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Republican Women's Conference, Sheraton Park Hotel, April 26, 1963
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Republican Women's Conference, Sheraton Park Hotel, April 26, 1963
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba, 1961
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The original documents are located in Box D16, folder "Republican Women's Conference, Sheraton Park Hotel, April 26, 1963" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File 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. The Council donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D16 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library Address by Rep. Gerald R. Ford Republican Womens' Conference - Sheraton Park Hotel Friday, April 26, 1963 Today I want to discuss two important issues being faced by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. One has to do with minority staffing of Committees and the other with the withholding of vital information from the Congress by the Executive Branch of the Government. Republicans in the House have moved ahead on several fronts in the early months of this Congress. The Republican Conference has been put to new and potentially significant uses. We have appointed a special Subcommittee on Nuclear Test Ban Negotiations under Congressman Craig Hosmer of California, the ranking Republican on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The Test Ban Committee has received position papers from such distinguished experts as Edward Teller, former AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss, and Chief U. S. disarmament negotiator William C. Foster - and its reports have been given wide press coverage. We have also set up a Subcommittee on Increased Minority Staffing under Congressman Fred Schwengel of Iowa. At the opening of the Congress the Conference adopted a package of "fair play" amendments including a demand for "equal time" for the minority in debating Conference Committee reports. We didn't win that fight but we did put the Democratic leadership on notice that the minority was going to play a more active role in the future. The Republicans on the House Appropriation Committee under a special committee headed by Congressman Bow of Ohio have reviewed the President's budget in detail with the assistance of former Budget Director Maurice Stans. The Republicans on Education and Labor and Judiciary have developed alternative Republican proposals in important legislative fields. The House Republican Policy Committee under the able leadership of Cong. John Byrnes of Wisconsin has been doing an excellent job on the vital issues before us. Yes, this has been a period of new Republican activity--of hard work in reviewing the Kennedy administration's proposals and in developing Republican alternatives. Our batting average has not been 100% but we expect to improve our percentage of success in the months ahead. -2- One of the most important problems we have tackled is the issue of minority staffing. All the rest of the work we are attempting to accomplish presupposes adequate professionally competent committee staff. There is a limit--a real limit-- to how much an individual Congressman or group of Congressmen working in cooperation can accomplish in a given twenty-four hour period. Each of us has his constituency and its interests to serve. Just keeping abreast of our committee work--preparing for hearings, interrogating witnesses, drafting legislation and reports, handling bills on the floor is a full-time job. And then there are the inevitable social and political obligations of life in the Nation's Capital as well as in the home district. Time is a Congressman's most precious commodity. Staff assistance is essential to us if we are to function effectively. One of the most serious limitations the Republican minority in Congress has been faced with has been inadequate committee staff. Last year Roscoe Drummond wrote a series of columns which you may have read dramatizing our position to the nation. Drummond estimated that we Republicans in the House were being shortchanged 12 to 1 on committee staff although the Democratic-Republican ratio in House membership was closer to 3 to 2. Some readers misunderstood him to mean that there were 12 Democrats on committee staffs to every Republican. This is not the case--most of our committees have professional staff that have served for many years. Some are Republicans that were hired during the early years of the Eisenhower administration. The point that Drummond was making was that the great bulk of the professional staff on our committees were under the control and responsible to the Democratic majority or Democratic Chairman. Only a small fraction work exclusively for the minority. This has meant that in too many instances minority views were not being written when bills were reported, that committee investigations were being carried out almost exclusively from the majority point of view. I might add that the worst partisan abuse of the concept of professional nonpartisan staff--as set out in the Legislative Reorgani- zation Act of 1946--has come on a few committees with large budgets for investigatory staff, such as the Education and Labor Committee. Without minority staff we have not been in a position on certain committees to draft Republican alternatives or to initiate legislation where the administration has faltered. Because of the central importance of staffing, the Republican Conference unanimously endorsed a proposal by Congressman Fred Schwengel of Iowa which would have given the minority 40% of the committee staff on committees where the majority of the Republicans were dissatisfied with the staff assistance they were getting. Congressman Schwengel is now chairing our Conference Subcommittee on Increased Minority Staffing. He and his committee have been performing yeomen's service in -3- gathering data on the staffing problem, in pressing for more staff at the committee level, in arguing our case before the House Administration Committee which approves all committee budgets, and in planning future strategy in the staffing fight. Congressman Schwengel estimates that we shall have 30 more minority staff members this year than we had in the last Congress, largely as a result of his committee's work. Furthermore the Majority Leader, Carl Albert, as a result of the fight for more minority staff has pledged his party to eliminate partisan abuse in staffing and to abide by the spirit of the Reorganization Act. We intend to hold him to his word. On the Senate side our big guns have begun to swing into action although I might add after our foot soldiers launched the offensive. We welcome their assistance. You may have seen Senator Goldwater's column a few Sunday's ago. Senator Goldwater said that: "Insufficient minority staffing makes legislation more dependent than ever upon the statistics, the witnesses, the proposals of the Democratic adminis- tration as transmitted through the majority. I would make this point just as emphatically if the situation were reversed and the proper committee staffing denied to the Democrats. The need is for proper policies, properly researched, properly arrived at and understood above and beyond the desires of the particular Administration running the Executive Branch." Senator Dirksen has recently urged all ranking minority members on the standing committees of the Senate to press for more staff assistance to service the needs of the minority. I have been discussing the problem of minority staff but this is only a part of a much larger problem that the staffing fight has dramatically illustrated. The Congress at large just does not have the staff resources it needs if it is to perform its proper role in our Constitutional system. We have seen the gradual and continuing