ECONOMY, COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965: extend (see bill S. 467), 1340

1340; January 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Randolph bill, S. 467, providing for a one-year extension of the Public Works and Economic Development Act. At this time, Congress had been considering a reworking of economic development programs but had not completed action during the 92^nd Congress. A one-year extension had been pocket-vetoed, and this bill was a replacement for that proposal.

Fish Disease Control Act of :1973: enact (see bill S. 522), 1866.

1866; January 23, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Moss (D- Utah) bill, S. 522, to provide for a federal-state program to deal with communicable diseases of freshwater and marine fish. Fish hatcheries, at this time a $150 million industry, and over 2000 state hatcheries which helped produce sport fish for a $900 sport fishing industry, were the primary goals of this bill.

Dissemination of news and other matter through the mails: encourage (see bill S. 630), 2627.

2627; January 31, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of a Nelson (D- Wisconsin) bill, S. 630, responding to a proposal by the new U.S. Postal Service to steeply increase second-class mail rates. When Congress created the Postal Service from the old Post Office, it failed to write into the law any policy dealing with second-class rates for printed editorial matter, a failure that the Nelson bill was designed to correct.

Radiation Health and Safety Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 667), 2628.

2628; January 31, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 667, a Randolph (D-West Virginia) bill to create minimum federal standards for radiology technicians. At this time, only three states required that radiology technicians be licensed, meaning that untrained persons were exposing patients to X-ray machines in dental and medical practice without necessarily understanding the hazards of radiation over-exposure.

Sales below cost, prohibit, for purpose of destroying competition or eliminating competitor (see bill S. 780), 3428.

3428; February 6, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Sparkman (D- Alabama) bill, S. 780, to strengthen laws against predatory pricing by permitting their enforcement through civil actions. At this time, several economic sectors, particularly in the food production area were showing marked decline in individual businesses, such as bakeries and dairies, and increased concentration of larger businesses with greater market share. The claim was often made by smaller independent businesses that their larger competitors were under-pricing their product for the purpose of destroying smaller competitors.

Small businesses: economic disaster loans to certain (see hill S. 804), 3762.

3762; February 7, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 804, a Bible (D- Nevada) bill to provide loans to small businesses and farms which faced expenditures to comply with federal pollution, consumer protection, health and safety regulations.

Fishing industry: strengthen and protect domestic (see S. Con. Res. 11), 3794.

3794; February 7, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. Con. Res. 11, an Eastland (D-Mississippi) resolution setting forth the need to establish a U.S. fisheries policy. This resolution was a response to a decade-long situation in which the U.S. fisheries had fallen to seventh in the world from first, and faced substantial foreign fleets, particularly Soviet fishing fleets in their traditional fishing grounds. At this time, Peru had actually become the world’s lead fishing nation, the British-Icelandic Cod War was reaching its height, and the movement towards expanding national territorial waters was gaining support internationally.

Disaster Relief Act of 1970: eligibility for relocation assistance (see bill S. 753), 6516.

6516; March 6, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Scott (R-Pennsylvania) bill, S. 753, which would amend the Disaster Relief Act of 1970 by providing eligibility for relocation assistance for those eligible for disaster relief aid.

Emergency Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Benefits Program Amendments of 1973: enact (see bill S. 980), 6517, 10731.

6517; March 6, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Javits (R-New York) bill, S. 980, to allow more states to remain eligible for the program of extended unemployment benefits which provides 13 additional weeks of federal benefits to the unemployed when the insured unemployment rate rises over 4 percent. The insured rate is always considerably lower the full unemployment rate, because it measures only those unemployed who are receiving state unemployment benefits.

10731; April 3, 1973; Muskie is again added as a cosponsor of the Javits bill, S. 980. No explanation of why this is done twice.

Economic Stabilization Act of 1970: amend bill (S. 398) to extend and amend, 6518

6518; March 6, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of an Eagleton (D- Missouri) amendment to S. 398, the Economic Stabilization Act, to create an Emergency Resource Allocation Board as a response to what was becoming a shortage of gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene. Although the Arab oil embargo of October 1973 is usually marked as the onset of the “energy crisis”, shortages of gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil had been felt in a number of markets, including Maine, and there was general suspicion that the oil companies were manipulating supplies so as to increase prices.

Railroad rolling stock: increase supply and improve utilization of (see bill S. 1149) 6908.

6908; March 8, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Magnuson (D-Washington) bill, S. 1149, to increase the amount of rolling stock on the nation’s railways. In this period, the transportation system in the U.S. faced some strains, in part from the massive Soviet grain purchase of the previous year, of which only one-quarter had been shipped by year’s end, and in part from the financial difficulties facing many railroad companies. The Interstate Commerce Commission estimated that at this time, there was a national shortage of approximately 8000 boxcars and 10,000 covered hopper cars for the necessary shipment of the nation’s commodities.

Small businesses: management counseling (see bill S.44), 7770.

7770; March 14, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of a Dole (R-Kansas) bill, S. 44, to increase the availability of professional management counseling available to smaller businesses.

The bill would have exempted the Small Business Administration from the ban on accepting volunteer services, to allow the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and the Active Corps of Executives (ACE) volunteers to undertake broader tasks under the aegis of the Small Business Administration; it would also eliminate the ban on reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses for travel, parking, and other support for volunteers who travel within an urban area as well as those who travel 50 miles or more from their homes to volunteer.

Women: prohibit discrimination in extending credit (see bill S. 867), 7771.

7771; March 14, 1973; Muskie is added to a Williams (D- New Jersey) bill, S. 867, to forbid discrimination against women in extending credit. At this time, many stores, credit card companies, banks and other sources of credit used marital status as a proxy for credit risk, with the result that many refused to issue credit cards in a woman’s name, required the signature of a husband on a loan application, discounted a working wife’s income in calculating mortgage eligibility, and even sometimes demanded a physician’s certificate that a woman was using reliable birth control for mortgage eligibility. The situation was particularly difficult for widowed or divorced women, who, never having had credit in their own names, were unable to qualify for credit when their husbands died or separated.

Food prices: impose 90-day freeze on, 8841.

Economic Stabilization Act Amendments of 1973: bill (S. 398) to enact, 8841, 8851.

8841; March 20, 1973; During debate on S. 398, the Economic Stabilization Act Amendments, a bill to continue the Nixon era authority to impose price caps and wage guidelines which was first enacted and used in 1971, Muskie speaks in favor of the Moss (D-Utah) amendment, to impose a 90-day freeze on retail food prices. At this period, inflationary pressures, partly generated by the earlier price caps and guidelines, were running almost out of control, as the Muskie statement indicates.

8851; March 20, 1971; During the same debate on S. 398, the Economic Stabilization Act Amendments, Muskie supports a Hathaway (D- Maine) amendment which would have asked the Wage and Price Council to make public the SEC reports on income and profits of corporations which raised the prices of their goods by more than an average 1.5%. The inflationary spiral in these years led to widespread suspicions of profiteering by major corporations.

Beware Phase III, G. C. Means, Washington Post, 9971.

9971; March 28, 1973; Muskie says that former Truman economic advisor, Gardiner Means, has produced a useful column on the implementation of the Nixon administration’s wage and price guidelines, which are about to shift to a Phase III, where prices and wages would be left to the market economy without direct government intervention.

Lobster Conservation and Control Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1527), 11517.

11517; April 10, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Weicker (R-Connecticut) bill, S. 1527, designed to protect the lobster fishery by limiting the offshore take of lobsters by foreign fishing fleets. At this time, a federal-state commission had been created to help develop a conservation management plan for the lobster fishery, and its membership was concerned that a management plan which affected only domestic fishermen was both unfair and unwise.

Lobster Supply Dropping, V. Warren, Bath-Brunswick Times Record, 11543.

Lobster Conservation and Control Act of 1973: introduction, 11543.

11543; April 10, 1973; When Senator Weicker (R-Connecticut) introduces his lobster conservation bill, S. 1527, Muskie joins in making a statement about the importance of the lobster industry to the entire Maine fishery and the state’s economy.

Suburbia: Vitality, Selfishness, D. S. Broder, Washington Post, 12671.

12671; April 17, 1973; Muskie talks about a column which discusses the changes being made in the nation’s economic and governmental outlook as the suburban cities gain more population than the major metropolitan areas, even as their government structures remain separate from those of the inner cities.

Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965: bill (H.R. 2246) to extend authorizations, 14638.

14638; May 8, 1973; One of the targets of the Nixon administration’s economy measures was the Economic Development Administration, whose authorization President Nixon vetoed in 1972. The Senate took up a 1-year extension and Muskie, among other Senators, described the benefits the program had for his home state.

Mobile homes: safety standards (see bill S. 1348), 18271.

18271; June 6, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1348, a Brock (R-Tennessee) bill to provide for the establishment of federal safety standards for motor homes. The bill would establish a uniform nationwide minimum construction and fire safety standard to supplement the 36 different existing state laws, and would require any federally-insured mortgage loan for a mobile home to be limited to homes meeting the federal standard. At this time, some 95% of the housing available under $15,000 consisted of mobile homes, yet several states had no tie-down requirement and in many instances hazard insurance for a mobile home could exceed the cost of insurance for a site-built house worth twice as much.

Airborne cooperative collision avoidance systems: require installation on certain aircraft (see bill S. 1610), 20246

20246; June 19, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Moss (D-Utah) bill, S. 1610, requiring the installation of equipment to avoid midair collisions on military and civilian aircraft. By 1973, the growth of commercial, general and military aviation was making it evident that the air lanes were more crowded and placed more lives at risk from midair collision. Between 1956 and 1970, some 966 people were killed in 178 midair collisions. But 102 of these occurred from 1968 to 1970, taking 196 lives. In 1968 there had been 1128 reported near misses with potentially thousands of lives at stake. The bill would have required the Federal Aviation Administration to require the installation of Airborne Cooperative Collision Avoidance Systems in fixed-wing aircraft, both military and civilian. The FAA claimed a ground-based radar system would provide better assurances of collision avoidance, and did not actually mandate any system until Congress finally passed a law in 1986.

Secrecy of Corporate Ownership, Indiana Law Review, Senator Metcalf, 21738.

21738; June 27, 1973; Muskie notes a law review article by Senator Metcalf (D- Montana) which describes the secrecy that shrouds the ownership of corporate shares, and the impact that this secrecy has on ordinary shareholders’ efforts to improve corporate accountability. At this time, a good deal of attention was being given to the Ralph Nader Corporate Responsibility Project, an effort to require corporations to take environmental and social issues into account in their operations. Then, as now, such suggestions were highly controversial.

Fishing Industry: problems, 22253.

Wider Fish War? New York Times, 22253.

Vanishing Lobster, S. Spitzer, Travel and Leisure, 22254.

22253, 22254; June 29, 1973; Muskie notes the inroads made by foreign fishing fleets and points out that the Law of the Sea conference at which it was hoped agreement on conservation could be reached is still a year off and that any treaties ratified would probably not take effect for several further years, and that in the meantime, the enormous worldwide increase in fishing fleets is threatening to deplete fisheries stocks.

Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1973: bill (S. 1816) to enact, 24524.

Minimum wage: legislation to extend, 24524.

Poultry Industry Feeling Pinch, D. Bright, Bangor News, 24524.

Letter: Problems imposed by price freeze (sundry), 24525, 24526.

24524; July 18, 1973; During debate on S. 1861, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise the minimum wage to $2.20 per hour, Senator McGovern (D- South Dakota) offers an amendment dealing with price controls on agricultural commodities. Muskie, whose state was home to many poultry producers, spoke on the problems created by the 60-day price freeze on foods when the costs to producers were uncontrolled. On June 13, 1973, President Nixon imposed a 60-day freeze on prices at the retail level, because the Phase III price controls program showed every sign of breaking down. Under this price freeze, however, products such as chicken and hog feed grains were allowed to rise, with the result that the poultry and hog producers were being asked to sell products at less than their price of production. The McGovern amendment was designed to provide a special exception from the freeze for agricultural products in danger of running short.

Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act: bill (S. 1769) to enact, 35836, 35827.

Fire prevention: proposed legislation to study and improve 35836, 35837.

Maine: firefighting in, 35837.

35836, 35837; November 2, 1973; During the Senate debate on the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act, S. 1769, Muskie speaks in support of the proposal. At this time, the Federal role in firefighting was limited to fires on federal lands; the proposal would establish an academy for training as well as research programs to help scattered local fire departments improve their own practices and safety procedures.

Lobsters: declining supply, 37921.

Outer Continental Shelf: prohibit lobstering by foreign vessels, 37921.

Where Have All the Lobsters Gone? L. P. Keiffer, New York Times, 37921.

37921; November 26, 1973; Muskie speaks of the lobster shortage that was receiving a good deal of media attention at the time, and discusses the role of foreign fishing fleets in the reduced catches being experienced in Maine waters.

Rail transportation: bills (S. 2767; H.R. 9142) to restructure in Midwest and northeast regions, system of, 40708.

Subsidies to railroads: ratio of State and Federal, 40708, 40709.

40708, 40709; December 11, 1973; During debate on S. 2767, the Rail Services Act, Muskie expresses support for the bill and says that the bankrupt condition of major Northeastern and Midwestern rail lines at the height of an energy crisis reflects the fact that the nation’s transportation system has been unbalanced. Although passenger rail service had been abandoned over the previous decades and was finally made into a public corporation in 1970, the shortages of oil supplies in 1973, following the Arab oil embargo, along with neglect of track beds and rolling stock supplies created a critical condition in the two regions in 1973.

Lobsters: designation as creature of the Continental Shelf, 42100.

Brazil: bill (H.R. 8529) to implement the shrimp fishing agreement with, 42100.

Maine: lobster Industry, 42100.

42100; December 18, 1973; During debate on a U.S. agreement with Brazil over the shrimp fishery, Muskie notes that the Commerce Committee has added language which he supports, that would make the lobster a creature of the continental shelf. The effect of this declaration is to make any foreign fishing of protected species limited to instances where explicit permission to fish has been given by the U.S. government and under such limitations as the U.S. government wishes to specify.

ENERGY

1973 1st session, 93rd Congress

New England States Fuel Oil Act of 1973. enact (see bill S. 319), 746.

746; January 11, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of S. 319, a Ribicoff (D- Connecticut) bill to withdraw home heating oil from the oil import program that was still in effect at this time. The import program served to maintain domestic prices by limiting imports into the fuel district 1, which included the entire east coast, to levels imported in 1957, and allocated those imports according to import history. Since most refiners found gasoline and other refined fuels to be a more profitable line of product than home heating oil, the chronic shortages and high prices of home heating oil had long been a particular economic burden on New England homeowners, with the coldest winters on the east coast. Muskie tried for years but without success to abolish the import program.

Rural electrification direct loan program: make loans in full amount appropriated by Congress (see bill S. 394), 1138.

1138; January 16, 1972; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 394, a Humphrey (D- Minnesota) bill to require that funds made available for the Rural Electrification Administration direct loan program be made available to eligible borrowers under the terms of the Act. This bill represents another of the Congressional efforts to withstand the Nixon administration’s program of reshaping the federal budget through unilateral executive orders. On December 29, 1972, the eve of a New Year’s weekend, the President ordered the Secretary of Agriculture to reject all loan applications made under this program and to instead offer loans under the authority of the Rural Development Act. Like the bill’s sponsor, Muskie believed that the President had no authority to refuse to enforce a law once he had signed it.

New England: oil crisis, 1260.

Oil crisis, 1260, 3017.

