In some respects the information this committee will gather will be information that is well known to many people. But by placing it on the public record and by exposing it to the media, it is hoped it will mobilize public interest in and out of Congress on this important task of revitalizing rural America and having the Nation avail itself of the great opportunities that are there. The President of the United States has expressed an interest in rural development on many occasions. In his pronouncements on rural affairs he has repeatedly used the phrase "we should reverse the migration that has been going on from country to city." He has not been content just merely to stop it, he wants it reversed. The administration has started a program national in scope, directed toward this objective. For a long time I have been interested in rural development and I am glad that this subcommittee has been constituted to promote such a program. The rural America with which I am most familiar has the space, the national resources, the clear, pure air and water, and the people upon whom a great future can be built for our country. To my mind rural development means primarily more job opportunities. It means more industry in our small towns and cities in our agricultural States. This will reverse the migration from country to city. The bringing of more job-producing enterprises to rural America is not a substitute for the efforts to raise farm income. We need both. We need more industrial development in addition to better prices for our agricultural products. I am sure that by the time these hearings are complete the witnesses who will appear will have provided us with many recommendations worthy of consideration. Mr. Chairman, I shall not take further time because both of my colleagues on the minority side, Senators Dole and Bellmon, are vitally interested in rural development, and I would like to have them as well as Senator Allen make a statement. Senator HUMPHREY. Thank you very much, Senator Curtis. Senator Allen, do you have any comment you would like to make? STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES B. ALLEN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA Senator ALLEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, First I want to commend you for your leadership in this field and conceiving the idea of the subcommittee and the scope of its work. I certainly do appreciate the attendance of the distinguished witnesses that we will hear from today. To my way of thinking we are today opening hearings on one of the most important issues before the Congress an issue that could spell the difference between success or failure in our struggle to preserve our American way of life. Behind the headlines-behind the news of our struggle against communism-behind the news of congressional investigating committees this subcommittee will be quietly and resolutely moving to strengthen the most vital of all our blessings, the heritage of rural America. As we know, nearly 70 percent of the Nation's people are presently packed onto only 1 percent of the nation's land. Only 10 million people currently live on U.S. farms. Of the nation's 435 congressional districts, only 35 have a farm population of more than 25 percent, and 21 States do not have a single district in which as many as 15 percent of the people are farmpeople. Behind these statistics, Mr. Chairman, are scattered families, depleted small cities and towns, teeming suburban areas and overcrowded city ghettoes. All of this is to say that rural development also has a special meaning for nonrural residents. It means that if we are to help solve the problems of the cities, we must create a new rural environment which will not only curb the migration to the urban areas, but reverse it. As these hearings unfold, I am confident that it will become abundantly clear how much our national goals for the decade of the seventies involve farms and our smaller cities and towns. The residents of rural America will never enjoy the prosperity to which they are entitled until there is more industry in our smaller cities, towns, villages, and communities and until there is a better balance between agriculture and industry in these areas. From these hearings we shall, I know, determine the means by which to foster economic growth and to enhance the well-being of the people of rural America means such as better schools, better hospital and health care facilities, better water and sewerage treatment works, and better recreational opportunities, and better farm commodity programs. In addition, I would also hope that these hearings would also show the necessity for decentralizing the functions of the Federal Government. An outstanding example of regional government is the great Tennessee Valley Authority. I would hope that this subcommittee would take a close look at the triumphs of TVA. It is a prime example of the people working hand-in-hand with their government with an absolute minimum of control and interference from Washington, D.C. We must continue our endeavor to improve the quality of life in our urban areas, but as we do this let us remember that rural America is the mudsill of our national life. These hearings will set the stage for the Congress to play its part in the development of rural America. I am proud to serve on this subcommittee and look forward to the hearings both here in Washington and in the field. Thank you. Senator HUMPHREY. Thank you, Senator Allen. I want to assure you this is a totally bipartisan committee because we have the chairman of the National Republican Committee, my good friend from Kansas. Senator Dole, we are going to be walking arm-in-arm on rural development. I do not know what this is going to do to you. You better watch out. STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT DOLE, A U.S. SENATOR Senator DOLE. Thank you, Senator. I do not want to trespass the time of the three cabinet officers and other witnesses so I would like to take about 2 minutes to summarize the statement and have it made a part of the record in full. Senator HUMPHREY. As if delivered, it is so ordered. (The statement is as follows:) Senator DOLE. Mr. Chairman, literally billions of dollars have been spent in the past 30 to 40 years on various farm programs. They were good farm programs for they were designed to improve the income of our farmers who were unable to increase the prices they received for their commodities. Congress has repeatedly legislated these programs with all good intentions, but it is obvious now that the programs have been inadequate in terms of improving farm income sufficiently to maintain our farm population. In the last 10 years we have lost an average of about 100,000 farm population each year who migrated to the city where they could improve their income. This shift in population, coupled with normal population growth has changed population structure to the extent that population in urban centers outnumbers our rural population causing members of Congress to have difficulty in passing farm legislation. Too often Congress concerns itself with means to eliminate or limit farm programs, not recognizing the further complication this could bring to the urban centers. During the past decade government has mounted a massive effort to improve conditions in our urban centers. We are making tremendous efforts to eliminate poverty, social injustice, and develop our urban areas into healthy, happy, prosperous environments. The question