Ideologues and Presidents by Thomas S. Langston

Author:Thomas S. Langston [Langston, Thomas S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies), Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351513852
Google: Sy0rDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05T01:30:18+00:00

Legislating Model Cities

The push to turn the Task Force’s report into a Model Cities bill began on the occasion of the president’s message to Congress on the problems of the cities, January 26, 1966. In that message, Johnson wrote in grandiloquent style about his proposal, which followed in detail the recommendations of the Task Force. “Today,” President Johnson proclaimed:

I have placed before the Congress and before you, the people of America, a new way of answering an ancient dream. That dream is of cities of promise, cities of hope, where it could truly be said, to every man his chance, to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity, to every man the right to live and to work and to be himself and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him.

The new way of answering that ancient dream is this:

—to rebuild where there is hopeless blight;

—to renew where there is decay and ugliness;

—to refresh the spirit of men and women that are growing weary with jobless anxiety;

—to restore old communities and to bring forth new ones where children will be proud to say, “This is my home.”

What I have offered is a massive program, involving everything that we know about building homes and schools and parks and streets that are safe from fear.60

In the ensuing lobbying of Congress, Robert Weaver, acting as a loyal administrator after being purposefully ignored in the program’s development, joined with his newly appointed undersecretary, Robert Wood, to organize interest groups to pressure legislators to pass the program. These two also prepared a special memorandum on the program to be sent to mayors throughout the country; personally talked with a score of mayors; and privately briefed Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Harry McPherson, meanwhile, lobbied newspaper editorial page editors, while Walter Reuther arranged for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to issue a statement of support. And Professor Haar, according to a memo Califano sent to Johnson, was “talking to people like Ed Logue of Boston and other distinguished city planners (who tend to capture the Sunday supplement sections) to explain the program to them.”61 As part of this effort, HUD even maintained a calendar indicating the speaking engagements of private sector friends so that they might be contacted with a request to promote the program in upcoming speeches.

These lobbying efforts and those originating from the White House intensified in May, after a New York Times article all but wrote off Model Cities as dead in Congress. At a White House meeting to discuss the situation after this story was printed, it became apparent that while the White House suspected Weaver’s commitment, Weaver and his congressional liaison officer blamed the situation on the lack of vigorous presidential involvement in the lobbying effort.62 After this meeting, Weaver, Wood, and HUD’s congressional liaison office accelerated their orchestration of interest group lobbying.

Eventually, with the key assistance of Senator Edmund Muskie, the White House managed to gain passage of a bill that closely followed its original proposal.

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