 We have the resources in this country, we have the ingenuity, we have the courage and we have the compassion and we must, in this decade, bring all of these strengths to bear effectively so that we can lift off the conscience of our affluent nation, the shame of slums and squalor, and the blight of deterioration and decay. We must make sure that every family in America lives in a home of dignity, in a neighborhood of pride and the community of opportunity and a city of promise and hope. And this legislation represents the single most important breakthrough in the last 40 years. Only the Housing Act of 1949 approaches the significance of this measure, and years to come, I believe this act will become known as the single most valuable housing legislation in our history. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 retains and expands and improves the best of the tested programs of the past. It ends and gives new thrust to the FHA Mortgage Insurance Program so that millions of Americans can come toward attainment of new homes in the future, as millions already have under that program in the past. It opens the way for a more orderly and cohesive development of all of our suburbs, and it opens the doors to thousands of our veterans who have been unable to obtain the benefits of a federal housing program. It extends and enlarges and improves the urban renewal program so that we can more effectively challenge and defeat the enemy of decay that exists in our cities. It faces the changing challenge of rural housing. It continues the loan programs to assure the needed dormitories on our college campuses and decent housing at decent costs for the elderly and the handicapped and those of lower income. But the importance of the bill is not only that it retains and improves the best of good and traditional programs. It is a landmark bill because of its new ideas. Almost of the most of these is the program of assistance for the construction and the rehabilitation of housing for the elderly and for families of low income. The people who live in the most wretched conditions in our slums and our blighted neighborhoods. This imperative housing will be built under sponsorship of private organizations. It will make use of private money and it will be managed by private groups with supplements paid by their government. The private builders will be able to move into the low income housing field which they have not been able to penetrate or to serve effectively in the past. Furthermore, this legislation responds to the urgent needs of our cities. It offers federal assistance to the cities and communities of our nation to help pay the cost of essential public works. Finally, this legislation meets our compelling responsibility for giving attention to the environment in which Americans live. Grants are provided for the acquisition of open spaces, for the development of parks, for the construction of recreational facilities and for the beautification of urban areas.