Public Welfare

As Minnesota Attorney General, Walter Mondale played a key role in rallying 23 state attorneys general to sign a brief in favor of Clarence Earl Gideon, an indigent defendant who argued that the lower courts had deprived him of his constitutional rights when they refused to provide him with an attorney. The following year-1963-the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states have a constitutional obligation to provide counsel to indigent defendants in a criminal trial.

Senator Mondale continued his advocacy for legal services for the poor in the United States Senate. Early in his Senate career, he supported the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and its inclusion of legal services: "The legal profession and the public are rapidly coming to the awareness that the protection of the law has often been effectively denied the poor. In many communities the provision of legal services to the poor .... promises to bring justice to people who have never known the law except as an oppressor." Throughout his career, he continued to advocate for legal services for the poor, insisting that without "elementary justice" and legal representation, "the right to certain constitutional rights is a mockery for millions of Americans who cannot afford to be represented before the courts of our land."

In 1969 Senator Mondale introduced the Legal Services for the Poor Act, as a separate title under the Economic Opportunity Act. The Legal Services Program established by the law became endangered by Senate action giving governors veto power over the operation of legal services in their state and by the Nixon administration's attempt to completely dismantle the program. In response, Senator Mondale introduced legislation to establish a National Legal Services Corporation as a politically independent entity: "While the legal services program has survived past attacks on its independence, its integrity, and its capacity to provide full legal representation to the poor, each challenge has drained the program's energy and diverted its resources. As long as the program remains vulnerable to political attack or manipulation, the damage will grow worse until it could be fatal. Our legislation is designed to insulate this vital program from political interference-and in so doing, to insure its integrity and independence."

In 1971 President Nixon vetoed a bill establishing the Legal Services Corporation. The Legal Services Corporation was finally established in 1974 with the passage of H.R. 7824. Senator Mondale supported the bill with some reluctance, as it fell short of the politically independent entity he had envisioned: "I deeply regret that only in this way have we been able to assure the continued operation of the legal services program. And I await the day when national leadership will once again view its principal goal not as protecting the vested interests of the few, but rather as promoting the legal rights of all Americans."

In 1968 and again in 1969, Senator Mondale introduced the Domestic Food Assistance Act. He also served on Senator McGovern's Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Senator Mondale and other members of the committee gained a first-hand understanding of hunger and poverty by visiting impoverished areas of the country, gathering thousands of pages of testimony, and interviewing hundreds of witnesses at hearings. "The real cause of hunger and deprivation," observed Senator Mondale, "is the powerlessness of the poor, a powerlessness resulting from our desire to hold the poor in a guardian-ward relationship."

At times, our paternalism is benevolent. Often, it is abusive. But always it carries the self-seeking tone of wanting to do minor good works while preserving the power and the institutions of the dominant society. And in the end, those who are made dependent upon our continued interest and our voluntary sacrifices remain miserable and hungry.... It is the powerlessness of the poor which results in the hunger we are discussing today-not ignorance or lack of will. I have never yet met a hungry person who liked it that way. But unlike us, they cannot do anything about it. Until the poor have power-political power, legal power, and most of all purchasing power, they will stay poor and they will stay hungry.

In a contentious exchange with Casper Weinberger, the Secretary of Housing, Education, and Welfare, Senator Mondale questioned the department's eligibility standards for welfare. He produced figures showing that the administration's welfare regulations incentivized welfare dependency: "How can you consider it reasonable to define the term 'potential recipient' in such a way that those potentially on welfare must be poorer than those actually on welfare? ... It seems to me we are going the wrong way." His questions prompted the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to "reexamine key positions of its regulations that will govern a $2.5-billion program of social services."

In 1967 Senator Mondale introduced The Full Opportunity and Social Accounting Act. The bill was "designed to give ... a clear and precise picture of how well we are doing in our efforts to provide a decent life and full opportunity for all Americans." He believed the government needed "new tools to assess our efforts and progress in the area of social reform." One of the "tools" the bill sought to establish was a Council of Social Advisers (based on the Council of Economic Advisers) that would gather data on the performance of social programs and would present its findings to the President. Senator Mondale believed strongly that the Council would be instrumental in helping the President determine sound public policy. The 1967 bill failed to gain Congressional support. He introduced similar legislation in 1969, 1971, and 1973. Despite strong support from experts, the news media, and the public at large, the legislation was never passed.

