Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

concerned with the disposal of wastes resulting from the mining and associated processing of minerals and fossil fuels.

The Solid Waste Disposal Act gives the cities and States an unparalleled opportunity to reverse the relentless trend toward permitting the discards of abundance to jeopardize health and safety and erode the natural beauty of this country. The productive cooperation of Federal, State, regional, and local governments, coupled with the responsible action of those portions of the private sector who are responsible for a major share of the solid waste problem, should make it possible to inaugurate and accelerate a national program to begin to rid the country of the squalid conditions created by towering mountains of refuse, by acrid fumes in the air and floating garbage in streams and lakes. Moreover, it will be possible to harvest from our refuse heaps precious raw materials that will enrich rather than contaminate the Nation and benefit rather than threaten the lives of its people. This is the goal of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT JOHNSON UPON SIGNING THE CLEAN AIR ACT
AMENDMENTS AND THE SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT
October 20, 1965

When future historians write of this era, I believe they will note that ours was the generation that finally faced up to the accumulated problems of American life.

To us has been given the task of checking the slow but relentless erosion of our civilization. To us has been given the responsibility not only of stimulating our progress, but also of making that progress acceptable to our children and grandchildren.

Today, we are taking another large and forward step in this direction.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution we have been systematically polluting our air.
Each year the pollution grows worse.

We have now reached the point where our factories, our automobiles, our furnaces and our municipal dumps are spewing more than 150 million tons of pollutants annually into the air we breathe--almost onehalf million tons a day.

From our automobiles alone, enough carbon monoxide is discharged daily to adversely pollute the combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.

The air that is the very essence of life has become a carrier for disease and early death. Between 1930 and 1960, the number of deaths from one respiratory disease alone increased by 800 per cent. We can no longer allow this problem to go unchecked.

But air pollution is also a drain on our resources. In the United States alone it accounts for more than $11 billion in economic damages. This amounts to nearly $30 a year for every man, woman and child in the nation. And yet our expenditure on air pollution control is less than 20 cents a year per citizen.

We made a hopeful beginning toward solving this problem with the Clean Air Act of 1963. Today, with the signing of the Clean Air Act Amendments and Solid Wastes Disposal Act, we are redoubling our efforts.

This bill will require all 1968 model automobiles--including foreign models sold here--to meet Federal control standards for exhaust.

This bill creates a Federal research and technical assistance program to seek ways of disposing of the millions of tons of solid wastes that we generate each year.

This bill gives us the tools to halt pollution before it starts in new industries.

Rachel Carson once wrote: "In biological history, no organism has survived long if its environment became in some way unfit for it, but no organism before man has deliberately polluted its own environment."

We intend to rewrite that chapter of history.

Today we begin.

MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1965 (P.L. 89-291)

The Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965, signed by President Johnson on October 22, became Public Law 89-291. The new law amends the Public Health Service Act to provide for a program of grants to help meet the need for adequate medical library services and facilities for the health sciences, including medicine, dentistry, and public health, as well as for the related applied and fundamental sciences.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LEGISLATION

Public Law 89-291 authorizes a program of grants and contracts to encourage:

construction of new medical library facilities and the renovation, expansion, or rehabilitation of existing libraries;

training of medical librarians and other information
specialists in the health sciences;

compilation of existing written matter and the creation of
additional written matter to facilitate the distribution and
use of accumulated knowledge and information on scientific,
social, and cultural advancements in health-related sciences,
through the awarding of special fellowships to physicians and
other practitioners in the health sciences;

research and investigations in the field of medical library science and related activities and the development of new techniques, systems, and equipment for processing, storing, retrieving, and distributing information in the health sciences; improvement and expansion of the basic resources of medical libraries and related facilities;

development of a national system of regional medical libraries,
each with facilities of sufficient depth and scope to supple-
ment the services of other medical libraries within the region; and

publication of biomedical scientific information.

This legislative summary was prepared by Robert M. Wilson, Public Information Officer of the National
Library of Medicine, Public Health Service, and Earl E. Huyck, Program Analysis Officer, Office of the Under
Secretary, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Health, Education, and Welfare Indicators, Dec. 1965

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT JOHNSON
ON SIGNING

THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSISTANCE ACT, P.L. 89-291, October 22, 1965

The volume of published research in the field of medicine doubles every ten years. Such a tremendous expansion of knowledge is cumulative; it feeds upon itself--no one can predict when a key discovery will be made which will unlock a whole new chain of knowledge.

This creative process cannot go on unless the results of scientific work are available to practicing physicians and to health workers across the country. The nation's medical libraries are a vital link between medical education, practice, and research.

Yet in past years we have given too little attention to the problems of collecting and sharing scientific knowledge.

This measure provides long-needed support for our medical libraries.

-

It will furnish space and facilities for dealing with the massive body of published information.

- It will advance the processing, storage and retrieval of material vitally needed by health professionals.

--It will help us to overcome the shortage of personnel trained in science information technology.

Its result, ultimately, will be not only an increase in the growth and spread of scientific knowledge, but a gain in health and well-being of the American people.

HISTORY OF THE LEGISLATION

In recognition of the increasingly heavy demands for library materials and services made by expanding health programs upon already overtaxed resources of the libraries serving the health professions of the Nation, the National Advisory Health Council in April and again in December 1964, passed resolutions calling for the development of legislation to provide authority for the Public Health Service through the National Library of Medicine to mount a broad program of assistance to health science libraries.

In December 1964, the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke recommended broadly conceived legislation to authorize the National Library of Medicine to assist libraries through a program of grants and contracts to improve medical library services in the United States--including facilities, resources, training of personnel, secondary publications, and library and communications research.

In response to the seriousness of the situation, the Medical Library Assistance Act (S. 597, H.R. 3142) was introduced in Congress on January 19, 1965 by Senator Lister Hill and Representative Oren Harris. On March 19, 1965, Representative John E. 'Fogarty introduced an identical bill (H. R. 6001). This Administration-backed legislation received the strong support of the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine.

The Subcommittee on Health of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, under the Chairmanship of Senator Hill, conducted hearings on the bill on June 14, 1965. Hearings were held before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House on September 14, 1965, under the Chairmanship of Representative Harris.

On September 22, 1965, the Senate considered and passed the bill by a voice vote; an amended version was passed by the House on October 1, 1965.

PROVISIONS OF THE ACT

National Medical Libraries Assistance Board

The Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine is designated to constitute a National Medical Libraries Assistance Board to advise and assist the Surgeon General in the preparation of regulations and with respect to policy matters relating to the administration of the programs which the Act authorizes. The Board is also required to review all construction applications. In its capacity as Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, the Board will also advise the Surgeon General on the establishment of branches of the National Library of Medicine to serve as regional medical libraries.

Duration of Programs and Continuing Availability of Funds

With the exception of the authorized four-year construction grant program to begin in FY 1967, all other programs are to commence in FY 1966 and to extend for five years. With the single exception of funds for the establishment of branches of the National Library of Medicine-for which appropriated funds will remain available until expended--funds appropriated to carry out the purposes of the Act in any fiscal year will remain available for such purposes through the following fiscal year.

Construction

The Surgeon General is authorized to make grants of up to 75 percent of the costs of constructing, renovating, expanding, or remodeling medical library facilities. In acting upon applications for grants, consideration is to be given to the relative effectiveness of the proposed facilities in meeting demonstrated needs for additional or improved medical library services and priority, given to most-needed projects. For these purposes, the Act authorizes appropriations not to exceed $10 million a year.

Training

The law also provides for a program of grants (limited to $1 million a year) to assist in the training of medical librarians and other information specialists in the health sciences.

« PreviousContinue »