THE Senate's decision to approve a Government guarantee for a $250 million private bank loan to the Lockheed Corporation is in the best interests of all the American people. I greet this vote--as I greeted the vote in the House of Representatives last week--with gratitude and deep satisfaction.
This action will save tens of thousands of jobs that would otherwise have been eliminated. It will have a major impact on the economy of California, and will contribute greatly to the economic strength of the country as a whole. It will help ensure that the Nation's largest defense contractor, and its largest airframe manufacturer, will continue serving the Nation's needs. It will also help ensure that this country will continue to play a leading role in the development of aerospace technology.
The bill which the Senate has approved is the same measure I recommended to the Congress several weeks ago. I would emphasize again that it provides no Federal dollars to the Lockheed Corporation; it merely provides a Government guarantee for a loan which will be made entirely through private institutions.
Both Houses of the Congress have deliberated carefully upon this matter, and they have acted in a prudent and farsighted manner. I appreciate what they have done, and I congratulate them for their decision.
Note: As enacted, the bill (H.R. 8432) was approved by the President on August 9, 1971, and is Public Law 92-70 (85 Stat. 178).
Richard Nixon, Statement About Senate Approval of the Emergency Loan Guarantee Act Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240503