1260; January 16, 1970; Muskie makes a statement about the crisis in New England with respect to home heating oil supplies. One element of the perpetual shortages of home heating oil in the New England region was the oil import quota program created by the Eisenhower administration in 1959, but another contributing factor was the big companies’ policy of favoring their own distribution outlets at the expense of small independent oil dealers, whose customers, in turn, were forced to turn to the larger distributors. Under pressure from Congress, President Nixon ordered a temporary suspension of the import quota in mid-January, 1973.

3017; February 1, 1973; Muskie continues his argument that the oil import quota program ought to be immediately terminated in face of the impending shortages of fuel oil across the eastern part of the country.

Oil: emergency imports (see S.J. Res. 23), 1340.

1340; January 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) resolution, S. J. Res 23, to authorize the emergency importation of oil into the eastern half of the United States, and to suspend the oil import quota program until April 1, 1974.

Cold Wave Could Spur Fuel Oil Crisis, E. Cowan, New York Times, 3018.

3018; [begins p. 3017]; February 1, 1973; Muskie makes a statement about the heating oil crisis facing New England and the eastern half of the country, and inserts an article which details the facts about the shortage.

 

Fuel oil: crisis, 4072.

Price Increases by Petroleum Industry, Cost of Living Council, Senator McIntyre, 4072

4072; February 8, 1973; Muskie inserts the testimony of Senator McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) to the Cost of Living Council on the question of price hikes in home heating oil. Under the Nixon economic policy, the 90-day price freeze in 1971 was followed by a Phase II in which industries and workers were asked to mitigate price and wage increases and under which the government had the authority to order price hikes to be rolled back when they were excessive. Phase II controls ended in January 1973, and immediately thereafter, the oil companies began to announce price hikes in home heating oil. The combination of the oil import quota, the price freeze and the controls on price increases, and the unwillingness of the industry to be forthcoming about its supply situation created a great deal of suspicion that the industry was profiteering at the expense of the consumer.

Oil import control program: terminate (see bill S. 1019). 5541.

5541; February 27, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor on a McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) bill, S. 1019, to terminate the oil import control program. The Mandatory Oil Import Quota System was established by President Eisenhower in 1959, for the purpose of assuring adequate national supplies of domestic oil. It served to support a pricing status for heating oil and other products because there was never a time of oil glut sufficient to allow prices to fall far. By 1973, however, the country’s oil production had peaked and it was evident that imports would be needed to assure adequate supplies. In 1970, a Task Force which examined the oil import quota system recommended that it be eliminated and replaced with tariffs on imported oil, but President Nixon took no action until the severe shortages in the 1972-1973 winter forced him to act. On January 17, 1973, he suspended the oil import program for four months, to May 1, 1973.

Oil import quotas: eliminate, 5782.

5782; February 28, 1973; Muskie makes a statement in support of ending the oil import quotas and describes the effect the shortage of heating oil and kerosene has had in Maine, as well as expressing his scepticism about the industry’s good faith efforts to maintain adequate supplies.

New Oil Policy for the Nation, Maine Oil and Heating Equipment Dealers, by, 13514.

13514; April 30, 1973; Senator McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) inserts a Muskie statement about the new energy policy which President Nixon announced on April 18. The centerpiece of the new policy was the May 1, 1973 elimination of the oil import quota system and its replacement by a new program of license fees and allocations. Throughout the winter, the continued shortage of heating oil and the prospect of gasoline shortages in the coming summer months created pressures to act. In addition, the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry in February and Iran’s in March, accompanied by an April 1 oil price increase of 5.7% by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) finally forced the Administration to act. OPEC claimed the increase was needed to offset the effect of the double devaluation of the U.S. dollar which had occurred in the prior two years. Petroleum exports were paid for in U.S. dollars.

North Slope Energy Resources Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1565), 15136.

15136; May 10, 1973; Muskie is added as cosponsor of a Mondale (D- Minnesota) bill, S. 1565, to impose certain conditions on the construction and use of the proposed Alaskan oil pipeline. The bill would have required negotiations with Canada over the potential for a second or alternative pipeline through Canada directly to the Midwestern states; a year-long study of both routes by the National Academy of Sciences to clear up environmental concerns; a ban on the export of any Alaskan oil; and a requirement that Congress vote on the pipeline no later than 90 days after the environmental report was completed.

North Slope Energy Resources Act of 1973: amend bill (S. 1565) enact, 20470.

20470; June 20, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Mondale (D- Minnesota) amendment to the Alaska pipeline bill, S. 1081. This amendment incorporated the bill Senator Mondale had introduced a month earlier, which Muskie also cosponsored, and was an effort to force serious consideration of an alternative trans-Canada route for the pipeline, strongly favored by the Midwestern and Eastern states, whose reliance on imported oil was the greatest. The shortages of the winter, as well as the oil price increase already demanded by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) greatly increased the impetus to approve and build a pipeline.

Oil: proposed pipeline, 23611.

Federal Lands Right-of-Way Act of 1973: bill (S. 1081) to enact, 23611.

Energy crisis: delivery of Alaska's North Slope oil and gas to the Lower 48, 23611.

Alaska: bill (S. 1081) relative to proposed pipeline, 23611.

23611; July 12, 1973; When S. 1081, the Alaska pipeline bill reaches the Senate floor, Muskie makes a statement endorsing the Mondale (D-Minnesota) amendment which would provide for a comparative study of a proposed trans-Canada pipeline and for a year-long review of the environmental impacts of both routes.

Energy crisis: effects of gasoline shortage in Maine, 25148.

Maine: gasoline shortage, 25148.

25148; July 20, 1973; Muskie makes a floor statement about the shortages of oil products in Maine, saying that the voluntary allocation system presently in effect is not working, the supply of imported heating oil is 80 percent below its prior-year reserves, and the Federal Trade Commission has announced that it intends to investigate the oil companies to determine if they are purposefully keeping oil supplies from independent dealers and deepwater port operators.

Public works: bill (H.R. 8947) making appropriations for, 25360.

Dickey-Lincoln School project, 25360.

Table: Dickey-Lincoln School project benefit-cost ratios, 25361.

25360; July 23, 1973; Muskie expresses his pleasure that funds for the Dickey-Lincoln hydroelectric project have been included in H.R. 8947, the public works appropriation bill, and points out that it would be a power source that would not rely on imported oil and would involve no risk of environmental pollution.

Fuel oil: allocation, 28891.

Nixon Aides Say Homes May Face Heating Oil Curb, E. Cowan, New York Times, 28892.

28892; September 7, 1973; Muskie speaks about the anticipated shortages of heating oil as the winter approaches, and complains that the Administration has taken no serious steps to assure supplies for priority users.

Energy Policy: President's. 29030.

Nixon, Richard M.: need to explain energy policy, 29030

Heating Oil Plan by Nixon Faces Uncertainty, Wall Street Journal, 29031.

Inflation, Oil and the Press Conference, Washington Port, 29032.

29030-29032; September 10, 1973; Muskie notes that President Nixon has announced that he is seeking waivers of clean air standards as a means of permitting the burning of more high-sulfur oil and domestic coal to alleviate the energy shortage, and challenges the claim that this is an appropriate response to the shortage

 

Petroleum products: price controls (see bill S. 2453), 30701.

30701; September 20, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Stevenson (D- Illinois) bill, S. 2453, which would amend the Economic Stabilization Act to correct problems in the gasoline retailing field which became apparent during the Phase IV price controls, largely because they allowed refiners, importers and jobbers to pass along price increases while preventing retailers from doing the same.

Gasoline: disclose certain information to consumers (see bill S. 2328), 32502.

32502; October 2, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of a McIntyre bill, to make certain that information about gasoline octane ratings is provided to consumers at the pump, in gasoline advertisements, and on automobiles. In 1969, the Federal Trade Commission had held rule making hearings on a requirement to post octane ratings on retail pumps, but the National Petroleum Refiners Association requested a rehearing and, when a final rule had been issued, obtained an injunction against it, which was not overturned until June, 1973. Gasoline advertising in these years focused intensively on additives which were said to improve performance, clean engines, preventing engine knock and so on, but consumers could not reliably know what octane of gasoline they were buying because each brand defined its grades with terms like "super premium," "super regular", "economy" and so forth, rather than using a straightforward octane number.

Letter: Passamaquoddy tidal power project, by, 35392.

Maine: Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project, 35392.

Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project (sundry), 35393-35396.

Letter: Tidal power project at Passamaquoddy (sundry), 35392, 35393.

35392-35396; October 30, 1973; Muskie talks about the Passamaquaoddy project, an idea first launched in 1919 to utilize the high tides on the Maine-Canadian border to generate power. As the energy emergency stretched on, renewable and non-polluting forms of energy received more attention than had been the case in years.

Coal: industry will use to conserve oil, 36495.

Energy crisis: switch to coal, 36495.

36495; November 9, 1973; Muskie introduces S. 2680, a bill to amend the Clean Air Act so as to permit the use of high-sulfur coal in cases where low-sulfur fuels are not available in sufficient supply. He makes a statement on the bill emphasizing that it provides for temporary variances for clean air requirements and that the long-term solution is to install available technology so as to clean smokestack emissions.

Letter: Concern over emergency energy legislation, Senator Jackson, by, 37308.

37308; November 15, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the signatories on a letter to Senator Jackson (D-Washington) urging that he hold hearings on energy legislation which the committee he chairs, Interior and Insular Affairs, hopes to report out to the full Senate.

Energy Emergency Act of 1973: amend bills (S.2589, 2776) to enact, 37356, 41870, 42155

Energy Emergency Act of 1973: bill (S.2589) to enact, 37356-37362, 37619

37356-37362; November 15, 1973; During debate on S. 2589, the Energy Emergency Act, Muskie offers his amendment to permit temporary waivers of Clean Air Act requirements as a response to the energy shortage, and engages in debate with other Senators on this method of proceeding.

37619; November 19, 1973; During continued debate on the Energy Emergency Act, S. 2589, Senator Cranston (D- California), in an extremely short colloquy, clarifies the purpose and limits of the Muskie amendment of the Clean Air Act.

41870; December 17, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Mondale (D- Minnesota) amendment to S.2776, the Energy Emergency Act, to prohibit price increases in oil-derived products greater than those cost increases actually incurred, with the exception of prices meant to support independent dealers and to encourage domestic oil exploration. The gasoline and other fuel oil shortages led to sharply increased prices in a very short time span, and the longstanding public hostility to the big oil companies led to many efforts to ensure that oil companies did not reap windfall profits as a result of the embargo. Since the Arab oil embargo was actually put into place and enforced by the oil companies, the source of public hostility is understandable.

42155; December 18, 1973; Notice only of a modified Mondale (D- Minnesota) amendment being introduced with the same cosponsors, including Muskie.

Letter: Rationing of gasoline, to President Nixon, by, 37762.

37762; November 20, 1973; Senator Stevenson (D- Illinois) makes a case for mandatory rationing of gasoline at the consumer level, and includes a letter to the President signed by Muskie and others. In 1973, the existing oil shortage was aggravated after October 17 by the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hike prices further and to embargo sales to the U.S. and other Western nations in retaliation for their support of Israel in that year’s Yom Kippur war. Although in the aftermath it became evident that the embargo had not been particularly strong, at the time, with the Persian Gulf countries a source of oil imports and with imported oil accounting for some 35 percent of U.S. consumption, it was feared that an embargo could cause another major economic depression.

Remarks in Senate relative to: Opinions on energy, 37770.

Energy Crisis and New Resources, University of California-Riverside, by, 37771.

37770, 37771; November 20, 1973; Senator Stevenson (D- Illinois) inserts a Muskie speech describing the need for energy conservation on an expedited basis. Like many Americans in this period, Muskie believed that greater energy efficiency was the most appropriate direction to take until new sources and technologies came on line.

Energy Saving Plan by L. F. Trust, Livermore Falls Advertiser, 40167.

Maine: energy conserving measures, 40167.

40167; December 7, 1973; Muskie talks about how one Maine bank is coping with the energy shortage and with the request by President Nixon that all Americans work to conserve energy use during the period of shortages.

Energy crisis: WW II rationing experience, 40168

Report: Fuel Rationing in WW II, Library of Congress, 40168.

Gasoline rationing: World War 11 experience, 40168.

Letter: Fuel rationing, D. M. Nelson (1943), 40175.

40168; December 7, 1973; Muskie describes the highlights of a study of the World War II gasoline rationing experience which he asked the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress to undertake, and inserts the resulting report in the record.

Fuel consumption: relative to reduction by Federal Government (see S. Con. Res. 60), 40341.

40341; December 10, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of many Senators cosponsoring S. Con. Res. 60, a Roth (R-Delaware) resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that since the federal government is a substantial user of gasoline and other refined oil products, it should cut its use by one-third as a means both of easing the shortages and providing an example to business and consumers.

Fuels and Energy Conservation Act of 1973: bill (S. 2176) to enact, 40405.

Energy conservation: legislation to promote, 40405.

40405; December 10, 1973; During debate on S. 2176, the Fuels and Energy Conservation Act, Muskie makes the observation that the bill shows that different Senate Committees can work cooperatively on legislation, and praises a modification in the original bill, which would have transferred the Advanced Automotive Power System program from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Transportation. Muskie believed it was important for the Environmental Protection Agency to develop independent expertise in auto efficiencies and that the manufacturers would never willingly share information on the subject.

Energy program : provide more effective and efficient management (see bill S . 2776), 41559.

41559; December 14, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of S. 2776, an administration bill introduced by Senator Jackson (D- Washington) by request, to establish a Federal Energy Administration, a 2-year agency which would take over the energy-related activities and responsibilities then scattered throughout different departments and agencies of the federal government.

Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act: bill (H.R. 11372) to enact, 41649.

41649; December 14, 1973; One of the primary actions taken by the federal government in the wake of the Arab oil embargo was to enforce gasoline conservation in whatever ways were possible without recourse to mandatory rationing. One of the most promising of these alternatives was to establish a 55 mile per hour limit on all federally-funded highways. Although not a popular idea, particularly in western states, it was approved speedily, and was ultimately found to reduce highway fatalities as well. Muskie makes a very quick statement in support of the bill.

Petroleum Industry: profits and prices, 42192.

Oil and gas: price controls, 42192.

Energy Emergency Administration Act: bill (S. 2776) to enact, 42192, 42465, 42483, 43073, 43074.

Federal Energy Emergency Administration: establish, 43073, 43074.

Questions: Availability of oil, Governor Curtis, 42465.

42192; December 18, 1973; Muskie speaks in favor of the Mondale (D- Minnesota) amendment to the Energy Emergency Administration Act, S. 2776, which he cosponsored, and which was designed to limit the extent to which gasoline prices would be allowed to rise to the direct amount of increased costs incurred. Oil prices, which in September had been $2.90 a barrel rose on October 16 to $3.65, and on December 22, from the then-current $5.12 a barrel to $11.65. It was well known that these were administered prices, instigated by the Saudis, but at the same time, Americans recognized that this price hike effectively quadrupled the value of domestic stocks as well, providing a windfall for domestic oil producers. Since the oil companies were, in effect, administering the Arab oil embargo against the U.S. at the time, this was not seen as a fair windfall.

42465; December 19, 1973; In the course of this debate, Senator Jackson (D- Washington) offered an amendment to require that the Commerce Department maintain records of the export of oil products, a reaction to the difficulty he experienced in attempting to investigate claims that some domestic oil was being exported in order to be re-imported at the higher world prices. In general, information on the movement of oil was, at the time, extremely difficult to obtain. Muskie supported the amendment, and made a statement, illustrating the frustrations of all elected officials in attempting to answer legitimate questions about the oil shortage.

42483; December 19, 1973; Muskie makes a statement expressing his support for the legislation to create a Federal Energy Emergency Administration, describing the provisions that had been added to the bill assuring that the information needed to administer the energy program would be forthcoming from the oil industry.

