Government in housing and in working with States and local communities in the rebuilding of our urban areas and in preventing their deterioration has increased steadily. The importance of this area of Federal activitiy merits recognition by the establishment of the Department of Urban Affairs and Housing. Thus, the new Secretary of Urban Affairs and Housing will be in a position to present the Nation's housing and metropolitan development needs to the Cabinet and will by virtue of his position provide the necessary leadership in coordinating the many Federal programs in these fields. In addition to the draft bill, I am enclosing a letter from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget describing the legislation in detail. A letter identical to this one is being sent to the President of the Senate. I hope that promp action can be scheduled on this important legislation and that the Congress will act favorably on the proposal. Sincerely, JOHN F. KENNEDY. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C., April 27, 1961. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: There is enclosed herewith a draft of a bill, “To establish a Department of Urban Affairs and Housing, and for other purposes." The bill carries out your recommendations for the creation within the executive branch of a new Cabinet-rank department to administer Federal programs for community development and housing contained in the State of the Union Message dated January 30, 1961, and the message on "Our Nation's Housing" dated March 9, 1961. The purpose of this legislation is to provide for full recognition and consideration of the problems resulting from the rapid growth in the United States of our urban and metropolitan areas and needs. Establishment of the Department of Urban Affairs and Housing will help in achieving consistent and flexible administration of the Government's community development and housing programs, give more effective leadership within the executive branch to the coordination of Federal activities affecting urban and metropolitan growth and development, and foster consultation among Federal, State and local officials to contribute to the solution of urban and metropolitan development problems. The bill sets forth a new Declaration of National Urban Affairs and Housing Policy, which states that the welfare and security of the Nation requires the sound and orderly growth an ddevelopment of the Nation's urban communities. It is declared that the national policy shall be to assist communities in developing and carrying out local programs to meet the problems resulting from growth and change. Included would be appropriate Federal concern with and leadership in comprehensive community planning, eliminating slums and blighted areas an providing decent homes in a suitable living environment for the Nations population, providing adequate industrial and commercial location, developing effective urban mass transportation, and providing public and recreational facilities and open spaces around our major population centers. To help achieve this national policy, the bill establishes a new executive department, the Department of Urban Affairs and Housing, to be headed by a Secretary appointed by the President with Senate confirmation. The Department would be under the supervision and direction of the Secretary. An Under Secretary, three Assistant Secretaries, a General Counsel and an Administrative Assistant Secretary are also provided for and would perform duties prescribed by the Secretary. Responsibility would be vested in the Secretary for all functions currently performed by the Housing and Home Finance Administrator. The proposed legislation directs the Secretary to conduct and make available continuing comprehensive studies of urban development and housing. He would advise the President with respect to Federal programs contributing to the achievement of the urban affairs and housing policy set forth in the bill, and would develop and recommend to the President policies for fostering the orderly growth and development of the Nation's urban areas. At the direction of the President, the Secretary would be expected to exercise leadership in coordinating Federal activities affecting urban areas and provide technical assistance and information concerning these matters to State and local governments. The Secretary would further be responsible for encouraging comprehensive planning by State and local governments in order to secure improved coordination of Federal, State, and community development activities at the local level. The bill provides for the transfer to and vesting in the Secretary of the functions, powers and duties of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, including the Federal Housing Administration and Public Housing Administration. The personnel, property, funds and other resources of those agencies would be transferred along with the functions. The Secretary would have all the functions, powers and duties of the Administrator of HHFA for administering the programs of the Urban Renewal Administration and the Community Facilities Administration, and those authorities now vested by law in the Commissioners of the Federal Housing Administration and the Public Housing Administration. Because of its peculiar corporate structure, the Federal National Mortgage Association would be transferred to the Department rather than to the Secretary, but the Secretary would be vested with the authorities now possessed by the Housing Administrator with respect to that constituent agency. The bill provides appropriate safeguards for the private owners of capital stock in the secondary market functions of the Federal National Mortgage Association. The bill seeks to enable the Secretary to direct the Department's evolving and closely interrelated programs in a consistent and comprehensive manner