White House Statement Following Meeting With Republican Leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

THE PRESIDENT met today in the Cabinet Room with the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives. They had a general discussion of many of the domestic programs which will be submitted by the Administration to the Congress in the State of the Union and other messages at the 1957 session of the Congress.

A general discussion of foreign policy, mutual security and national defense programs will be held tomorrow afternoon when the President holds a bi-partisan meeting with the Legislative leaders of both parties.

This morning the main subjects under discussion were the Budget, the further development of the domestic atomic energy program, school construction needs, civil fights and proposed amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization Law.

The Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget outlined the fiscal details of the domestic side of the 1958 Budget as well as projected receipts and expenditures for the 1957 Budget. Both the Secretary and the Director expressed the belief that continuing economies in the operation of the government, coupled with no loss in existing revenues, would result in a continuation of a balanced budget.

The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission next reviewed the status of the present development of atomic energy for domestic use and discussed proposed additional legislation necessary to expand such development, particularly government indemnity for third-party liability in connection with the atom power program.

The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare stressed the need for passage by the 1957 Session of the Congress of legislation designed to speed a four-year plan of construction of needed schoolrooms to meet a nationwide shortage. He likewise discussed other proposals concerning his Department.

The Attorney General urged passage of the Civil Rights Program advanced last year by the President and the Department of Justice. He also recommended that Administration amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization Act recommended last year be again advanced and pressed for passage at the 1957 Session.

The Hungarian refugee relief program was not discussed today. The Vice President and the Attorney General will make a report on this program, together with recommendations, at tomorrow's bi-partisan meeting.

The meeting will reconvene this afternoon at two o'clock. Among the subjects on the agenda are: farm legislation; small business aid proposals; labor legislation; postal rates; Interior Department programs, including water resources, conservation and Federal-State partnership projects; veteran housing; Civil Service legislation; lowering of the voting age; home rule and national suffrage for the District of Columbia; and housing and area redevelopment programs.