CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE
February 19, 1969
Page 3894
S. 1090 -- INTRODUCTION OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1969
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I introduce, for appropriate reference, a bill to authorize funds to carry out the purposes of title V of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, as amended, and for other purposes.
In title V of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, the Congress authorized the establishment of Regional Economic Development Commissions to initiate and coordinate economic development programs for multistate regions whose economies lagged behind that of the Nation as a whole. In 1966 and 1967 five such commissions were established, serving the six New England States, the Upper Great Lakes region, the Ozarks region, the Coastal Plains region in the Southeast, and the Four Corners region. These Commissions are provided Federal assistance by the Secretary of Commerce for their administrative expenses and necessary research and planning activities.
In amendments to title V enacted in October of 1967, the Congress provided the Commissions with authority to initiate supplemental grant programs to enable them to begin on a modest scale the important task of spurring their regional economies. In addition, the Congress directed the Commissions to develop comprehensive long-range economic plans which would define regional needs and priorities and serve as the basis for the development of programs addressed to those needs. During the past 2 years the Commissions have made substantial progress in complying with that congressional directive, and have developed specific programs and projects to carry out their development plans.
The primary purpose of the bill I am introducing today is to enable the Commissions to implement the programs and projects developed under their comprehensive long-range economic plans. It would:
First, extend for 1 year, through fiscal year 1971, the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to provide technical assistance to the regional Commissions; existing authority expires at the end of fiscal year 1970;
Second, extend for 2 years, through fiscal year 1971, the authority of the Commissions to carry on supplemental grant programs; existing authority expires at the end of fiscal year 1969; and
Third, provide additional authority and funds to enable the Commissions to carry out activities developed under the long-range comprehensive economic plans approved by the Secretary of Commerce.
Mr. President, in title V of the Public Works and Economic Development Act the Congress laid the foundation for a new form of cooperation between the Federal Government and the States through which their combined resources could be brought to bear on problems which are regional in nature, but relate directly to national goals and objectives. The regional Commissions – consisting in each instance of the Governors of the States involved and a Federal co-chairman --
have the responsibility for administering and implementing this cooperative venture.
The long-range plans developed by the regional Commissions, when approved by the Secretary of Commerce, represent agreement by both Federal and State Governments on what needs to be done and the apportionment of responsibilities for doing it. Now the regional Commissions need authorization to carry out their plans in accordance with the objectives of the Congress in the enactment of title V of the Public Works Act.
Senator JENNINGS RANDOLPH, the distinguished chairman of the Public Works Committee, has introduced a bill which would extend the supplemental grant authority of the regional Commissions for 1 year. I have joined with others in cosponsoring that bill. However, in my judgment, renewed supplemental grant authority alone does not provide adequately for the implementation of the comprehensive long-range plans of the regional Commissions. Since we have directed the Commissions to develop projects particularly suited to the needs of their regions, we have the responsibility to enable them to act on the same basis. This bill provides the necessary authority and funds for the regional Commissions to move forward to implement their plans. I hope that this bill will be given early and favorable consideration by the Senate, and that it will receive final approval by the Congress, in order that the Commissions can move forward with constructive development programs.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and a summary of its provisions be printed in the RECORD at this time.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the bill and analysis will be printed in the RECORD.
The bill (S. 1090) to authorize funds to carry out the purposes of title V of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 as amended, and for other purposes, introduced by Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and other Senators), was received, read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Public Works, and ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
S. 1090
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Regional Development Act of 1969".
Sec. 2. Section 505 of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 is amended by
(a) in subsection (b), striking out the second sentence and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "Thereafter, such expenses shall be paid 50 per centum by the Federal Government and 50 per centum by the States in the region, except that the expenses of the Federal Cochairman, his alternate, and his staff shall be paid solely by the Federal Government. The share to be paid by each State shall be determined by the Commission. The Federal cochairman shall not participate or vote in such determination.", and
(b) in subsection (c), striking out "June 30, 1970" and inserting in lieu thereof "June 30, 1971"'.