erosion of power from the legislature to the executive in the past thirty years. One of the major intents of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 was to reestablish balance to provide Congress with professional staff for its legislative committees. This was a real gain for effective Congressional government but we have not kept pace with the times. There are numerous specific examples in both the House and Senate right today and the country is the loser because of this deficiency. Most members of Congress would agree on how crucial the staffing issue is not only to a vigorous and constructive opposition but also for the survival of Congress as a meaningful participant in our processes of government. A good part of the minority staffing problem would be solved with the correction of this broader problem. There is a clear need for a selective increase in the professional nonpartisan staff of the committees in areas of deficiency such as I have just noted. Ultimately we may be moving toward the kind of staffing arrangement -4- that Congressman Tom Curtis has suggested--a "three-part staff" with the bulk of the staff professional and nonpartisan (i.e. available to all members regardless of party affiliation) with a few staff members, also professional qualified, under the direct control of the majority and minority respectively--for the purpose of drafting majority and minority reports and assisting the members on issues of a more immediate party political nature. What, you ask, can I or my club do to help solve these problems? You can help by writing your Congressman and Senators be they Democrat or Republican and asking them how they stand on the staffing issue. Congressmen don't vote by weighing their mail but they will certainly sit up and take notice of an issue on which they receive intelligent letters. Particularly in a case such as this where we are discussing a problem peculiar to Congress, its methods of operation, and its public image. Congressmen are especially sensitive to the views and judgments of their constituents. Write and ask your Congressman if he feels that Congress is meeting its responsibilities in reviewing and considering executive proposals for new spending and legislation. Is Congtess adequately overseeing the executive agencies? The Billie Sol Estes case is only one example--albedt an extreme one-- of how the system can get out of order. Is Congress showing the leadership that the times demand? And within this broader context can Congress function at all without a mature responsible opposition that has the staff resources to perform its role as critic and to assume that more than one side of the issue is considered? These are mighty important questions. We are not dealing in petty partisan politics but in issues that effect the course of our democracy. I want to move now to another issue affecting the basic principles of our democratic way of life and our constitutional system of government. One of the least dramatic, but most serious problems which has come up during the last two years concerns the very foundation of our ideals of representative government. It affects me personally, and through me it affects the 462,000 residents of Michigan I represent. But as a matter of fact the principle involved affects all members of Congress and all their constituents. I am speaking of a little-publicized idea called "executive privilege." This is how I came up against it several weeks ago: General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was testifying before our defense appropriations subcommittee about the Cuban situation. We were asking him some important and searching questions about the Bay of Pigs invasion-- which I might say will be looked on as one of the darkest pages in the history of American foreign policy and a page written exclusively by the Kennedy Administration. -5- Our committee had a right and a need to know how our government handled that mess, for we pass on all the money spent by the Defense Department, and if they don't use it properly, we have the right and responsibility to know so any corrective action can be taken. I had been disturbed by some news stories which had been appearing just before our meeting with General Taylor which you may remember--these had to do with what went wrong at the time of the invasion and whether or not the United States ever promised any air cover for the Cuban refugee invaders. I wanted to clear that matter up and to get into some other obvious problems connected with that fiasco which would help our committee decide how to vote when it came time to appropriate money for the Department of Defense and related agencies. General Taylor was one of the best men in the country to answer these important questions. He had been appointed by President Kennedy to head a four-man board to investigate the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion and find out what went wrong. The investigation was made and the board informed the President what it found out. Then, according to testimony to us and other public statements, the four were told by the President to say nothing about the investigation. So what happened? Three of the members of the board did follow instructions. Admiral Arleigh Burke, former Chief of Naval Operations did, Allen dulles, former CIA Chief did, and General Taylor did. But Bobby Kennedy, the fourth member didn't. In one of the classic examples of news management we have seen in this country, Bobby told his version of the invasion to reporters from U. S. News and World Report and the Knight Newspapers. He was in Palm Beach at the time. Now like all good elephants, we Republicans have long memories. I would like you to recall with me here today some of Mr. Kennedy's own words and compare them with his performance in this very important incident. First of all, let me read you a section out of the Democratic platform which bears directly on this subject. (Not that the platform makes any difference, you understand, to the Democrats. Its greatest value over the years has been to Republicans who are constantly able to show how hypocritical they are about saying one thing and doing another.) The 1960 platform said: "We reject the Republican contention that the workings of the government are the special private preserve of the Executive. The massive wall of secrecy erected between the Executive Branch and the Congress as well as the citizen, must be torn down. Information must flow freely, save in those areas in which the national security is involved." So on the basis of this strongly worded platform, Senator Kennedy campaigned. As a candidate he gave us lots of words about how under his administration the public would be well informed and how their representatives in Congress would never be denied information they needed to pass the laws of the land. -6- At one point he said---very eloquently, I think "The President--who himself bears much of the responsibility for the preservation of American Democracy--has the affirmative duty to see to it that the American People are kept fully informed. It is true that in today's world of peril some government information must be kept secret--information whose publication would endanger the national security. The people of the United States are entitled to the fullest possible information about their government and the President must see that they receive it." Also on the campaign he referred specifically to executive privilege. He said that whenever information is not restricted by specific statute, security needs, or the Cons titution, "there is no justification for using the doctrine of executive privilege to keep that information from the Congress and the public." I hurry to add that in the case of General Taylor's refusal, no specific statute would prohibit him from testifying, no security is involved, and the Constitution gives