Federal Initiatives in Rural Areas Remarks at a White House Briefing for Representatives of Rural A Teas.

This is one group with whom I feel at home.

I was thinking, during lunch, when I was contemplating coming over here to meet with you, that perhaps the two most exciting and gratifying days of my life was when they turned on the electric lights in our house when I was 13 or 14 years old, and when I was inaugurated as President. I think even the days that followed turning on the electric lights, everything was still pleasant. I can't say the same thing about being inaugurated as President. [Laughter]

The national Rural Electric Cooperatives have always been close to me, and to my family, as you well know. Those of you who know anything about my background realize this. The formation of the REA during the late thirties opened up a new opportunity for an expanded and productive life. My own family's knowledge and awareness and influence expanded beyond the boundaries of our farm, really for the first time.

My father was an original REA director and frequently in order to fight for the life of the embryonic group, would come to Washington to go to national conventions, marshal the efforts of other farmers, interested groups, and it added a new dimension to his life, and ultimately to mine, as well.

My own sense is that I and my administration have almost complete compatibility with the purposes of the rural electrics today. There may be times when, because of an absence of communication or a difference in technique or perhaps a time schedule, that we don't completely agree on how to address controversial problems, or how to deal with pressures or questions that confront us all. But there's a basic compatibility which I want to maintain and also to enhance and to strengthen.

One of the prerequisites for achieving common purposes is to have constant understanding and communication. I think if you understand what our desires are, what our programs are, what our time schedules are, what our budget constraints are, it's much easier for you to cooperate with us and to help us achieve those common ideals and goals. If there's a doubt or uncertainty or perhaps misinformation on which you base your own assessments, then the concerns are not only unwarranted, but they also prevent our acting in common to improve the quality of life of people who look to you and to me for leadership.

This afternoon you'll get a fairly thorough briefing, to the extent that you desire it, from the leaders in my own administration-Community Services, Labor, Agriculture, of course, Energy, White House staff, and others. And I want you to take full advantage of this to the extent that you are willing and able. We've got some distinguished congressional leaders here, as well, who share with you and me the responsibility for improving the quality of life in small cities and towns, on the farms and ranches of our country.

In many ways, we detect and live with a broad range of interrelated responsibilities: environmental quality, conservation, education, housing, health, transportation, international trade arrangements, the improvement of net income for farm families, enhancing the export of agricultural products, reducing or perhaps even eliminating the disharmonies that sometimes exist between growing suburban regions served by you and the urban regions which also house Americans about whom we are concerned. These kinds of things bind us together, and I think a realization of the complexity of the issues is important for us all.

I know enough about your own background, your own commitments, your own history, your own statesmanship to realize that you have never taken a narrowly focused and selfish position on issues that affect America. It would be easy for you to do it, but you've never done it. And I know in basic considerations of national defense, international relations, what's best for our major cities, you representing the rural areas of our country have always taken an enlightened and constructive and unselfish position.

I have tried since I've been in office to eliminate some of the obstacles that have prevailed in the past which prevent better services by your government and my government for the people who look to you and me for guidance and for leadership and for service. We've tried to eliminate paperwork. We've tried to tear down the barriers that have separated one Federal agency from another and, in the process, have made congressionally mandated programs less effective, and which have at the same time made it much more difficult for Americans who deserve service to acquire it.

This afternoon, we are announcing, to some degree coincidentally with your visit, some improvements in water and sewage grant procedures. We have about a $2 1/2 billion program to give those Americans who don't have adequate water and sewage facilities that opportunity for a better and healthier life.

In the past we've not had common application forms, common accounting forms, common requirements among EPA, EDA, and the Farm Home Administration. That is being corrected.

In the past there have been 16—at least 16—different Federal agencies that prescribed standards that had to be met before progress could be made in meeting these needs of rural people. In the future that will not be the case. There will be one central clearing procedure, and then the standards of all 16 agencies will assume to have been met.

We are trying to take full advantage of employment opportunities in the Department of Labor and perhaps other agencies as well, to prescribe, with a maximum saving for American people, human, additional services in the rural areas to make sure that the people who need a better life can have access effectively to Government programs. We'll be adding about 1,700 or so—I think 1,750—additional employees, without any increase in Federal budget requirements, that will deal specifically with the alleviation of obstacles that have separated rural communities from a better life.

I won't pursue that any further, because you'll get more specific details about it later. But I would like to close my own remarks by saying that almost every decision made here in the White House over in the Oval Office or by the Congress affects you and the people whom you serve.

