Statement by the President Following House Action on the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968.

I AM delighted with the action of the House yesterday in passing the omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, which I recommended in February.

This bill will provide:

--a production rate of low- and middleincome housing that is 10 times any previous level,

--the beginning of a program to build 6 million federally subsidized housing units and wipe out the substandard housing gap in America,

--a national housing partnership to engage the private sector of the American economy in an era of city building unsurpassed in the Nation's history,

--the modernization of urban renewal and public housing programs to better serve the needs of the American city-dweller.

The measure now goes to conference with the Senate. I hope the conferees will promptly be able to reach agreement. I particularly hope that the conference agreement will contain the major new communities program and the authority to provide social services for tenants in public housing projects, which were in my original proposal and are in the Senate-passed bill.