43073, 43074, December 21, 1973; After the Senate has voted to pass the bill, Muskie speaks in favor of it, and particularly describes the amendments made to the measure by the Government Operations Committee, on which he serves.

Maine: Impact of Canadian oil policy, 43056.

Canada: oil policy, 43056.

Letter: Canadian oil policy effects Maine, by, 43056.

43056; December 21, 1973; Muskie talks about the potential problems facing two paper mills in the northern reaches of Maine because there is some doubt about whether the Canadian National Energy Board will provide the necessary export licenses to allow residual fuel oil to be sold after December, and inserts the telegram he has sent to Prime Minister Trudeau.

Maine: Canadian oil shipments to, 43086.

Canadian Oil to Maine, Maine Congressional delegation, 43086.

Oil shipments to Maine, 43086.

43086; December 21, 1973; On the same day in which he described a fuel supply problem facing two northern Maine paper mills, Muskie is able to announce a temporary solution when the Canadian government agrees to allow one extra month’s shipment of oil.

Environmental quality: impact of energy crisis, 43163, 43164.

Energy Emergency Act of 1973: conference report, 43163, 43164, 43197.

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act: bill (S. 921) to amend, 43197.

43163, 43164; December 21, 1973; Muskie talks about the conference report on the Energy Emergency Act, noting that a compromise on oil prices has been reached which will give the tax-writing committees a year to develop a windfall profits tax, that the worst of the House-passed amendments weakening the Clean Air Act were turned back, and that conferees successfully goaded the Administration to maintain strong diplomatic efforts on the question of Canadian oil supplies for American manufacturers.

43197; December 21, 1973; Muskie and Jackson (D- Washington) engage in a colloquy on the conference report on the Energy Emergency Act, pointing out that it has become a short-term act, expiring in the spring, and discussing the House opposition to mandatory conservation measures which were being proposed, such as closing Sunday retail sales of gasoline and limiting commercial lighting. Because of the timing of this action, right before Christmas, the House added its energy emergency provisions to a Senate-passed bill, S. 921, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. This is done at the end of a session when there is insufficient time left to hold a full Senate-House conference. In this case, no provisions dealing with rivers were in the bill.

ENVIRONMENT, PARKS, HISTORIC PRESERVATION, WILDLIFE

1973 1st Congress, 93rd Session

Environmental Protection Agency: standards for Los Angeles Basin, 1233

Los Angeles: air quality standards, 1233.

1233; January 16, 1973; Muskie makes a statement reacting to the report by the Environmental Protection Agency on the implementation of clean air standards for California, and the somewhat draconian auto traffic reductions it proposes, including the potential of gasoline rationing to reduce auto use, saying it should come as no surprise, given what was known about the region’s air three years before.

Highway legislation: proposed, 1527-1529

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973: Muskie amendments to, 1527-1529.

Analysis: Proposed Highway Act amendments (sundry), 1529, 1530.

Text: Proposed highway act amendments (sundry), 1529, 1530.

1527-1529, 1530; January 18, 1973; Muskie describes and introduces a series of three bills which he intends to offer as amendments to the federal-aid highway legislation when it is debated. The Congress was unable to complete a highway bill in the previous year because of the House refusal to accept the Muskie-Cooper amendment to divert funds from highway construction to other forms of transportation, including fixed rail. Muskie proposed to reintroduce that language again, to provide funds to the states for annual emission control inspections for automobiles and to permit the Secretary of Transportation to divert up to 10% of trust funds for emergency clean air improvements in cities which were faced with bans on auto traffic or experienced hazardous air conditions.

Historical and archeological data: preservation (see bill S. 514), 1866.

1866; January 23, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Moss (D- Utah) bill, S. 514, to provide for archeological and historical artifacts threatened by any federally-funded project. In 1960, Congress required that any dam construction which discovered potentially historical data be required to report to the Interior Department; the purpose of this bill is to extend that kind of reporting responsibility government-wide, to reach highways, housing, industrial and economic development projects as well.

Urban Parkland Heritage Act: enact (see bill S. 12), 1930.

1930; January 23, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of a Williams (D- New Jersey ) bill, S. 12, the Urban Parkland Heritage Act, a proposal to replace the open lands purchase authority in the Department of Housing and Urban Development with a new $1 billion program of grants and loans to allow cities to purchase available open land for parks and recreational opportunities near areas of greater population density.

National System of Interstate and Defense Highways: apportion funds for (see S. Con. Res. 6), 1932.

1932; January 23, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Buckley (R-New York) resolution, S. Con. Res. 6, that the Secretary of Transportation is authorized to apportion highway funds for fiscal 1974 to the states based on the apportionments in the prior year’s bill, which did not pass.

This was an effort to make certain that the Senate-House disagreement over the Highway Trust Fund did not derail the normal ongoing work of highway construction and repair, which is a weather-sensitive operation.

Appointed National Study Commission on Water Pollution Control, 2383.

2383; January 29, 1973; Muskie is appointed a member of the National Study Commission on Water Pollution, a body established by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972.

Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973: amend bill (S.502) to enact, 2710, 2977, 7914.

Highway funds: use to prevent air pollution, 2977.

2710; January 31, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of his package of federal-aid highway amendments. These amendments were introduced in a statement a couple of days earlier but not formally filed.

2977; February 1, 1973; Muskie makes introductory remarks on his bill to provide for auto inspections as a means of curbing air pollution, and his proposal to permit diversion of Highway Trust Funds to help urban areas with critical air pollution levels on an emergency basis.

7914; March 14, 1973; Muskie makes his opening statement on his amendment to divert funds from the Highway Trust Fund for the purpose of alternative forms of transportation at the discretion of state and local officials.

Auto emission control systems: State Inspection programs (see bill S. 738), 2911

Air pollution; use of highway funds for transportation improvements to avoid (see bill S, 739), 2911.

2911; February 1, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of two bills, S. 738 and S. 739, providing for states to conduct auto exhaust inspections as a means of curbing air pollution.

Air pollution: legislation to curb auto, 2977.

Auto emission control systems: State inspection programs, 2977.

Coming Up for Air, New York Times, 2977

Text: S. 738, support state inspection programs for auto emission control systems, 2978.

Text: Amendment (No. 4), use of highway system funds for public transportation, 2978.

Text: S. 739, allow use of highway funds for prevention of air pollution, 2979.

2977, 2978; February 1, 1973; Muskie makes introductory remarks on his amendment to the Highway Trust Fund, his bill to provide money for state auto exhaust inspection programs, and his proposal to prohibit the construction of highways whose effect would be to make air pollution exceed health-related standards, and to allow the Transportation Department to reprogram up to 10 percent of highway funds for any area threatened with draconian limits to private auto use by clean air requirements to less polluting transportation alternatives.

Environmental Protection Permit Act: enact (see bill S. 792), 3762.

Environmental protection permits: legislation to provide, 3763.

Land development: environmental protection permits, 3763.

Text: S. 792, Environmental Protection Permit Act, 3764, 20404.

Analysis: S. 792, Environmental Protection Permit Act, 3766, 20405

3763, 3764; February 7, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 792, the Environmental Protection Permit Act, a bill that would not allow the Environmental Protection Agency to make grants for waste water treatment plants, delegate the provision of water pollution permits to a state, or grant an extension of air quality standards required by the Clean Air Act to any state which did not have in place an approved environmental permit program. The bill reflects Muskie’s strong feelings that the land use bill passed by the Senate in 1972 was inadequate because it lacked policy guidance.

20404, 20405; June 20, 1973; Muskie calls up and debates his proposed amendments to S. 268, the land use policy bill, defending them as being simple efforts to make certain the bill does not inadvertently undermine the pollution laws.

Highway Safety Act of 1973.: enact (see bill S. 893), 4351.

4351; February 19, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of a Bentsen (D- Texas) bill, S. 893, the Highway Safety Act, which would authorize $500 million per year for two years from the Highway Trust Fund for the purpose of eliminating highway-railroad grade crossings, improving unsafe highway bridges, and establishing improved drunk-driver programs. In the previous year, no highway bill was passed because of disagreement with the House on the Muskie amendment to allow the use of Highway Trust Funds for mass transit, including rail. Senator Bentsen said he was introducing this bill separately so it could be considered on its own merits, beyond the controversies roused by this debate.

 

President's Environmental Message, New York Times, 4852.

4852; February 21, 1973; Muskie says a recent New York Times editorial has made a correct appraisal of President Nixon’s environmental record and his legislative proposals, and inserts the text of the editorial. At this time, the President was seeking what he described as a “middle way” on environmental issues; the Republican Party at this time was not as intensely anti-environmental law as it became in later decades.

Mass transportation: needs, 5162.

Highway trust fund: mass transit use of, 5162.

Highway Legislation, Senate Roads Subcommittee, Representative G.M. Anderson, 5162

5162; February 22, 1973; Muskie notes that disagreement over the Highway Trust Fund’s use for mass transit meant that the highway bill did not pass in 1972, and that the Roads Subcommittee is currently holding hearings on a new bill, which will again include an attempt to open the Highway Trust Fund, and inserts the text of testimony by Congressman Glenn Anderson (D- California), who led this fight in the House of Representatives in 1972.

National Academy on Sciences: auto emission report, 5830.

Automobile emissions: National Academy on Sciences report, 5830.

Report: Motor Vehicle Emissions, National Academy on Sciences, 5830, 5831.

Letter: Motor vehicle emissions report, P. Handler and E. L. Ginzton (sundry), 5830, 5831.

5830, 5831; February 28, 1973; The 1970 Clean Air Act required an annual study by the National Academy on Sciences of the technological feasibility of the emission standards written into the law. At this time, Muskie was under increased and intense pressure from the auto manufacturers to extend the emission deadlines in the law, so he had the report printed in the Record as a means of making it publicly available on an immediate basis.

Everglades Big Cypress National Recreation Area, Florida: establish (see bill S.783), 7327.

7327; March 12, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Chiles (D- Florida) bill, S. 783, to establish the Everglades-Big Cypress National Recreation Area as a means of maintaining the water flow into Everglades National Park. The bill provided for federal acquisition of the area while allowing established residents, users of fishing and hunting camps, and a small number of established commercial enterprises to remain in place while holding off additional development.

Highway trust fund: use for urban mass transit, 7914-7916, 7946.

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973: bill (S. 502) to enact, 7914-7916, 7937, 7940, 7944, 7946, 7950, 27207.

Use Highway Trust Funds for Urban Transit, M. Carballo, 7916.

Letter: Permit use of highway trust funds for urban mass transit (sundry), 7916, 7921.

Environmental Impact, Washington State Air Quality Implementation Plan, 7920.

7914- 7916, 7920; March 14, 1973; Muskie opens the debate on his amendment to the Highway Trust Fund, which would permit funds to be diverted from the urban provisions of the law to mass transit purposes when highways are not desired or necessary for urban areas. He makes the case that the Trust Fund is derived from laws long in operation before the 1956 creation of the interstate system, and that providing flexibility in the law does not take any money that would otherwise be dedicated to the interstate system.

7937; March 14, 973; Muskie describes his amendment, pointing out that it does not reduce any funds for rural highways at all, but merely makes an existing urban allocation of funds more flexible at the choice of urban areas themselves.

7946; March 14, 1973; Muskie sums up the argument for his amendment, saying that 98 percent of the taxes which are now devoted to the Highway Trust Fund long predate the existence of the Fund and were used for all sorts of programs before the Fund came into being so there is nothing sacrosanct about them. The diversion of funds to rail transport from highway construction was an extremely controversial and even emotional issue for many, particularly those engaged in highway construction.

27207; August 1, 1973; Muskie brings the conference report on the highway bill to the Senate floor, and says that while it does not contain all that the Senate voted for, especially on his amendment to open the Trust Fund to mass transit uses, it would allow such flexibility in its third year and marks a major change in direction for transportation funding.

Deepwater development: regulate and control (see bill S. 1316), 9086.

9086; March 22, 1973; Muskie is shown as the cosponsor of a Biden (D- Delaware) bill, S. 1316, which would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to require that any construction of deepwater port facilities be contingent on the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Olson Home, Cushing, Maine: establish as national historic site (see bill S. 1399), 9634.

9634; March 27, 1973; Muskie and Senator Hathaway (D- Maine) join Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) in introducing a bill to make the Olson Home in Cushing, Maine, a national historic site. The house is the setting painted in Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” which became well known and popular in the 1970s. A bill was necessary because the National Park Service generally does not consider historic sites less than 50 years old.

Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental Affairs: establish (see bill S. 1430), 10193.

10193; March 29, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of S. 1430, a Pell (D- Rhode Island) bill to create a Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental Affairs within the State Department. Senator Pell served as the congressional liaison to the United Nations Seabed Committee and the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, and claimed that the organization of the State Department did not provide for any coherent U.S. response to these growing international concerns.

Automobile Standards, Environmental Writers Association, by, 10268

10268; [starts p. 10267]; March 29, 1973; Senator Biden (D- Delaware) inserts the text of a Muskie speech in which Muskie rebuts the claims of the auto industry that the 1970 air quality standards are arbitrary and cannot be met in the time remaining before they take effect. At this time, all three of the major U.S. manufacturers were making a very public argument to roll back and weaken the clean air standards, even though manufacturers in Germany and Japan had already produced cars that could meet those standards.

Earth Week of 1973: designate (see S.J. Res.2), 10731.

10731; April 3, 1973; Muskie is one of many Senators listed by Senator Nelson (D- Wisconsin) as a cosponsor of his joint resolution, S. J. Res. 2, to designate April 9 through April 15 as Earth Week of 1973.

Environment: impact of growth on the, 10773.

Ecological Effects of Growth, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, G.M. Woodwell, 10773.

10773; April 3, 1973; Muskie reports on the hearings held by the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, of which he is Chairman, and introduces testimony on the limits of growth. In 1972, an international group of scientists called the Club of Rome published a report called Limits of Growth, which claimed that mathematical calculation of the earth’s resources made it possible to foresee a time when basic resources would be exhausted. Although enormously influential at the time, many of its predictions have not been vindicated.

We Should Open Up the Highway Trust Fund Now, A. Dear, Reader's Digest, 10987.

10987; April 4, 1973; Muskie inserts a Readers Digest article describing the lobbying on both sides of the Highway Trust Fund fight, and urging its readers to support efforts to make the Trust Fund available for public transit as well as highways.

Pollution: air, 11002.

Memorandum: Health effects of air pollution, Library of Congress, 11003.

Report: Air Pollution, Environmental Protection Agency, 11003.

Report: Lethal Gas Linked to Accident Toll, California State Department of Public Health, 11003.

Report: Effect of Freeway Travel on Angina Pectoris, W. S. Aronow and others, Annals of

Internal Medicine, 11008.

Pollution: air quality standards, 11008

Report: Of Cars – Carbon Monoxide and Human Health, Clean Air Now Information Bureau, 11012.

11003-11012; April 4, 1973; As part of the continuing effort to prevent erosion of the air quality standards established by the 1970 law, Muskie notes that he has asked for updates on the scientific evidence linking human health to air pollution, and inserts several studies responsive to his request.

New World Frontier, Colby College, P. A. Gorman, 14772.

14772; May 8, 1973; Muskie includes a speech by the Chairman of the Board of International Paper at the Colby Institute of Management, discussing environmental costs and whether or not environmental goals are too expensive for the good of the economy.

Congress: court decision on waterway funds favors, 14854.

Waterways: court decision on impounded funds, 14854,

City of New York v. Ruckelshaus, 14855.

14854, 14855; May 9, 1973; Muskie describes the decision of the Federal District Court in Washington D.C. which held that the Nixon administration’s effort to impound the funds in the water pollution control bill were illegal under the terms of the law, which required all funds to be allotted to the states while giving the administration some flexibility over the rate at which they would be spent. This was one of many efforts by the Nixon administration to administratively alter Congressional appropriations decisions, which led to the development of a stronger Congressional budgetary process.

