The underlying causes of these areas' challenges included various factors such as the migration of industries, displacement of labor due to technological advancements, overreliance on declining sectors, influx of job-seekers, changing military procurement requirements, and persistent rural poverty.
[5] The idea of the War on Poverty began emerging from the white house in 1963, but Congress was rejecting virtually all of Kennedy's domestic legislation proposals at the time.
[8] The Area Redevelopment Act, a $394 million spending package passed in 1961, followed a strategy of investing in the private sector to stimulate new job creation.
It specifically targeted businesses in urban and rural depressed areas and authorized $4.5 million annually over four years for vocational training programs.
"[13] When historian and presidential adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. complemented Kennedy on his remarks, the latter bitterly replied, "Yes, and look at what happened to area development the very next day in the House."