no justification for his position at all. Continuing down "memory lane," I recall that in his first State of the Union message, Mr. Kennedy made every Congressman's ard.newspaperman's heart warm with this statement: "For my part, I shall withhold from neither the Congress nor the people any fact, or report, past, present or future, which is necessary for an informed judgment of our conduct and hazards." The fact of the matter, from my own personal experience with General Taylor and the Bay of Pigs, is that the President is keeping the Congress and the public in the dark; he is managing the news; he is preventing the lawfully elected representatives of the people from making informed judgments of the past conduct of our government and therefore the future hazards which we face. This, I submit, is contrary to everything representa- tive government stands for, to everything we Republicans stand for, and if we can believe their platform--everything the Democrats themselves stand for. Address by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, Republican Womens' Conference, Sheraton Park Hotel, April 26, 1963. Today I want to discuss two important issues being faced by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. One has to do with minority staffing of Committees and the other with the withholding of vital information from the Congress by the Executive Branch of the Government. Republicans in the House have moved ahead on several fronts in the early months of this Congress. The Republican Conference has been put to new and potentially significant uses. We have appointed a Special Subcommittee on Nuclear Test Ban Negotiations under Congressman Craig Hosmer of California, the ranking Republi- can on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The Test Ban Committee has re- ceived position papers from such distinguished experts as Edward Teller, former AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss, and Chief U.S. disarmament negotiator William C. Foster -- and its reports have been given wide press coverage. We have also set up a Subcommittee on Increased Minority Staffing under Congressman Fred Schwengel of Iowa. At the opening of the Congress the Conference adopted a package of "fair play" amendments including a demand for "equal time" for the minority in debating Con- ference Committee reports. We didn't win that fight but we did put the Demo- cratic leadership on notice that the minority was going to play a more active role in the future. The Republicans on the House Appropria tion Committee under a special committee headed by Congressman Bow of Ohio have reviewed the President's budget in detail with the assistance of former Budget Director Maurice Stans. The Republicans on Education and Labor and Judiciary have developed alternative Republican pro- posals in important legislative fields. The House Republican Policy Committee under the able leadership of Cong. John Byrnes of Wisconsin has been doing an excellent job on the vital issues before us. Yes, this has been a period of new Republican activity -- of hard work in re- viewing the Kennedy administration's proposals and in developing Republican al- ternatives. Our batting average has not been 100% but we expect to improve our per-centage of success in the months ahead. One of the most important problems we have tackled is the issue of minority staff- ing. All the rest of the work we are attempting to accomplish presupposes ade- quate professionally competent committee staff. There is a limit -- a real limit -- to how much an individual Congressman or group of Congressmen working in coopera- tion can accomplish in a given twenty-four hour period. Each of us has his con- stituency and its interests to serve. Just keeping abreast of our committee work -- preparing for hearings, interrogating witnesses, drafting legislation and reports, handling bills on the floor is a full-time job. And then there are the inevitable social and political obligations of life in the Nation's Capitol as well as in the home district. Time is a Congressman's precious commodity. Staff assistance is essential to us if we are to function effectively. One of the most serious limitations the Republican minority in Congress has been faced with has been inadequate staff. Last year Roscoe Drummond wrote a series of columns which you may have read dramatizing our position to the nation. Drummond estimated that we Republicans in the House were being shortchanged 12 to 1 on committee staff although the Democratic-Republican ratio in House membership was closer to 3 to 2. Some readers misunderstood him to mean that there were 12 Demo- crats on committee staffs to every Republican. This is not the case -- most of our committees have professional staff that have served for many years. Some are Republicans that were hired during the early years of the Eisenhower administration. The point that Drummond was making was that the great bulk of the professional staff on our committees were under the control and responsible to the Democratic majority. This has meant that in too many instances minority views were not being written when bills were reported, that committee investigations were being carried out al- most exclusively from the majority point of view. I might add that the worst partisan abuse of the concept of professional nonpartisan staff -- as set out in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 -- has come on a few committees with & large budgets for investigatory staff, such as the Education and Labor Committee. Without minority staff we have not been in a position on certain committees to draft Republican alternatives or to initiate legislation where the administration has faltered. Because of the central importance of staffing, the Republican Conference unanimous- ly endorsed a proposal by Congressman Fred Schwengel of Iowa which would have given the minority 40% of the committee staff on committees where the majority of the Republicans were dissatisfied with the staff assistance they were getting. Con- - 2 - gressman Schwengel is now chairing our Conference Subcommittee on Increased Minority Staffing. He and his committee have been performing yeomen's service in gathering data on the staffing problem, in pressing for more staff at the commit- tee level, in arguing our case before the House Administration Committee which ap- proves all committee budgets, and in planning future strategy in the staffing fight. Congressman Schwengel estimates that we shall have 30 more minority staff members this year than we had in the last Congress, largely as a result of his committee's work. Furthermore the Majority Leader, Carl Albert, as a result of the fight for more minority staff has pledged his party to eliminate partisan abuse in staffing and to abide by the spirit of the Reorganization Act. We intend to hold him to his word. On the Senate side our big guns have begun to swing into action although I might add after our foot soldiers launched the offensive. We welcome their assistance. You may have seen Senator Goldwater's column a few Sundays ago. Senator Goldwater said that: "Insufficient minority staffing makes legislation more dependent than ever upon the statistics, the witnesses, the proposals of the Democratic adminis- tration as transmitted through the majority. I would make this point just as emphatically if the situation were reversed and the proper committee staffing denied to the Democrats. The need is for proper policies, properly researched, properly arrived at and understood above and beyond the desires of the particular Administration running the Executive Branch." Senator Dirksen has recently urged all ranking minority members on the standing committees of the Senate to press for more staff assistance to service the needs of the minority. I have been discussing the problem of minority staff but this is only a