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Memorandum on Inaugurating a Test Program To Reduce Hard-Core Unemployment

October 02, 1967

Memorandum for:

The Secretary of Defense

The Secretary of Commerce

The Secretary of Labor

The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

The Administrator of General Services Administration

The Director of Office of Economic Opportunity

The Administrator of Small Business Administration

We are launching today a major test program to mobilize the resources of private industry and the Federal Government to help find jobs and provide training for thousands of America's hard-core unemployed.

The heart of this new effort is to reach the forgotten and the neglected--those citizens handicapped by poor health, hampered by inadequate education, hindered by years of discrimination, and by-passed by conventional training programs.

To succeed in this venture will take more than promises or good intentions. It will require--on an unprecedented scale--the concerted action and involvement of the private sector, working closely with the Federal Government.

As we embark on this new course, let us be clear about what is involved: our purpose is not to hand out but to help up, to help provide every American the opportunity for a good job at a good wage.

Our goal is to replace the waste and failure of unemployment with the productivity of meaningful work.

We call upon private industry to join us in tackling one of America's most urgent domestic problems. I have no doubt that the private sector will respond. For we have witnessed in the past few months a remarkable series of events which attests to the dedication of American business in meeting the needs of the society in which it flourishes:

--On September 12, 1967, the insurance companies in this country agreed to commit St billion of their funds for investments in city core areas to improve housing conditions and to finance job creating enterprises. Some of these resources are already financing promising housing projects and insurance company executives and officials of this Administration are working together to develop other projects.

--A project has been launched to use surplus Federal lands to meet the housing needs of our cities in which the efforts of private developers will be the most important single element.

--A Committee, headed by Edgar F. Kaiser and composed of distinguished industrialists, bankers, labor leaders and specialists in urban affairs is examining every possible means of encouraging the development of a large-scale efficient construction and rehabilitation industry to reclaim the corroded core of the American city.

--Upon the recommendation of the Kaiser Committee we have begun the "Turnkey Plus" project to encourage private industry not only to develop and build, but also to manage public housing.

In this effort, we will again attempt to bring the great resources of the private sector to bear on a critical national problem. Through the great talents and energies of private industry, with full support from the Federal Government, we hope to:

--Bring new job training opportunities in existing plants to the hard core unemployed.

--Create new jobs and new training opportunities for the seriously disadvantaged in plants which will be established in or near areas of concentrated unemployment.

--Encourage new enterprises combining the resources of big and small businesses to provide jobs and job training opportunities for the disadvantaged.

To initiate this effort, the resources of the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Labor, Health, Education and Welfare, and Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the General Services Administration and the Small Business Administration will be combined to provide maximum assistance and to minimize the added cost of those in private industry willing to assume responsibility for providing training and work opportunities for the seriously disadvantaged.

Initially, nearly $40 million from a wide variety of existing programs will be made available, as will millions of dollars worth of surplus Federal property and excess Federal equipment.

We will offer to private industry:

--A full spectrum of aid to assist them in recruiting, counseling, training, and providing health and other needed services to the disadvantaged.

--Aid which will enable them to experiment with new ways to overcome the transportation barriers now separating

men and women from jobs.

--Surplus Federal land, technical assistance and funds to facilitate the construction of new plants in or near areas of

concentrated unemployment.

--Excess Federal equipment to enable them to train more disadvantaged people.

--Assistance to joint enterprises combining the resources of big and small businesses to bring jobs and training opportunities to the disadvantaged.

I have asked the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Labor to direct this test program and insure that all available Federal resources are utilized. The Secretary of Commerce will designate a full-time Special Representative as the single point of contact for private employers participating in this project. The Special Representative will provide employers with one-stop service for the entire Federal Government and will make whatever arrangements are appropriate with the various Federal agencies for all forms of Federal assistance.

The Secretary of Labor will designate a full-time officer in the Manpower Administration to work with the Special Representative of the Secretary of Commerce in connection with the training and employment elements of these projects.

I have also asked the Secretaries of Defense, Health, Education and Welfare, and Housing and Urban Development, the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Administrators of the General Services Administration and the Small Business Administration to assist the Secretaries of Commerce and Labor in this test program and to assign a single official in their agencies who will coordinate their efforts in support of this program.

Provision will be made for continuing liaison with local projects and for careful research and evaluation to crystallize field experience into guidelines for future action.

I have asked the Secretary of Commerce to invite corporations throughout the country to join this new effort to bring meaningful employment to disadvantaged citizens both in existing plants and, where feasible, in new locations near areas of concentrated unemployment.

I have directed each Department and Agency of this Government to give top priority to all phases of this important effort.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Note: In the memorandum the President referred to Edgar F. Kaiser, Chairman of the President's Committee on Urban Housing.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Memorandum on Inaugurating a Test Program To Reduce Hard-Core Unemployment Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237476

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