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Economic Opportunity Act, 1964
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (EOA) was the centerpiece of the "War on Poverty," which in turn was a major thrust of the "Great Society" legislative agenda of the Lyndon Johnson administration. The EOA provided for job training, adult education, and loans to small businesses to attack the roots of unemployment and poverty. Originally coordinated by the Office of Economic Opportunity, many sections of the EOA have been rescinded. However, other important segments have simply been transferr -
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), 1964
VISTA or Volunteers in Service to America is an anti-poverty program created by Lyndon Johnson's Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as the domestic version of the Peace Corps. Initially, the program increased employment opportunities for conscientious people who felt they could contribute tangibly to the War on Poverty. Volunteers served in communities throughout the U.S., focusing on enriching educational programs and vocational training for the nation's underprivileged classes. -
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GREAT SOCIETY LEGISLATI0N TIMELINE (1964-1966)
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Medicare, 1965
Unlike most industrialized nations, the United States does not guarantee access to health care or health insurance for all of its population. Employers are the major providers of health insurance for working people and their dependents. But two major government programs also exist to ensure that Americans have access to health insurance: Medicaid provides health insurance for the poor, and Medicare provides health insurance for individuals sixty-five and over and the disabled. Gaps in coverage a -
Water Quality Act, 1965
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.[1] Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by 1983. -
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 1965
The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-117, 79 Stat. 451) was the most ambitious federal housing effort undertaken since the Housing Act of 1949. The 1965 act extended the urban renewal programs set in motion by the 1949 act, which provided various forms of federal assistance to cities for removing dilapidated housing and redeveloping parts of downtowns. The act also extended the code enforcement program, which required that cities enact a code specifying minimum standards for ho -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) (P.L. 89-10), the most expansive federal education bill ever passed to date, on April 9, 1965, as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty." A former teacher who had witnessed poverty's impact on his students, Johnson believed that equal access to education was vital to a child's ability to lead a productive life. Prior presidents' commitments to improving the educational system also inspired the law's pas -
Immigration Act of 1965
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill that has dramatically changed the method by which immigrants are admitted to America. This bill is the Immigration Act of 1965. This act, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act [1], not only allows more individuals from third world countries to enter the US (including Asians, who have traditionally been hindered from entering America), but also entails a separate quota for refugees. [2] Under the Act, 170,000 immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere are g -
Medicaid, 1965
The Medicaid program is the third largest source of health insurance in the United States - after employer-based coverage and Medicare. As the largest program in the federal "safety net" of public assistance programs, Medicaid provides essential medical and medically related services to the most vulnerable populations in society. The significance of Medicaid's role in providing health insurance cannot be overstated. Medicaid covered 12.0 percent of the total U.S. population in 1998, compared to -
The National Foundations of the Arts and Humanities, 1965
On September 29, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act into law. The act called for the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as separate independent entities." -
Clean Water Restoration Act, 1966
The original 1948 statute (Ch. 758; P.L. 845), the Water Pollution Control Act, authorized the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, in cooperation with other Federal, state and local entities, to prepare comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters. During the development of such plans, due regard was to be given to improvements necessary to conserve waters for -
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, 1966
Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on 9 September 1966, this act created the first mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles. Implementation authority was assigned to the Department of Commerce and, shortly thereafter, to the National Highway Safety Bureau within the newly formed Department of Transportation. The act, intended to reduce driving fatalities, reflected a growing consensus that faulty vehicles cause accidents, not (simply) faulty drivers—an approach popularized