part of a much larger problem that the staffing fight has dramatically illustrated. The Congress at large just does not have the staff resources it needs if it is to perform its proper role in our Constitutional system. We have seen the gradual and continuing erosion of power from the legislative to the executive in the past thirty years. One of the major intents of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 was to reestablish balance to provide Congress with professional staff for its legislative committees. This was a real gain for effective Congressional govern- ment but we have not kept pace with the times. There are numerous specific exam- ples in both the House and Senate right today and the country is the loser be- cause of this deficiency. Most members of Congress would agree on how crucial the staffing issue is not only to a vigorous and constructive opposition but also for the survival of Congress as a meaningful participant in our processes of government. A good part of the minority staffing problem would be solved with the correction of this broader problem. There is a clear need for a selective increase in the professional nonpartisan staff of the committees in areas of deficiency such as I have just noted. Ultimately we may be moving toward the kind of staffing arrange- ment that Congressman Tom Curtis has suggested -- a "three-part staff" with the bulk of the staff professional and nonpartisan (i.e. available to all members re- gardless of party affiliation) with a few staff members, also professional quali- fied, under the direct control of the majority and minority respectively -- for the purpose of drafting majority and minority reports and assisting the members on is- sues of a more immediate party political nature. What, you ask, can I or my club do to help solve these problems? You can help by writing your Congressmen and Senators be they Democrat or Republican and asking them how they stand on the staffing issue. Congressmen don't vote by weighing their mail but they will certainly sit up and take notice of an issue on which they receive intelligent letters. Particularly in a case such as this where we are dis- cussing a problem peculiar to Congress, its methods of operation, and its public image. Congressmen are especially sensitive to the views and judgments of their constituents. Write and ask your Congressman if he feels that Congress is meeting its responsibilities in reviewing and considering executive proposals for new spending and legislation. Is Congress adequately overseeing the executive agencies? The Billie Sol Estes case is only one example -- albeit an extreme one -- of how the system can get out of order. Is Congress showing the leadership that the times de- mand? And within this broader context can Congress function at all without a mature responsible opposition that has the staff resources to perform its role as critic and to assume that more than one side of the issue is considered? These are mighty important questions. We are not dealing in petty partisan politics but in issues that affect the course of our democracy. - 3 - I want to move now to another issue affecting the basic principles of our demo- cratic way of life and our constitutional system of government. One of the least dramatic, but most serious problems which has come up during the last two years concerns the very foundation of our ideals of representative govern- ment. It affects me personally, and through me it affects the 462, residents of Michigan I represent. But as a matter of fact the principle involved affects all members of Congress and all their constituents. I am speaking of a little- publicized idea called "executive privilege." This is how I came up against it several weeks ago: General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was testifying before our defense appropriations subcommittee about the Cuban situation. We were asking him some important and searching questions about the Bay of Pigs invasion -- which Might say will be looked on as one of the darkest pages in the history of American foreign policy and a page written exclusively by the Kennedy Administra- tion. Our committee had a right and a need to know how our government handled that mess, for we pass on all the money spent by the Defense Department, and if they don't use it properly, we have the right and responsibility to know so any cor- rective action can be taken. I had been disturbed by some news stories which had been appearing just before our meeting with General Taylor which you may remember . these had to do with what went wrong at the time of the invasion and whether or not the United States ever promised any air cover for the Cuban refugee invaders. I wanted to clear that matter up and to get into some other obvious problems connected with that fiasco which would help our committee decide how to vote when it came time to appropriate money for the Department of Defense and related agencies. General Taylor was one of the best men in the country to answer these important questions. He had been appointed by President Kennedy to head a four-man board to investigate the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion and find out what went wrong. The investigation was made and the board informed the President what it found out Then, according to testimony to us and other public statements, the four were told by the President to say nothing about the investigation. So what happened? Three of the members of the board did follow instructions. Admiral Arleigh Burke, former Chief of Naval Operations did, Allen Dulles, former CIA Chief did, and General Taylor did. But Bobby Kennedy, the fourth member didn't. In one of the classic examples of news management we have seen in this country, Bobby told his version of the invasion to reporters from U.S. News and World Report and the Knight Newspapers. He was in Palm Beach at the time. Now like all good elephants, we Republicans have long memories. I would like you to recall with me here today some of Mr. Kennedy's own words and compare them with his performance in this very important incident. First of all, let me read you a section out of the Democratic platform which bears directly on this subject. (Not that the platform makes any difference, you under- stand, to the Democrats. Its greatest value over the years has been to Republicans who are constantly able to show how hypocritical they are about saying one thing and doing another.) The 1960 platform said: "We reject the Republican contention that the workings of the government are the special private preserve of the Execu- tive. The massive wall of secrecy erected between the Executive Branch and the Corgress as well as the citizen, must be torn down. Information must flow freely, save in those areas in which the national security is involved." So on the basis of this strongly worded plattorm, Senator Kennedy campaigned. As a candidate he gave us lots of words about how under his administration the public would be well - 4 - informed and how their representatives in Congress would never be denied informa- tion they needed to pass the laws of the land. At one point he said -- very eloquently, I think -- "The President -- who him- self bears much of the responsibility for the preservation of American Democracy -- has the affirmative duty to see to it that the American People are kept fully informed. It is true that in today's world of peril some government information must be kept secret - information whose publication would endanger the national security. The people of the United States are entitled to the fullest possible information about their government and the President must see that they receive it. Also on the campaign he referred specifically to executive privilege. He said that whenever information is not restricted by specific statute, security needs, or the Constitution, "there