Sec. 3. Section 509 of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 is amended by
(a) in subsection (c), striking out "in existence on or before December 31, 1967," and
(b) striking out in subsection (d) "the sum of $5,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1968, and the sum of 7610,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969", and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "the sum of $10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years ending June, 30, 1970, and June 30, 1971".
Sec. 4. Section 510 of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 is amended by redesignating such section as section 511 and inserting after section 509 the following new section 510:
"FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR CARRYING OUT COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PLANS
"Sec. 510. (a) The Secretary shall provide funds to each of the Federal Cochairmen of the regional commissions to enable the commissions to carry out activities included within comprehensive long-range economic plans approved pursuant to section 503 (a) (2). Activities assisted under this section shall include programs and projects in the fields of natural resources, agriculture, education, training, health and welfare, transportation, and other fields related to the purposes of this Act (including research, planning, and demonstration activities and the acquisition of land or the construction or equipment of facilities). No such program or project shall be implemented until (1) the regional commission involved has approved such program or project and determined that it meets the applicable criteria under section 504 and will contribute to the carrying out of the plan, which determination shall be controlling, and (2) the program or project has been approved by the State member of the Commission in whose State the program or project will be carried out.
"(b) In order to promote maximum efficiency and to avoid duplication of facilities and personnel, Federal departments and agencies having an interest in the subject matter of activities assisted under this section are hereby authorized, to the extent not otherwise prohibited by law or incompatible with the objectives of similar categories of programs or projects, to carry out such programs or projects at the request and on behalf of the regional Commissions. The Commissions are directed, to the maximum extent practicable, to enter into such cooperative agreements or arrangements as may be necessary to enable such Federal departments and agencies, or agencies of State or local government, to carry out programs and projects assisted under this section.
"(c) The Federal portion of the cost of the acquisition of land or the construction or equipment of facilities in connection with any project assisted under this section shall not exceed the percentage established by each commission for such costs, and shall in no event exceed 80 per centum thereof.
"(d) Financial assistance under this section shall be provided solely out of funds specifically appropriated for the purpose of carrying out this section, and shall not be taken into account in the computation of allocations among the States made pursuant to any other provision of the law.
"(e) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary, to be available until expended. for each of the regional commissions for the purposes of this section $20,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1970, and $30,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1971:
The analysis presented by Mr. MUSKIE is as follows:
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1969
Section 1 provides that the Act may be cited as the Regional Development Act of 1969.
Section 2 amends section 505 of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to
(a) make clear that the administrative expenses of regional commissions shall be shared 50-50 by the Federal Government and the States, and that the Federal Government will bear the full cost of the administrative expenses of the Federal Cochairman and his staff, and
(b) authorize the appropriation of $15,000,000 for fiscal year 1971 for technical assistance (including administrative expenses and research and planning funds) to the regional commissions.
Section 3 amends section 509 of the Act to
(a) make all Federal grant-in-aid programs assisting in the acquisition of land or the construction or equipment of facilities, whenever enacted, eligible for supplementation under section 509, and
(b) authorize the appropriation of $10,000,000 for each regional commission for supplemental grants for each of the fiscal years 1970 and 1971.
Section 4 adds a new section 510 to the Act authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to provide funds to the Federal Cochairmen to carry out activities included within comprehensive long-range economic plans approved by him pursuant to section 503 (a) (2). Activities assisted would include programs and projects in specified fields related to the purposes of the Act, including research, planning, and demonstration activities, and the acquisition of land or the construction or equipment of facilities. No program or project could be implemented until (1) the regional commission had approved the project and determined that it met applicable criteria under section 504 and would contribute to the carrying out of the plan, and (2) the project had been approved by the State Member of the Commission in whose State it would be carried out.
In order to avoid duplication of facilities and personnel, Federal agencies having an interest in the subject matter of activities assisted under the section would be authorized to carry out programs or projects at the request of the regional commissions. The commissions would be directed, to the maximum extend practicable, to enter into such cooperative agreements as may be necessary to enable Federal agencies, and agencies of State or local government, to carry out their programs and projects.