Water pollution funds: Impoundment of, 19174

Campaign Clean Water, Inc. v. William D. Ruckelshaus, 19174, 19177.

19174, 19177; June 12, 1973; Muskie notes that a second case bought against the Nixon administration’s impoundment of funds for waste water treatment in Richmond, Virginia has resulted in a summary judgment for the plaintiffs against the government.

Supreme Court: decision on nondegradation provision of Clean Air Amendments of 1970, 19183.

Clean Air Act Amendments of 1973: nondegradation provision, 19183.

Closed Loop System for Air Pollution Control (sundry), 19183, 19184.

Memorandum: Implementation of section of 110 of the Clean Air Act, EPA, 19184.

Text: Proposed Federal Register Notice recognizing that tall stacks and variable control may be used to protect against violations of SO2 NAAQS, 19185.

Report: Intermittent Control Systems, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, 19189.

Report: Cost of Emission Control Program, TVA, 19202.

19182-19204; June 12, 1973; Muskie notes that the Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling which held that the goal of nondegradation – that is, that air quality which is good should not be allowed to become polluted – is an appropriate goal of the Clean Air Act, and inserts materials relating to the issue of intermittent controls, as opposed to constant controls, which the Environmental Protection Agency was then considering as a way of allowing about one-third of the major sources of sulfate emissions in the country to continue operations without reducing the sulfate emissions from their operations. Most of these were metal smelters and included some coal-burning utilities. The goal of the Clean Air Act was to reduce emissions, not merely to move them about; intermittent controls was a means of permitting harmful emissions when it was evident that weather conditions would disperse them from the immediate neighborhood.

States: land planning process, 20402, 20403, 20406-20413.

Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act: bill (S. 268) to enact, 20402, 20403, 20406-20413.

Environmental Protection Permits Legislation, by, 20403.

Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act of 1973: amend bill (S. 268) to enact, 20407, 20409, 20475, 20626.

20402, 20403, 20406-20413; June 20, 1973; Muskie calls up and debates his proposed amendments to S. 268, the land use policy bill, defending them as being simple efforts to make certain the bill does not inadvertently undermine the pollution laws.

20475; June 20, 1973; Notice only of the introduction of the Muskie amendments to S. 268, the land use planning bill which are debated later in the day.

20626; June 21, 1973; Muskie offers and withdraws an amendment which would have made S. 268, the land use planning bill applicable to the entire region of a state, saying he knows that the bill was written as it is in a pragmatic effort to make it acceptable to the states, but that he hopes, after the country has had more experience with the issue of land use planning that the scope of the bill can be broadened.

Environmental Quality Laboratory: California Institute of Technology's, 20870.

Report: Air Pollution Control in California, Environmental Quality Laboratory, 20870.

Pollution: approach to reduce smog day in California, 20870.

Smog In Los Angeles Basin, to Environmental Protection Agency, by L. Lees, 20874.

20870, 20874; June 22, 1973; Muskie introduces a report from the California Institute of Technology’s Environmental Quality Laboratory which examines in some detail the multiple steps needed to reduce emissions from automobiles and stationary sources in Los Angeles Basin.

Department of Agriculture and environmental and consumer agencies: bill (H.R. 8619) making appropriations for, 22030-22032, 33540, 33541.

Funds for Environmental Programs, 22031

National Study Commission, Senator Randolph, 22032.

Department of Agriculture and Environmental and consumer agencies: amend bill (H.R. 8619) making appropriations for, 22031, 22032.

22031, 22032; June 28, 1973; During debate on H.R. 8619, the agriculture appropriations bill, Muskie makes a statement expressing his frustration with the fact that the entire environmental appropriations process is in the hands of a subcommittee whose principal expertise and interest is in the Department of Agriculture, and in a colloquy with Senator McGee (D-Wyoming) he offers an amendment to increase the funding for the study commission on water quality, which is accepted.

33540, 33541; October 10, 1973; When H.R. 8619, the agriculture appropriations bill conference report is debated in the Senate, Muskie questions whether the language in the report dealing with funds for the purpose of Environmental Protection Agency filing environmental impact statements under the National Environmental Policy Act is consistent with the limits in the law on its direct application to the Agency.

Auto industry: efforts to change requirements of Clean Air Act, 22296, 22297, 22299.

Clean Air Act of 1970: auto industry standards, 22296, 22297, 22299.

Letter: Emission standards for automobiles, P. Handier, by, 22297.

22296-22299; June 29, 1973; Muskie is joined by other members of the Public Works Committee in announcing a program of reviews to be undertaken by the staff of the Air and Water Pollution Subcommittee and a short-term study by the National Academy of Sciences of the underlying health-related effects of auto exhaust pollutants. Throughout this period, the industry was persistent in demanding changes in the Clean Air Act, and denying that the technological ability to clean auto exhausts could ever exist.

More Than Doodads Needed, J. J. Kilpatrick, Washington Star, 23526.

Clean Air Act of 1970: Implementation, 23526.

23526; July 12, 1973; Muskie points out that one of the principal problems facing the auto industry is its reliance on an old technology, and recommends a column by James J. Kilpatrick, which makes this point forcefully.

Air pollution: EPA research, 28681.

Environmental Protection Agency: air pollution research, 28681

Air Pollution Research-EPA Commitment (sundry), 28682-26685.

Letter: Air pollution research-EPA commitment (sundry), 28682-28685.

28681-28685; September 6, 1973; Muskie makes the argument that the Environmental Protection Agency’s commitment to good research on clean air issues is being undercut by a lack of funding and draws attention to the research relationships between the auto and oil industries and the government agency which is supposed to regulate them.

Pollution: increased air, 28928, 28929, 28933.

Air pollution: increased, 28928, 28929, 28933.

Table: Oxidant levels in major cities, 28929.

Air Pollution Alert Continues in Washington Area, Washington Post (sundry), 28929-28933.

28928-28933; September 7, 1973; Muskie makes an extensive comment on the record-breaking air pollution alert then in force over the Washington D.C. area, and the continued claims by auto manufacturers that what they have already done is sufficient to clean up the air, and includes a substantial number of local news stories discussing the alert and its effects on the city.

Environmental Protection Agency: regulation on catalysts, 29028.

Catalysts: EPA regulation of auto, 29028.

Automobiles: emission control systems, 29028.

Letter: Request for opinion on EPA regulation of catalysts, E. B. Staats, by, 29028.

Opinion, EPA regulation on catalysts, E.B. Staats, 29029

29028; September 10, 1973; Muskie describes the regulations proposed to ensure the warranty on catalytic converters, a major element of the clean air fight at this time, as manufacturers strove to produce as cheap an emission control device as possible, dealers fought to have consumers or manufacturers pay for the devices’ upkeep, and independent mechanics argued that tying car buyers to a single manufacturer’s brand of catalytic converter would be an unfair form of competition to them.

Pollution Chokes Birmingham, S. Auerbach, Washington Post, 29031.

Letter: Relaxation of State air Pollution regulations, J. Love, by, 29031.

Clean Air Rules Must Be Eased, Nixon Declares, T. O'Toole, Washington Post, 29032.

29030-29032; September 10, 1973; Muskie notes that President Nixon has announced that he is seeking waivers of clean air standards as a means of permitting the burning of more high-sulfur oil and domestic coal to alleviate the energy shortage, and challenges the claim that this is an appropriate response to the shortage

Environmental Protection by, before National Academy of Sciences symposium, 32881.

32881; October 3, 1973; Senator Randolph (D- West Virginia) inserts the text of a Muskie speech delivered at the 3-day National Academy of Sciences Symposium which had been called to consider the health basis of the Clean Air Act by the Public Works Committee as part of its major review of the law.

Limits to Growth, Senator C. Pell, University of Rhode Island, 33530.

33530; October 10, 1973; Muskie inserts a the text of a speech given by Senator Pell (D- Rhode Island) which focuses on the "limits to growth," a popular approach at the time as U.S. economic inflation soared to previously unknown heights, some meat shortages became common, and the apparently logical conclusion that all fossil fuels must one day "run out" gained general acceptance.

Car Pool Incentives Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 2598), 34597.

34597; October 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the sponsors of S. 2598, a Domenici (R-New Mexico) bill, to set up a small pilot program in ten cities to attempt a concentrated effort to encourage car pooling by commuters.

Clean Air Act: amend (see bills S. 2680, 2772), 36484, 39436.

36484; November 9, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 2680, bill to amend the Clean Air Act to allow the use of high-sulfur coal where low-sulfur fuels are not in adequate supply.

39436; December 4, 1973; Muskie reports S. 2772, an original bill to amend Title II of the Clean Air Act, from the Public Works Committee; report No. 93-598.

Air pollution: use of high-sulfur coal, 36495.

Clean Air Act of 1970: introduction of legislation amend, 36495.

Letter: Energy shortages and the Clean Air Act, by, 36496.

Text: S. 2680, to amend the Clean Air Act because of energy shortages, 36497.

36495; November 9, 1973; Muskie introduces S. 2680, a bill to amend the Clean Air Act so as to permit the use of high-sulfur coal in cases where low-sulfur fuels are not available in sufficient supply. He makes a statement on the bill emphasizing that it provides for temporary variances for clean air requirements and that the long-term solution is to install available technology so as to clean smokestack emissions. By the time Muskie spoke, the 1973 summer fuel shortages had been worsened by the October 17 Arab oil embargo against the U.S. in the course of the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East.

Pollution: authorize suspension of emission limitations during energy crisis, 37356-37360, 37362.

Clean Air Act Amendments of 1973: energy crisis, 37356-37360, 37362.

Clean Air Act Amendments, Committee on Public Works, 37358.

Analysis: Clean Air Act amendments, Committee on Public Works, 37358.

37356-37362; November 15, 1973; During debate on S. 2589, the Energy Emergency Act, Muskie offers his amendment to permit temporary waivers of Clean Air Act requirements as a response to the energy shortage, and engages in debate with other Senators on this method of proceeding. The waivers were designed primarily to get the country through the winter months and the immediate fuel shortages.

Planning for National Growth, Planning and Conservation League, by, 37763.

37763; November 20, 1973; Senator Stevenson (D- Illinois) inserts the text of a Muskie speech in which he describes the urgent need for more comprehensive land use planning so as to meet the needs of the next three decades without encountering the same kinds of shortages as the country is currently discovering with respect to energy supplies, refineries, and production.

Report: Committee on Public Works, 39436, 41363.

39436; December 4, 1973; Muskie reports S. 2772, an original bill to amend Title II of the Clean Air Act, from the Public Works Committee; report No. 93-598.

41363; December 13, 1973; Muskie reports S. 2812, an original bill to authorize a formula for the allocation of fiscal year 1975 funds for sewage treatment construction grants; report No. 93-630.

Environmental Protection Agency: withdraws support of Coordinating Research Council, 39600

Letter: EPA and Coordinating Research Council, R. G. Ryan, R. Train (sundry), 39600.

Air pollution: emission standards for trucks, 39600.

Coordinating Research Council cut off by EPA, 39600.

Letter: Pollution, standards for trucks, D. A. Jensen, 39601.

Memorandum: Environmental Protection Agency severe ties with CRC/APRAC, EPA, 39601.

39600, 39601; December 5, 1973; Muskie notes that the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Russell Train, has made the decision to separate his agency’s research programs and workers from the oil and auto industry Coordinating Research Council and notes that he had raised questions earlier in September about the objectivity and reliability of research undertaken under the auspices of an industry-dominated group.

Letter: Water pollution control programs. R. Train, 39602.

Environmental Protection Agency: manpower, 39602.

Water pollution control: EPA administration of, 39602.

39602; December 5, 1973; Muskie discusses one of the outstanding questions raised at Russell Train’s confirmation hearing, the issue of adequate staff to process discharge permits under the water pollution controls by the end of 1974, and inserts a letter from him which argues that with the help of the states, the permitting program is expected to successfully reach that goal.

Automobiles: Emission standards, 40405, 41917, 41918, 41922, 41923, 41924

Clean Air Act Amendments of 1973: bill (S. 2772) to enact, 41917, 41918, 41922, 41923, 41936, 41939.

Letter: Clean air backfire, R. E. Train, 41922

40405; December 10, 1973; During debate on S. 2176, the Fuels and Energy Conservation Act, Muskie makes the observation that the bill demonstrates that different Senate Committees can work cooperatively on legislation, and praises a modification in the original bill which would have transferred the Advanced Automotive Power System program from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Transportation. Muskie believed it was important for the Environmental Protection Agency to develop independent expertise in auto efficiencies and that the auto manufacturers would never willingly share information on the subject.

41917; December 17, 1973; Muskie opens debate on S. 2772, a one-year extension of auto exhaust deadlines, describing the issues involved in the industry’s efforts to introduce working catalytic converters in the face of a serious fuels shortage.

41922-41924; December 17, 1973; Muskie engages in debate with Senator Scott (R-Virginia) over the latter’s proposal to delay auto emissions deadline by two further years rather than the one year proposed in Muskie’s bill.

Environmental Protection Agency: funds for program to regulate parking facilities, 41049, 41052

Report: California Transportation Control Plan, 41050.

Report: Parking Restrictions and the Clean Air Act, 41050.

Appropriations: amend bill (H.R. 11576) supplemental, 41049

Appropriations: bill (H.R. 11576) making supplemental, 41049, 41052.

41049, 41050, 41052; December 12, 1973; Muskie calls up and discusses his amendment which would prohibit any funds being used by the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate parking. In the course of considering regulation of auto traffic for clean air purposes, the Agency persisted for some time in considering taxes or surcharges on free parking, a matter that was highly controversial. Muskie said his Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution intended to hold hearings on the whole issue in 1974, and that in the meantime, he doubted that the Agency has the legal authority to undertake what was, in essence, a kind of taxing power.

Sewage treatment construction grants: authorize the allocation of funds for fiscal year (see bill S. 2812), 41364.

41364; December 13, 1973; Notice of Muskie introduction of S. 2812, an original bill from the Public Works Committee to authorize a formula for allocation of funds authorized for fiscal year 1975 for sewage treatment construction grants.

Pollution: waste treatment construction grants, 41636, 41638.

Waste treatment construction grants: bill (S. 2812) to authorize a formula for allocation of funds for, 41636, 41638.

41636; December 14, 1973; Muskie calls up S. 2812, an original Public Works Committee bill that incorporates a new distribution formula for allocating the $7 billion in funds for waste water treatment in part according to each state’s needs and in part according to state population numbers, because he says a survey by the Environmental Protection Agency to establish the basis for a needs-based allocation failed to cover all the costs the states would incur and unfairly short-changed some of them.

41638; December 14, 1973; Muskie notes that the House has approved a one-year extension of a pilot training program for waste water treatment plan operators, which passed the Senate as a separate bill but was incorporated in S. 2812 as one of the titles, and notes that the problems facing the National Commission on Water Quality in staffing for its two-year study could only be successfully accomplished with an amendment, which is also included in the bill. This end-of-session confusion arose in great part because of the continuing effort by the Nixon administration to impound the funds for waste water treatment plant construction.

National ocean policy study: authorize (see S. Res. 222), 42391.

42391; December 19, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of 55 cosponsors of S. Res. 22, a Magnuson (D-Washington) Resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that a full study of ocean policy be authorized by the Commerce Committee to examine the adequacy of existing federal programs and funding for the preservation of the ocean’s resources.

Supplemental appropriations: bill (H.R. 11576) making, conference report, 43119.

EPA Funds and Activities, Representatives Leggett, Rogers, and Whitten, 43120.