is no justification for using the doctrine of exeuc- tive privilege to keep that information from the Congress and the public." I hurry to add that in the case of General Taylor's refusal, no specific statute would prohibit him from testifying, no security is involved, and the Constitution gives no justification for his position at all. Continuing down "memory lane," I re- call that in his first State of the Union message, Mr. Kennedy made every Con- gressman's and newspaperman's heart warm with this statement: "For my part, I shall withhold from neither the Congress nor the people any fact, or report, past, present or future, which is necessary for an informed judgment of our conduct and hazards." The fact of the matter, from my own personal experience with General Taylor and the Bay of Pigs, is that the President is keeping the Congress and the public in the dark; he is preventing the lawfully elected representatives of the people from making informed judgments of the past conduct of our government and there- fore the future hazards which we face. This, I submit, is contrary to every- thing representative government stands for, to everything we Republicans stand for, and if we can believe their platform -- everything the Democrats themselves stand for. From the Desk of THOMAS B. CURTIS 2nd DISTRICT, MISSOURI For Your Information FORD 1963 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - APPENDIX A2919 But, as Life magazine accurately observes, The forecast comes from Wesley McCune GEL] in leading the effort to bring fair they almost all agree that the Presi- of Group Research, Inc., an agency that keeps staffing to the Congress. dent's program is wrong. What unites most tab on rightist activity. This speech makes some excellent critics of that program is their feeling that It is notable, too, that rightwing money a tax cut must be earned by a correspond- evidently is being spent these days with more points and I am taking this opportunity ing control of expenditures." concentrated effect than before. There are to expand its audience by placing it in the Administration spokesmen have said there persistent reports that powerful assaults are CONGRESSIONAL RECORD: is no possibility of an overall reduction in being leveled against a number of moderate ADDRESS BY REPRESENTATIVE GERALD R. FORD, Federal spending-that, indeed, it may go to liberal politicians in the Mountain REPUBLICAN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE, SHERA- up. But thoughtful studies have been made States-where a dollar may go a long way. TON PARK HOTEL, APRIL 26, 1963. of the budget, and specific areas for heavy Furthermore, the rightist movement is at- Today I want to discuss two important cuts, which would not touch the national tracting more prestige leadership than ever issues being faced by the Republicans in the security, and would not reduce or eliminate in its history. Ezra Taft Benson, former Sec- House of Representatives. One has to do. any really essential Federal duty or obliga- retary of Agriculture under Dwight Eisen- with minority staffing of committees and the tion, are delineated. hower, leads an organization called "Ye, the other with the withholding of vital informa- To take one, the Chamber of Commerce People." Benson's son, Reed, is active in the tion from the Congress by the executive of the United States has a program for a John Birch Society in western areas. Re- branch of the Government. $9.1 billion cut. Senator PROXMIRE thinks tired generals and admirals are joining up Republicans in the House have moved that $2 billion in subsidies can be elimi- in larger numbers. ahead on several fronts in the early months nated. The House Appropriations Commit- Rightists often have been concerned over of this Congress. The Republican conference tee proposes a reduction of just under $93 a public image given some of them as "freaks has been put to new and potentially signi- million in funds for the Interior Department and oddities." In recent months they have ficant uses. We have appointed a Special alone. And so it goes. managed more and more to dispel this image Subcommittee on Nuclear Test Ban Negotia- To quote Life again: "The control of un- by gaining audiences among business and tions under Congressman CRAIG HOSMER of necessary expenditure is one of the most professional groups of long standing-farm California, the ranking Republican on the serious problems facing modern democracy. bureaus, and the like. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The Government has grown so huge and complex Robert Welch, head of the Birch Society, test ban committee has received position that no individual Congressman can grasp who labels Eisenhower a Communist or a papers from such distinguished experts as the full dimensions of any budget. But Red dupe, won warm response from a top Edward Teller, former AEC Chairman Lewis Congress can have a knowledgeable impres- business club in Chicago. Strauss, and Chief U.S. Disarmament sion of White House budgetmaking, and the Nor is the rightwing discouraged by talk Negotiator William C. Foster-and its reports current impression is one of carelessness." it is a fly-by-night thing which took severe have been given wide press coverage. We And carelessness, of this unbelievably ex- lickings in 1962 voting and is declining. have also set up a Subcommittee on In- pensive kind, is one thing the Nation simply Four John Birch candidates for Congress creased Minority Staffing under Congress- cannot afford. We aren't that rich. lost in 1962. But two got more than 45 man FRED SCHWENGEL, of Iowa. percent of the vote and all got at least At the opening of the Congress the con- 40 percent. If New York's new Conserva- ference adopted a package of fair play tive Party could duplicate later the 141,000 amendments including a demand for equal Activities of Rightwing Groups votes it got for Governor last year. it could time for the minority in debating conference decide a close election. committee reports. We didn't win that fight Researcher McCune points out also that but we did put the Democratic leadership EXTENSION OF REMARKS aggressive rightist activity did not start with on notice that the minority was going to OF President Kennedy's election in 1960. A play a more active role in the future. whole host of organizations trace their his- HON. GALE W. McGEE The Republicans on the House Appropria- tory back to the 1940's and even 1930's. Even tion Committee under a special committee OF WYOMING Gerald L. K. Smith is still flourishing in the headed by Congressman Bow, of Ohio, have field. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES reviewed the President's budget in detail Rightwingers may be on the fringe in with the assistance of former Budget Direc- Thursday, May 9, 1963 terms of relative numbers. But, by a good tor Maurice Stans. The Republicans on Mr. McGEE. Mr. President, the ex- many other measures, they are right in the Education and Labor and Judiciary have de- thick of the Nation's political combat. tremists on the right wing of our political veloped alternative Republican proposals in important legislative fields. The House Re- spectrum have been much in the news publican Policy Committee under the able as of late, perhaps in some relationship leadership of Congressman JOHN BYRNES of to their increased activity in the political Republican Women Hear Representative Wisconsin, has been doing an excellent job arena. on the vital issues before us. As a representative of a State which Ford Discuss Staffing, Managed News Yes, this has been a period of new Re- apparently has been chosen as a target publican activity-of hard work in reviewing by the rightwing groups, I have watched EXTENSION OF REMARKS the Kennedy administration's proposals and in developing Republican alternatives. Our their activities with growing concern. OF batting