(d) Department of the Interior

(1) To certify to the Secretary of Commerce, as a condition precedent to approval by the Secretary of Commerce, that a proposed project in a reservation redevelopment area or resource-based redevelopment area for which financial assistance is sought under section 6, 7, or 8 of the act is consistent with the approved overall economic development program for such area.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

(a) Department of Agriculture

1. To furnish advice, assistance, and information, in connection with projects and overall economic development programs in nonrural “redevelopment areas" when the Secretary of Commerce finds that such projects or prospective projects in such nonrural "redevelopment areas" are essentially and fundamentally associated with agriculture or forestry.

(b) Department of the Interior

1. To furnish advice, assistance, and information, in connection with projects and overall economic development programs in other than "reservation redevelopment areas" or "resource-based redevelopment areas," when the Secretary of Commerce finds that such projects or prospective projects in such areas are essentially and fundamentally associated with Indian affairs, minerals, fisheries. or public lands.

(a) All departments and agencies

REDELEGATION

1. To redelegate to officers and employees of their respective departments and agencies, the functions, powers, and duties herein delegated to the heads of departments and agencies.

FINANCING

The Secretary of Commerce will advance funds to the delegate departments and agencies named herein, for the purpose of financing the functions, powers, and duties specified above to the extent needed for loans and grants, and additional staff and facilities as determined under generally accepted accounting principles. Commitments by delegate departments and agencies of funds from the Department of Commerce for such functions, powers, and duties shall be limited to amounts agreed upon in advance.

NATIONAL PUBLIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Senator HOLLAND. I would like also to place in the record another release from Secretary Hodges, setting up the membership of the 25-member National Public Advisory Committee on Area Redevelopment, which, by the way, is to be headed, or is headed, by a former Governor of my own State, Mr. LeRoy Collins. (The release referred to follows:)

[For immediate release Tuesday, June 13, 1961]

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

Washington, D.C.

G 61-97

SECRETARY HODGES NAMES 25-MAN AREA REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges today announced the membership of the 25-member National Public Advisory Committee on Area Redevelopment. The committee will be headed by LeRoy Collins, former Governor of Florida and currently president of the National Association of Broadcasters, whose appointment as chairman was announced by Secretary Hodges last Friday.

The committee is made up of members from labor, management, agriculture, State and local governments and the public in general as provided for under the Area Redevelopment Act. The committee will assist the Secretary by making

recommendations regarding operations of the law and suggesting approaches to meeting the problems of long-term unemployment in certain areas of the country. In addition to Governor Collins, the following members have been appointed to serve on the committee. (Members of the Committee, including its chairman, serve without compensation.):

Milton J. Shapp, president, Jerrold Electric Corp., Philadelphia, Pa.; John P. Carey, attorney, Maine Industrial Building Authority, Bath, Maine; Reuben K. Levy, Miners National Bank Bldg., Wilkes Barre, Pa.; John H. Sengstacke, editor and president, Chicago Defender, Chicago, Ill.: Alfred C. Neal, president, Committee for Economic Development, New York, N.Y.; Walter Hart, editor, Morgantown Dominion News, Morgantown, W.Va.; Arnold H. Maremont, president, Maremont Automotive Products, Inc., Chicago, Ill.; Harrison O. Ash, 5351 Salem Road, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sol Barkin, research director, Textile Workers Union, New York, N.Y.; Miles Stanley, president, West Virginia AFL-CIO, Charleston, W.Va.; Frank Fernback, economist, AFL-CIO, Washington, D.C.; Joseph Kennedy, assistant to the president, United Mineworkers, Washington, D.C.; Albin J. Gruhn, president, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, San Francisco, Calif.; Herschel Newsom, master, National Grange, Washington, D.C.; James G. Patton, president, National Farmers Union, Denver, Colo.; Homer Brinkley, executive vice president. National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Washington, D.C.