is now being raised, however, as to whether these improvements, in the long run, tend to perpetuate rural outmigration and imbalanced conditions instead of eliminating them. TASK FORCE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT When President Nixon created his task force on Rural Development in 1969, he charged the task force to recommend, "What might be done in the private and public sectors to stimulate rural development." The task force outlined the purpose of rural development to assist rural America in many ways such as creating new jobs, improving the environments, and improving living conditions in general. Following that outline the task force determined what rural development is and is not and I quote: Rural development does not "give" people anything except the encouragement and tools to work together and the promise that their effort will be rewarded. Rural development is not: A new agency of Government. A new appropriation to spend money in rural America. A new set of directives from the Federal Government. A program handed down and run from above. Rural development is however, many things: (1) Rural development is aimed at those with low incomes and the underemployed, but it is not just a poverty program-however, dealing with poverty is a No. 1 challenge. (2) Rural development is a "people" program to lift up those in greatest need, whether disadvantaged for economic or social reasons-but it is not a opportunity for all, those who will be helped the most are those who have been the most disadvantaged. (3) Rural development is aimed at job creation, but it is not just an industrialization program--although jobs through private enterprise is the key to long-lasting economic opportunity. (4) It is aimed at improving rural America, but it is not just a farm or rural program that benefits only those in rural countryside-although this is were the work will be done. (5) Rural development is built on local initiative, but it does not depend solely on local resources and local leadership-nevertheless, local initiative is the key to the success of rural development. (6) Rural development is aimed at a better quality of life, but rural development is not just a social program-even though quality of life and a better society is the end product of rural development. (7) Rural development is aimed at population and industrial dispersion, but it is not just a land policy or settlement program-however, physical surroundings and environmental development are vital for clean air, clear water, open space, scenic beauty, recreation and "room to live." Rural development then, is a combination of specific programs directed toward a broad horizon-all intended to help create a nation of greater beauty, deeper satisfactions, and expanded opportunities for all Americans, now and in the future, both in urban and rural areas. Rural development will build a new rural countryside America, and by building a new and better rural America we will build better cities and a better America-a new life for the country. LOCAL INITIATIVE American ingenuity has been at work trying to solve these problems. My state of Kansas has taken some positive steps through its economic development commission. With this agency's help the spontaneous initiative of concerned citizens has resulted in community sponsorship of new industry, recreational facilities, water and sanitation improvements, or improved health facilities. This local initiative is greatly desired, but most communities need some motivation to assure proper planning and completion of community projects. If the Congress, through this subcommittee, can create legislation that will provide such an impetus for local initiative, rural America could come alive with renewed vigor. The aerospace industry has found that the native Kansan can be readily trained to switch from planting and harvesting crops to metal fabrication of aircraft, assembly of sensitive electronic gear and executive management. As a result Kansas is the air capital of the world, producing more private aircraft than any other State. Rural Americans are eager to learn new skills. BROADER EDUCATION Americans must be offered an equal level of opportunity with urban Americans. This can be assisted through education. To meet the needs of contemporary society, they need both a higher quality of general education and a wider offering of vocational and technical education. Kansas has been one State that has taken the lead in educational reform. Its greatest step forward was the elimination of small one room schools by consolidating them into county and school districts. This has greatly improved the quality of the education of rural Kansans. Continuously upgrading teachers salaries and facilities, the State has developed an impressive system of primary and secondary schools, high schools, junior colleges, and universities, and a wider variety of vocational and trade schools. This has greatly improved the quality of the education of rural Kansans. STUDY STATE EFFORTS While I mention the progress Kansas had made in economic and educational rural development this is not to say that this effort has solved the State's rural outmigration. Kansas, as all the States of the Nation, has made some efforts to stop or reverse this urban centralization. Mr. Chairman, I would hope that in the field hearings we plan for this subcommittee in the coming weeks and months that we pay particular attention to the efforts the States have made to help themselves. Many of the efforts of these individual States can be passed on, modified, and expanded for other States. With the information we gain from these hearings and guided by the recommendations of President Nixon's Task Force on Rural Development, I believe this committee will be able to offer new legislation that will strengthen these State and local efforts. RURAL REVENUE SHARING Earlier this week, it was my privilege to cosponsor President Nixon's legislative proposal for rural revenue sharing. This legislation is consistent with the recommendation of the President's rural development task force to streamline Federal programs, and make them more effective. The rural revenue sharing bill offers the States and local governments the opportunity to help themselves in the best way possible and with the able assistance of the Extension Service. Rural revenue sharing is a first step toward rural development, as it makes federal funds responsive to local need. It will effectively decentralize the top heavy bureaucracy that holds up approval of Great Plains conservation proposals, causes delays in water and sewer planning for rural communities and means months of waiting after a multicounty organization has applied for resource conservation and development project approval. Administration approval and emphasis of these programs would now be controlled through our State capital or county courthouse, whichever we choose to coordinate the rural revenue. Mr. Chairman, in order to assure proper background and to provide this committee the most information possible as we embark on our extensive schedule of hearings to research rural development legislation, I would like to submit for inclusion in the hearing records: An excerpt of President Nixon's State of the Union address pertaining to revenue sharing, January 22, 1971. Comments by President Nixon on programs for rural America upon his arrival at Grand Forks International Airport, Grand Forks, N.D., October 19, 1970. 63-582-71-pt. 1- -3 |