On December 1, 1964, West Virginia Senator Jennings Randolph wrote his in-state colleague, Senator Robert C. Byrd, requesting support for a bill that would provide aid to depressed areas throughout the Appalachian region. The Senate had passed a similar aid bill a few weeks earlier, but it did not make it through the House of Representatives prior to the close of the 88th Congress. As a result, a new bill needed to be reintroduced and passed in the Senate when the 89th Congress convened in January, 1965. Senator Byrd, himself a product of Southern West Virginia’s coalfields, readily agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor. Introduced on January 3, 1965, the Appalachian Regional Development Act passed the Senate on February 1, 1965 and the House of Representatives on March 3, 1965.

Randolph, Jennings, 1902-1998. "Correspondence enlisting Senator Byrd's support." Robert C. Byrd Congressional Papers, Congress Series, 89th Congress, Box 1. Accessed 27 March 2023. http://acsc.lib.udel.edu/items/show/6.