Clyde T. Ellis, general manager, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Eveline Burns, New York School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; John D. Whisman, executive director, Assistant to Governor, Frankfort, Ky.: Louis C. Mariani, mayor, city of Detroit, Detroit, Mich.; Dr. Seymour Harris, Littauer Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University: Dr. George Simpson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. N.C.; Dr. William Habor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Charles Engelhard, chairman of the board and president, Engelhard Industries, Newark, N.J.

DIFFICULTY OF TASK CONFRONTING AGENCY

Mr. BATT. I would like to say that I am sure, Senator Smith, we have made some mistakes in this, and we are going to, we hope, catch up with them and work out any duplications as we get going. But this business of trying to utilize fully the resources of seven agencies has been one of the toughest assignments I have ever had in my years of Government service. It has been a tough one, and is still a tough one. With great good will all around, we have succeeded I think in making some sense out of this directive, we got from Congress.

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Batt, may I say if it is tough for you, it is a good deal tougher for some of us, who did not favor and support this program. So we will be expecting most careful and detailed accounting of responsibility. And frankly, some of us will be very skeptical, and will have to be shown that you are not permitting duplication and not permitting waste in connection with the administration of this program.

MEETINGS TO INFORM PUBLIC ON PROGRAM

Mr. BATT. I must say that this has been a job to explain to the country, too. We had one meeting that I recall in Beckley, W. Va., that Senator Byrd set up, with a number of requests from the floor. We must have had a thousand people there, wanting to build sewer systems and water systems for their towns; undoubtedly very necessary, but not contemplated by this act, unless they are directly essential to an industrial development project.

It has been a job, getting across the story that this is not a duplication of the HHFA program. It is not a public works program. And

as we understand it, we have to be interested only in long-term employment. The public facilities contemplated are, for example, a sewer system or a water system, which are essential to an industrial park.

We were asked to build a highway, and we did not see this was our function. We have had requests to build bridges. Ordinarily, we do not see this as part of our function. But it is difficult to make this clear.

Senator DWORSHAK. Have you had any requests to build political fences?

FUNDS INCLUDED IN REQUEST

Mr. BATT. No, sir; no appropriation for that either, Senator. Senator SMITH. Am I correct in understanding that you are asking us to restore the funds for area redevelopment, and also the other agencies along this line?

Mr. BATT. This is all included in our request. The request is for $6.5 million for the total operations of the area redevelopment program, of which $2,955,000 is for establishing this new agency, the Área Redevelopment Administration, and the balance is for the other cooperating agencies.

FUNDS FOR COOPERATING AGENCIES

Senator SMITH. Now, just how important is it that these other agencies receive the funds they have requested in the budget? And what will happen if they do not receive them?

Mr. BATT. We do not feel that if we are asking them to perform functions for area redevelopment, which are above and beyond functions for which they are regularly budgeted, we can expect to get their cooperation or expect to get those services performed, unless we are in a position to reimburse them for it. This was spelled out, as I tried to point out, in section 24 of our act, where it said we should use the other agencies and instrumentalities of the Government, but only with their consent, and on a reimbursable basis. So this is what we were told to do by the Congress.

We know, practically speaking, that in the administration of Government, these agencies have work that is all budgeted, and we can hardly ask them to perform functions over and above their regular functions, if we are not in a position to finance those additional functions.

I do not see how else we can carry out the mandate of Congress. Assistant Secretary Reynolds is here from the Labor Department, as representatives of all the Departments are here, and perhaps they would like to comment on that.

EVALUATION OF REIMBURSABLE PROGRAM

Senator KEFAUVER. Mr. Chairman, may I ask one question?

Mr. Batt, I am sorry I did not get to hear all of your statement. I am very much interested in your program, and I have always supported it.

Mr. BATT. Thank you, Senator. I know that.

Senator KEFAUVER. I want to say first I think this Administration is very fortunate in having you as its head. You have had great experience, and you inherited great knowledge of government, too.

But I assume that you have the very best and closest collaboration and coordination with the heads of these other agencies in planning your projects and working them out economically. Is that not true? Mr. BATT. Yes, sir.

Senator KEFAUVER. And I would feel that Congress was wise in determining that on a reimbursable basis they should do part of this overall work.__That was the plan set forth in the bill, was it not? Mr. BATT. That is exactly it.