There would be authorized to be appropriated for each regional commission $20,000,000 in fiscal year 1970 and $30,000,000 in fiscal year 1971 to carry out activities included within approved comprehensive economic plans.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join in cosponsoring the Regional Development Act of 1969, introduced today by Senator MUSKIE. The bill offers vital and urgently needed amendments to the title V regional Commission program under the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, and I welcome the opportunity to help sponsor it.
The original title V program was an important beginning -- but only a beginning -- toward solving one of the most crucial problems confronting many areas of the country, the problem of finding new ways to coordinate growth and development in various regions having significant economic, social, and cultural ties that transcend State and local boundaries.
I have insisted many times that we must eliminate the excessive fragmentation and decentralization that have so long destroyed any effective effort at coordinated development in the New England area and other parts of the Nation.
As long ago as 1953, President Kennedy, in his first year as a Senator, recognized that the problem cannot be solved without the coordinated efforts of governmental and private organizations. And he stated:
No Federal programs can solve the problems of the New England economy without action on the State and local level. Indeed, no governmental program can do the job without assistance from private agencies, organizations, and industries..... As the New England Council has often pointed out, and as experience has shown, community leadership and community spirit are of the utmost importance in maintaining the economic prosperity of an area.
A decade later, in 1965, I emphasized to the Massachusetts Legislature that the two most important problems facing the State were the need for greater revenues and the need for coordinated regional deveiopment of the entire New England area.
The States of New England have the oldest continuous system of democratic government in the world. But the era of isolated actions and programs by individual States in the area is past. I urged the legislators of Massachusetts to sound a call in Boston that would be heard throughout New England not only in Boston, but also in Portland and Providence, in Concord, Montpelier, and Hartford. At that time, we first began to plan a major cooperative program to coordinate the development of the region. Subsequently, when I spoke to President Johnson of our program, he assured us of his support for the regional approach.
We then began to lay the early foundation of our regional development program. We documented our common problems: Persistent economic and social ills, especially in the areas of poverty, housing, employment, and education; the departure of dominant industries, leaving in their wake people too specialised in their labor skills to find new employment; the severe pollution of our streams and rivers, as well as other pervasive blights that have marred our beautiful open spaces and forests, our lakes and coastal areas; and power and transportation networks that have served prior generations well, but that we have failed to bring into the mid-20th century.
In response to the need to promote areawide programs, Congress enacted the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 and the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965. In those statutes, Congress shifted the emphasis it had traditionally placed on Federal aid programs.
Before, essentially exclusive reliance had been placed on programs designed to rescue single localities. Now, emphasis was placed on coordinated programs to develop entire regions. At last, the Congress began to grasp the reality that particular localities cannot go it alone, that they can effectively upgrade themselves only by participating in programs to upgrade others with overlapping interests and problems.
Late in 1965, we, the New England Senators, strongly urged the Secretary of Commerce to designate our six States as an economic development region under the title V program of the Public Works and Economic Development Act. In March 1966, Secretary of Commerce Connor approved the designation of the six New England States as a title V region. Subsequently, in early 1967, the New England Regional Commission was formally established and began to function.
Our Commission acted immediately to provide research and studies of the broad range of problems facing the New England region. By the end of fiscal year 1968 -- after 15 full months of operation -- the Commission had carried out eight major studies, ranging from a comprehensive economic analysis of key industries in the region, to specific studies of such problem areas as regional transportation, pollution, human resources, and urban development.
Continuing into fiscal year 1969, the Commission has authorized further studies in important additional areas, such as health, government services, and rural development. In addition, the Commission has financed significant demonstration projects in the areas of health, manpower, and housing.
In spite of its auspicious start, however, I believe that the regional Commission program has not yet fulfilled the promise with which it was launched. In part, the fault lay in the original enabling legislation, which was too narrow in scope to allow the regional Commissions to operate effectively.
