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 Besides taking the lead in drafting the legislation, the Department worked aggressively on its behalf in the Congress. With strong bipartisan support, the Act passed the House, as well as the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate. Unfortunately, a crowded Senate calendar foreclosed enactment of the Youth Act in the last Congress.

The massive influx of new Caribbean entrants and refugees in 1980, together with the persistent needs of earlier Indochinese refugees, required both legislative and executive responses. The Department quickly mobilized its resources to meet the educational needs of over 60,000 Cuban and Haitian entrants who began arriving in the spring. Several heavily affected regions of the country were unprepared to provide the variety of educational services required. Comprehensive education programs were developed to help immigrants acquire the basic skills necessary to become productive members of society. The Department also worked with the Congress to pass the Stack Bill, which provided additional funding for states and local school districts dealing with refugee problems.

The legislative agenda also included work with the Congress to enact the Asbestos School Hazard and Detection Control Act of 1980. The Act provided technical and financial assistance to enable states and local school districts to identify asbestos hazards in schools, and to develop means of replacing the hazardous substance with more suitable insulation materials.

Agenda for Executive Action.—in 1980, the Department's agenda for executive action was also extensive. High priority concerns included efforts to improve civil rights enforcement, to carry out presidential initiatives, and to respond to emergency problems.

The Department of Education Organization Act explicitly recognized the importance of civil rights enforcement in the Department by creating an Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights with significant statutory independence in data collection and in personal and contracting authority. Acting in