A project was undertaken to develop a concise restatement and rationale for the basis of a federal role in vocational education and to provide the back-up data supporting the cooperative relationship between the federal role and the subsidiary roles in vocational education. The project's activities were achieved by the work of an eight-member study team that developed a final report concerning the basis for a federal investment in vocational education. Delivered along with the report was a 10-page annex that summarized recent literature on the topic of federal involvement in vocational education. The success of the project is evident from the fact that the project report was in use even before it emerged in its final form. The report has already been utilized to elaborate the federal role in vocational education, to provide a basis for omitting vocational education from the Vocational Education Consolidation Act, and to establish a rationale for reauthorizing legislation. (Author/MN)