Statement by the President on the Failure of the House To Act on the Rat Extermination Act.
THE EFFECT of today's House action, in denying a rule to the rat extermination act, is a cruel blow to the poor children of America.
Every year thousands of those children-many of them babies--are bitten by rats in their homes and tenements. Some are killed. Many are disfigured for life.
The amount of money needed to fight this national shame is small. But the stakes--the health of our children and of every city dweller--are very great.
We are spending Federal funds to protect our livestock from rodents and predatory animals. The least we can do is give our children the same protection that we give our livestock.
I hope that those in the House who have voted against this program will reexamine their position. I hope they will vote to defend the children who are now menaced by rats.
Note: Rat control was included as a provision of the Partnership for Health Amendments of 1967, approved by the President on December 5, 1967 (see Item 520).
The statement was read by George E. Christian, Special Assistant to the President, at his news briefing at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, July 20, 1967, in the Fish Room at the White House. It was not made public in the form of a White House press release.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Failure of the House To Act on the Rat Extermination Act. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238116
