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Statement by the President Upon Making Public a Report on Benefits Available to Young People Under the Social Security Amendments of 1965

September 08, 1965

The Social Security Amendments of 1965, which provide urgently needed health insurance plans for the aged, reflect this administration's concern for the well-being of our more than 18 million older citizens.

Just as importantly, this historic legislation provides significant new and improved services and benefits for millions of our young people, from neglected infants to the sons and daughters of low-income families who are working their way through college. Most importantly, it can do much to help eliminate sickness and disability as causes of lifelong poverty.

Because, as I have often said, our children are our most precious national resource, I want to call special attention to the many services and benefits available to young people--especially the children of the poor-under the new amendments. The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare has provided the attached summary of these provisions.

As Secretary Gardner has emphasized in a letter to the Governors of all the States, many of these additional benefits and services can be made available to those who need them only if the States take advantage of the Federal assistance offered by this legislation for the improvement of State health and welfare programs. I want to urge State and local officials in every part of the Nation to take prompt action to bring these benefits to the young people who hold in their hands the future well-being of our society.

Note: The summary report to the President from Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John W. Gardner was released by the White House along with the President's statement.

The report enumerated the newly available benefits and services for young people under the following headings: medical care for children, special project grants for needy children, expansion of child health and welfare services, training of personnel to assist crippled children, increased monthly social security benefits, increased public assistance payments, part-time jobs for children under 18, and liberalized payments to students.

The text of the report is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 1, p. 234).

For the President's remarks on signing the Social Security Amendments of 1965, see Item 394.
The statement was released at Austin, Tex.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Making Public a Report on Benefits Available to Young People Under the Social Security Amendments of 1965 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240597

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