CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE August 23

programs which cannot be assumed by

others, and second, on the conviction

that others should begin to assume the

full responsibility for the cost of con- struction and improvement of civil airports.

Over the past two decades, more and more airports have progressed to the

point of self-sufficiency. Aviation generally has achieved a state of maturity

in which the users should be expected to

pay an increasing share of airport costs.

With the continued growth of aviation

and the application of sound management principles, the progress toward airport self-sufficiency should continue.

I recognize that there will doubtless be a transitional period during which the

Federal Government will be required to

provide aid to urgent airport projects

which are essential to an adequate na- tional aviation facilities system and

which cannot be completed in any other

way. However, this bill does not provide

for a transitional program. Rather, it

sharply increases the level of the existing program. It does not provide for aid

to the most urgent airport projects, but

continues the current allocation formula

which is not related to broad national

aeronautical needs.

The existing program continues

through June 30, 1959, so no community

will be hurt by the withholding of ap- proval of this legislation. At the next

session of the Congress, the administration will recommend a transitional program to provide aid for the construction

of urgent airport projects that are es- sential to an adequate national aviation

facilities system.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER.

THE WHITE HOUSE, September 2, 1958.

AREA REDEVELOPMENT BILL

S. 3683. I am withholding my approval

from S. 3683, the area redevelopment bill.

Every year for the past 3 years I have

strongly urged the adoption of a program

of Federal assistance to communities of

substantial and persistent unemployment for the purpose of assisting those

communities to develop a sounder and more secure economic base. I regret that no action along these lines has been

taken by the Congress until this year and, needless to add, I am greatly disappointed that I find myself unable to approve the present bill.

My disapproval need cause no unnecessary delay in initiating a sound area as- sistance program. Even the unsound

program contemplated by S. 3683 could

not be of immediate help to any com- munity because the Congress, before adjournment, failed to provide any money

to carry out the bill's purposes. Until

the next session of the Congress, the

needs of areas of severe and persistent

unemployment can be met in part

through the new program of loans to

State and local development companies under the Small Business Investment Act

of 1958 which I recently approved.

The repeated recommendations of the

administration recognized that the major responsibility for planning and financing

the economic redevelopment of commu- nities of chronic unemployment must remain with local citizens if Federal programs are to be effective. The present

bill departs from this principle, and

would greatly diminish local responsibility. In doing so, and in including

other undesirable features, it defeats any

reasonable chance of giving effective help

to the communities really in need.

S. 3683 provides for less local participation in the costs of local development

projects than is proper or necessary to

stimulate and assure the continuing interest and support of local governmental

and private interests. The administration recommended loans, for periods of

25 years, in amounts not exceeding 35

percent of the cost of redevelopment

projects. S. 3683, on the other hand,

provides for loans for such projects for

periods of 40 years, at artificially low

interest rates, in amounts up to 65 percent of the total cost of a project.

S. 3683 proposes in addition a program

of Federal grants for public works in re- development areas under which it would

be possible to have no local participation

whatever. Moreover, the criteria for

making these grants are so loosely drawn

that, without indiscriminate use of

funds, administration of these provisions

would be almost impossible. This is a

field in which, if the Federal Government participates at all, it should be

able to rely upon local judgments backed

by significant local contributions.

S. 3683 is also defective in my judgment because its assistance in certain

instances, would be available in areas in

which unemployment is traceable es- sentially to temporary conditions. Federal assistance to communities where un- employment is not clearly chronic would

necessarily mean the assumption of re- sponsibility by the Government for the

direct support of local economies-an as- sumption of responsibility that would

have the most profound consequences.

I also believe it would be a grave mistake to establish, as this bill would, an area assistance program in the Housing

and Home Finance Agency. Such a program should be lodged, not with an agency concerned with residential housing and related matters, but rather with

the Department of Commerce which has

primary responsibility for business and

industrial development and a long experience in extending,to local areas technical aid for economic development.

S. 3683 also contemplates a Federal

redevelopment assistance, including

loans, in rural areas. There is serious

question as to whether Federal loans for

the construction of industrial buildings

in rural areas would be a proper or effective approach, much less a permanent

one, to the problems of surplus labor in

essentially agricultural communities.

It is my intention next January when

the Congress reconvenes to request the

Congress to enact area assistance legislation more soundly conceived to carry

out the purposes which I have repeatedly

stressed as being in the national interest.

It Is my hope that Congress at that time

will move with all possible speed to enact

such an area assistance program.

DWIGHT D.'EISENHOWER.

THE WHITE HOUSE, September 6, 1958.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1958

The House met at 11 o'clock a. m.

T e Chaplain, Rev. Bernard Braskamp,

D. D., offered the following prayer:

Jude 25: To the only wise God, our

Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion

and power, both now and forever.

Almighty God, our Father, we are again humbly uniting our minds and

hearts in the fellowship of prayer to

worship and adore Thy great and holy

name.

We pray that Thou wilt bestow the

benediction of Thy peace and the diadem

of Thy praise upon our President, our Speaker, the chosen Representatives of our Republic, and all who have served

during this 85th Congress in whatever

capacity.

May we have within our hearts the

joyous testimony that we have sought

to fulfill the duties and responsibilities

of our high vocation with a pure and

steadfast devotion.

Grant that we may leave this Chamber, commending and committing one another to Thy love and care and wth

the assurance that where Thou dost

guide Thou wilt also provide.

May the Lord bless us and keep us;

may the Lord make His face to shine

upon us and be gracious unto us; may

the Lord lift upon us the light of His

countenance and give us peace.

Hear us in the name of the Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read and approved.

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE

A message from the Senate, by Mr.

McGown, one of its clerks, announced

that the Senate had passed, with

amendments in which the concurrence of the House is requested, a bill of the

House of the following title:

H. R. 13580. An act to increase the public debt limit.

The message also announced that the

Senate agrees to the amendments of the

House to a bill of the Senate of the

following title:

S. 3683. An act to establish an effective

program to alleviate conditions of substantial and persistent unemployment and un- deremployment in certain economically depressed areas.

The message also announced that the

Senate Insists upon its amendments to

the bill (H. R. 7450) entitled "An act to

make the Policemen and Firemen's Retirement and Disability Act Amendments of 1957 applicable to retired for- mer members of the Metropolitan Police force, the Fire Department of the

District of Columbia, the United States

Park Police force, the White House Police force, and the United States Secret

Service; and to their widows, widowers.

and children;" disagreed to by the

House; agrees to the conference asked

by the House on the disagreeing votes

of the two Houses thereon, and appoints

19588