by vesting in him authority to appoint the officers and employees of the new Department subject to civil service laws, determine, in the main, the internal organization of the Department, and delegate his functions to such officers and employees of the Department as he may designate. The Housing and Home Finance Agency, Federal Housing Administration, Public Housing and Administration, the positions established by law in those units, and the National Housing Council, would be abolished. The act creating the new Department makes provision for a deferred effective date and presidentially designated interim officers. Respectfully yours, DAVID E. BELL, Director. Chairman DAWSON. Mr. Fascell, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. DANTE B. FASCELL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA Mr. FASCELL. I do not have a prepared statement on this matter. I would like to make some general remarks and not get too technical because witnesses who follow me will deal with the matter much more extensively than I intend to. H.R. 6433 is the administration proposal to establish a Department of Urban Affairs and Housing. I will briefly summarize some important points in the legislation. The Congress declare as a matter of national policy-"encouragement and facilitation of efforts on the proper development of urban communities and of housing" and further states that to carry out those purposes the Department is thereby created. The rest of the language in the legislation itself is technical to accomplish those objectives. I think it might be well at the outset, also to delineate the responsibilities the Secretary would have: Conduct continuing comprehensive studies with respect to problems of housing and urban renewal; develop and recommend policies for fostering orderly growth and development, exercise leadership; coordinate Federal activities, provide technical assistance; and encourage comprehensive planning with a view to coordinating Federal, State, and community development at the local level. I would like to emphasize also, Mr. Chairman, that we have very carefully spelled out in the legislation that as a matter of national policy the Congress finds-and I will quote-"for the attainment of this purpose shall be to encourage and facilitate the efforts of our urban communities to develop and carry out local programs to meet effectively the needs resulting from urban, suburban, and metropolitan growth ***” I emphasize that because I suppose before we get through with these hearings someone will be rattling the bones of centralized government, undue expansion, and additional cost. So I am going to say again that we start out with a declaration of intent, spelled out in the act, at the request of the Executive, supported by Congress, that the whole purpose of this bill is to effectuate better development by local efforts. I suppose there comes a time in every man's life when he makes a decision that it is time to set up a Cabinet post. Our colleague, Mr. Younger, reached that point, happily, many years ago. I think it was late last year, after the 3-year study of the Committee for Economic Development came out, that I reached the decision that the time had come for me also. So I would say that somewhere between 10 years ago or perhaps 6 years ago, when Mr. Younger started, and now, a reasonable point has been reached for reasonable men to make a reasonable decision that it now is time for a Cabinet post for urban affairs and housing. If we wanted to substantiate that, Mr. Chairman, with ample statistics and reasons, I think before the hearings are completed the record will be filled to the satisfaction of anyone by any applicable criteria of evidence that there is good, sound, and logical reason to do that which is suggested by this legislation. Seven out of ten Americans live in cities, but their influence in affairs of government is outweighed by the other three types of citizens. You have the farm bloc that can scare politicians and make them jump, and we pass all kinds of legislation for it. Labor, agriculture, and business have Cabinet spokesmen, and the city dwellers have none. In this legislation, President Kennedy proposes to do something about it by giving them an equal voice at the highest level in government. At long last, America's largest group of citizens would at least get a seat at that table, and it is certainly in my judgment past due. In over 200 major urban areas the Nation's sorest problems bloom in decaying central districts while everybody fights to get out to the suburbs for a little elbow room, and that brings headaches for the planners, and for the government, because of the myriad of problems that go far beyond those brought about by the concept of the colonial municipality. I think everybody would have to admit that the municipal concept has changed radically from colonial days. As President Kennedy has said, this urban problem of renewal and of housing and planning is one of the most serious challenges to be faced. In the field of housing alone, it has been estimated that 25 million Americans still live in substandard housing. Equally important is the question of mass transportation. The blunt truth is it has been. collapsing at a disturbing rate. In the past 15 years it has been estimated by one survey that 300 communities have lost public transportation. The epidemic, if unchecked, will increase urban decay, stunt suburbs, create even more problems for the urban communities. Metropolitan planning is not easy, as we learned in Dade County, Fla. We have there what I would call a typical urban problem. The old county government was a political subdivision of the State, with 26 municipalities inside it. We had phenomenal growth populationwise and also in needs for services. For 20 years we struggled with the question of achieving some type of overall urban planning