Statement by the President Following Defeat of the Area Redevelopment Bill.

THE TRAGIC defeat of area redevelopment legislation could not have come at a worse time. Unemployment persists--our distressed areas need help--and scores of hard-hit communities in Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, upstate New York, upstate Minnesota, and southern Illinois were counting on an expansion of this program.

The people of these and other affected States need more than speeches to help their depressed communities and jobless workers. This program must not be allowed to die-and it is my intention to give the Congress another opportunity to support it.