Memorandum Establishing the Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican American Affairs

Memorandum for Honorable W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor; Honorable John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; Honorable Orville L. Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture; Honorable Robert C. Weaver, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Honorable R. Sargent Shriver, Director, Office of Economic Opportunity; Honorable Vicente Ximenes, Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Over the past three years, many members of my Administration have had discussions with Mexican American leaders and others interested in their problems. They have discussed the value of our programs to Mexican Americans in their search for equal opportunity and first-class American citizenship.

The time has come to focus our efforts more intensely on the Mexican Americans of our nation.

I am therefore asking the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity to serve on an interagency committee on Mexican American affairs. I am asking Commissioner Vicente Ximenes of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to chair this committee.

The purpose of this committee is to

--assure that Federal programs are reaching the Mexican Americans and providing the assistance they need and

--seek out new programs that may be necessary to handle problems that are unique to the Mexican American community.

I am also asking this committee to meet with Mexican Americans, to review their problems and to hear from them what their needs are, and how the Federal Government can best work with state and local governments, with private industry and with the Mexican Americans themselves in solving those problems.

I would like to be kept informed, at periodic intervals, of the progress being made.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON