In the Safe Streets Act of 1968, Congress determined “To assist state and local governments in reducing the incidence of crime.”
This year I am proposing that the Congress provide the full $300 million that the Congress last year authorized to do just that.
I hope the Congress will put the money where the authorization is.
I believe this is an essential contribution to justice and to public order in the United States. I hope these grants can be made to the States and they can be used effectively to reduce the crime rate in this country.
But all of this is only a small part of the total effort that must be made--I think chiefly by the local governments throughout the Nation--if we expect to reduce the toll of crime that we all detest.
Frankly, as I leave the Office of the Presidency, one of my greatest disappointments is our failure to secure passage of a licensing and registration act for firearms. I think if we had passed that act, it would have reduced the incidence of crime. I believe that the Congress should adopt such a law, and I hope that it will at a not too distant date.
In order to meet our long-standing commitment to make government as efficient as possible, I believe that we should reorganize our postal system along the lines of the Kappel[1] report.
[Footnote 1: Frederick R. Kappel, Chairman of the Commission on Executive, Legislative and Judicial Salaries.]
I hope we can all agree that public service should never impose an unreasonable financial sacrifice on able men and women who want to serve their country.
I believe that the recommendations of the Commission on Executive, Legislative and Judicial Salaries are generally sound. Later this week, I shall submit a special message which I reviewed with the leadership this evening containing a proposal that has been reduced and has modified the Commission’s recommendation to some extent on the congressional salaries.