43119, 43120; December 21, 1973; Muskie notes that although he tried to amend the supplemental appropriations bill with respect to the Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to issue regulations restricting parking, the bill came back from conference with the original restrictive House language, which he opposes, because it constitutes legislating on an appropriations bill, something prohibited by Congressional rules. Since the supplemental contains no funds for the Environmental Protection Agency to use for parking regulation, however, it is also evident that the language has no force.

Sewage treatment construction grants: bill (S. 2812) to authorize, concur with House amendments, 43130.

Water pollution: construct sewage treatment plants, 43130.

Sewage treatment construction grants: bill (S. 2812) to authorize, 43130.

43130; December 21, 1973; Muskie describes the changes the House has made in the waste water treatment allocation bill the Senate passed earlier in December, and notes that the problems being encountered by the states now reflect the fact that the Nixon administration sought to impound all waste water treatment plants before it was overruled by the courts.

NATIONAL SECURITY/FOREIGN AFFAIRS

1973 93rd Congress, 1st Session

Vietnam Disengagement Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 48), 94.

94; January 4, 1972; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a Brooke (R-Massachusetts)-Cranston (D-California) bill, S. 94, to amend the Foreign Assistance Act to limit the use of any further funds to the withdrawal of American troops in Indochina.

Vietnam Disengagement Act of 1973: introduction, 227.

227; January 4, 1972; When the bill is introduced, Muskie joins the sponsors, Brooke (R-Massachusetts and Cranston (D- California) in making a brief statement of his support for its purpose. At this time, the promise made before the 1972 election that "peace is at hand" was known to be false; an extraordinarily concentrated series of bombing raids over North Vietnam (known as the Christmas bombing) had taken place throughout most of December, and peace talks were set to re-start in Paris on January 8. However, despite the fact that only 24,000 troops remained in Vietnam, the pace of casualties had picked up substantially.

Alexis Johnson is Expected to Replace Smith as Negotiator on Strategic Arms, B. Gwertzman, New York Times, 1234.

Arms Control: Bad Time for Disarray, C. M. Roberts, 1235.

SALT talks, 1233, 1234.

Arms control: need for, 1233, 1234.

Richardson’s Turn, H. Scoville, New York Times, 1235

More MIRV Missiles Sought, Washington Post, 1235.

1233, 1234, 1235; January 16, 1973; Muskie makes a statement calling into question the commitment of the Nixon administration to continuance of the arms control talks that are set to re-start at the end of February, especially in light of the current chief negotiator’s resignation and a plan to cut one-third of the budget of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

War Powers Act: enact (see bill S. 440), 1339.

1339; January 18, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of many cosponsors of the Javits (R-New York) bill, S. 440, a proposal to reinforce the constitutional right of the Congress to make declarations of war by placing limits on the length of time during which a President can unilaterally deploy U.S. troops.

Atlantic Union delegation: create (see S. Res. 21), 1340.

1340; January 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of a McGee resolution, S. J. Res. 21, to create an Atlantic Union delegation, and invite other North Atlantic nations to do so for the purpose of holding a convention modeled on the Constitutional Convention to begin to explore ways in which the U.S. and its allies could achieve better integration and cooperation. By this time, several factors, including U.S.-Soviet detente and the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, along with two dollar devaluations had raised questions in Europe about the U.S. commitment to the North Atlantic alliance. At the same time, the agreement within the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union, to the goal of political union, the West German pursuit of "Ostpolitik" with its outreach to the East Germans and the Soviet Union and the increased trade rivalries fostered by a common European tariff structure and preferential trade with former European colonies had raised counterpart concerns on the U.S. side.

War Powers Act: Introduction, 1413, 1414.

1413, 1414; January 18, 1973; When S. 440, the war powers bill is formally introduced, Muskie makes a statement explaining his support and describing in more detail his thoughts on how the processes of foreign policy have been increasingly centralized in the White House to the detriment of the government’s ability to steer a coherent policy.

Arms Control, M. Childs, Washington Post, 2006.

2006; January 23, 1973; Muskie notes that he has been worried about the Nixon administration’s commitment to arms control because of the budget cut in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the precipitate resignation of the previous agency head, and includes a column which mirrors his concerns.

Japan-United States Friendship Act: enact (see bill S. 649), 2628.

2628; January 31, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of the Japan-United States Friendship Act, S. 649, a Javits (R-New York) bill which would set aside ten percent of the funds received from Japan in the Okinawa Reversion Agreement of 1971, under which Japan regained administrative rights to Okinawa, with the payment of the costs of public utilities installed there by the U.S.

Nixon, Richard M.: arms control policy, 2778.

White House Moves In – Arms Control Unit Bypassed, 0. Johnston, Washington Star 2778.

2778; January 31, 1973; Muskie expresses his concerns at news reports of the Nixon administration seeking to centralize all arms control decisions in the White House and separate them from the personnel at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Europe: reduction of troops, 3013.

Tensions of Talking, New York Times, 3014.

East and West Open Talks for Parley on Force Out, D. Middleton, New York Times, 3013.

East-West Talks on Force Reductions Open In Vienna, J. M. Goshko, Washington Post, 3013.

3013; February 1, 1973; Muskie makes reference to news stories on the start of talks in Vienna on the subject of troop reductions by both the Soviet Union and the U.S. in Europe, and expresses the hope that the Nixon administration will make a concentrated effort to see these talks succeed.

National Welcome Home Our Prisoners Week: proclaim (see S.J. Res. 4), 3793.

3793; February 7, 1973; Muskie is added along with other Senators as a cosponsor of the Dole (R-Kansas) resolution, S. J. Res. 4, authorizing and requesting the president to issue a proclamation designating a week as National Welcome Home Our Prisoners Week upon the release and return of POWs. The Vietnam Peace Agreement was signed on January 27, 1973, and arrangements were being made for the release of American prisoners by North Vietnam. The first group was released at an airfield near Hanoi on February 12 and reached the U.S. on February 14, 1973.

Test ban treaty: Introduction of resolution (S. Res. 67) calling on President to promote negotiations for a comprehensive, 4561, 4562.

Russia: negotiate test ban treaty with 4561, 4562.

Report: Prospects for a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Arms Control Subcommittee, 4562.

4561, 4562; February 20, 1973; Muskie is one of four lead sponsors of S. Res. 67, a resolution that deals with a comprehensive test ban treaty, and makes an introductory statement pointing out that although past nuclear test bans have included commitments for the U.S. to work towards a comprehensive test ban, nothing concrete has been done, and urging the consideration of other than onsite inspection methods as a means of verification.

Test ban treaty: promote negotiations for comprehensive (see S. Res. 67), 4632

4632; February 20, 1973; Notice only of the introduction of S. Res. 67, a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) resolution calling on the President to negotiate a comprehensive test ban treaty. Muskie was one of the prime sponsors of this proposal.

Environmental or geophysical modification activity: use of as weapon of war (see S. Res. 71), 5145.

5145; February 22, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of a Pell (D- Rhode Island) resolution, S. Res. 71, seeking a negotiated international agreement to outlaw the potential use of environmental or geophysical modification activity as a weapon of war. At the time, a number of people suggested that elements of the U.S. war in Vietnam were intended to alter the weather or otherwise modify the environment in such a way as to disrupt the north’s war fighting abilities. The very widespread use of a defoliant, Agent Orange, which had the effect of severely damaging the forest cover gave credence to such claims.

Facts on Science Foundation Near East Report, 6598.

6598; March 6, 1973; Muskie explains in a brief statement that a new joint U.S.-Israel science foundation being established will be financed by Israel and the U.S. jointly, the U.S. funds being prepayment of Food for Peace sales in the future.

Culebra: terminate weapons range activities (see bill S. 156), 8129.

8129; March 15, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 156, a Baker (R-Tennessee) bill to terminate the use of Culebra as a naval target range. The Puerto Rican island of Culebra was home to about 800 persons at this time, but about half of the island was used by the U.S. Navy as a target range for ship-to-shore shelling, aerial bombardment, mining and countermining. In 1970, Puerto Rican anger at this led to a $3 million study of alternatives, such as using uninhabited islands, and in early November, Secretary Laird indicated that the target range would be shifted. On December 27, 1972, however, he said that the results of the study, which he classified, concluded that no alternative was available and that the Navy would continue to use Culebra until 1985 at least. Muskie had spoken out about this situation in 1970.

 

Appointed Canada-United States Interparliamentary Meeting, 8677.

8677; March 20, 1973; Muskie is appointed to the Canada-United States Interparliamentary meeting to be held in Washington D.C., April 4– 8, 1973, along with several of his colleagues.

Latin America: U.S. relations, 9975.

Latin America is on the Map, Too, S. M. Linowitz, 9975.

9975; March 28, 1975; Noting the absence of a Latin American policy under the Nixon administration, Muskie inserts an article which offers some suggestions for ways in which a fruitful policy could be developed.

Appointed Conference of the Committee on Disarmament, 10529.

10529; April 2, 1973; Muskie is among the Senators appointed to the 1973 session of the Committee on Disarmament. This was a body through which the administration could get congressional feedback as the arms control negotiations continued.

Foreign policy: Southeast Asia, 12676.

Vietnam: cease-fire, 12677.

Indochina: danger of U.S. military reinvolvement in, 12677.

12676; This page number is an error. There is no Muskie text on this page; it is probably an error for the following page, which contains the Muskie statement mentioned below.

12677; April 17, 1973; Muskie speaks out against the continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam, with a peace agreement signed at the end of February, and asks why the U.S. has now begun to bomb Laos again.

Israel: anniversary, 14466-14468.

Russia: anti-Semitism, 14466.

Middle East: situation, 14466-14468.

14466-14468; May 7, 1973; On the 25^th anniversary of the establishment of Israel, Muskie speaks on Arab oil blackmail and the plight of the Soviet Jews, as well as Israel’s hopes for a peaceful and secure future.

Foreign and military policy: require due process of law in formulation (see S. Res. 107), 14924.

14924; May 9, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of S. Res. 107, a Mathias (R-Maryland) resolution which formally offers the advice of the Senate to the executive branch that the continued hostilities in Indochina, including Cambodia, are contrary to the Constitution and to specific statutes enacted into law and signed by the President which explicitly prohibit such hostilities. The resolution was a response to the continued bombing of Cambodia, which the Nixon administration said was a response to the failure of the North Vietnamese to observe the terms of the January peace agreement which did not, however, explicitly include Cambodia, nor was Cambodia a signatory to the agreement, nor was the agreement submitted to the Senate as a treaty for ratification. Meantime, provisions prohibiting all hostilities in Cambodia except in direct defense of U.S. forces had been included in several laws in 1970 and 1971. The introduction of this resolution occurred before the July debate on the War Powers Act commenced, but it reflected similar concerns about presidential arrogation of power.

Military Installations: review proposed closings (see bill S. 1548), 15434.

15434; May 14, 1973; Muskie is added as cosponsor of S. 1548, a Pell (D-Rhode Island) bill to establish a 17-member commission which would review any proposed closing of a military installation and make a report with its recommendations to the Department of Defense and to the Congress. Base closings are often economically harmful to communities which have long hosted military bases, because an area’s economy and workforce can be greatly shaped by the presence of a base, and when that base is withdrawn, conversion to other uses has historically been problematic, causing a ripple effect of lower real estate values, diminished payrolls and harder times for small businesses in the vicinity.

Department of State: amend bill (S. 1248) authorizing appropriations, 15436, 15438

15436; May 14, 1973; Muskie is one of the cosponsors Amendment 127, sponsored by Senators Case (R-New Jersey) and Church (D-Idaho) to S. 1248, the State Department authorization bill, for the purpose of affirmatively barring the use of any funds in the bill for any support, direct or indirect for U.S. military involvement in Indochina unless Congress affirmatively voted to go to war there. By May 14, when this proposal was introduced, the war had been over since January 27, all the Prisoners of War had been returned to the U.S., and all combat troops had been withdrawn from South Vietnam. Nonetheless, using the administration’s claim of "transfer authority" in the Defense Department, air strikes continued over Cambodia from bases in Thailand and Guam. The amendment was designed to end those air strikes.

15438; May 14, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of an Eagleton amendment No. 98 to S. 1248, the State Department authorization bill, to prohibit partisan political or lobbying activities under the guise of foreign policy. The impetus for this amendment was the fact that Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Walter Annenberg endorsed a letter on State Department stationary endorsing two editorials published in Britain which praised Nixon and attacked his political opponents, and which was subsequently mailed to U.S. citizens. Initially the Department of State defended the Ambassador’s conduct, but upon investigating further, discovered that he had been approached to sign the letter by Charles Colson, then a White House employee, and did not know to whom the letter would be sent. By the time this amendment was introduced, it was already publicly known that some of the political activities of certain White House staff were questionable, and it was later determined that creating false "grass roots" support by generating "spontaneous" telegrams, letters and similar public comment had long been an active pursuit of the White House.

Rhodesian chrome: halt imports (see S. 1868), 16381.

16381; May 22, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the sponsors of a Humphrey (D-Minnesota) bill, S. 1868, halting imports of Rhodesian chrome. At this time, the country known as Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was under a United Nations embargo imposed in 1966, when it became apparent that the white settlers, led by Ian Smith, would not agree to a political settlement that gave Africans the vote. Southern Rhodesia was a British Crown Colony, and by those terms, it could gain independence only if the British offered it; Britain wanted to develop a political settlement before granting independence as it had done with Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), but in 1965 Ian Smith made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The only countries to accept this were South Africa and Portugal. The United Nations sanctions followed, but repeated efforts were made in Congress to ignore the sanctions and import chrome from Rhodesia on the grounds that half of U.S. chrome imports then came from the Soviet Union, that chrome was a "strategic material" and that it was important to have diverse sources for it. There was also some unstated but evident sympathy for the whites of Rhodesia. In 1971, the effort to break the sanctions succeeded.

Approval of Test Ban Resolution, by, 19470

19470; June 13, 1973; Muskie joins in a statement supporting the Senate Foreign Committee’s action in voting out the Comprehensive Test Ban Resolution on the 10^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s 1963 announcement of his goal of seeking a more limited test ban.

Foreign Assistance Act of 1961: amend (see bill S. 2026), 21965, 22227.

21965; June 28, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Humphrey (D- Minnesota) bill S. 2026, the Mutual Development and Cooperation Act, which would amend the underlying foreign assistance law of 1961 by focusing aid directly on the needs of the lower-income nations, and at the same time, using loan repayments to extend credit for U.S. exporters to lower-income nations with more favorable repayment terms and interest rates. This was the Senate counterpart to a bipartisan bill developed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

22227; June 29, 1973; Senator Humphrey again adds Muskie’s name as a cosponsor to S. 2026, the Mutual Development and Cooperation Act.

Letter: Test ban opportunity during Mr. Brezhnev's visit, President Nixon, by, 20270.

20270; June 19, 1973; Senator Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) announces that a letter urging the President to raise the idea of a comprehensive test ban with the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, who was scheduled to visit the U.S. and includes a copy. Muskie is one of the signatories.

Law of the Seas Institute, University of Rhode Island, by, 20863.

20863; June 22, 1973; Senator Pell (D- Rhode Island) inserts the text of a Muskie speech to the Law of the Seas Institute, in which Muskie describes the enormous pressures on U.S. coastal fisheries as a result of vast foreign fleets moving onto them and predicts that if the Law of the Seas Conference does not result in negotiated settlements about the proper sharing of the oceans’ resources, individual states will take whatever action they feel is necessary to protect their fisheries.

Appropriations: resolution (H.J. Res. 636) making continuing for 1974, 22317.

Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, legislation to bar use of funds after August 15, 1973, to support combat activities in, 22317.

