---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 6721"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "6721"
heading: "Congressional findings of fact and declaration of policy"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/6721"
units:
  - "Chapter 80 — Public Works Employment"
  - "Subchapter II — Antirecession Provisions"
---

# §6721. Congressional findings of fact and declaration of policy


The Congress finds—

- (1) that [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local governments](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) represent a significant segment of the national economy whose economic health is essential to national economic prosperity;
- (2) that present national economic problems have imposed considerable hardships on [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local government](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) budgets;
- (3) that those governments, because of their own fiscal difficulties, are being forced to take budget-related actions which tend to undermine Federal Government efforts to stimulate the economy;
- (4) that efforts to stimulate the economy through reductions in Federal Government tax obligations are weakened when [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local governments](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) are forced to increase taxes;
- (5) that the net effect of Federal Government efforts to reduce unemployment through public service jobs is substantially limited if [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local governments](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) use federally financed public service employees to replace regular employees that they have been forced to lay off;
- (6) that efforts to stimulate the [construction](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=7) industry and reduce unemployment are substantially undermined when [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local governments](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) are forced to cancel or delay the [construction](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=7) of essential capital [projects](/usc/42/13641.md?p=2); and
- (7) that efforts by the Federal Government to stimulate the economic recovery will be substantially enhanced by a program of emergency Federal Government assistance to [State](/usc/42/6701.md?p=2) and [local governments](/usc/42/6701.md?p=3) to help prevent those governments from taking budget-related actions which undermine the Federal Government efforts to stimulate economic recovery.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 94–369, title II, § 201, July 22, 1976, 90 Stat. 1002.)