An Interagency Approach to Reforming the Administration of Federal Grant-In-Aid Programs: A Case Study of the Indian Task Force of the Western Federal Regional Council
type: CreativeWork
description: The administration of public policy has always been a challenge in the United States because power is divided and dispersed on both an institutional and a regional basis. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the administration of the federal grant-in-aid programs which developed during the 1960's. Effective administration of these programs has been hampered at the intergovernmental level by the tremendous explosion in the number of grant-in-aid programs, the increasing reliance on categorical grant-in-aid programs, the confusing network of red tape, the development of a "function bureaucracy" which has alienated state and local officials, and the lack of a guiding philosophy or master plan. Many observers of these problems have called for a comprehensive restructuring of the administrative machinery. The Nixon Administration made an initial attempt to reform the administrative machinery by an Executive Order in 1969, which reorganized those federal agencies most involved with the grant-in-aid programs, within common regional boundaries with Federal Regional Councils. This study traces the historical development of grant-in-aid programs and describes the causes of the administrative and intergovernmental difficulties arising from the grant-in-aid programs established during the I960’ s. However, the primary purpose of this study is to determine the potential of Federal Regional Councils to reform the administration of grant-in-aid programs by designing and implementing interagency and intergovernmental strategies to coordinate these programs with state and local communities. This potential was determined by observing the activities of the Indian Task Force of the Western Federal Regional Council located in San Francisco, California from 1970 to 1974. Designing and implementing an interagency approach to intergovernmental relations has neither been swiftly arrived at, nor readily developed. In the case of coordinating federal grants-in-aid to Indian tribes, the Wester…
abstract: The administration of public policy has always been a challenge in the United States because power is divided and dispersed on both an institutional and a regional basis. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the administration of the federal grant-in-aid programs which developed during the 1960's. Effective administration of these programs has been hampered at the intergovernmental level by the tremendous explosion in the number of grant-in-aid programs, the increasing reliance on categorical grant-in-aid programs, the confusing network of red tape, the development of a "function bureaucracy" which has alienated state and local officials, and the lack of a guiding philosophy or master plan. Many observers of these problems have called for a comprehensive restructuring of the administrative machinery. The Nixon Administration made an initial attempt to reform the administrative machinery by an Executive Order in 1969, which reorganized those federal agencies most involved with the grant-in-aid programs, within common regional boundaries with Federal Regional Councils. This study traces the historical development of grant-in-aid programs and describes the causes of the administrative and intergovernmental difficulties arising from the grant-in-aid programs established during the I960’ s. However, the primary purpose of this study is to determine the potential of Federal Regional Councils to reform the administration of grant-in-aid programs by designing and implementing interagency and intergovernmental strategies to coordinate these programs with state and local communities. This potential was determined by observing the activities of the Indian Task Force of the Western Federal Regional Council located in San Francisco, California from 1970 to 1974. Designing and implementing an interagency approach to intergovernmental relations has neither been swiftly arrived at, nor readily developed. In the case of coordinating federal grants-in-aid to Indian tribes, the Wester…
author: Wishart, Barry Joseph
keywords: Public Policy, Indian Task Force of the Western Federal Regional Council, Federal Grant Programs, Government, American Politics
date published: 1974-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:39:59Z
provider: Claremont Graduate University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Claremont Graduate University