March 11, 1971
Page 6242
Mr: RANDOLPH. Mr: President, I spoke earlier of the Senators on the Public Works Committee who have given so much attention to the overall aspects of the bill and to the effort to improve the economy throughout the country.
The Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE), who is the ranking majority member of the committee, is not able to be present this afternoon, but he left with me a statement, and I ask unanimous consent at this time for the privilege of having it inserted in the RECORD at this point of my remarks.
There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
STATEMENT BY SENATOR MUSKIE
Mr. President, I support with enthusiasm the pending legislation, S 575, to extend the Appalachian Regional Development Act. And I want to commend Senators Randolph, Montoya, and Cooper, of the Public Works Committee, for their efforts and leadership in strengthening and extending this legislation.
The Appalachian Regional Commission, established in 1965, was a landmark experiment in regional development.
Today, five years later, the Commission has not solved all the problems set before it; yet it has made significant strides toward improving the economic outlook of the Appalachian states.
The successes of the Appalachian Regional Commission are evidence that regional cooperation in administering categorical grants can have a substantial impact on economic development.
Its failures are witness only to the enormity of the difficulties in stimulating economic growth.
We know that the time has come for the formulation of growth policies which transcend state and local political boundaries and look beyond isolated economic problems of a single locale – policies which are broad in scope and oriented toward the realities of regional economic independence.
The Appalachian program is a model of such an approach. I hope that we will put to good use the lessons learned from this experiment and strengthen other regional efforts at economic development.