IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 14, 1959

Wayne Hawks, Acting Press Secretary to the President

THE WHITE HOUSE

(Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)

The President announced today organizational arrangements aimed at centralizing responsibility for providing general standards and guidance to executive agencies for their use in developing operating rules and regulations for radiological health protection.

In order to obtain assistance in the discharge of this function the President has issued an Executive Order establishing a Federal Radiation Council. Members of the Council are the heads of the agencies most significantly involved with radiation. the Secretary

of Health, Education, and Welfare; the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Commerce. The President's Special Assistant for Science and Technology will participate as an adviser in the discussions of the Council.

In developing its advice to the President the Council will consult with appropriate agencies such as the Departments of Labor and Agriculture, and will solicit the views of competent scientific bodies such as the National Committee on Radiation Protection and Measurement and the committees of the National Academy of Sciences which devote so much attention to these problems.

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The Federal Radiation Council will also take steps designed to further the interagency coordination of measures for protection against radiation, and to that end will consult with all Federal agencies which have radiological health responsibilities.

Establishment of the Council follows recommendations made to the President by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

In addition, the President approved a series of recommendations to be carried out upon enactment of proposed legislation endorsed by the Administration (S. 1987 and H. R. 7214) under which certain regulatory responsibilities of the Atomic Energy Commission will be transferred to the States by agreement with the Commission as the States equip themselves to assume them. The recommendations were that:

(a)

The Atomic Energy Commission have the
principal Federal responsibility for pre-
paring the States for the proposed transfer
of certain of its regulatow responsibilities.

RADIATION PROTECTION

593

(b)

(c)

(d)

The training programs necessary for such transfer
be financed and planned by the Commission, and
in order to make maximum use of existing facilities
and competence, such programs be conducted under
cooperative arrangements between the Atomic
Energy Commission and the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.

At the termination of this special training program
any training of State personnel be conducted within
the continuing programs of the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare and other Federal
agencies.

The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
continue as the Federal focal point for guidance
and assistance to the States with respect to con-
tamination by and biological effects from radiation
sources not now under control of the Commission.

The President today designated the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare as Chairman of the Federal Radiation Council.

Executive Order No. 10831 establishing the Federal Radiation Council provides that the Chairman of the Council shall be designated by the President, from time to time, from among the members of the Council. Members of the Council are the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Commerce.

The President also directed that the Department of Health, Education and Welfare intensify its radiological health efforts and have primary responsibility within the executive branch for the collation, analysis, and interpretation of data on environmental radiation levels such as natural background, radiography, medical and industrial use of isotopes and X-rays, and fall-out, so that the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare may adrise the President and the general public.

***

LETTER OF AUGUST 21, 1959 FROM MAURICE H. STANS, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF THE BUDGET TO HONORABLE CLINTON P. ANDERSON, CHAIRMAN, JOINT COMMITTEE ON ATOMIC ENERGY.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET
Washington 25, D. C.

August 21, 1959

My dear Mr. Chairman:

In my letter to you of May 6, 1959, I stated that you would be informed when the joint review of Federal organization of radiological health activities oonducted by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget had been completed.

I would like to now advise you that the President has approved the following recommendations:

(1) The President provide general standards and guidance to
executive agencies for their use in developing operating rules
and regulations for radiological health protection.

(2) The President be advised by a Federal Radiation Council, established by the President to advise him regarding the general standards and guidance to be issued by the President, as well as other matters pertinent to radiological health, the Council to be composed of the heads of the agencies principally affected--AEC, HEW, Defense, and Commerce; and that the President's Special Assistant for Science and Technology serve as an advisor to the Council.

(3) The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
intensify its radiological health efforts and have primary responsi-
bility within the executive branch for the collation, analysis, and
interpretation of data on environmental radiation levels such as
natural background, radiography, medical and industrial use of
isotopes and X-rays, and fall-out, so that the Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare may advise the President and the general'
public.

596

RADIATION PROTECTION

(4) The Atomic Energy Commission have the principal Federal
responsibility for preparing the States for the proposed transfer
of certain of its regulatory responsibilities.

(5) The training programs necessary for such transfer be
financed and planned by the Commission, and, in order to make
maximum use of existing facilities and competence, such programs
be conducted under cooperative arrangements between the Atomic
Energy Commission and the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare.

(6) At the termination of this special training program, any training of State personnel be conducted within the continuing programs of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and other Federal agencies.

(7) The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare continue
as the Federal focal point for guidance and assistance to the States
with respect to radiation sources not now under control of the
Commission,

Recommendations (4) through (7) are to be carried out upon enactment of proposed legislation along the lines of S. 1987 and H. R. 7214.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Maurice H. Stans
Director

Honorable Clinton P. Anderson

Chairman, Joint Committee on

Atomic Energy

United States Senate

Washington 25, D. C.