average has not been 100 percent but These people are dedicated to their ends HON. THOMAS B. CURTIS we expect to improve our percentage of suc- and unfortunately not too concerned cess in the months ahead. about the methods used to obtain them. OF MISSOURI One of the most important problems we The Rawlins Daily Times published an IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES have tackled is the issue of minority staff- editorial on May 3 pointing out the vigor ing. All the rest of the work we are at- Thursday, May 9, 1963 of these groups in spite of their small tempting to accomplish presupposes ade- Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, late last quate professionaly competent committee numbers. I ask unanimous consent that this editorial be printed in the RECORD. month, Republican women from staff. There is a limit-a real limit-to how throughout the country came to Wash- much an individual Congressman or group There being no objection, the editorial of Congressmen working in cooperation can ington to attend the annual Republican was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, accomplish in a given 24-hour period. Each Women's Conference. One of the high- as follows: of us has his constituency and its interests lights of this year's conference was the to serve. Just keeping abreast of our com- From the Daily Times, Rawlins, Wyo., May 3, speech by the gentleman from Michigan, mittee work-preparing for hearings. inter- 1963] the chairman of the House Republican rogating witnesses, drafting legislation and DON'T COUNT OUT THE RIGHTWINGERS conference, Mr. FORD. In his speech, reports, handling bills on the floor is a full- Militant rightists in this country are not the gentleman directed attention to two time job. And then there are the inevitable troubled over the argument that they con- items of special importance to the group: social and political obligations of life in the stitute a very small minority of the voting Nation's Capitol as well as in the home dis- the inadequacy of minority staffing in population. They believe, with good reason, trict. Time is a Congressman's precious Congress and the management of news that they have a lot going for them. commodity. Staff assistance is essential to by the administration. us if we are to function effectively. From the past record, few could doubt that they have ample money resources. GERRY FORD made it quite clear that One of the most serious limitations the But a rather startling prediction that it is the American people who suffer when Republican minority in Congress has been the Congressional minority is handi- faced with has been inadequate staff. Last rightwingers will spend more in 1964 than year Roscoe Drummond wrote a series of col- both major party national committees com- capped by inadequate staff help. He umns which you may have read dramatizing bined may cast the rightwing effort in a called attention to the excellent work of our position to the Nation. Drummond es- somewhat new light. the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. SCHWEN- timated that we Republicans in the House A2920 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - APPENDIX May 9 were being shortchanged 12 to 1 on com- power from the legislative to the executive darkest pages in the history of American for- mittee staff although the Democratic-Re- in the past 30 years. One of the major in- eign policy and a page written exclusively by publican ratio in House membership was tents of the Legislative Reorganization Act the Kennedy administration. Our commit- closer to 3 to 2. Some readers misunder- of 1946 was to reestablish balance to provide tee had a right and a need to know how stood him to mean that there were 12 Demo- Congress with professional staff for its legis- our Government handled that mess, for we crats on committee staffs to every Republi- lative committees. This was a real gain for pass on all the money spent by the Defense can. This is not the case-most of our effective congressional government but we Department and, if they don't use it prop- committees have professional staff that have have not kept pace with the times. There erly, we have the right and responsibility to served for many years. Some are Republi- are numerous specific examples in both the know so any corrective action can be taken. cans that were hired during the early years House and Senate right today and the coun- I had been disturbed by some news stories of the Eisenhower administartion. The point try is the loser because of this deficiency. which had been appearing just before our that Drummond was making was that the Most Members of Congress would agree on meeting with General Taylor which you may great bulk of the professional staff on our how crucial the staffing issue is not only to a remember-these had to do with what went committees were under the control and re- vigorous and constructive opposition but wrong at the time of the invasion and sponsible to the Democratic majority. This also for the survival of Congress as a mean- whether or not the United States ever has meant that in too many instances minor- ingful participant in our processes of promised any air cover for the Cuban refu- ity views were not being written when bills government. gee invaders. I wanted to clear that matter were reported. that committee investigations A good part of the minority staffing prob- up and to get into some other obvious prob- were being carried out almost exclusively lem would be solved with the correction of lems connected with that flasco which would from the majority point of view. I might this broader problem. There is a clear need help our committee decide how to vote when add that the worst partisan abuse of the con- for a selective increase in the professional it came time to appropriate money for the cept of professional nonpartisan staff-as set nonpartisan staff of the committees in areas Department of Defense and related agencies. out in the Legislative Reorganization Act of of deficiency such as I have just noted. General Taylor was one of the best men 1946-has come on a few committees with Ultimately we may be moving toward the in the country to answer these important large budgets for investigatory staff, such as kind of staffing arrangement that Congress- questions. He had been appointed by Presi- the Education and Labor Committee. With- man TOM CURTIS has suggested-a "three- dent Kennedy to head a four-man board to out minority staff we have not been in a part staff" with the bulk of the staff pro- investigate the ill-fated Bay-of-Pigs invasion position on certain committees to draft Re- fessional and nonpartisan (1.e., available to and find out what went wrong. The investi- publican alternatives or to initiate legisla- all Members regardless of party affiliation) gation was made and the board informed the tion where the administration has faltered. with a few staff members, also professional President what it found out. Then, accord- Because of the central importance of staf- qualified, under the direct control of the ing to testimony to us and other public fing. the Republican Conference unani- majority and minority respectively-for the statements, the four were told by the Presi- mously endorsed a proposal by Congressman purpose of drafting majority and minority dent to say nothing about the investigation. FRED SCHWENGEL of Iowa which would have reports and assisting the Members on issues So what happened? Three of the mem- given the minority 40 percent of the com- of a more immediate party political nature. bers of the board did follow instructions. mittee staff on committees where the ma- What, you ask, can I or my club do to Adm. Arleigh Burke, former Chief of Naval jority of the Republicans were dissatisfied help solve these problems? You can help by Operations did, Allen Dulles, former CIA with the