Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Veto of Bill Extending the Asbestos and Acid-Grade Fluorspar Purchase Program.

August 12, 1958

To the Senate:

I am returning without my approval S. 3186, "To extend for one year certain programs established under the Domestic Tungsten, Asbestos, Fluorspar, and Columbium-Tantalum Production and Purchase Act of 1956."

The bill would extend to December 31, 1959, the asbestos and acid-grade fluorspar purchase programs provided for by subsections (b) and (c) of section 2 of the 1956 Act (P. L. 733, 84th Cong.).

The purchase programs authorized by Public Law 733 were supported by the Administration for two reasons. first, they offered the affected industries an opportunity to maintain domestic production in the period of market uncertainty resulting from termination of defense expansion programs affecting the commodities involved, and second, it was the hope that the purchase programs would permit the domestic industries to reorient their operations to normal commercial markets.

The Public Law 733 program has satisfactorily maintained a high level of activity on the part of the domestic acid-grade fluorspar producing industry. It has not, however, achieved its objective of reorienting the industry to normal commercial markets. Because of the importance of producer-consumer relationships to the acid-grade fluorspar industry, a means whereby the close contact between producers and users could be re-established was included in the Stabilization Plan which is a portion of the Long-Range Minerals Program submitted to the Congress by the Secretary of the Interior. The stabilization price being considered for acid-grade fluorspar by the Congress approximates that contained in Public Law 733.

A further extension of stockpiling of acid-grade fluorspar beyond the original term of Public Law 733 would further separate domestic producers from their normal markets and thus defeat the stabilization objective. The Stabilization Program for acid-grade fluorspar, if enacted in this session of the Congress, will go into effect on October 1, 1958, subject to the availability of funds, just prior to the termination date of the Public Law 733 program. The maintenance of two programs for this commodity with contradictory objectives would be ill-advised.

As regards asbestos, the enrolled bill would simply extend the time limitation of the program without increasing the quantitative limitation. On the basis of the present rates of delivery of this material under the Public Law 733 program, the quantitative limitation will be achieved prior to the termination of the existing legislation. Sufficient funds are now available to accomplish all authorized purchases. for this reason, no purpose would be served by a simple time extension of the asbestos program.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Veto of Bill Extending the Asbestos and Acid-Grade Fluorspar Purchase Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233850

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