LANDSCAPE ACTION PROGRAM 491 



Now, if your question is, should a portion of this fund be ear- 

 marked by statute; that is, should we say it must be used for this 

 purpose as defined by the statute? I would say that I would be 

 opposed to this at this time, for a number of reasons. 



In the first place, the Fund Act is new. We are just moving 

 into its implementation. No single statewide plan has come in as yet. 



We have in our planning requirements inclusion of landscaping 

 as one of the things that the States may propose. I think maybe you 

 ought to leave a little administrative discretion in for a year or two. 



This is what I meant by saying that I think some general policy 

 guidelines, either from the Recreation Advisory Council or from the 

 Congress, would be helpful, but a specific directive that 10, 15, or 

 5 percent or whatever it must be, must be used for this purpose, 

 takes that much away from the State and local government. 



This means, in effect, that you give a preferential position to this 

 particular activity which is only a part of the Fund Act. You open 

 up a Pandora's box of other proposals to earmark other aspects 

 of the fund, and once you start, where do you stop? 



If you are talking about a supplemental program or another 

 program which would be a grant program or a technical assistance 

 program, this, I think, is more in the ballpark. But again, you run 

 up against a very difficult situation in the Congress of earmarking 

 funds for particular purposes. A statutory authorization for funds 

 out of the Treasury is more likely to succeed. 



Dr. CLARENCE COTTAM. I spent 25 years here in Washington, 

 B.C., as a Federal bureaucrat, and for the past nine years I have been 

 a private citizen in Texas. Having had 25 years' experience in Fed- 

 eral government in a fairly responsible position, it seems to me there 

 are quite a number of things that can be done immediately without 

 drawing any extra cash. We ought to separate the things that can 

 be done from the things that cost money. 



I recognize a number of things. Some of them are that we need 

 government policy, a declaration of some policy by the Congress, 

 perhaps, or at least by the Executive Branch of government. One 

 is to use properly the land that the Good Lord gave us. For exam- 

 ple, let me give you one or two illustrations of this. 



We have been subsidizing the incompetent farmer for a good many 

 years. We have been encouraging him indirectly, not purposefully, 

 but indirectly to continue the erosion of the landscape. Let me say 

 that I think we ought to stop subsidizing the farmer who tries to 



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