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Title 42 — The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73not60

§2641 Congressional Declaration of Purpose

Title 42 › Chapter 31— PUBLIC WORKS ACCELERATION PROGRAM › § 2641

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Congress says the federal government must create public work projects and jobs for communities that did not share in the gains after the 1960–1961 recession. The work should give people immediate employment, improve local facilities so industry can grow, and speed up needed public projects to boost services, health, and welfare. Help is most needed in redevelopment areas with long-term unemployment and in places that have had high unemployment for at least twelve months.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §2641

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Congress finds that (1) certain communities and areas in the Nation are presently burdened by substantial unemployment and underemployment and have failed to share fully in the economic gains of the recovery from the recession of 1960–1961 and (2) action by the Federal Government is necessary, both to provide immediate useful work for the unemployed and underemployed in these communities and to help these communities, through improvement of their facilities, to become more conducive to industrial development and better places in which to live and work. The Nation has a backlog of needed public projects, and an acceleration of these projects now will not only increase employment at a time when jobs are urgently required but will also meet longstanding public needs, improve community services, and enhance the health and welfare of citizens of the Nation.
(b)The Congress further finds that Federal assistance to stimulate public works investment in order to increase employment opportunities is most urgently needed in those areas, both urban and rural, which qualify as redevelopment areas because they suffer from persistent and chronic unemployment and economic underdevelopment, as well as in other areas which have suffered from substantial unemployment for a period of at least twelve months.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Pub. L. 87–658, § 1, Sept. 14, 1962, 76 Stat. 541, provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter and amending section 462 of former Title 40, Public Buildings, Property, and Works, and section 1492 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Public Works Acceleration Act’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 2641

Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60