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The New York Times
-New York, Thursday, April , 1973-

Nixon Begins Transfer of U.S. Lands to Local Units

By ROBERT B. SEMPLE Jr.
Special to the New York Times

SAN CLEMEMTE, Calif.. March 31- President Nixon today asked the Senate and House Armed Services committees to approve the first in a series of nationwide move to transfer billions of dollars worth of federally owned land to state and local governments for recreational and other public uses.State and local governments would be given the first chance to acquire the lands. Those not taken would then be offered for sale to commercial or industrial bidders.  The proceeds of such sales would be earmarked for the land and water conservation fund of the Interior Department for use in developing new state of national parks.  In a brief announcement here, Mr. Nixon said he had directed the Secretary of De- Continued on Page 25, Column 3

Nixon Initiates Plan to Transfer Lands to Local Governments

Continued From Page 1, Col. 5

fense to offer six miles of California's most valuable beachfront, now part of the Marine base at Camp Pendleton, to the state of California. The property is adjacent to the Western White House, but there will be a buffer sone between the public beach and the President's own beach for security purposes.

Under the usual procedures for transferring excess Federal property, the two Armed Services Committees can initiate legislation within 30 days if either committee objects to the transfer of the property. If the committees do not initiate such legislation, according to White House officials, the transfer becomes final. 

White House officials said today's action was only a forerunner of other moves to transfer Federal property, both urban and rural, to states and cities to use for parks, airport sites, fish and wildlife areas, schools, hospitals, and other purposes.

John D. Ehrlichman, assistant to thee President for domestic affairs, said announcements would be forthcoming soon regarding properties in Long Island, San Fransisco, Seattle, and several other locations.  He did not identify the Long Island site except to say that it was not beachfront property.

Welfare Changes Backed

Meanwhile, in another development, the White House released the text of a letter from the President to Wilbur D. Mills, the Arkansas Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In the letter, Mr. Nixon in effect endorsed the committee's version of the welfare reform bill by saying that he approved various changes in the measure worked out in private conferences involving the committee and his own negotiators from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Among the most important of these changes are provisions that would provide 200,000 public service jobs, give the Labor Department clear responsibility for the training, employment and eventual removal from the welfare rolls of those recipients found to have "employment potential", tighten up the bill's anti-fraud provisions, and convert existing

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food stamp benefits to straight cash payments.

The reform bill would replace the present Aid to Dependent Children program with a Federal income guarantee of $2,400 annually for a family of four, and provide various incentives designed to keep the so-called "working-poor"-those with only marginal income-at work and ooff the welfare rolls.

"The present system is a demoralizing disgrace and must be changed." the President said in his letter, "There is no time to lose." The letter may well improve the bill's chanced of passage in the committee and on the floor of the Senate and House later this year.

Target of Transfers

In a briefing on the transfer of the Camp Pendleton land, Mr. Ehrlichman recalled that in early 1970 Mr. Nixon had directed all agencies of the Federal Government to survey their land holdings, which he said had grown at a "dramatic" rate. The purpose of that directive, as well as a private memorandum from the White House in July, 1970, was to force thee agencies to identity holdings not being used or holdings that had outlived their usefulness.

Mr. Nixon's ultimate target, sources said at the time, was to transfer at least 10 per cent of all public holdings to commercial state and local use- not including the national wildlife refuge system, national parks and forests, and other lands in the public domain.

The value of federally owned lands not in the public domain is estimated at $ 68-billion, so the value of the land ultimately transferred could total as much as $6.8-billion.