two laws may result. I assume that section 214 of this bill will be used to make adjustments to avoid such problems. As is the case in our public health programs, the existence of basic legislation for school construction and school services in already congested areas makes possible and desirable the integration of community facilities and services under S. 349 with related school programs administered by the Office of Education in line with a common pattern. While most of the programs contemplated by this proposed bill are aimed at offsetting the problems caused by movement of people, it also wisely provides for action which will help reduce such movement by adding additional local workers. Day-care centers are provided in the bill, primarily for this purpose. With regard to this, the Children's Bureau and the Office of Education worked together during World War II in helping to develop such centers. Looking ahead we know that many mothers will desire to enter defense-related employment. The welfare of their children, whether of preschool or school age, will be a prime factor in their decision to take defense jobs. Care of children will have to be provided through extended school services, day-care centers, and foster day-care homes. Production efficiency, regularity of job attendance, morale, and avoidance of high turn-over, will depend largely upon essential community services and facilities in this field. This is basically a local responsibility, but Federal consultation and limited aid may be needed. Community plans and standards of care should be developed which take into account existing facilities and services, both public and voluntary, so that Federal help will be required only as a supplement to existing local resources. These local determinations should be made by the State and local counterparts of the Federal agencies concerned, having due regard for the substantial part to be played by the private agencies. Recreation: In World War II, the Federal Security Agency, by Executive order and under further agreements involving the Defense Establishment, the FWA, and the USO, provided the professional staff to identify minimum community recreation needs in both military and industrial congested areas. Recognition of our continuing responsibility in this field was contained in President Truman's message accompanying Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1946 (5 U. S. C. 127), wherein recreation is included within the principal functions of the Federal Security Agency. During World War II, it was abundantly evident that opportunities for recreation were essential. Decent recreation contributed to the mental health, to the strength and to the resiliency of people working at top speed in the war plants and living too often in overcrowded quarters, or traveling long distances to and from work. Wages and patriotism were not the only incentives to keep people working at peak production. Workers need also a chance to be human beings, to have places to go in their time off to enjoy themselves. I believe, therefore, that the provisions in the bill for recreation services is a wise one. this field, particularly, both local public bodies and private agencies have resources to contribute, before recourse to outside help is called for. In We have thought it would be most helpful to the committee if we discussed S. 349 primarily in terms of the previous experience of the Federal Security Agency in the various programs encompassed in the bill. I am sure that this experience will be of great assistance in the effective and economical administration of this bill. The most effective distribution of responsibility under title II among the Federal agencies concerned, it seems to me, would take into account three principles which I believe to be of great importance in the administration of an emergency program of this character. First, the program should be so administered that insofar as possible the need for community services and community facilities are anticipated in advance of the movement of defense workers or military personnel into a locality, so that they may be provided in time to prevent critical situations from arising. Military and defense production plans for a community must be converted into manpower requirements, and manpower requirements into needs for community facilities and services. These needs must then be converted into plans for meeting the needs, and plans into action. Where more adequate service and facilities, if provided, can aid in holding or expanding local labor supply without further in-migration that will be the economical course to follow. The effectiveness of the program will depend in very large measure upon the speed and efficiency with which these steps can be carried out. Second, full and effective use should be made of all the existing experience, know-how, and local initiative which can be brought to bear on the community problems of a congested area. Each step in the process, from the translation of expected numbers of migrants into kinds and amounts of community services, to the actual provision of the services needed, requires the sort of knowledge and competence of what to do and how to do it that can be acquired only by actual experience with local programs and with the facilities which lie back of them. For this sort of know-how, we must rely principally upon the people in the local and State public agencies and nonprofit private organizations whose everyday business it is to anticipate, plan for, and meet community needs. The Federal agencies administering the community facilities and services phases of this bill, particularly those in health, education, and welfare, will surely be unable to make them available promptly and when needed unless they can enlist the wholehearted assistance and cooperation of State and local people. The third principle is that the new program should supplement, not duplicate, existing Federal, State, and local resources for the provision of community facilities and services. We have not the time, nor the resources in personnel, facilities, and funds, to duplicate what is already being done. Instead, the new program must be so administered that it will strengthen the foundation programs of community facilities and services in the areas involved, combine local public and private resources to the maximum extent, and thus reduce the occasion for, and the amounts of, the emergency Federal aid to be provided under this bill. This bill, it seems to us, will require, at least so far as title II is concerned, the closest kind of cooperation between the Housing and Home Finance Agency and the Federal Security Agency. We are, of course, confident that such an effective working relationship with Administrator Foley will be developed. The President, under section 214 of the bill, will have adequate authority to provide for administration of the provisions of title II pertaining to community facilities and services by the agency or agencies of the Federal Government best equipped to discharge them. We shall perform whatever functions are assigned to us with the single objective in mind of expeditiously meeting the needs of our common defense effort. Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you, Mr. Thurston. Any questions, Senator Frear? Senator FREAR. None. Senator SPARKMAN. Any questions, Senator Ives? Senator SPARKMAN. Senator Bennett? Senator BENNETT. No more. Thank you. Senator SPARKMAN. I believe Mr. Thurston has to get away anyhow. Is that true? Mr. THURSTON. That is true, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator SPARKMAN. We appreciate your coming, and giving us this statement. We are glad to have the succinct manner in which you summarize it at the end, with particular reference to the three recommendations that you give. Senator SPARKMAN. Now, Dr. Scheele, will you proceed? STATEMENT OF LEONARD A. SCHEELE, SURGEON GENERAL, PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY Dr. SCHEELE. Mr. Chairman, my name is Leonard Scheele, Surgeon General, Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency. Mr. Thurston has very ably summarized the viewpoint of the Federal Security Agency on this subject and the role which we in the Agency including the Public Health Service-are prepared to perform in the administration of an emergency program relating to the support of community facilities and services. I should simply like to supplement and underscore some of the points he has madeespecially as they apply to the programs of Public Health Service. A number of communities are already in need of assistance, and others will be added to the list in still greater numbers as our mobilization is accelerated. If we are to avoid the obvious difficulty of deferring action until a backlog of need reaches a point that prompt and equitable administration cannot be attained, then we would be in some difficulty. It seems to me desirable that we have legislative authority and working funds in advance of the full evolution of our problem. It seems to me, too, that title II of the bill provides that such preplanning and program could be developed. I should also like to underscore what Mr. Thurston has said to support and illustrate the wisdom of the policy embodied in section 214 of S. 349, namely, the principle of maximum use of the skills and resources of existing Federal agencies in the administration of a program of community facilities and services in congested areas. This principle is sound, not because it recognizes the interests of the agencies as such, but because it will get the job done quicker, cheaper, and better than any other approach. In an emergency that is more im portant than ever. Let me illustrate my point by calling attention to a few very important facts about Public Health Service programs, actual and potential, in this general field. 1. In two important segments of the community facilities fieldhospital construction and water pollution control-the Public Health Service is now operating programs of Federal financial assistance. Both of these programs were inaugurated after the close of World War II; the first in 1946 and the second in 1948. In both cases the program, while well established, has only scratched the surface of what needs to be done; needs which are so vital to the health and productivity of the Nation in war as well as in peace that there can be no doubt as to the need for continuity of the program throughout the present emergency. The original surveys conducted under the Hill-Burton program showed that we had approximately 1,000,000 hospital beds avilable but that we required an additional 900,000, even for peacetime needs. Since the start of the program, approximately 73,000 beds have been provided or are under construction. This is evidence of real progress, but it still leaves a long way to go before we catch up with our original bed deficit. A similar situation prevails with respect to water pollution facilities. Because of the deficit in the provision of waste treatment works which was further aggravated by World War II, a scarcity of water of satisfactory quality for industrial and domestic purposes still exists. This must be overcome in a number of areas to permit location or expansion of industries. Moreover, if a dry weather cycle, such as was experienced during the early 30's should occur during the present emergency period, it would substantially intensify the need for water pollution control. If to these existing programs we add an emergency construction program such as proposed in S. 349-and I believe we should do just that it is obviously necessary to assure that the emergency program will supplement and complement, rather than parallel and possibly conflict with, the existing programs. The best way to assure this is to assign administrative responsibility to the same agency. 2. Both of these Public Health programs are based upon comprehensive State and local plans, which in turn are based on careful surveys of existing facilities in relation to immediate needs. These plans, let me add, are not static documents which are vulnerable to obsolescence with changing circumstances. Rather, they are currently revised, up-to-date inventories of what exists, what is needed, with a hard-headed scheduling of priorities for meeting first needs first. In the hospital construction program, these plans show, among other things, how many acceptable beds are available in every "hospital service area," the classification of beds by types (general, T. B., mental, etc.), percentage of occupancy, ratio of beds to population, location of the nearest teaching and intermediate hospitals, as well as a classification of areas in terms of comparative bed shortages. In our water-pollution-control program the plans which are being developed for the various river basins enumerate the sources and indicate the extent of pollution in the various basins, set forth present water uses, evaluate existing impairment of water quality, and recommend remedial measures required to permit maximum utilization of the waters. Such programs are essential in deciding where increased population can be adequately handled. They also indicate the character and extent of waste treatment which will be needed in those locations. These plans can and should be used as a foundation for the operation of the community facilities program in these fields. You simply cannot make an intelligent decision as to the need for a hospital in a given community without answers to such questions as these: How many hospital beds are available in the general area now? What is the ratio of beds to population-present and projected? What other additional construction is being scheduled in the area? Is the proposed location such that professional staff can be assured? Can the specialized personnel and facilities of a teaching hospital be utilized to reinforce those of the proposed local hospital? Similarly, action on an application for construction of a sewagedisposal plant raises questions which can be readily answered only if comprehensive up-to-date inventories and plans are maintained: Into what waters is the treated sewage to be emptied? What are the uses of these waters, domestic and industrial? What is the present state of pollution of these waters? What new industries scheduled for construction near these waters will require "clean" water for their operation? Will water supply be the governing factor in the location or expansion of industry? Can a stream safely absorb additional pollution and not restrict present water uses? 3. In the process of developing and operating both of these programs we have selected and trained technical staffs of outstanding competence. The leadership of our staff in the field of hospital design and lay-out, for example, is recognized not only in this country but abroad. And in the water pollution control field our staff includes the highly specialized research personnel of our environmental helath center in Cincinnati, where we conduct advanced studies relating to the development of standards of water quality for various water uses, studies to devise methods leading to the effective treatment of radioactive wastes, basic studies on analytical methods for controlling water and sewage purification processes, and perfection of procedures for the rapid determination of bacteriological quality of water. In addition to their purely technical competence, these staffs have also acquired invaluable know-how on such tough administrative problems as priority determinations. In addition they have already established that close working relationship with State and local officials and with the technical and professional societies in their respective fields which is a prerequisite to effective operations. Even if these staffs could be duplicated by any other agency—and I sincerely doubt that this is possible-such duplication would represent a gross extravagance in the use of highly skilled manpower in a period when the conservation of such skills is essential. 4. Both of these Public Health Service programs are operated as Federal-State programs. Thus, the technical staffs of our Service are supplemented by a corps of State personnel who are also competent technically and administratively in their respective fields. Under the Hill-Burton Act, State hospital authorities have been established, and these authorities are thoroughly familiar with their State problems. I do not mean to imply, of course, that the same |