Senator Mondale applauded the creation of the Urban Coalition and its "voice that is intent on shaping governmental programs for the poor." He introduced legislation that focused on neighborhood revitalization in urban areas and gave communities more control to improve their neighborhoods. Senator Mondale introduced the Homeowner's Loan Act in 1974 and 1975 to help homeowners who faced the possibility of foreclosure, and he added amendments to the Emergency Housing Act of 1975 that were designed to achieve the same goal. He was angered by President Ford's veto of the Emergency Housing bill: "I only wish the President had read my mail on this subject before he decided to veto this bill. I wish he would have read the letters from hundreds of Minnesotans who are literally terrified at the prospect of foreclosure. I wish Mr. Ford would have listened to their calls for help." In response to the veto, Senator Mondale introduced the Emergency Mortgage Relief Act of 1975. A similar bill (the Emergency Homeowner's Relief Act) passed that helped delay mortgage payments for the unemployed, but Senator Mondale was disappointed by the failure of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement it: "Once again, the Ford administration has shown its unwillingness to help the victims of unemployment. Once again it has shown a lack of compassion for those hurt most by this Nation's economic distress."

Senator Mondale introduced legislation to improve social and medical programs in rural areas and to continue rail service to rural communities. In 1970 and 1971 he introduced the Community Medicine Act, improving the quality and availability of medical care in rural communities lacking adequate medical services. When President Nixon's proposed budget for 1974 cut community health programs, including the Northlands Regional Medical Program in Minnesota, Senator Mondale decried the President's actions as "yet another example of the administration's lawless disregard for the constitutional responsibilities of the Congress."

He argued that the abandonment of rural railroads would be "the beginning of a disastrous process that could eventually disrupt the rural economy, kill many communities and cause chaos in the national transportation complex." When he introduced the Rural Rail Preservation Act of 1974 he criticized the federal government for "hastening the demise of America's rural transportation system" and he argued that "we ought to carefully evaluate the ... impact of abandonments on employment and business opportunities for rural community residents."

In defending Medicaid, Senator Mondale stated that "high quality comprehensive health services should be the right of all Americans, not the privilege alone of those with the ability to pay for them." He supported a bill introduced by Senator Williams (D-NJ), nicknamed "Preventicare," providing for health screening to anyone over the age of 50 and he introduced and sponsored legislation that made health care more available to rural communities. In addition, in 1972 he introduced S. 3046, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Act of 1972, providing for more research, development, training, and public education in those fields. When the Nixon administration proposed reducing funds for medical research, Senator Mondale responded: "It seems incredible to me... that a nation willing to expend billions of dollars on defense procurement and supersonic transports lacks the will to support desperately needed research on cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, or heart, respiratory, and neurological disease. It seems equally incredible that we, as a nation, lack the resources to invest in the well-being of our citizens through supporting the educational development of every person capable of becoming a member of the health profession."

Senator Mondale was a strong and vocal advocate of the Job Corps, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), vocational rehabilitation, and worker safety. He submitted numerous articles and letters supporting the Job Corps. When President Nixon announced his decision to "hastily close" half of the Job Corps centers, Senator Mondale responded with legislation that deferred the closing of any Job Corps center until Congress had the opportunity to review the program.

He was a firm supporter of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, arguing that it was "one of the most important, carefully developed, and humane measures that has been before the Senate since I came here almost 7 years ago.... We can never measure adequately what successful rehabilitation can mean in personal terms to the handicapped and their families. We can only imagine the great pride and sense of security which developed when a handicapped person knows that he is self- sufficient." When the Senate failed to override the President's veto, Senator Mondale called it "one of the most disappointing votes I have observed in the Senate in a long time."

Senator Mondale was one of four senators to introduce the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1969. While he recognized the controversial nature of the legislation, he stressed the need to pass it due to the fact that "it is estimated that 55 workers die every day because of the failure to have adequate occupational health and safety legislation; that 14,000 Americans lose their lives every year because of the failure to have the kind of legislation we should take up today; and that 2.5 million workers suffer serious and permanent disability because of the failure to have this kind of legislation." President Nixon signed the bill into law on December 29, 1970.