Statement by the President on the Reorganization of Urban Mass Transportation Functions.

EVERY DAY tens of millions of Americans are penalized for living and working in our great cities. They must endure discomfort and delay as they travel--to and from work, the office and factory, the school, the shopping center, the beach. Our commerce must also pay an expensive price for our antiquated system of urban transportation.

Today the Government acts to lift these penalties from our people. We are reorganizing Government so that it may better meet the challenges of modernizing our urban transportation.

The urban mass transportation program is today transferred from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Department of Transportation. To help insure that the program makes the maximum contribution to overall urban planning and development, certain planning and research functions in this area will remain in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This reorganization will:

--Bring greater efficiency to Federal planning. The same department which administers the regional Federal transportation programs will administer grants to support the modernization of transportation in our cities.

--Permit continued participation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in relating urban transportation systems to the broader needs of urban planning and development.

--Simplify and strengthen the working relationships of mayors, city planners, and Federal administrators.

--Bring the full force of the Department of Transportation's technical research capacity to bear on urban mass transportation problems.

--Serve as a focal point for improved coordination between the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development-each of which has major responsibilities that must be administered in harmony.

The Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and their staffs have made this transition smoothly and effectively. They will continue to combine their strengths.

This reorganization does not itself mark the solution for our urban transportation problems. But it does take us forward to the day when urban life will be free of transportation penalties. It must be a day when millions of people in our great cities can enjoy their daily travels, not endure them or dread them as they do now.