staff assistance they were getting. writing your Congressmen and Senators be Chief did, and General Taylor did. But Congressman SCHWENGEL is now chairing our they Democrat or Republican and asking Bobby Kennedy, the fourth member didn't. Conference Subcommittee on Increased them how they stand on the staffing issue. In one of the classic examples of news man- Minority Staffing. He and his committee Congressmen don't vote by weighing their agement we have seen in this country, Bobby have been performing yeomen's service in mail but they will certainly sit up and take told his version of the invasion to reporters gathering data on the staffing problem, in notice of an issue on which they receive from U.S. News and World Report and the pressing for more staff at the committee intelligent letters. Particularly in a case Knight newspapers. He was in Palm Beach level, in arguing our case before the House such as this where we are discussing a prob- at the time. Administration Committee which approves lem peculiar to Congress, its methods of Now like all good elephants, we Republi- all committee budgets, and in planning operation, and its public image. Congress- cans have long memories. I would like you future strategy in the staffing fight. men are especially sensitive to the views and to recall with me here today some of Mr. Congressman SCHWENGEL estimates that judgments of their constituents. Write and Kennedy's own words and compare them we shall have 30 more minority staff mem- ask your Congressman if he feels that Con- with his performance in this very important bers this year than we had in the last Con- gress is meeting its responsibilities in re- incident. gress, largely as a result of his committee's viewing and considering executive proposals First of all, let me read you a section out of work. Furthermore the majority leader, CARL for new spending and legislation. Is Con- the Democratic platform which bears di- ALBERT, as a result of the fight for more gress adequately overseeing the executive rectly on this subject. (Not that the plat- minority staff has pledged his party to elimi- agencies? The Billie Sol Estes case is only form makes any difference, you understand, nate partisan abuse in staffing and to abide one example-albeit an extreme one-of how to the Democrats. Its greatest value over by the spirit of the Reorganization Act. We the system can get out of order. Is Congress the years have been to Republicans who are intend to hold him to his word. showing the leadership that the times de- constantly able to show how hypocritical On the Senate side our big guns have mand? And within this broader context can they are about saying one thing and doing begun to swing into action although I might Congress function at all without a mature another.) The 1960 platform said: "We re- add after our foot soldiers launched the responsible opposition that has the staff ject the Republican contention that the offensive. We welcome their assistance. resources to perform its role as critic and workings of the Government are the special You may have seen Senator GOLDWATER'S col- to assume that more than one side of the private preserve of the Executive. The mas- umn a few Sundays ago. Senator GOLD- issue is considered? These are mighty im- sive wall of secrecy erected between the ex- WATER said that: portant questions. We are not dealing in ecutive branch and the Congress as well as "Insufficient minority staffing makes leg- petty partisan politics but in issues that the citizen, must be torn down. Informa- islation more dependent than ever upon the affect the course of our democracy. tion must flow freely, save in those areas in statistics, the witnesses, the proposals of the I want to move now to another issue which the national security is involved." Democratic administration as transmitted affecting the basic principles of our demo- So on the basis of this strongly worded plat- through the majority. I would make this cratic way of life and our constitutional sys- form, Senator Kennedy campaigned. As a point just as emphatically if the situation tem of government. candidate he gave us lots of words about were reversed and the proper committee One of the least dramatic, but most serious, how under his administration the public staffing denied to the Democrats. The need problems which has come up during the would be well informed and how their Repre- is for proper policies, properly researched, last 2 years concerns the very foundation sentatives in Congress would never be denied properly arrived at and understood above and of our ideals of representative government. information they needed to pass the laws of beyond the desires of the particular admin- It affects me personally, and through me it the land. istration running the executive branch." affects the 462,000 residents of Michigan I At one point he said-very eloquently, I Senator DIRKSEN has recently\ urged all represent. But as a matter of fact the think: "The President-who himself bears ranking minority members on the standing principle involved affects all Members of much of the responsibility for the preserva- committees of the Senate to press for more Congress and all their constituents. I am tion of American democracy-has the affirm- staff assistance to service the needs of the speaking of a little publicized idea called ative duty to see to it that the American minority. "executive privilege." This is how I came people are kept fully informed. It is true I have been discussing the problem of up against it several weeks ago: that in today's world of peril some Govern- minority staff but this is only a part of a Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the ment information must be kept secret-in- much larger problem that the staffing fight Joint Chiefs of Staff, was testifying before formation whose publication would endanger has dramatically illustrated. The Congress our defense appropriations subcommittee the national security. The people of the at large just does not have the staff re- about the Cuban situation. We were asking United States are entitled to the fullest pos- sources it needs If it is to perform its proper him some important and searching questions sible information about their Government role in our constitutional system. We have about the Bay of Pigs invasion-which I and the President must see that they receive seen the gradual and continuing erosion of might say will be looked on as one of the it. 1963 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - APPENDIX A2921 Also on the campaign he referred spe- formative letter back to the Nonpareil so wish to include in the Appendix of the cifically to Executive privilege. He said that readers and neighbors could learn of RECORD several of his recent columns whenever information is not restricted by their progress and their observations. which I am sure will delight his fol- specific statute, security needs, or the Con- stitution, "there is no justification for using I was pleased to read comments about lowers: the doctrine of Executive privilege to keep places and experiences that matched my [From the San Francisco Chronicle, information from the Congress and the pub- own recollections about some places. Apr. 23, 1963] lic." I hurry to add that, in the case of Thus, I feel I am dutybound to share EYEBALL TO EYEBALL WITH BIRTH CONTROL General Taylor's refusal, no specific statute with all the views Mrs. Ungar included (By Arthur Hoppe) would prohibit him from testifying, no se- in her final letter, after making an east curity is involved, and the Constitution gives I'm sorry, I mentioned the other day that to west trip through Japan, Taiwan, no justification for his position at all. Con- Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy had separate bedrooms tinuing down "memory lane," I recall that in Hong Kong, southeast Asia, India, Iran, merely