—­A $26.5 million plan developed by the State of Pennsylvania and Conrail to increase Conrail’s coal handling capacity at Philadelphia;

—­A proposal by the State of Virginia to construct a steam coal port on the Craney Island Disposal area in Portsmouth harbor;

—­Plans by Mobile, Alabama, which operates the only publicly owned coal terminal in the U.S. to enlarge its capacity at McDuffie Island to 10 million tons ground storage and 100 car unit train unloading capability;

—­Development at New Orleans of steam coal facilities that are expected to add over 20 million tons of annual capacity by 1983; and

—­The Corps of Engineers, working with other interested Federal agencies, will determine which ports should be dredged, to what depth and on what schedule, in order to accommodate larger coal carrying vessels.

Private industry will, of course, play a major role in developing the United States’ coal export facilities.  The new Administration should continue to work to eliminate transportation bottlenecks that impede our access to foreign markets.

Special Needs

WOMEN

The past four years have been years of rapid advancement for women.  Our focus has been two-fold:  to provide American women with a full range of opportunities and to make them a part of the mainstream of every aspect of our national life and leadership.

I have appointed a record number of women to judgeships and to top government posts.  Fully 22 percent of all my appointees are women, and I nominated 41 of the 46 women who sit on the Federal bench today.  For the first time in our history, women occupy policymaking positions at the highest level of every Federal agency and department and have demonstrated their ability to serve our citizens well.

We have strengthened the rights of employed women by consolidating and strengthening enforcement of sex discrimination laws under the EEOC, by expanding employment rights of pregnant women through the Pregnancy Disability Bill, and by increasing federal employment opportunities for women through civil service reform, and flexi-time and part-time employment.

By executive order, I created the first national program to provide women businessowners with technical assistance, grants, loans, and improved access to federal contracts.

We have been sensitive to the needs of women who are homemakers.  I established an Office of Families within HHS and sponsored the White House Conference on Families.  We initiated a program targeting CETA funds to help displaced homemakers.  The Social Security system was amended to eliminate the widow’s penalty and a comprehensive study of discriminatory provisions and possible changes was presented to Congress.  Legislation was passed to give divorced spouses of foreign service officers rights to share in pension benefits.