22317; June 29, 1973; Muskie speaks on an amendment to the Continuing Resolution, H. J. Res. 636, offered by Senators Fulbright (D-Arkansas) and Aiken (R-Vermont) which would have provided an additional 45 days for President Nixon to keep up the bombing in Cambodia, explaining why he refuses to vote for it. At this time, an earlier effort to attach an immediate bar to the use of funds had been overturned by a Presidential veto, which the House fell 35 votes short in overruling.  

War Powers Act: bill (S. 440) to enact, 24544-24549, 25078, 25081, 25082, 25085, 25091, 25101, 25104, 25106, 25120,

President: war powers, 24544-24549, 25078, 25081, 25082, 25085, 25091, 25101, 25104, 25106, 25120, 33551, 33552, 36194

Support of War Powers Bill, Senator Stennis, 24544

Letter: War Powers Act, Senator Stennis, 25082.

War Powers Act, Senator Montoya, 24549

Letter: Need to override President's veto of War Powers Act, to all Senators, by, 35952.

War powers: resolution (H.J. Res. 542) to govern use of Armed Forces by President, 33551, 33552, 36194.

24544; July 18, 1973; When the Senate begins debate on the war powers act, S. 440, Muskie is floor manager and makes an opening statement, along with other Senators with an interest in the legislation, describing what it does and why it is needed.

25078; July 20, 1973; During continued debate on the war powers bill, S. 440, Senator Goldwater (R-Arizona) makes a tortuous argument for overlooking the Congressional authority to declare war, and Senator Eagleton (D- Missouri) offers a technical amendment to clarify the circumstances under which military advisors can be used.

25081, 25082; July 20, 1973; During debate on S. 440, the war powers bill, Muskie argues against an Eagleton (D-Missouri) amendment which would have extended coverage of the bill to the actions of the Central Intelligence Agency and its contract employees, on the grounds that Senator Stennis (D-Mississippi) has already indicated he will hold hearings on this issue and that including the C.I.A. would lose support for what is currently a widely supported piece of legislation.

25085; July 20, 1973; During debate on the war powers bill, S. 440, Muskie and Senator Fulbright (D-Arkansas) engage in a debate over whether the tactical consideration of overriding a veto ought to play a role in evaluating an amendment.

25091; July 20, 1973; During debate on the war powers bill, S. 440, Muskie argues that a Fulbright (D-Arkansas) amendment to allow Congress to deploy peacetime troops by passage of a concurrent resolution would have the effect of loading the bill with too many unacceptable or questionable provisions, so as to endanger its broad base of support.

25101; July 20, 1973; During debate on S. 440, the war powers bill, Senator Griffin (R-Michigan) offered an amendment to the bill to provide for expedited consultation between the President and the Congress in the event of impending hostilities. He withdrew the amendment without demanding a vote, but Muskie responded to the example he had raised, of the actions needed at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

25104; 25106; July 20, 1972; During debate on S. 440, the war powers bill, a brief debate ensues about an Eagleton amendment to eliminate a funding cut off date in the bill because it has been overtaken by the action of the Senate in June, which was to cut off all funds for bombing Cambodia by August 15, with Muskie and Senator Javits (R-New York) accepting the amendment after making some mild objections.

25120; July 20, 1973; Closing the debate following the passage of the war powers bill, Muskie congratulates Senator Javits (R-New York) the principal author of the bill, who reciprocates in kind and also thanks his staff.

33551, 33552; October 10, 1973; During debate on the conference report on H. J. Res 542, the war powers resolution (which was, by agreement, the form in which each separate House of the Congress would take final action on it), Muskie makes a statement of support for the proposal as it has emerged from conference, and repeats his assertion that it does no more than reaffirm an existing constitutional arrangement, under which Congress has the authority to initiate hostilities but the President has the authority to command the troops.

35952; November 5, 1973; When President Nixon vetoed H. J. Res. 542, the war powers resolution, as he had announced his intention to do in advance, Muskie and Javits (R-New York) as the floor leaders of the debate on the proposal sent a letter to all their colleagues, setting forth at length their arguments in favor of a vote to override the veto.

36194; November 7, 1973; During the course of the Senate debate to override the President’s veto of the war powers resolution, H. J. Res. 542, Muskie made a brief statement about the need for Congress to reaffirm its understanding of the constitutional balance of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

Committee on Foreign Relations: notice of hearings, 25606.

Europe: mutual force reductions in, 25606.

25606; July 24, 1973; Muskie announces that his Subcommittee on Arms Control, International Law and Organization plans to hold two days of hearings to examine whether the 300,000-plus U.S. troops then deployed in Europe at a cost of $17 billion each year should remain there in the climate of detente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Europe: U.S. troops in, 25905.

NATO: need for strong, 25905.

U.S. Forces in Europe, Subcommittee on Arms Control, Senator Mansfield, 25906

Table: U.S. forces in foreign countries (selected data), 25910-25914.

U.S. Troop Levels in Europe, Subcommittee on Arms Control, K. Rush, 25914

25905, 25906; 25910-25914; July 25, 1973; Muskie briefly describes the first day of hearings on the question of reducing the U.S. forces stationed in Europe and elsewhere, and includes the testimony of Senator Mansfield (D-Montana), the Senate Majority Leader and a strong proponent of cutbacks in overseas forces and a spokesman for the Nixon administration, Secretary Rush, who presents the opposing viewpoint.

End to Nuclear Tests? New York Times, 26079.

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 26079.

Nuclear weapons: prevent spread to non nuclear nations, 26079.

26079; July 26, 1973; Muskie makes a statement on the 10^th anniversary of the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and argues that the reasons given against the pursuit of a comprehensive test ban treaty appear to be prevarications rather than fact-based objections. At this time, the pace of nuclear testing was still substantial: when Muskie spoke in July, the U.S. had already concluded 6 underground tests, the Chinese had detonated an atmospheric test in Sinkiang province in June, and the French had conducted an atmospheric test at an island atoll in the South Pacific.

Commission on United States Participation in the United Nations: establish (see Res. 151), 28481.

28481; September 5, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. J. Res. 151, a Williams (D-New Jersey) resolution to establish a congressional-citizen Commission on U.S. participation in the United Nations, a proposal growing out of the 1971 Lodge Commission report, which had concluded with some 96 recommended actions to be taken to strengthen U.S. participation in the United Nations and its affiliated organizations. The Lodge Commission report arose out of the Nixon appointment of a similar congressional-citizen commission on the event of the United Nations’ 25^th anniversary.

Kissinger, Henry A.: nomination, 30817-30820.

Text: Resolution relative to Governmental surveillance, 30818.

Joseph Kraft Tailed By FBI (sundry), 30818, 30819.

30817-30820; September 21, 1973; During the debate on the confirmation of Henry Kissinger to be Secretary of State, Muskie says that although he intends to vote for Kissinger, largely because of his qualifications for the job, there are several areas in which Kissinger has fallen far short, in particular, the question of wire tapping for alleged "national security" purposes. By September of 1973, the most explosive elements of the Watergate scandal were generally known, including the fact that several of Kissinger’s staff and at least four reporters had had their home phones wire tapped in an effort to prevent leaks of information. Muskie notes that the Foreign Relations Committee has plans to review the conditions under which wiretaps can be used for national security purposes in the near future.

Aircraft, missiles, naval vessels, combat vehicles, and other weapons: amend bill (H.R. 9286) authorize appropriation, 31254, 31619.

31254; September 25, 1973; Notice only of a Muskie introduction of an amendment No. 545 to the Defense Department authorization bill, H.R. 9286. This amendment was not called up during subsequent debate on the bill, and no other description of it is available.

31619; September 26, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Humphrey (D- Minnesota) amendment No. 549, to the Defense Department authorization bill, H.R. 9286, to provide for a two-year, 125,000 troop reduction in overseas U.S. troops.

Aircraft, missiles, naval vessels, tracked combat vehicles, and other weapons: bill (H.R. 9286), authorize appropriations for, 31887-31889.

Overseas troops: Humphrey amendment to reduce, 31887-31889.

Asian Troop Reductions, R. Barnett and others, 31888.

31887-31889; September 27, 1973; During Senate debate on H.R. 9286, the Defense Department authorization bill, Muskie speaks in support of a Humphrey (D-Minnesota) amendment that he cosponsors to provide for a limited withdrawal of troops stationed overseas, pointing out that there are some 600,000 U.S. troops deployed worldwide in over 1900 bases.

Foreign Assistance Act of 1973: amend bill (S.2335) to enact, 32574.

32574; October 2, 1973; During debate on S. 2335, the Foreign Assistance Act, Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) asks that Muskie’s name be added as a cosponsor of his amendment No. 570, which authorizes the President to give assistance to the U.N. refugee program in the repatriation of persons displaced by the war between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Middle East: deploring outbreak of hostilities (see S. Con. Res. 179), 33144.

33144; October 8, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of S. Con. Res. 179, a leadership resolution deploring the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East. The Yom Kippur War, so known because it began on October 6, 1973, the Jewish Day of Atonement, was launched by Egypt and Syria simultaneously. Israel had rejected earlier warnings of a planned attack, and had failed to mobilize, so Syria broke through in the north and Egypt crossed into the Sinai before Israeli forces could be brought into effective attack, and Soviet-supplied missiles brought down many Israeli fighter jets, which had to be replenished by replacements from the United States.

A "leadership" resolution is one sponsored by both the Majority and Minority Senate Leaders and invariably gains a huge majority of the Senate membership as cosponsors.

Israel's Situation, Chicago, by 35417.

35417; October 30, 1973; Senator Ribicoff (D- Connecticut) inserts the text of a Muskie speech given a few days after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in early October, in which Muskie

discusses the need for face-to-face negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, which the Arab nations had never accepted, and the fact that support of Israel in the face of an unprovoked attack was a broad U.S. feeling which the oil-producing nations would do well to take into account.

Israel: continue transfer of Phantom aircraft and other equipment to (see S. Res. 189), 35615.

35615 [This is an error; correct page number is 34615]; October 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the sponsors of S. Res. 189, a Humphrey (D- Minnesota) resolution intended to show the strong endorsement of the Congress for U.S. resupply of Phantom jets and other materiel to Israel to replace what had been lost at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. The war came as a shock not only to Israel but also to most of the world, and in a U.S. which was preoccupied with the continuing Watergate scandal, it took the Nixon administration almost two weeks to recognize the need to resupply Israel in the face of instant and massive Soviet resupply to Syria and Egypt. One of the President’s actions, placing U.S. troops on world wide alert four days after he fired the Special Prosecutor who was investigating Watergate, led to enormous and unfounded suspicion within the U.S. that Nixon was ready to use the excuse of the Mideast war to impose martial war in order to suspend the Watergate investigations. The fact that such suspicions were voiced in the daily press speaks volumes about the extent to which Watergate infected and shaped virtually all policy issues in 1973. The Yom Kippur cease-fire occurred six days after this resolution was introduced, on October 22.

United Nations: anniversary, 35936.

Letter: Role of United Nations, W. S. Schoenberger (excerpts), 35936.

United Nations and Alternative Formulations, R. N. Gardner, Pacem in Terris Conference, 35937.

35936, 35937; November 5, 1973; Muskie speaks on the 28^th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations about the world organization and shortcomings as well as its possibilities, and includes a Maine professor’s viewpoint along with a longer article spelling out in much more detail the kinds of things people in the early 1970s thought the U.N. might be capable of doing.

Law of the Sea Conference (sundry), 39145.

Law of the Sea Conference: opening, 39145.

Ocean resources: questions of ownership 39145.

39145; December 3, 1973; Muskie notes the beginning of the third Law of the Sea conference, and enters some observations and articles about the pitfall and opportunities that the conference may present, as Third World nations scramble for a share in seabed mineral wealth and nations with shorelines work to maintain their exclusive control over the waters and what they contain.

Appointed Law of the Sea Conference, 39185.

39185; December 3, 1973; Muskie is appointed as one of the Senate observers to attend the Third Law of the Sea Conference of the United Nations in New York City, on December 3-14, 1973.

Department of Defense: amend bill (H.R. 11575) making appropriations for, 41483

41483; December 13, 1973; This index reference is an error. The page reflects a McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) amendment dealing with the amount of work that is allocated to Naval Shipyards as opposed to private ones, and it is cosponsored by Senator Hathaway (D-Maine) but there is no reflection of Muskie whatsoever.

Foreign assistance: amend bill (H.R. 11771) making appropriations for, 41948, 41953

Foreign assistance: bill (H.R. 11771) making appropriations for, 41948, 41952, 41953, 41957, 41961-41963.

Table: Funds for Soviet Jewish refugees, 41952

Soviet Jews: funds for resettlement, 41948, 41952, 41953.

Text: Agreement, relative to resettlement of Soviet Jews (sundry), 41949, 41951, 41952.

Table: Projects and travelers, fiscal year 1973, Partners of the Americas, 41958.

Partners of the Americas: program funds, 41956, 41962, 41963.

List: Nations and governors involved in Partners of the Americas, 41957.

Partners of the Americas Program (sundry), 41958, 41960.

41948; December 17, 1973; Muskie speaks in support of an amendment to fully fund the Soviet Jewish refugee program, under which those Jews permitted to leave the Soviet Union for Israel were housed at a temporary transit camp outside Vienna, Austria, and then provided with housing, language and education and job training and a small stipend while they were absorbed into the general Israeli population.

41956; December 17, 1973; Muskie proposes an amendment to provide $934,000 for the Partners of the Americas program which is operating under state partners’ programs in 41 states to provide in-kind services and technical assistance, as well as privately-solicited financial aid to partner states and provinces throughout Latin America, and describes some of the programs being undertaken.

41963; December 17, 1963; In a continued discussion with his colleagues about the amendment, Muskie promises the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Inouye (D- Hawaii) that despite the fact that the Partners of the Americas national organization failed to testify on its need for funds, he will provide information from the administration in the morning to substantiate his arguments for the amendment, and the amendment is adopted on a voice vote.

HUMAN RESOURCES PROGRAMS

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Retirement Income Security for Employees Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 4), 93

93; January 4, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Williams (D- New Jersey) bill, S. 4, to improve private pensions by setting clear and mandatory vesting requirements, funding requirements and federal reinsurance for plan failure, along with stronger disclosure requirements and fiduciary standards. At this time, roughly 30 million workers were working under pension programs financed through their own and their employers contributions and virtually all of these plans were defined-benefit plans, offering a fixed monthly sum to be paid upon retirement. The goal of federal regulation and insurance was to minimize plan failures, which were becoming a troubling factor in the economic conditions of the early 1970s, and to ensure that plans did not unfairly discriminate against some employees with confusing vesting provisions. An identical bill in the previous year was reported from the Labor Committee on September 15, but fell to the lateness of the year and the impending presidential election season.

National Science Policy and Priorities Act: enact (see bill S. 32), 93.

93; January 4, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) bill , S. 32, to reorganize the National Science Foundation by focusing more directly on the immediate problems of the civilian society, a three-year $1.8 billion program of direct funding and technical grants to universities and other nonprofit organizations for the goal of developing widely applicable technology for pollution control, medical diagnostics and treatment, traffic management, housing, and education. The policy proposed in the bill was that scientific research in the military and civilian fields should have parity in funding. This bill was passed by the Senate in 1972, but the House failed to act before the end of the session.

Health Security Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 3), 93.

93; January 4, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 3, the Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) Health Security Act, a proposal to enroll every American, without exception, into a national health plan in which the federal government would be the insurer and in which health care premiums would vary only by ability to pay, rather than by pre-existing health conditions.

Social security: payroll tax, 431.

Reform in Social Security, L. Hollander, New York Times, 431.

