Domestic Volunteer Service Act Amendments of 1979

Domestic Volunteer Service Act Amendments of 1979 - Amends the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 to revise the conditions under which volunteers may be advanced end-of-service stipends.

Eliminates the ten percent limitation on funds appropriated for service-learning programs which may be used to encourage and enable students in secondary and post-secondary schools to participate in programs other than the University Year for ACTION program.

Authorizes the Director of the ACTION Agency to provide financial support for short-term, part-time volunteers who are enrolled for 20 hours or more per week for 26 or more consecutive weeks. Allows full-time volunteers enrolled for a full year in special volunteer programs to be eligible to receive stipends and allowances, not to exceed those paid to VISTA volunteers.

Establishes under the Act a new program to be known as the Urban Volunteer Programs. Authorizes the Director to make grants to and contract with and enter into cooperative agreements with public agencies and private nonprofit organizations for projects to carry out such programs, including an Urban Volunteer Corps and a Good Neighbor Fund.

Authorizes the Director, with the concurrence of the mayor or other chief elected governmental authority of an urban area, to designate and provide financial assistance to a lead agency for Urban Volunteer Corps projects: (1) matching needs of local governments and neighborhood groups with volunteers who possess needed skills; and (2) developing a resource bank with listings of locally recruited, part-time volunteers. Authorizes grants for other Urban Volunteer Corps projects to: (1) provide personal and group financial counseling to low- and fixed-income individuals, particularly the elderly; and (2) reduce the necessity of institutionalization and ameliorate the residential isolation of the elderly, the handicapped, or others. Requires that such grants be either administered by such a lead agency or approved only after consultation with the mayor or other chief elected official.

Authorizes the establishment of a Good Neighbor Fund" program to provide, either directly or through lead agencies, grants to urban nonprofit organizations to assist communities: (1) to reimburse out-of-pocket expenses of volunteers; and (2) to provide volunteers and neighborhood groups with materials and administrative support. Requires such grants to be made only after prior consultation with the mayor or other chief elected official. States that the maximum amount of grants under such program shall be $15,000.

Forbids the denial of any Government assistance to any volunteer who otherwise qualifies for such assistance by reason of the fact that such person refuses to seek or accept employment or training during the period of volunteer service in a Federal antipoverty program.

Declares specified part-time antipoverty volunteers to be Federal employees for purposes of the Hatch Act, the Internal Revenue Code, title II of the Social Security Act, the Federal Tort Claims, and the Federal Employees Compensation Acts. Makes the Federal Tort Claims Act the sole available remedy of an individual making a medical malpractice claim as a result of actions by a health care volunteer.

Includes discrimination against the handicapped as a disqualification for financial assistance to any program under the Domestic Volunteer Service Act.

Makes the policies and remedies of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Age Discrimination Act applicable to volunteers and applicants for volunteer services in any ACTION program.

Requires the Director to take necessary action to reduce the paperwork required under the Act.

Authorizes appropriations through fiscal year 1981 for National Volunteer Antipoverty Programs.