The Funding of Social Knowledge Production and Application: A Survey of Federal Agencies (1978)

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8 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: Introduction The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) is the largest departmental funder of social knowledge production and appli- cation activities in the federal government—obligating more than $700 million in fiscal 1977. The department was established in 1953 when the government's human service programs were consolidated into a cabinet-level unit. Several HEW agencies, however, date back to the 1800s; the Office of Education, for example, was established in 1867 to collect and disseminate statistics about education. The social knowledge production and application activities of HEW have several striking characteristics. First is the large amount of re- sources devoted to social knowledge production and application in the department. HEW obligates nearly 40 percent of the federal govern- ment's social knowledge production and application total. In fiscal 1977, the department obligated more than 2.5 times that of the second- largest departmental funder of social knowledge production and application—the Department of Agriculture. A second characteristic of HEW is its diversity. Several agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, have strong in-house re- search units, while other agencies, such as the Office of Human Devel- opment Services, rely almost exclusively on extramural funding. The department supports a diverse set of activities—social experiments, longitudinal data studies, econometric modeling, large-scale demon- stration projects, etc. Third, the department is characterized by the predominance of "third parties" as the major audience for its social knowledge produc- 132

HEW: Introduction 133 TABLE 8-1 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Social Knowledge Production and Application by Primary Goal or Audience (fiscal 1977, Smillions) Total Obligations for Social Knowledge Production and Percentage of Goal or Audience Application Obligations Improvement of federal programs 77.8 10.8 Improvement of federal policies 54.6 7.6 Knowledge for third parties 454.7 63.3 Advancement of knowledge 95.1 13.2 Statistical collection 35.7 5.0 TOTAL 717.9 99.9 Numbers may not total due to rounding. tion and application activities. Table 8-1 shows that more than 60 percent of the department's total knowledge production and applica- tion is produced for third parties, such as state and local decision makers and professional practitioners (teachers, social workers, hospi- tal administrators, etc.). In many ways, HEW is the prototypical social R&D department. The department confronts many of the problems of social R&D, problems such as obtaining third-party input into the de- partment's social R&D agenda and effectively disseminating the re- sults. The department is discussed in Studies in the Management of Social R&D: Selected Policy Areas, volume 3 in the Study Project series. SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION ACTIVITIES Table 8-2 presents the distribution of the department's social knowl- edge production and application activities. The largest category is re- search, accounting for one-third of the department's total social knowledge production and application. The second-largest category is policy formulation demonstrations. The policy formulation category includes the social experiments conducted by the Office of the Assist-

134 SURVEY OF FEDERAL AGENCIES TABLE 8-2 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Social Knowledge Production and Application Activities (Smillions) Activity Fiscal 1975 Fiscal 1976 Fiscal 1977 Knowledge production Research Policy formulation demonstrations Program evaluation General purpose statistics Total Knowledge application 230.3 (33.5? 165.3 (24.1) 33.0 (4.8) 30.6 (4.4) 459.1 (66.8) 242.7 (33.3) 155.3 (21.3) 38.4 (5.3) 37.3 (5.1) 473.7 (64.9) 242.5 (33.8) 144.2 (20.1) 38.0 (5.3) 35.4 (4.9) 460.2 (64.1) Policy implementation demonstrations 107.0 130.0 120.5 (15.6) (17.8) (16.8) Development of materials 55.9 61.9 54.5 (8.1) (8.5) (7.6) Dissemination 65.2 63.8 82.6 (9.5) (8.7) (11.5) Total 228.1 255.7 257.7 (33.2) (35.1) (35.9) TOTAL 687.3 729.4 717.9 (100.0) (100.0) (100.0) Numbers may not total due to rounding. "Numbers in parentheses are column percentages. ant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The third-largest category is policy implementation demonstrations, which are largely funded by the Office of Education and are aimed at disseminating successful proce- dures to local schools. It is interesting to note that the department's ratio of knowledge production to knowledge application is nearly two to one, almost the same as that of the government as a whole. ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT Figure 8-1 presents an organizational chart of the department. The chart reflects reorganizations that took place in the department throughout 1977.

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136 SURVEY OF FEDERAL AGENCIES TABLE 8-3 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Agencies that Support Social Knowledge Production and Application: Profile (fiscal 1977, Smillions) Total Social Knowledge Production and Application Agency Obligations Office of Human Development Services 65.2 Public Health Service 268.0 Social Security Administration 27.7 Education Division 313.0 Health Care Financing Administration" Office of the Secretary Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation 34.6 Components reorganized in 1977 Social and Rehabilitation Service 9.4 TOTAL 717.9 "Not surveyed. Table 8-3 lists major HEW components and their fiscal 1977 social knowledge production and application obligations. The Health Care Financing Administration was created in 1977 and thus was not in- cluded in the survey; it is responsible for the Medicare and Medicaid programs and related federal medical care quality control programs. The Health Care Financing Administration assumes some of the knowledge production and application activities previously conducted by the Social Security Administration and the Social and Rehabilitation Service. The Social and Rehabilitation Service was abolished in 1977, and its responsibilities were split between the Office of Human Devel- opment Services, the Social Security Administration, and the Health Care Financing Administration. POLICY AREAS Table 8-4 presents the HEW agencies categorized by policy areas. Over 98 percent of the department's knowledge production and application activities is in the human resources policy area, the largest categories of which are education (44 percent) and health (41 percent). The re- maining activities occur primarily in the income security and social service policy areas.

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