Action: Consolidate 55 categorical grant programs with funding of $12.9 billion into six broad "flexible grants"--in job training, education, water quality, defense conversion, environmental management, and motor carrier safety.50 This proposal came from the National Governors Association (NGA) and National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which describe it as "a first step toward broader, more ambitious reforms." It would consolidate some 20 education, employment and training programs, with a combined $5.5 billion in fiscal year 1993 spending; roughly 10 other education programs ($1.6 billion); 10 small environmental programs ($392 million); six water quality programs ($2.66 billion); and six defense conversion programs ($460 million). ********************************** How Much Do You Get for a 1983 Toyota? What does the price of a used car have to do with the federal government's family policies? More than it should. Caseworkers employed by state and local government to work with poor families are supposed to help those families become self-sufficient. Their job is to understand how federal programs work. But as it turns out, those caseworkers also have to know something about used cars. Used cars? That's right. Consider this example, recounted to Vice President Gore at a July 1993 Progressive Foundation conference on family policy in Nashville, Tennessee: Agencies administering any of the federal government's programs for the poor must verify many details about people's lives. For instance, they must verify that a family receiving funds under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) does not own a car worth more than $1,500 in equity value. To give a poor family food stamps, it must verify that the family doesn't own a car worth more than $4,500 in market value. Medicaid specifies a range that it allows for the value of a recipient's car, depending on the recipient's Medicaid category. But under food stamp rules, the car is exempt if it is used for work or training or transporting a disabled person. And under AFDC, there is no exemption for the car under any circumstances. Recounting that story to a meeting of the nation's governors, the vice president asked this simple question: "Why can't we talk about the same car in all three programs?" ***************************