Recently in this very room I signed into law five major pieces of legislation establishing for the first time a basis for a national energy policy. Those bills were extremely complicated. They were the final result of tough negotiations by a wide range of interest groups. They had to accommodate even tiny, geographical, unique problems where the Congress had to say, "We don't want to mistreat a particular county in their method of production of natural gas or oil or their special requirements." They deal with electric power production and encourage conservation, shift toward the use of more plentiful supplies of fuels, and also, of course, open the way for research and development to develop new supplies of energy in the years to come.

These legislative acts must be thoroughly studied and understood by you, because along with TVA and other major cooperative groups, you will be directly affected by how these new laws will be administered. And I don't want to make a mistake; I don't want Jim Schlesinger and others to make a mistake in failing to accommodate the special needs that you might have or the special advice and counsel and constructive criticism that you might offer. And if you wait until after a regulation is promulgated or a decision is made, quite often it's very difficult to modify that decision. But if, in the initial stages of the formulation of a pol- icy, your voice is heard and your opinions are assessed, we can much more easily prevent a mistake and make the administration of these laws much more successful.

I might point out that there has been some concern expressed from some of you that this administration has an antinuclear power policy. We do not. I've not done much graduate work, but all my graduate work was done in nuclear engineering. I was one of the very earliest Americans who worked on the development of a way to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, to produce electricity, power to propel ships. And I still have a strong commitment to the use of nuclear power.

It should be, obviously, produced in a way that's safe, and we've done that in our country. It should be economically feasible, and we are constantly exploring ways to make it more efficient. And, of course, it should be explained very clearly to the American people. We don't want to. waste money. And we need to draw a careful delineation between the allocation of major funds for research and development, for systems that might be beneficial in years to come, compared to investments in practical tests or pilot projects that can be assessed at this time.

This principle not only applies to nuclear power but to many others as well; new ways to get photoelectric power generated, new ways to burn coal efficiently and cleanly, even new ways to produce hydroelectric power more efficiently.

Our water projects, which has been a highly controversial issue, is one that we approached with some concern and trepidation. But I think the outcome of a new water policy will be that when we do have Federal funds available to spend—and they're always limited—that they can be spent on projects that are of the highest possible priority for our country, to make sure that wasteful projects are not built, ones of doubtful advocacy or advisability are not built, but that we do allot those funds in an open and clear way, with an increased involvement by local people like yourselves, that we will make the right decision; and that just because a project was approved 15 or 20 years ago by a then senior Member of Congress, that it doesn't work its way up to the top and find itself built when other projects are much more desirable, much more needed to serve the people that you yourselves represent.

I might also alleviate some concerns. There will be no proposal made to eliminate the REA loan program. There will be no proposals made to move REA out of Agriculture. And whenever you have a concern about a rumor like this that gets started and then has a life of its own, I hope that you will come directly to see me with a delegation or your own very, very fine representatives here in Washington, and put a stop to that kind of rumor once and for all.

I think that you know that Bob Bergland would not mislead you in any way; neither would I. None of us have any inclination to mislead you. And when that kind of concern arises, it seems to fester like a sore, and it needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. And if, on occasion, there is some concern that is legitimate, I have no trepidation about letting you know that we are considering this. We'll work very closely with you in the alleviation of a problem. You'll be partners of ours and not someone who hears about a decision that affects your lives after it's too late for you to change it. I'll never do that. It would be a very serious mistake for me as President to try to evolve any change in the Federal laws, or any major change in the regulations that are issued, or procedures to be followed that affect you, without working it out harmoniously with you and letting you be an integral part of the decisionmaking process.

I'm not here trying to make mistakes. I'm here to avoid making mistakes and to make sure that when I do make a decision, that it is sound and best for our country. And having your counsel and your advice and your participation in making these kinds of decisions is an integral part of my own life as President.

I might say one other thing: I look on you as full partners with me. Almost all of you share a common background with me, having started life in a different world, sometimes with very severe restraints on the quality of our own outlook, with limited spheres of influence. And everyone in this room has now become an acknowledged leader because of ambition, because of good fortune, because of the trust placed in us by our friends, neighbors who have shared a common purpose. I enjoy that same relationship as well.

So, we are partners. We have temporary and transient concerns. We are fighting hard to control inflation. It'll be my top domestic priority for this year. It's a problem that we have suffered for the last 10 years. And it's time for us to do something about it. Budget constraints will be severe. The deficit is going to be cut. And I need your help in this respect as well.

So, in everything that I do, I won't have any hesitancy to call on you to help me achieve the goals that we established for our Nation. And I hope you feel the same ease in asking me to help you when you have a goal to achieve for people whom you serve as well.

We've got a great, strong country. When we do have temporary unemployment, temporary inflationary pressures, temporary budget constraints, we should remember that our Nation is still the strongest on Earth. It's the strongest economically.

We have the best political system, the finest free enterprise system on Earth. We're the strongest militarily, and we're going to stay that way.

Thank you very much.