In October 1967, the Public Works and Economic Development Act was amended in two significant respects:
First, the act was amended to authorize the regional Commissions to carry out supplemental grant programs, under which the Commissions can help State and local governments that are unable, because of economic circumstances, to supply the full matching shares required for assistance under certain other Federal grant programs. Although some of the regional Commissions have used the supplemental grant provision to promote essential projects that could not otherwise have been funded in their areas, it appears that the provision in its present form has frequently been of only marginal utility. In many cases as it has turned out, the various Federal aid programs have already been too tightly budgeted to accommodate applications under the supplemental grant provision. As a result the program has not yet had an adequate opportunity to realize its potential.
Nevertheless, it is important to retain the supplemental grant provision in at least its present scope. One of the significant provisions of Senator MUSKIE'S bill is that it will accomplish this result. I hope that in future hearings on the bill, we shall be able to detect the flaws in the present form of the supplemental grant program and eliminate them in our legislation.
In the second, and by far the more important of the 1967 amendments to the Public Works and Economic Development Act, the regional Commissions were required to prepare a comprehensive long-range economic plan for their areas. I welcomed that amendment because it offered the opportunity for the regional Commission program to move beyond the study and demonstration project stage, into the area of comprehensive regional planning that has proved so effective in other Federal aid programs.
The 1967 amendment, however, was not adequate to fully reap the promise of the title V program. No one can deny the need for planning, research and study of regional problems, but the time is long past when funding should have become available for action programs. I believe that the regional Commissions must be given new authority to carry out the plans they have prepared, and to expand their demonstration projects into regionwide programs for the benefit of all citizens in the area.
Senator MUSKIE'S bill makes a significant contribution toward meeting this need, because it amends the 1965 act by adding a new substantive provision authorizing regional Commissions to make action grants for innovative programs in their respective areas.
It is not clear, however, that even this new authority will be enough. For too long, we have taken too shortsighted an approach to the problem of regional development. Our approach has been piecemeal. One step at a time, we have sought to amend the 1965 act to avoid its most glaring deficiencies.
I believe the time has come for a comprehensive reexamination of the entire title V program. For more than 3 years, we have gained extensive experience under that program. It is clear, however, that we are ready to do more. We are now in a position to make a fundamental reappraisal of the title V program. We should treat the 1965 act as a pilot program, on which we can build new and more enduring legislation that will enable the concept of regional development to bear full fruit.
There is an obvious precedent for such action, a precedent that closely parallels the chronology of the present case. In September 1965, we passed the Law Enforcement Assistance Act, a modest program of Federal aid to State and local law enforcement. Last year, profiting by 3 years of experience under the 1965 act, we enacted title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which provides a comprehensive program of Federal planning grants, action grants, and research grants to assist State and local law enforcement. As we have all recognized, the new safe streets program has immense potential for combating crime throughout the Nation. It also offers us a guidepost by which the experience of the title V economic development program can be transformed into more effective legislation.
There are many goals that we can seek to accomplish through expanded regional development programs. Many of the proposals that I have most strongly urged in the New England area in recent years can be carried out once the title V program is appropriately enlarged. For example,
we can implement an effective regionwide transportation policy, especially in the case of high-speed rail transportation and improved intraregional airports and air transportation.
We can implement effective programs for comprehensive control of the environment, including control of air and water pollution, open space and beautification programs, and new approaches to problems of urban and rural development.
We can implement a comprehensive plan for regional health centers and for the delivery of health and medical services to all parts of the New England region, especially in its sparsely populated areas.
We can improve the training and flow of skilled manpower, especially for disadvantaged individuals and minority groups in the area.
We can undertake a broad program to develop new towns in the area.
We can establish substantial new programs to train officials of State and local governments, with special emphasis on the use of modern techniques and information for planning and providing basic governmental services.
Programs such as these, of course, are not peculiar to the New England area alone. Regional development is a concept that can produce fertile programs in all parts of the country, and it is time for the Senate to take broad action to encourage such programs.
I therefore welcome Senator MUSKIE'S bill to upgrade the regional Commission program, not only because it removes a major deficiency in the underlying legislation, but also because it offers us the opportunity to take a fresh new look at the entire problem of regional coordination and development. I am happy to lend my support to these efforts, and I look forward to the day when we can achieve the goal of the cause I have advocated for so long.