HEALTH RESEARCH FACILITIES AMENDMENTS OF 1965 (P.L. 89-115) P.L. 89-115, which amends the provisions of the Public Health Service Act relating to grants for the construction of health research facilities and which authorizes three additional Assistant Secretaries in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was signed by President Johnson on August 9, 1965. The original program of matching grants for the construction of health research facilities was authorized by the Health Research Facilities Act of 1956 and was extended by subsequent amendments through fiscal year 1966, with an increase in the annual appropriations authorized from $30 million initially to $50 million beginning in 1963. The 1965 amendments extend the program for construction of health research facilities for three additional years, with an authorization of $280 million in the aggregate for such facilities, in lieu of the previous $50 million annual appropriation authorization. Federal matching will continue to be up to 50 percent of necessary construction costs. Since the program was begun in 1956, expenditures for medical and health-related research have risen from slightly over $300 million to $1.7 billion in 1964. Demands for new research facilities continue to rise, as rapid changes occur in the nature of medical research. Continuation of the Federal grant program is a minimal and essential step to help insure the continued progress of medical research. Research Contract Authority P.L. 89-115 also gives the Public Health Service authority to enter into contracts for research and development during fiscal years 1966 through 1968, including two authorities available to the Department of Defense: (1) payment of the cost of construction necessary for the performance of a research contract (test facilities and equipment, for example), and (2) indemnification of contractors against certain third-party liability claims which arise out of direct performance of the research contract and for loss of, or damage to, property of the contractor. Heretofore, these contract authorities have been available to the Public Health Service only through the annual appropriation acts for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The program of research contracts based on this authority, which has had to be renewed year by year, has increased steadily in size and importance. This legislative summary was prepared by Eugenia Sullivan, Program Analysis Officer, Office of the Under Health, Education, and Welfare Indicators, September 1965 The research contract is the mechanism used for financing research and development undertaken by public and other nonprofit organizations at the request of the Public Health Service, and directed toward accomplishing specific research objectives for the Public Health Service. Research contracts are also used by the Public Health Service for financing research by profitmaking organizations. In contrast, the research grant is used for the support of research initiated by a non-Federal public or other nonprofit institution, or by an individual, which is directed toward the accomplishment of the research purposes of that institution or individual. Additional Assistant Secretaries In the 12 years since it was created, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has been the fastest growing department of the government. Its programs continue to increase in number and scope, creating a need for additional executive direction and supervision beyond that provided by the top level staffing authorized in 1953. P.L. 89-115 authorizes three additional Assistant Secretaries to assist the Secretary in carrying out his responsibilities. The legislative history of the amendments reflects Congressional intent that the organization of the Office of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare remain flexible to meet new challenges and assume new responsibilities that may be assigned to it. President Johnson presents a pen he used in signing the health research facilities bill to Wilbur J. Cohen, Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Looking on are Senators Prouty and Javits. THE WATER QUALITY ACT OF 1965 (P.L. 89-234) John T. Barnhill and Samuel Levenson Perhaps the greatest problem man has today is to comprehend that he lives in a world that bears little resemblance to that of the past. He lives in a world that has changed and is changing--rapidly. The gap between the facts of modern life and our comprehension of them may be the greatest gap we face. Happily, several significant developments indicate that we have begun to understand the threats to health and welfare posed by our changed environment. So far as water pollution is concerned, this "comprehension" gap is being closed. President Johnson signed the Water Quality Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-234) Public support in many communities of proposals to finance construction of water supply and waste treatment facilities. Mr. Barnhill is Deputy Chief and Mr. Levenson is a writer in the Information Branch of the Division of Water 30 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT JOHNSON UPON SIGNING THE WATER QUALITY ACT OF 1965 October 2, 1965 This moment marks a very proud beginning for the United States of America. Today, we proc aim our refusal to be strangled by the wastes of civilization. Today, we begin to be master of our environ ment. But we must act, and act swiftly. The hour is late, the damage is large. The clear, fresh waters that were our national heritage have become dumping grounds for garbage and filth. They poison our fish, they breed disease, they despoil our landscapes. No one has a right to use America's rivers and America's waterways that belong to all the people as a sewer. The banks of a river may belong to one man or one industry or one State, but the waters which flow between those banks should belong to all the people. - There is no excuse for a river flowing red with blood from slaughterhouses. There is no excuse for paper mills pouring tons of sulphuric acid into the lakes and the streams of the people of this country. There is no excuse and we should call a spade a spade for chemical companies and oil refineries using our major rivers as pipelines for toxic wastes. There is no excuse for communities to use other peoples' rivers as a dump for their raw sewage. This sort of carelessness and selfishness simply ought to be stopped; and more, it just must be reversed. And we are going to reverse it. We are going to begin right here in Washington with the Potomac River. Two hundred years ago, George Washington used to stand on his lawn down here at Mount Vernon and look on a river that was clean and sweet and pure. In our own century, President Theodore Roosevelt used to go swimming in the Potomac. But today, the Potomac is a river of decaying sewage and rotten algae. Today, all the swimmers are gone. They have been driven from its banks. With the signing of the Water Quality Act of 1965 this morning, I pledge you that we are going to reopen the Potomac for swimming by 1975. And within the next 25 years, we are going to repeat this effort in lakes and streams and other rivers across this country. I believe that with your help and your continued cooperation, water pollution is doomed in this century. This bill that you have passed, that will become law as a result of a responsive Congress, will not completely assure us of absolute success. Additional bolder legislation will be needed in the years ahead. But we have begun. And we have begun in the best American tradition -- with a program of joint Federal, State and local action. The ultimate victory of reclaiming this portion of our national heritage really rests in the hands of all the people of America, not just the government here in Washington. Much of the money, and some of the imagination, much of the effort, must be generated at the local level. Then, and really only then, will this blueprint for victory become victory in fact. . An astonishing number of books, articles, and newspaper feature stories and newspaper editorials dealing with the crisis in our water resources. During 1965, "in-depth" articles appeared in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Saturday Review, Time, Newsweek, and many other periodicals. Broadening of organizational support, with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, American League of Women Voters, Clay Pipe Institute, General Federation of Women's Clubs, and many others joining conservationist groups in campaigning for a clean-up of America's waterways. The receipt of 3,000 letters each month by the Federal water pollution control agency. It was in this climate that Congress wrote the Water Quality Act of 1965. The new provisions are described below, following a brief history of the legislation. HISTORY The precursor of the Water Quality Act of 1965 was S. 649, on which hearings were held by the Senate Committee on Public Works during June 1963. As originally introduced by Senator Muskie and others, S. 649 amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1956 (amended in 1961) in: establishing a Federal Water Pollution Administration and increasing individual dollar ceiling limitations on construc- authorizing an additional 10 percent of Federal aid for grants authorizing research and development grants for controlling authorizing the development of water quality standards in As reported out by the Senate Committee on October 4, 1963, the Act had two additional provisions: 1. discharges of matter into the waters of the United States from Federal installations shall be controlled under permits to |