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The importance of obtaining a planning appropriation for the National Air and Space Museum has been underscored by the tremendous surge of interest among the American public and throughout the world, engendered by the historic flight of Apollo 11 to the Moon and return. The National Air and Space Museum is authorized to be constructed on a designated site on the Mall but the project has been held since 1966 because of budgetary constraints and because of a proviso in the Senate Report on the authorization act that appropriations for construction should not be requested until there is a substantial reduction in the military expenditures in Vietnam. We would like to redesign the building so as to come in with a smaller structure. Rather than an estimated cost of $65 million as presently designed, we would hope to streamline the design down to not more than the $40 million level.

The Secretary does not expect the Bureau of the Budget to approve out pending request for planing funds ($2 million) in the 1971 budget. Therefore, the Secretary asked the Regents to consider an urgent request to the President to give his approval to this planning request. If the Regents approve, the [[underlined]] Chancellor [[/underlined]] [[handwritten in right margin]] C J [[/handwritten in right margin]] might send a communication to the President, summarizing the justification and emphasizing that the request is for planning and

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