431; January 6, 1973; Muskie makes a brief comment about the continued need for reform of the social security payroll tax, and says he plans to introduce his bill on this shortly, but in the meantime recommends an article that clearly describes the negative effects of the 1972 hike in payroll taxes that accompanied the 20% hike in benefits.

Vocational rehabilitation services: extend and revise authorization of grants to States for (see bill S. 7), 1197.

1197; January 16, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 7, a Randolph (D- West Virginia) bill to amend the Vocational Rehabilitation Act by extending its authorization, revising and improving the grant structure, and authorizing grants for rehabilitation services for those with severe disabilities.

Committee, 1323.

1323; January 18, 1973; A concurrent resolution, S. Res. 20, which expanded the membership of the Special Committee on Aging by adding Senator Pell (D- Rhode Island) as the new member and assigning him seniority within the committee’s ranks, was passed, and among those named as members is Muskie, whose membership held over from the prior Congress.

Bilingual Job Training Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 414), 1338.

1338; January 18, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of a Tower (R-Texas) bill, S. 414, to provide better training for instructors in manpower development programs to conduct training in an applicant’s native language as well as in English. The bill was primarily aimed at the Hispanic community, but permitted bilingual training in any language, and Maine has a substantial Franco-American population whose first language is French

Department of Health: create (see bill S. 423),1338.

1338; January 18, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of a Ribicoff (D- Connecticut) bill, S. 423, to establish a Department of Health separately from the existing Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Human Resources). The bill was predicated on the fact that the existing Department was too large for any Secretary to be able to control it, so it was increasingly unresponsive to either Congress or President, a conclusion Senator Ribicoff drew from his own experience as Secretary under President John F. Kennedy. At the same time, it was generally expected that a form of national health insurance would be enacted in the near future and the purpose of the bill was to create the administrative infrastructure to be ready for this development.

Prisoners of war: double credit for retirement purposes and payment of certain pay and allowances (see bill S.608), 2395

2395; January 29, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) bill, S. 608, which would allow members of the military and civilian workforces who have been prisoners in North Vietnam to receive double credit for their periods of captivity towards early retirement and a per diem equal to what their rank would have earned on the civilian economy in Saigon, in lieu of the $5 per day Foreign Claims Settlement Commission allowance for prisoners. This bill was introduced two days after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, which ended the Vietnam war and before any prisoners had actually been released.

Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act: extend provisions of (see bill S. 607),2395.

2395; January 29, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 607, a Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) bill to extend the Lead Based Paint Poisoning Prevention program for a longer period, and to expand it so as to make more pediatricians aware of the lead poisoning problem for children in urban areas.

Older Americans Act of 1965: strengthen and improve (see bill S. 50), 2706.

2706; January 31, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor, along with many other Senators, to S. 50, an Eagleton (D- Missouri) bill to strengthen and improve the Older Americans Act. The Older Americans Act of 1965 had expired at the end of June, 1972, and a renewal was approved by the Congress in October 1972, but had been pocket vetoed by President Nixon after the Congress adjourned. This was a re-introduction of the bill approved in 1972.

Pocket veto is the term for the condition that obtains when a President exercises his right not to sign a bill within ten days of its delivery to him during a time when Congress is in adjournment. The Constitution gives a President 10 days to sign a bill, after which it will become law without his consent unless the Congress adjourns in the 10-day period. If Congress is in session, the President is forced to actively oppose and veto a bill. As a result, Presidents often like to use the pocket veto when conditions make it possible, particularly on popular measures, because the attendant publicity is often minimal.

Worker Alienation Research and Technical Assistance Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 736), 2911

2911; February 1, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 736, a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) bill to provide funds for the Labor and Health, Education and Welfare Departments to research the causes of a major decline in the productivity of U.S. workers, particularly those engaged in repetitive jobs allowing for little personal initiative. The decline in U.S. productivity had become apparent to economists by this time, and a HEW Task Force issued a report on "Work in America" that focused on the problems of absenteeism, rapid turnover, alcohol and drug use and employee sabotage which seemed to be fueling the hostility of middle-income workers to their workplace and employers.

National Employ the Older Worker Week: designate (see S.J. Res. 49), 3153, 4253.

3153; February 2, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a resolution, S. J. Res. 49, by Randolph (D- West Virginia), to provide for the designation of the second full calendar week in March, 1973, as National Employ the Older Worker Week.

  

4253; February 15, 1973; Muskie’s name is again added as a cosponsor of S. J. Res. 49, the National Employ the Older Worker Week. Multiple publications of cosponsorship can usually be ascribed to bad record-keeping on the part of Senate staffs, and do not usually indicate any special circumstances.

Rural Health Act of 1973: enact (see S. 744), 3153.

3153; February 2, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 744, a Randolph (D- West Virginia) bill to improve access to health care for the rural population. At this time, there were 132 counties nationwide without a resident physician, and about 25 percent of the rural population had poverty-level incomes or below, reducing the ability of these areas to attract health professionals.

Nixon's Cuts in Social Programs, H. Rowan, Washington Post, 3305

3305; February 5, 1973; Muskie notes that the Nixon budget for Fiscal Year 1974 seems predicated on the notion that people should rely entirely on themselves or their states and inserts a column which describes the proposed cuts made by the budget.

Ball Leaves Top SSA Post (sundry), 3309-3311.

Ball, Robert M.: tribute, 3309.

3309-3311; February 5, 1973; Muskie pays tribute to Robert Ball, the 11-year head of the Social Security Administration, whose pro forma resignation upon President Nixon’s reelection to his second term was, to the surprise of all, accepted, and says he hopes the administration will seek to replace Ball with somebody similar as Administrator for the future. The administration had, by this time, roused suspicions that it sought direct White House control of offices which had been nonpartisan, through a series of actions, including a veto of the Labor-HEW Appropriations bill and the firing of officials in statistical and scientific fields.

Public service employment opportunities: provide, for unemployed and underemployed persons (see bill S. 793), 3762

3762; February 7, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of a Cranston (D- California) bill, S. 793, to authorize a 3-year, $20 billion public works program which was envisaged to create 1.15 million employment opportunities through state and municipal governments and nonprofit organizations which developed plans and applied for the funds. At this time, some 4.3 million were shown on the unemployment rolls and estimated 13.7 million were working fewer hours than they preferred. Unemployment was a powerful political motivating force in these years, in a way which it has not been since the early 1980s.

Disabled veterans: authority to readjust schedule of ratings for (see bill S. 882), 4195.

4195; February 15, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the sponsors of a Hartke (D- Indiana) bill, S. 882, responding to a proposal by the Veterans’ Administration to alter the disability ratings of veterans, so as to reduce benefits by an annual $160 million, a cut that would have had the most severe effects on the 350,000 disabled Vietnam-era veterans eligible for benefits. The bill would eliminate the Veterans’ Administration authority to alter ratings unilaterally, and require Congressional approval of any changes.

Opportunities Industrialization centers: assist (see bill S. 136), 4253.

4253; February 15, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 136, a Schweicker (R-Pennsylvania) bill to include the Opportunities Industrialization Centers in the forthcoming manpower development act. The Opportunities Industrialization Centers were created by the Reverend Leon Sullivan and a group of ministers in North Philadelphia in 1964, and by this time had grown to include operations in more than 100 communities around the country. The program targeted the low-income inner city community and provided remedial education, prevocational and vocational counseling and training to at-risk youth, welfare recipients, and the disabled.

Committee on Aging (Special) : notice of hearings, 4376, 12659, 14466, 17286, 22542.

Older persons: health care, 4376, 10761, 10776 17286.

4376; February 19, 1973; Muskie announces hearings on the issue of Barriers to Health Care for the Elderly, part of his plan for a longer range study of how efforts at "cost sharing" affect the access of the elderly to preventive medicine and whether they are a cost saving or an administrative nuisance in practice.

10761, 10776; April 3, 1973; Muskie presents testimony from the Council of Senior Citizens, which is vehemently opposed to several Nixon administration proposals to change the hospitalization benefits under Medicare and to increase the premiums for out-patient care paid by the elderly.

12659; April 17, 1973; Muskie announces that on May 2, 3, and 4, the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations will hold hearings on S. 1255, the property tax relief and reform bill. They are a continuation of hearings begun by the Subcommittee during the 92^nd congress.

These hearings are indexed in error, as they are not part of the health care hearings.

14466; May 7, 1973; Muskie announces yet more hearings on the barriers to the elderly. Details are on the same page as the Israel anniversary speech. THIS HAS TO BE RE-XEROXED AND SCANNED. IT IS A SHORT ANNOUNCEMENT

17286; May 30, 1973; Muskie reports on hearings held in Livermore Falls, Maine, to explore in more practical detail the problems facing rural elderly Americans in reaching and paying for the health care they need.

22542; June 30, 1973; Muskie announces hearings on home health care for July 11 and 12, part of his continued series of hearings to examine the barriers to health care for the elderly.

Lindsay, S. Cmich, K. A. Gibson, R. G. Hatcher, J. L. Alioto, and L. Alexander (sundry), 4885-4898.

Pleas for Social Programs, Committee on Government Operations, Mayors Landrieu, R. S. Gribbs, N. Y. Mineta, H. W. Maier, J. V. 4885-4898

Social programs: mayors plead for, 4884. 

4884; February 21, 1973; Muskie describes a hearing by the Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee to examine the federal budget for the cities and how the mayors reacted to it. The budget for 1974 was presented in the environment of an approved plan for federal revenue sharing and the mayors in particular resented the apparent cuts in spending to offset that revenue sharing, claiming that in a 1969 meeting with mayors, President Nixon had assured them that the revenue sharing proposal, which they were invited to endorse, would not be accompanied by cuts in other federal programs.

Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: calling upon President to carry out provisions of (see S. Con. Res. 12), 5141.

5141; February 22, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of a number of Senate cosponsors of a Javits (R-New York)-Nelson (D- Wisconsin) resolution, S. Con. Res. 12, calling on the president to carry out the provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act, a law which had been extended for two years in 1972 and signed by the President. The law was specifically written to require that its provisions be carried out, so when the 1974 Nixon budget was presented with no funding request for the program and the notation that the existence of the program as a separate federal agency would not be necessary after July 1, 1973, it was a direct challenge to the Congress. This was one element of the continued Nixon-Congress argument over the right to control the budget. Immediately after his 1972 reelection, President Nixon proceeded to assert his right unilaterally to reduce spending and impound appropriated funds, a series of actions which drew an immediate response from the Congress, including this resolution.

Social security: administration's proposed cutbacks in medicare, 6092.

Medicare: administration's proposed cutbacks in, 6092

6092; March 1, 1973; Muskie takes part in an organized colloquy of statements by Senate Chairman on the cuts President Nixon has proposed to make in Medicare coverage of the elderly. Nixon’s second term began with a determined and aggressive approach to reduce spending for programs and purposes with which he disagreed, an effort that ultimately proved unsuccessful for many reasons, not least of which were the many Watergate-related scandals that were uncovered in 1973.

Community Supervision and Services Act: enact (see bill S. 798), 6138.

6138; March 1, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 798, a Burdick (D- North Dakota) bill intended to reduce recidivism by providing community centered programs of supervision and services for felons and parolees.

National Diabetes Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 648), 6138.

6138; March 1, 1973; Muskie is added to a McGee (D- Wyoming) bill, S. 648, which would expand the authority of the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases to combat diabetes.

 

Social service programs: availability and use of Federal funds for (see bill S. 1220), 7714.

7714; March 14, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of many Senate sponsors of S. 1220, a Mondale (D- Minnesota) bill designed to prevent the promulgation of proposed new regulations on the operation of Title IV-A programs, a title of the social security statute that provided matching funds to the states for purposes such as subsidized day care, meals on wheels, drug and alcohol treatment, leaving the states extremely broad latitude to choose which services to operate. The sponsors of the bill also sent a joint letter to Secretary Weinberger, protesting the proposed new regulations.

Dangerous Drug Identification Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 984), 8129.

Dangerous Drug Tracer and Law Enforcement Information Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 985), 8129.

Barbiturate Control Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 983), 8129.

8129; March 15, 1973; Muskie’s name is added as a cosponsor of two Bayh (D- Indiana) bills, S. 983 and S. 984 shifting some drugs from Schedule III to Schedule II, and requiring a manufacturers’ identification of each dose of a Schedule II drug to be made.

Department of Health, Education, an Welfare: social service regulations, 9982.

Letter: Social services regulations, K. M. Curtis, 9982.

Social services: HEW proposed regulations 9982.

Table: Social services (selected data), 9983-9985

9982, March 28, 1973; Muskie notes his opposition to proposed new regulations which would limit the services provided under Title IV-A of the Social Security Act, and shares a letter from the Governor of Maine discussing these issues.

National Arthritis Month: designate (see S.J. Res. 80), 10446.

10446; April 2, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. J. Res. 80, a Roth (R-Delaware) resolution which would authorize the President to designate each May as National Arthritis Month.

Older persons: barriers to health care for 10738-10740.

Health care: older persons, 10738-10740, 10761, 10776.

Letter: Health care for older persons, C. F. Brickfield, 10761.

Health Care for Older Persons, N. H. Cruikshank, 10776.

10738-10740; April 3, 1973; Muskie presents some of his conclusions about the challenges facing the medicare program following days of testimony on his hearings on the barriers to the health care of the elderly, and his hearing with Secretary Weinberger, concluding that the Nixon administration’s planned cuts in medicare are unsound.

10761; April 3, 1973; Muskie notes that a large association representing retirees and retired teachers is strongly opposed to the Nixon administration’s cutbacks in medicare funding and disputes the claims made that by increasing out-of-pocket costs the utilization of health services will be reduced. This was a favored argument through much of the 1970s, although there was never much evidence that people gratuitously sought out health care simply because it was so much fun.

10776; April 3, 1973; Muskie takes note that the Senior Citizens’ Council, a large association representing retirees and those using the medicare program has expressed its strong opposition to the Nixon administration’s proposals to increase medicare beneficiaries’ costs while cutting back on the share of costs borne by government.

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism: concentrate Nation's resources against (see bill S.1125), 13999.

13999; May 2, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of S. 1125, a Hughes (D- Iowa) bill, a three-year extension of the grants provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse to the states for alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers, and adding grant eligibility to states which enact state law on alcohol treatment as recommended by the Commission on Uniform State Laws, the purpose of which is to end the practice of arresting drunks, allowing them to sleep it off and then releasing them back on the street with no treatment whatever.

Defense workers: benefits to certain separated from employment (see bill S. 1695), 14112.

Federal Full Employment Board: establish (see bill S. 1693). 14112.

14112; May 3, 1973; Muskie sponsors two bills, a Javits (R-New York) bill to implement a full employment policy, S. 1963, and a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) bill on readjustment benefits to people out of work because of defense cuts, S. 1695. The goal of "full employment" was based on a 1946 post-war law, which cited full employment as one of the nation’s post-war goals, and the bill was designed to make the achievement of full employment more explicit, partly to help combat the tendency to view "economic growth" as a synonym for full employment, even though large pockets of the country and substantial subsets of people were thereby bypassed. The Kennedy bill was designed to provide allowances to persons losing their jobs because shifts in defense spending, post-Vietnam, could close military bases or affect large-scale manufacturers of weaponry and other military supplies.

Truth In Food Labeling Act: enact bill S. 904), 14139.

14139; May 3, 1973; Muskie is added to S. 904, a Williams (D- New Jersey) bill dealing with truth in food labeling. At this time, the Food and Drug Administration had limited authority to require food manufacturers to label the ingredients in their products. Instead, a "standard of identity" had been established for a four types of foods, but the labeling requirements were confused and resulted in misleading food labels, meaning that individuals with food allergies, or religiously-based dietary restrictions, or health-related requirements could not always know what was contained and in what proportion in the food they purchased.