to point out that the richer you get, his first state of the Union message Mr. Turkey, Austria, Italy, and Spain. the farther away from your wife you get. Kennedy made every Congressman's and It is significant to note that the Ungars And the fewer children you have. I noted newspaperman's heart warm with this state- were in the Far East when the Clay Com- that this was geographical birth control- ment: mission report on foreign aid came out; "the only system," I said flatly, "that really "For my part, I shall withhold from nei- worked." yet, in her direct and to-the-point cri- ther the Congress nor the people any fact, or So Mr. Kennedy promptly announced he tique on the present value of foreign aid, report-past, present, or future-which is was going ot Europe in June. Great. And necessary for any informed judgment of our Alice Ungar states in a few words the then Mrs. Kennedy announced she was- conduct and hazards." essential conclusions covered in thou- Well, it's all my fault. I suppose I The fact of the matter, from my own per- sands of words by that illuminating should've given more detailed instructions. sonal experience with General Taylor and document. But that's the whole trouble with all our the Bay of Pigs, is that the President is keep- Mrs. Ungar's letter excerpt follows: present complex methods. They require ing the Congress and the public in the dark; precise directions which you've got to follow In the April 22 international issue of Life he is preventing the lawfully elected repre- to the letter. And in the proper sequence. magazine we read that American aid to sentatives of the people from making in- Or else. Which is why love often conquers 116 foreign countries would pass the $100 formed judgments of the past conduct of our all. Government and therefore the future haz- billion mark this year. But our scientists, thank goodness, are ards which we face. This, I submit, is con- In only two countries we have visited- Turkey and Spain-have we heard our aid working on it. And I'm deliriously happy trary to everything representative govern- to learn that Dr. Carl G. Heller, who's what ment stands for, to everything we Repub- acknowledged. Our money has been spent is called "a reproductive physiologist" at the licans stand for and, if we can believe their in accordance with the point 4 policy; Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, has platform, everything the Democrats them- that is, everyone in the world should have healthy living conditions, be educated, live made a smashing technological breakthrough. selves stand for. in freedom and be provided with the op- He's come up with a pill for gentlemen portunity to work. that's cheap, safe, harmless to your maleness Each country we visited was clean and and guaranteed obsolutely 100 percent effec- prosperous, and thousands of apartment tive. It even tastes good. In fact, says Dr. Mrs. Ungar, World Traveler, Gives Her houses and new buildings were everywhere. Heller, tests show it's got only one teensy little drawback: Impression of Foreign Aid In Hong Kong real estate values were as high as New York City. In Thailand the news- If you take a single drink while on the papers pointed out they did not want for- pills, your eyeballs turn bright red. EXTENSION OF REMARKS eign help or military entanglements. They Thus his new pills, the good doctor told OF prefer to help themselves. the American Chemical Society sadly, "prob- In India, we remember a traffic ticup that ably would not be acceptable to men in the HON. BEN F. JENSEN Western World." And back he went to the lasted 2 hours because 6 Indians lay down in the middle of the street and pretended old drawing board. OF IOWA they were dead. They had been notified Nonsense. Here we are, faced with a pop- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES the slum area in which they lived was to be ulation explosion and our faint-hearted Thursday, May 9, 1963 razed, and they were protesting. scientists are willing to scrap our salvation. In Vienna, the city is still building spa- All because of one tiny little flaw. Shades Mr. JENSEN. Mr. Speaker, as you cious housing units for factory workers al- of Thomas Alva Edison. Is this what made know, I have consistently voted against though they now have 170,000 such flats. America great? No. the huge appropriations for foreign aid The oldest of these may be rented for $4 I say we've got to get out there and sell. since the end of the shooting war. to 88 a month. For example, we could sell men on the idea The record shows that I have been on We saw no suburban shopping centers. of giving up drinking because *. Well, the losing side; that this country has Old areas in the cities were being torn down we could at least sell them on wearing dark and rebuilt. As a result, all the cities we work wouldn't cure. Ads: "Are your eye- lavished a hundred billion dollars on saw were beautiful, and their property values balls pale, tired, colorless?" Drinks: "The friends and erstwhile friends all over the had increased a hundredfold. new red eye highball." Contests: "Mr. red- globe, notwithstanding what I consider In each place I have visited, I have thought blooded American eyeball." clear evidence that the gain achieved by of the city in which I live and which I love Actually, when you stop to think about it, these expenditures is not nearly so posi- and I think it is time to stop sending help there's nothing inherently wrong with red tive as the condition of our Treasury is abroad. eyeballs. Not that a little good promotion negative. It is time, and past, to do something about work wouldn't cure. Ads: "Are Your Eye- I will not belabor you at this time with our own streets and housing needs and in- balls Pale, Tired, Colorless?" Drinks: "The dustrial development. I think it is time New Red Eye Highball." Contests: "Mr. Red- my own often-expressed views gathered on personal trips to foreign-aid coun- to turn the fruit of our work to our own Blooded American Eyeball." benefit, where we can see and enjoy and Of course, the ladies would take a bit of tries. But I would like to have printed appreciate the results. convincing. You know how they are. We in the RECORD at this point an excerpt might start by planting a few pointed arti- from a letter written to the Council cles in the ladies' magazines. Such as True Bluffs (Iowa) Nonpareil by a constitu- Confessions: "There we were, eyeball to ent of mine, Mrs. Alice Ungar of Council Arthur Hoppe's Columns eyeball-and his were white." Bluffs. Eventually, I'm sure, we'd convince them Mrs. Ungar, accompanied by her hus- of the undeniable advantages of such a EXTENSION OF REMARKS band Leo, has just returned from a 75- method. I mean there you are, an attractive OF day air trip around the world. This is young lady. You walk into a cocktail party just another in a series of trips this HON. J. ARTHUR YOUNGER crowded with handsome young bachelors. Half have red eyeballs, half don't. Which perceptive couple has made. I mention OF CALIFORNIA Well, I don't want to go into details. this so that the House will know they But we'd soon separate the ladies from the IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES are experienced travelers, ones who have girls. And most bachelors will, I know, agree visited and revisited many lands and Thursday, May 9, 1963 that's an undeniable advantage right there. thus have been able to make compari- Mr. YOUNGER. Mr. Speaker, now Oh, I can hear you saying you don't care. sons. You still don't like red eyeballs. Well let me that Art Hoppe has hopped back to Cali- tell you this is no time for petty aesthetic Periodically during their globe-girdling fornia after visiting Washington and prejudices. All present methods require dill- trip, Mrs. Ungar wrote a chatty and in- other geographical points of interest, I gence or sacrifice. Join your local red eye-