Senator KEFAUVER. And you were having them do it in collaboration with your overall plan. And what the House overlooked was that they had to be reimbursed for the part of the work they did for you.

Mr. BATT. Exactly.

Senator KEFAUVER. Is that the situation?

Mr. BATT. Exactly; yes, sir.

Senator HOLLAND. Might I interrupt? Senator Long has been waiting to make what he says is a very short statement on the Small Business Administration disaster loans. He has to go to the floor. Is it all right for the committee to let him come in at this time?

Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I have two questions I would like to ask Mr. Batt, and I, too, would like to get to the floor, if the Senator would permit me to do this.

Senator HOLLAND. All right. Go right ahead.

CUT IN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FUNDS

Senator SMITH. I understand before this appropriation was eliminated in the House committee, the House committee had cut the technical assistance funds from the $412 million authorized in the law to one-half that amount, or $24 million.

My question is: How important is it that ARA receive the full $411⁄2 million authorized for technical assistance, and exactly what do you plan to use the fund for?

Mr. BATT. The technical assistance part, Mrs. Smith, may be the most important part of the act, although it is relatively small in

amount.

USE OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

We expect to use this basically for three purposes. First, communities come in, with their preliminary overall economic development plans. In the State of Maine, for example, we have Saco and Sanford and Washington Counties that have all come in with initial preliminary overall development plans. The act requires a comprehensive, overall redevelopment plan, and some communities may need financial assistance in identifying their problem, in uncovering ways in which that problem can be solved, and laying out a plan for economic redevelopment. We feel that it may well be that the town of Saco does not have the resources to get this done. They may need some augmentation of their resources in the form of technical assistance. Whether it will be from experts in Government, or from experts outside of Government, we do not know. But some substantial portion of that technical assistance money will be to help these communities find their way, plan their way, to a broader economic future. Secondly, a number of technical problems arise which require in

tensive research, and if we can help complete that technical research, we may be able to make some astonishing breakthrough.

EXAMPLE IN MINNESOTA

For instance, one thing which happened in the relatively recent past, that we were not connected with, was in the upper Minnesota area. You probably know that when the high grade iron ores were exhausted the taconite process was developed. That cost about half a million dollars, I am told, by the professor at the University of Minnesota who developed that process. This development has led to the investment of over a billion dollars in private capital in a brandnew industry in northern Minnesota.

ANALYSIS OF APPALACHIAN REGION

This is the kind of thing that it seems to me we visualize, being helped along by technical assistance funds.

The third type of project would concern regional economic development. The Appalachian region, which is making a valuable effort to do some planning as a region, has come in to us with a request for financial assistance to analyze that region's needs.

Here are seven States, all the way from Pennsylvania and Tennessee down to Georgia, working together on an economic basis for the first time, doing some economic planning. The problems of that region are uniquely similar, even though it is a vast geographical area. We do not have any organization aside from the Federal Government to help them.

We visualize a kind of partnership arrangement between this Appalachian group of States and ourselves. We will try to get other Federal agencies to assist us. We will all attempt to help rebuild a new industrial base; whether the answers lie in the field of additional power or whether they lie in the field of tourism, or whether they lie in the field of highways or water supply.

All of these, I am sure, are part of it. I do not know the whole answer, and I am sure nobody does, but we have an exciting start in the fact that these States want to work together. I am going to talk with the Governors of this region next week.

ACCURACY OF ESTIMATES

Senator SMITH. Since you are just getting underway, as you have stated, how accurate do you thing your estimated requirements are as they were presented to the House committee?

Mr. BATT. We think they are probably conservative, Mrs. Smith. We find that we were exceedingly careful and exceedingly tight, Scotch, shall I say, in putting these together. We found, for instance. that to meet the criteria set up by the Senate and the House we designated about 863 counties in the United States, The Labor Department has recently come up to us with 50 more that meet the require

ments.

We are trying to cover these areas with 149 people in our office of Area Operations. This group will not only have to provide the spark and the lift to help these communities and areas get started, but also. as you point out, coordinate and supervise other agency programs