and development. Finally we settled on a plan which has been operating now for 3 years. We thought this plan would provide for orderly development and operation of this urban area. It would have been extremely helpful, as I look back now, to have had some central point at the highest place in government to which to turn. We could have obtained statistics, or learned more easily what others had done, or what was recommended by experts. Now we find, after we have gone into this, that the problem has already outstripped us. It is crossing county lines. So we have confronting us now an entirely new problem for urban development. It has been estimated by some that in the near future that urban strip will run all the way from Miami up the east coast of the United States right into Maine. Countrywide urbanization brings complications beyond comprehension. The Department of Urban Affairs and Housing would help maintain order and speed development. It would, for the first time, provide a focus on the needs of this great mass of our population and try to bring some planning and assistance. Until this Agency is created, we will have no central fabric to deal with this major national problem. I submit this Cabinet post and Agency will render significant service to the large majority of Americans who live in towns, villages, cities and urban areas. Chairman DAWSON. Mrs. Granahan? Chairman DAWSON. Thank you, Mr. Fascell. Our next witness will be the gentleman who probably was the first interested in this legislation, who first brought it to the attention of the Congress. I am going to ask Congressman Younger of California to be our next witness. He is also author of one of the bills. I think we had about 10 bills on this subject matter. You may proceed, Congressman Younger. STATEMENT OF HON. J. ARTHUR YOUNGER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Mr. YOUNGER. Thank you, Chairman Dawson. I became interested in this some 8 years ago when I felt that the municipal authorities coming to Washington were unable to find out the various places to go, where the Federal Government was already interested in munipal affairs. A farmer comes to Washington and he goes to the Department of Agriculture and they direct him to all of the various things that the Government does in regard to farming. But at that time housing and all of the other functions in which the Federal Government is interested in what might be classified as urban affairs were scattered all over in five or six departments and without any central direction or without any direction so far as a Cabinet post is concerned. They were independent agencies without Cabinet status and did not have the direct influence that they should have in connection with the Federal Government. When the Department of Agriculture was established, roughly 25 percent of our people were in urban territory and 75 percent were on farms. That is completely reversed, and now roughly 15 percent of our people are on the farms and 85 percent of them are in urban territory. The 85 percent do not have the representation that they should have at the Federal level. My theory was that we would concentrate into a department those functions that the Federal Government was already performing. It was not my intention that this department should be enlarged, but it should gather unto itself the Federal functions in urban matters that are scattered in all of these departments and concentrate them into one place and give them a Cabinet status to which they are entitled. There are a number of things in this bill that are supposedly left out. First, I would recommend that the title be changed because I think that if the department were simply known as the Department of Urban Affairs, it would be preferable. I do not think it is necessary to say Housing or try to enumerate other projects in which that the Federal Government is interested. There are other things that are as important as housing, and they are not mentioned. I think it would be much better if you just say it is a Department of Urban Affairs. My bill called it a Department of Urbaculture. That is not my creation, but it was suggested to me. I used it because it was a new name and it was not in the dictionary, and we got attention to something that otherwise would not have received attention. However, my recommendation would be that the Department of Urban Affairs be the name, without trying to enumerate the various functions which might be included in it. I think that is one change that ought to be made. In One of the most important features that we are at least starting to pay attention to now, and which is one of the biggest problems facing cities in a health way is this question of smog and air pollution. To me that is a Federal problem. It is not something that is local. In the New York area it includes three different States. many other places it crosses State lines. It is actually interstate in its character. I think the Federal Government is going to have to take, probably, a more important position in it. That is one thing that is not mentioned, but it would be included, normally, if you just said urban affairs. It now is handled, I think, in HEW, whatever is being done. There are other features that probably ought to be transferred from HEW. I noticed you have expansion of facilities for educational and cultural pursuits. Whether or not the so-called Department of Education, which is almost entirely an urban affair-it has very little to do with agriculture or farm schools-could very well be transferred, to this new Department. I am not sure just what is meant by section (b) on page 3, where you say: * * * and any other departments, agencies, or instrumentalities of the United States having functions— et cetera shall exercise such functions, powers, and duties in accordance with the national policy declared by this act ** |