quality:correction, information:extraction, information:filtering, information:highlighting
Background

The 2014 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says the first true block grant was in 1966. In 1949, first Hoover Commission 's 1949 report recommended the creation of "a system of grants" based "upon broad categories—such as highways, education, public assistance, and public health—as contrasted with the present system of extensive fragmentation." The Eisenhower Administration (1953–1961) created "block grants in the health and public welfare fields". In the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was able to consolidate "child health and welfare, vocational education, and vocational rehabilitation areas" into block grants for public health. But most proposals for block grants repeatedly met rejection in the 1950s. Reasons included a political misalignment between federal and state levels, concerns about a lack or reduction of federal controls, and that giving states wider latitude in spending would be a "more effective and efficient use of public funds."