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1550998
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White House - Congressional Leadership Meeting, 3/24/70 (includes minutes)
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
1550998
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
White House - Congressional Leadership Meeting, 3/24/70 (includes minutes)
citationUrl
collections
Robert T. Hartmann Papers
House of Representatives Subject Files
subjects
Education
Federal aid
Legislation
Legislative liaison
Suffrage
Youth
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1550998
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1970-03-31
month
3
year
1970
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1970-03-01
month
3
year
1970
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nara-archive
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1
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1adbe20763efce2a
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These documents were scanned from Box 106 of the Robert T. Hartmann Papers at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
DIARY OF WHITE HOUSE LEADERSHIP
MEETINGS -- 91st CONGRESS
March 24, 1970
This morning's breakfast meeting was attended by the
leadership of both parties of both Houses.
After Red Blount reported on the progress of the postal
strike, the President spent 15 minutes making a pre-
liminary explanation of the 8, 000-word message he is
sending to Congress today concerning school desegre-
gation. It was a candid, completely natural and
unaffected dissertation reflecting his views as a lawyer
concerning the present state of the law on the subject
and his view as a person concerning the morality of the
issue. He asked Ehrlichman to read the principles
ununciated in the message and then invited questions.
A number of questions were asked about the $1. 5 billion
grant to school districts which have special desegregation
burdens. Among these was one propounded by Ted Kennedy,
vix, "what other programs will be cut in order to find this
sum in the 1971 and 1972 budgets The President replied
that while tentative decisions have been made, precide
decisions are yet to be mdde. He predicted that he would
be able to give the Congress a special message on this
point within the next 3 weeks.
I thought the President's statement was eminently reason-
able. For that very reason, it is likely to be attacked by
each of the two extremes as unreasonable. Specifically
I predict that there will be some who will criticize the $1. 5
billion figure as a feeble gesture while others will say that
it is to be used to buy $1.5 billion worth of buses.
In order to attend a 10:00 o'clock Republican Conference in
the House, we adjourned at 9:55. The President invited all
to go out on the front steps for group pictures.
GERALD ? FORS
2
As I left, Bill Timmons asked me to remain behind in the
Library with John Mitchell, Jerry Ford, Les Arends and
John Rhodes to discuss the 18 year-old voting parliamentary
situation. There is some confusion about what Chairman
Celler seeks to accomplish and what methods he may use.
However, the last word seems to be that he prefers to
surrender his opposition on the 18-year-old vote statute as
the purchase price fortthe Senate amendments on the Voting
Rights Act. If this is correct, then he will doubtless want
to make a motion to recede and concur in the Senate amend-
ments. One question was whether or not such a motion
requires a rule. If it does require a rule, can amendments
be made in order by voting down the previous question ?
If so, would it be in order to make a motion to go to confer-
ence? Even if it would be in order and after the conferees
were appointed, it would then be possible to make a motion
to instruct conferees to accept the 18-year-old vote pro-
vision.
I recommended that the Administration broaden its present
position in support of a constitutional amendment gmanting
the franchise in the federal elections to 18-year-olds to
include all elections. This would be a tactical measure
designed to give anxious Republicans a hat-hanging peg.
It was agreed that someone should see if such a procedure
would be acceptable to Celler and McCulloch. The question
arose, who is to see them? A meaningful silence descended
upon the small gathering, and after a respectable pause and
while everyone was looking at me, I said, "I would not wish
that on anybody. It was decided that Jerry Ford would do
the honors. He lucked out again. It was further agreed that
without their help, it would be pointless for the Administration
to broaden its position on the constitutional amendment.
RICHARD H. POFF
LIBRARY GERALD FORD