1702

The Honorable Neal Smith (Iowa)
United States House of Representatives
2373 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-1504

The Honorable David R. Obey (Wisconsin)
United States House of Representatives
2462 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-4907

The Honorable Edward R. Roybal (California)
United States House of Representatives
2211 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-0525
FAX:  202-226-1251

The Honorable Louis Stokes (Ohio)
United States House of Representatives
2365 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-3521
FAX:  202-225-1339

The Honorable Joseph D. Early (Massachusetts)
United States House of Representatives
2349 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-2103
FAX:  202-225-3181

Bureau of Labor Statistics
Mr. William G. Barron, Jr.
Deputy Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Suite 4040
2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC  20212-0001

The Honorable Steny H. Hoyer (Maryland)
United States House of Representatives
1705 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-2005
FAX:  202-225-4300

The Honorable Robert J. Mrazek (New York)
United States House of Representatives
306 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-3203

The Honorable Carl D. Pursell (Michigan)
United States House of Representatives
1414 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-2202

The Honorable John Edward Porter (Illinois)
United States House of Representatives
1026 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-1310
FAX:  202-225-0157

The Honorable C.W. Bill Young (Florida)
United States House of Representatives
2407 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-0908
FAX:  202-225-9764

The Honorable Vin Weber (Minnesota)
United States House of Representatives
106 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515-2302
FAX:  202-225-0987

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SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies



The Honorable Tom Harkin
United States Senate
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-1502
FAX:  202-224-7431

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
United States Senate
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-4801

The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
United States Senate
125 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-4002

The Honorable Quentin N. Burdick
United States Senate
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-3401
FAX:  202-224-1193

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
United States Senate
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-1102

The Honorable Dale Bumpers
United States Senate
229 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-0401

The Honorable Harry Reid
United States Senate
324 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-2803
FAX:  202-224-7327

The Honorable Brock Adams
United States Senate
513 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-4703
FAX:  202-224-0238

The Honorable Arlen Specter
United States Senate
303 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-3802
FAX:  202-224-1893

The Honorable Mark O. Hatfield
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-3701


The Honorable Ted Stevens
United States Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-0201

The Honorable Warren B. Rudman
United States Senate
530 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-2902

The Honorable Thad Cochran
United States Senate
326 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DLC  20510-2402

The Honorable Phil Gramm
United States Senate
370 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-4302

The Honorable Slade Gorton
United States Senate
730 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-4701
FAX:  202-224-9393
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                           END OF SENATE LIST