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1562843
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Budget - FY 1978: General
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doc
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document
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1
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id
1562843
contentType
document
title
Budget - FY 1978: General
collections
John O. Marsh Files (Ford Administration)
John Marsh's General Subject Files
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Federal budget
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1562843
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1976-12-31
month
12
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1976
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1976-04-01
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4
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1976
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nara-archive
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The original documents are located in Box 6, folder "Budget - FY 1988: General" of the John Marsh Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Copyright Notice The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald R. Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Digitized from Box 6 of The John Marsh Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library APR. 2 9 1976 EXECUTIVE OFFICE OI THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMLNT AND BUDGET WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503 APR 29 1976 MEMORANDUM FOR: James. Cannon Richard Cheney Alan Greenspan Robert Hartmann John Marsh Ronald Nessen Brent Scowcroft William Seidman John Veneman FROM: James 7. Lynn SUBJECT: Spring Planning Review for the Fiscal Year 1978 Budget The first step in the development of the 1978 budget is now underway. We will be holding spring review sessions next week and during the month of May to discuss individual agency targets for fiscal year 1978 and 1979. After the review sessions, we will make recommendations to the President and seek his direction. In July, the planning process will culminate in letters to the agencies giving them guidance on their fall budget submissions. Your contributions and suggestions to the planning of the 1978 budget are welcome and solicited. You and your staff may desire to provide information or to advance ideas concerning these preliminary plans for the 1978 budget. We also recognize that you may wish to consult with OMB on our views or those of the agencies. In whatever way you choose to make your contributions, they will be most effective if they reach us either before or in the appropriate spring planning review session. The schedule for the review is attached. If you or your staffs wish to attend any of the sessions, the secretary of the review (Lee Mosedale, ext. 4884) will be glad to supply you in advance with the materials to be discussed. Should you desire additional information, please let me know. Attachment FORD & GERALD ATTACHMENT 1978 SPRING PLANNING REVIEW SCHEDULE FOR ORAL SESSIONS WITH THE DIRECTOR APRIL Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 26 27 28 29 30 MAY 1 Commerce, SBA, USPS MAY 3 10:00a.m. 4 5 6 7 8 NASA Treasury, CSC 10 Interior, 11 12 13 14 15 Corps of Eng Defense Veterans EPA, TVA Affairs Defense Security Assistance 17 18 19 20 21 22 Labor DOT Develop- Income mental Health Education HUD Assistance Maintenance 24 25 26 27 28 29 FEA, Justice, Energy Policy GSA ERDA, Agriculture Energy R&D 31 JUNE 3 Overview Overview 10:00 a.m. 2:15 p.m. Cory November 26, 1976 MEMORANDUM FOR: CHARLIE LEPPERT FROM: JACK MARSH In reference to the attached, requests of this nature should be deferred and resubmitted next week. Rowever, the have guidance that during the Budget review period currently underway requests of this type should not be encouraged. Until such time as the review process is concluded, I would suggest the requests be discouraged but done in such a way that there às not an implied promise that the appearance will be granted after the review. This is because the President has a very heavy schedule already in December and will be leaving about mid-month for Vail. memos from Charlie re McCloskey, Tim Lee Carter, Derwinski -- requests to see the President JOM/dl de OFFICE THE INFORMATION SEIVIS 8 UNITED EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DATE: 12/27/76 TO: Jack Marsh FROM: Jim Lynn This was sent to the President in Vail last week. FORM MBRARY Attachment P. GERALD OMB FORM 38 REV AUG 73 Jack march EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503 DEC 23 1976 ACTION MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM: James T. Lynn (Signed) SUBJECT: Unveiling the Fiscal Year '78 Budget I. ISSUE Given the need for planning and arranging the necessary details, it would be helpful if a decision could be reached on the level of visibility which you would like to give to the unveiling of the Fiscal Year '78 Budget. II. OPTIONS 1. A Presidential press briefing Pro: -- Given the time and effort which you have personally devoted to its preparation, a Presidential briefing would demonstrate the importance which you attach to your final budget. -- A briefing on the budget could also serve as the occasion for your last Presidential press conference. -- If the briefing were to take place in the evening, it could well be covered by live TV. This would enable you to speak directly to the Nation on a variety of matters -- budgetary and otherwise. -- Since the Ford budget will serve as a bench- mark for many Congressional Republicans, a Presidential budget briefing to the Nation could prove to be invaluable to those Members of Congress who will try to use the Ford budget as their target during the course of the year. FORD a LIBRARY 2. Con: -- Since some members of the press will persist in viewing this budget as vestigial, it is difficult to anticipate the nature of the questioning. -- Depending on the final budget figures, it is possible that the press will focus on any differences which may materialize between the budget and statements made during the course of the campaign (e.g. balancing the budget in FY '79). -- The press could choose to play down the substance of the occasion and seek instead to emphasize stylistic elements, with inevitable comparisons between this year's briefing and last year's briefing. -- If the budget briefing is also your last press