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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Education Bill in the House. Birkhead was very energetic. He did get them all together, and we did come within one vote of getting it out of the Rules Committee. This was extremely frustrating, for, as I recall it, it had already passed the Senate. And in '60 it became a matter of dispute over civil rights, the Catholic attitudes began to be aroused, and there were many more partisan feelings that got aroused, and, as you know, nothing was done in '60, nor in '61.

In '63, to my great delight, the House and Senate both passed the Aid to College Education Bill. I had interested Senator Johnson in putting in a bill for a large number of loans to college students, and I interested Fogarty in the same thing and at the same time, in '59. The bill was to provide federal loan insurance for students in higher education. On the final day of the session, in '60, Johnson introduced his measure to provide insurance on loans to college and university students. Without mentioning the Research and Education Committee for a Free World, he alluded to much of the material the committee had provided for him. Senator Johnson urged that the Senate Labor Committee under Senator Hill begin hearings early in the next session to perfect the bill and to report it so that the next session could send the bill to the President for signature. Actually, by a miracle the bill did pass the House and Senate and was signed by the President in '63.

This bill includes not only loans to college and university students but it provides grants for construction of





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