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{
    "localId": "186643",
    "label": "Ford Administration Notes of the Cabinet Meeting",
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    "id": "186643",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Ford Administration Notes of the Cabinet Meeting",
    "description": "Topics discussed at the meeting include the Presidential Clemency Board, Senate Rule 22, agriculture and food, automobile emissions, and Cambodia and South Vietnam.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/186643",
    "collections": [
        "James E. Connor Files",
        "Cabinet Meetings Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Minutes"
    ],
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 12,
            "logicalDate": "1975-03-12",
            "month": 3,
            "year": 1975
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "- 2 -\nhe wanted Rule 22 handled. The President decided that as the\npresiding officer of the Senate, it was the Vice President's\nresponsibility and that I should handle it as I saw fit. As\nyou can see by the chart, there are essentially two strategies\nreferred to as the Northern and Southern route. Vice President\nNixon gave the opinion that the Northern route was possible and\nduring his tenure as Vice President, there were several minor\nattempts to have that done. However, in each instance the\nSenate ultimately went South. In 1967 Humphrey established\nthe precedent of allowing the Senate to change its rules by\n60% vote or majority vote, but he was overruled by Senate vote.\nThat did establish precedent. As we approached this Senate year,\nthe members were divided about equally and this didn't allow the\nleadership of the Senate to take a very strong position.\nMondale put two motions in one during this period, which is in-\ncorrect and that was disallowed. Then Senator Allen put three\nmotions in one, which was also disallowed. Senator Byrd and\nSenator Griffin finally agreed on the wording of the motion, but\nMansfield objected. He objected more to the wording of the motion,\nbut he did want a 60-40 split on the vote. However, he wanted the\nSenate to go the Southern route. (Note Attached Statement at\nTAB B.) When it became apparent that the majority had the votes\nthat it needed to choose the direction in which they wanted to\nmove, Senator Byrd made an impassioned speech about the dis-\nasterous effect of the change where there is simple majority\nrule. Finally, there was a vote. The vote was 51-42. The\nfirst time in Senate history, where the Senate had voted to\nchange the rules by majority rule. At this time the President\nhad gone to Florida and I decided to crystalize the issue while\nthe President was still out of town. As we move through these\nseries of steps outlined on the chart, alternating between the\nNorthern and Southern routes and various motions, we reached a\npoint were I asked for the clerk to call the role. Senator Allen\nobjected and raised a point of parliamentary inquiry. The Vice\nPresident again then asked for the role to be called; and again\nSenator Allen raised the point of question of parliamentary in-\nquiry and again I asked for the role to be called.\nThis is where the controversy really became a public feud. The\nsenators at that point gave me a very bad time. But according\nto Rule 19 in the Senate, on a point of parliamentary inquiry,\nthe Chair is allowed, at his discretion, to recognize or not\nrecognize the Senator. At any rate, we finally reached an agree-\nment. There was a two hour recess during which a compromise was\nworked out and the final agreement was the Southern route, which\nis the way the majority wanted to go. Everyone was happy, the\nconservatives, the liberals, the Republicans, and the Democrats\nhave all generally turned out to be fairly happy about it. I\nhave arranged a series of small dinners with various members of\nthe Senate to make certain that there are no hard feelings GERALD\n?\nit. The important thing to understand is that it was not the\nanot"
}