conference, the budget may be only a minor facet of the questioning. (This is not necessarily a "Con"). -- If the final budget numbers are higher than we would have liked them to be, certain Members of Congress may prefer that the budget unveiling be handled in low key fashion with little public attention. -- If the briefing is to be "live" (not embargoed like last year) and the press is given the budget on the prior Saturday on an embargoed basis (which should be done), they will have had a lot of time to think up more questions, particularly on details. This could take away time from broader issues you may want to emphasize. Sub-Options - Time. la. Evening. -- A weekday evening press conference, if covered by TV, would get broadest audience. lb. Morning, Monday or Tuesday (depending again on your schedule preferences). -- A morning briefing would be deemed budget-oriented but might be easier vis-a-vis getting three network coverage. (Consult Nessen). LIBRARY Guba 3. Sub-Options - Distribution of the Budget la. Short lead time for advance embargoed distribution to the press, e.g., distribution the morning pre- ceding an evening Presidential briefing or late afternoon distribution preceding a Presidential briefing the next morning. Pro: -- This would minimize the risks of a broken embargo. -- Since advance press distribution triggers other advance distributions, there will be less time for copies of the budget to be in circulation. -- Less time for "experts" to develop "nitty gritty" questions which can take time from broader issues. Con: -- Traditionally the press has been given more time to study the budget in preparation for the briefing. They will be angered by a short time fuse. (It should be noted that the record of the press in not breaking the embargo -- even with 36 to 48 hour advance distribution -- has been excellent). lb. Traditional 36 to 48 hour lead time for advance, embargoed distribution to the press. Pro: -- The press will have adequate time to prepare their copy for release time. Con: -- With other distributions triggered by the press distribution, there will be copies of the budget around town well before the Presidential briefing, providing more time potentially for the embargo to be broken. -- With lead time, the press will be well- prepared and the questioning could involve minutiae. Whichever sub-option is chosen, other distributions will be triggered by the decision. a. Simultaneous to press distribution on an embargoed basis, advance copies would be sent on an embargoed basis to the Congressional Leadership and Committee Chairmen, with the Budget, Appropriations, and Joint Economic Committees receiving extra copies beyond the Chairmen's copy. 4. b. Bulk distribution to the Congress would be made shortly before official transmission, e.g., the morning of your press conference (assuming live, not embargoed) if held in morning or late afternoon if evening press conference. C. Transition Team: In the spirit of continuing cooperation, it is proposed that the OMB Director- designate be given a limited number of embargoed copies to distribute to the transition team as he deems appropriate. I would be inclined to do this quite early, say a week before. 2. An OMB Director's press briefing This would be a traditional (excluding last year) press briefing on the budget. It would probably be held Saturday morning, January 15, on an embargoed basis (for release Monday), with official transmittal of the budget scheduled for noon on Monday. LIDRARY 3. No press briefing Copies of the budget could merely be distributed to OFFALE the press, with no briefing. This option has not been developed, since too much time and effort has been expended to allow the budget to be unveiled without "interpretation." Beyond the press briefing, given the constraints of time, it would be my recommendation to minimize the wide-scale briefings which were held last year, unless specific requests are received and decisions are made to comply with them. Nonetheless, some briefings will be in order: -- The traditional OMB "regulars" breakfast on Saturday or Monday hosted by the Director on an embargoed basis. (The "regulars" are a small group of newspersons whose chief beat is OMB/the budget/and the economy). -- The Congressional Leadership. It is hoped that this could be hosted by you at a convenient time preceding the press briefing. -- The transition team. In the spirit of cooperation, it would be my intention to brief the OMB Director-designate, either by himself or with a small group of associates, on both policy and 5. technical matters at a convenient time preceding the press briefing. -- Other Congressional briefings. These will be handled on a case by case basis if requests are received. Should the House Republican Conference or the Senate Republican Policy Committee request a briefing, we would endeavor to comply on either January 18 or 19. -- Assuming you do the briefing, I would suggest that we don't have the full array of Cabinet and agency heads at the briefing this year (just Scowcroft, Cannon, Zarb, OMB people in chairs near to you) but that each agency head be available for full briefing on his or her budget at the agency immediately after your briefing. III. DECISIONS A. Press Briefing/who and when: a Presidential press briefing will be held: 1. Monday evening. 2. Monday morning. 3. Other OMB Director should brief the press. 1. Saturday morning. 2. Monday morning. 3. Other No press briefing at all. B. Distribution of the Budget 1. Press press should receive their advance, embargoed copies on shortest possible time fuse preceding press conference (8 to 12 hours). 6. follow traditional course allowing 36 to 48 hours for distribution of advance, embargoed copies. 2. Others Proceed traditionally: Advance press distribution will trigger embargoed distribution to Congressional Leadership and specific Congressional Committees; bulk distri- bution to Congress can be made the day the budget is officially transmitted. Proceed with OMB Director-designate and transition team as you deem appropriate. DO not proceed traditionally - additional instructions will be forthcoming. C. Other Briefings: I agree with your plans to minimize other briefings. Proceed accordingly. 1. I will host the Congressional Leadership briefing. 2. The OMB Director should brief the Congressional Leadership. 3. There is no need for a Congressional Leadership briefing this year. Duplicate last year's wide scale briefings - work with appropriate personnel to arrange details. See me.