National School Lunch Act: amend (see bill S. 1005), 14464.

14464; May 7, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Case (R-New Jersey) bill, S. 1005, to preserve the school lunch program as a nutrition service to children in public and private schools by restoring the authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate foods sold in competition with the products offered through the school lunch program. This authority had been eliminated in the prior year’s debate on school lunches, which in effect gave each state or each local school district the right to determine for itself whether fast food and vending machines for candy and snacks would be permitted in the schools. This is a perennial argument over those who see the school lunch program as a nutrition service for children and those who claim that children are used to fast food and will not accept anything else.

Public Health Service Act: amend title X (see bill S. 1708), 14465.

Family planning services and population research: extend appropriations authorizations (see bill S. 1708), 14465.

14465; May 7, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Cranston (D- California) bill to extend the authorization of Title X of the Public Health Service Act for 3 fiscal years and to revise and improve authorities for family planning services programs, planning, training and public information. Title X is the birth control provision of the Public Health Service Act.

Commission on Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly: establish (see bill 1768), 14891.

14891; May 9, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1786, a bill to create a Commission on the Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly, a project he had undertaken in the previous Congress.

Commission on Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly Act: introduction, 14913.

Text: S. 1768, Commission on Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly Act, 14913.

14913; May 9, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 1768, the Commission on Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly, making the point that despite conventional wisdom, the problems facing elderly patients do respond to treatment and can be significantly helped. His goal was that the Commission would create a national set of standards for treatment of the elderly, who at this time comprised about 20% of the nation’s psychiatric patients.

Federal employees: annual leave status for MIA's (see bill S. 1221), 15434.

15434; May 14, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1221, a Bible (D- Nevada) bill to provide that federal employees who were in Missing in Action status could accumulate annual leave over 30 days, the limit for annual leave accumulation for federal workers under the "use it or lose it" regulation, and be reimbursed for the annual leave accrued. Most MIAs were military but a very small number of civilian federal employees as well as civilian contract employees were also lost in Indochina.

Letter: Funding for public library programs i(sundry), 16422 -16425.

Maine State Library, 16422.

Libraries Put Out Lights in National Fund Protest, G. Goodman, New York Times, 16423.

Dim Light on Books, New York Times, 16423.

National Library Week, 16422.

Do Libraries Need Federal Aid? J. Pierson, Wall Street Journal, 16423.

16422-16425; May 22, 1973; Muskie makes a floor statement about National Library Week and contrasts it with the Nixon administration budget proposal to end the funding of the Library Services and Construction Act with the close of fiscal year 1973, June 30. He notes that Maine’s state library depends on federal funds for 53 percent of its acquisitions and 60 percent of its personnel costs, and includes news stories and letters from constituents, detailing their concerns about the loss of library services.

Medicare: AMA charges, 16459.

American Medical Association: charges against medicare, 16459.

Report: Under Medicare, Average Doctor Bill Has Been Going Down, AMA Update, 16459.

Report: NBC News Versus AMA Controversy, 16460.

16459, 16460; May 22, 1973; Muskie makes a brief comment about claims by the American Medical Association that its members’ average charges have actually fallen under the Medicare program, and indicates this is a disingenuous way of saying that physicians are sending out more bills covering fewer services on each while overall costs for the same procedures have actually been going up at a steady pace.

Rehabilitation Act of 1973: enact (S. 1875), 16658.

16658; May 23, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of S. 1875, a Randolph (D- West Virginia) bill to extend and revise the system of grants for vocational rehabilitation services after two successive Nixon vetoes of rehabilitation bills in prior years.

Social security check: prohibit any material to be enclosed with any (see bill S. 1664), 17052.

17052; May 29, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1664, a Church (D- Idaho) bill designed to prohibit the inclusion of any material with social security checks which contains the name, signature or title of any federal officer other than the commissioner of the Social Security Administration. This measure was a reaction to the fact that in 1972, when the 20% increase in social security benefits took effect, President Nixon took the opportunity to have enclosed with each check a notice bearing his name and a facsimile of his signature, claiming to have favored the increased payment when, as a matter of fact, he had instead vigorously opposed it and signed it into law only because of the risks of not doing so in an election year. It was broadly felt at the time that this action was politically self-serving.

White House Conference on the Handicapped: call (see S.J. Res. 118), 17222.

17222; May 30, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of S. J. Res. 118, a Williams (D- New Jersey) joint resolution calling for a White House Conference on the Handicapped to be called within 2 years to develop a comprehensive policy to provide services to the handicapped. At this time, although some steps had been taken to provide for education, transportation barriers and rehabilitation services, those with physical or mental disabilities remained a largely invisible population; in the previous year, efforts had begun through the courts to force attention to the problems and shortcomings of services for the disabled, but to a large extent, progress depended on the individual willingness of some states and regions to act without federal guidelines.

 

Maine: health care for elderly, 17286.

Project Independence: health care for elderly, 17286.

Barriers to Health Care for Older Americans, Subcommittee On Health of the Elderly, by, 17287.

17286, 17287; May 30, 1973; Muskie describes the field hearing he held at Livermore Falls, Maine, and the program he found which made an effort to integrate social and medical care for the elderly in a rural region.

Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission: unemployment compensation benefits (see bill S. 1979), 19133.

19133; June 12, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1979, a bill to make the same unemployment compensation benefits available to federal employees applicable to U.S. citizen employees of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission.

Roosevelt Campobello International Park: unemployment compensation for employees of, 19134.

Text: S. 1979, unemployment compensation for employees of Roosevelt Campobello International Park, 19134.

19134; June 12, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 1979, a bill making the U.S. citizen employees of Roosevelt Campobello International Park eligible for unemployment compensation, pointing out that although these workers pay regular social security taxes and are included in the Maine state workers’ compensation program, another law prohibits the employees of any international organization who are employed outside the U.S. receiving unemployment compensation. Although the Roosevelt Campobello Park honors President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and is a short causeway from Lubec, Maine, Campobello Island is nonetheless Canadian territory, so this aspect of the law affects these workers in a way that was in all likelihood never intended.

Autism: expand definition of developmental disability to include (see bill S. 1949), 20246.

20246; June 19, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1949, a Tunney (D- California) bill to amend the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963 to expand the definition of “developmental disability” to include autism.

Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendments of 1973: enact (see bill S. 2117), 22208.

22208; June 29, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 2117, a Williams (D- New Jersey) bill which would turn the operations of federal mine safety regulations over to the Labor Department, away from the Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior, whose focus on production of resources has failed to serve the needs of miners for adequate regulation of their working conditions.

Porter, Sylvia: Nixon health proposal, 22587.

Nixon Plan Hits at Elderly Sick, S. Porter, 22588.

22587, 22588; June 30, 1973; Muskie notes that the widely syndicated columnist Sylvia Porter is citing testimony from one of his health care hearings, and agrees with those who are condemning the administration’s "cost-sharing" Medicare cutbacks.

Medicare program: urge President to submit recommendations for legislation to improve (see S. Res. 124), 23499.

23499; July 12, 1973; Muskie is added to S. Res. 124, a Church (D- Idaho) resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should submit recommendations to the Congress for improvements in medicare. It is a well-worn political tactic to pile on when the opportunity arises, and the Nixon administration’s plan to make substantial reductions in Medicare, which was opposed by some 92% of Americans, was one such opportunity.

Job Training and Community Services Act of 1973: bill (S. 1559) to enact, 25719.

25719; July 24, 1973; During debate on S. 1559, the Job Training and Community Services Act, Muskie applauds the provisions of the bill which will encourage local areas to adopt the mix of services particularly useful for their economic conditions.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin: repeal act terminating Federal supervision over property and members (see bill S. 1687), 26062.

26062; July 26, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1687, a Proxmire (D- Wisconsin) bill to repeal the act terminating federal supervision over the property and members of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin as a federally recognized sovereign Indian tribe. The policy known as "Termination" was born in the postwar era, as an effort to end disparate treatment of Native Americans, and in the case of the Menominee occurred in 1961, after the law terminating their trust relationship with the federal government was signed in 1954. The tribe had won an $8.5 million judgment against government for mistreatment of their trust lands, but were warned the money would not be forthcoming unless they accepted termination. Following termination, all federal programs and funding were withdrawn, but the resulting Menominee County was too under populated and poor to provide even basic services, and the funds were quickly depleted. A proposal to sell some of their land led to a split in the tribe, with the opponents demanding that Congress reverse the termination and restore their reservation and sovereignty. This was the purpose of the Proxmire bill.

Emergency Employment Amendments 1973: bill (S. 1560) to enact. 26850.

26850; July 31, 1973; During debate S. 1560, the Emergency Employment Amendments of 1973, Muskie expresses his support for the program and describes how it has operated in Maine to allow town governments to provide public services while at the same time training individuals for the workplace.

Public health: home care for elderly, 27167-27169.

Older persons: home health care, 27167, 27169.

Value of Home Health Care Services Emphasized, American Medical News, 27169.

27167-27169; August 1, 1973; Muskie notes that his July hearings on barriers to health care for the elderly focused heavily on home health care services, to examine why this kind of care is not more widely used than the costly alternative of hospitalization.

Letter: Food price spiral, T. Brown, 28497.

Food: increased prices, 28497.

28497; September 5, 1973; Muskie notes that Senators in their home states during the August recess will have heard from their constituents about the shortages of common food stuffs and the soaring price increases for food, and includes a letter from an exasperated constituent to Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz.

"Old Folks" Undertake Biggest Independence Movement Since '76, B. Applebee, Lewiston Sun, 28499.

28499; September 5, 1973; Muskie describes the work of a local Maine program, Project Independence, which grew out of the Task Forces that attended the White House Conference on Aging, and which now provides transportation, health services and recreation in three Maine counties, as well as being a model for similar programs elsewhere.

Civil service retirement: amend bill (S.1866) to provide minimum annuity under, 29211.

29211; September 11, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Humphrey (D-Minnesota) amendment to S. 1866, a Civil Service Retirement bill, to make a social security benefits increase take immediate effect in place of its scheduled June 1, 1974 effective date. There is no Muskie text.

National School Lunch and Child Nutrition Act Amendments of 1973: bill (H.R. 9639) to enact, 31088.

31088; September 24, 1973; During Senate debate on H.R. 9639, the school lunch bill, Muskie makes a brief argument in favor of an amendment to increase the federal reimbursement rate to 12 cents per lunch, to offset the fast-rising cost of food in the current period.

Craftsmen and News Is Partnership, L. Hammel, New York Times, 31952.

Home Inc.: craft cooperative, 31952.

31952; September 28, 1973; Muskie describes a Maine crafts cooperative organization which has grown to about 1000 members and is helping local people earn some additional money, and includes an article about HOME, Inc. from the New York Times.

 

Mental health: policy needed for older Americans, 32698.

Older persons: mental health policy needed, 32698

Mental Health Policy for the Elderly, B. S. Brown, Governor's Conference on Aging, 32698.

32698; October 3, 1973; Muskie talks about a statement given by the Director of the National Institute on Mental Health at a Tennessee conference, which defined and described the components of what might become a suitable national policy for the mentally ill elderly population.

American Folklife Center: establish (see bill S. 1844), 32943.

32943; October 4, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 1844, an Abourezk (D- South Dakota) bill to establish a Folklife Center in the Smithsonian for the goal of preserving folklife traditions, artifacts and skills. Senator Abourezk was the lone Senator of Lebanese descent in the Senate.

Social security: increase benefits (see bill S. 2397), 33247.

33247; October 9, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of S. 2397, a Church (D- Idaho) bill providing for a 7% cost of living increase for Social Security recipients to take effect after January 1, 1974. Senator Church entered a listing of all his cosponsoring senators, pointing out there are 58 total, and that in light of this, the Senate Finance Committee has accepted the raise as an amendment to the social security bill.

City of Hope Hospital: tribute, 33278.

City of Hope Hospital Story, B. Horowitz, annual convention, 33278

33278; October 9, 1973; Muskie mentions that he spoke at City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles earlier in the year on the need for continued federal support for medical research, and notes that this facility was founded in 1913 as a pilot medical research center focusing on such conditions as cancer, leukemia, heart and respiratory conditions and diabetes, and recommends a statement by the facility’s director, discussing its financial needs.

Social Services Amendments of 1973: enact (see bill S. 2528), 34243.

34243; October 16, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. 2528, a Mondale (D- Minnesota) bill, the Social Services Amendments of 1973, the purpose of which was to override new proposed regulations on the Title IV-A social services program, which was a block grant to the states matching three-to-one state funds or privately raised funds, for the provision of a broad range of programs, from day care for low-income working women to hot meals for the elderly. The Nixon administration had issued proposed regulations in January, to take effect June 1, which would have severely restricted eligibility for these services and eliminated the use of privately raised matching funds by the states, against which Muskie spoke earlier in the year, and Congress delayed implementation of these new regulations until November 1. Revised regulations were promptly issued, but like the original proposals, earned the strong opposition of the state governors and many members of Congress. With this bill, Senator Mondale proposed to amend the underlying policy of the program, and to write into law eligibility standards, which would make it extremely difficult for the issuance of regulations to alter the program by executive fiat.

Medicare: proposed limit on deductibles, 35910, 35911.

Older persons: limit Medicare deductibles, 35910, 35911.

Social Security Act Amendments of 1973: amend bill (H.R. 3153) to enact, 35910, 38911, 38911, 38967.

Text: Amendment (No. 649), Limit on Medicare Inpatient Hospital Deductible, 35911.

Social Security Amendments of 1973: proposed amendment, 35910, 35911

Social Security Amendments of 1973: bill (H.R. 3153) to enact, 38912, 38938, 38967

Medicare: prevent scheduled increase in rates, 38912.

Home health services: Medicare coverage, 38967.

Medicare: coverage for home health services, 38967.

35910-11; November 5, 1973; Muskie introduces a proposed amendment to H.R. 3153, the Social Security Act Amendments of 1973, which would freeze the deductible charges in the medicare program for one year, and to readjust the basis on which hospital cost increases are calculated, arguing that there is no evidence that a higher deductible will improve the efficiency of the program, while there is no doubt that it will do the most harm to those retirees without adequate income.

38911, 38912; November 30, 1973; During debate on H.R. 3135, a bill to amend the social security act, Muskie’s Medicare amendment is called up and he explains that it provides for a one year freeze on the deductible and coinsurance costs to a beneficiary of the medicare program, and would not damage the financial integrity of the medicare trust fund.

38938; November 30, 1973; During debate on H.R. 3135, Muskie joins Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) and others in bringing up the minimum tax amendment to the social security bill. Although the underlying bill being debated addressed the Social Security system, it is not uncommon, particularly towards the end of the session, to bring up unrelated amendments, such as this one, directed at tax loopholes. The Senate has no germaneness rule, so amendments need not be directly relevant to the bill they amend. Bills emerging from the Finance Committee are particularly attractive for tax amendment purposes, and if they draw sufficient support in a floor vote can sometimes serve to warn the Committee that there is majority support for a particular tax change.

38967; November 30, 1973; Muskie joins Humphrey (D- Minnesota) in offering a home health care amendment to H.R. 3135, the social security bill, which would eliminate the existing requirement that home health care needed after a hospitalization must be for the purpose of treating the condition that caused the hospitalization if it is to be reimbursable. Muskie argues that an elderly person can have one problem corrected by a hospitalization but other chronic conditions may be worsened, so it makes no sense to impose this requirement.

Home Health Medicare Amendments of 1973, introduction, 36750-36752.

Medicare program: post-hospital home services (see bill 2690), 36750.

Public health: increase Medicare benefits, 36750-36752.

Medicare: increase home care benefits, 36750-36752.

Social Security Act: introduction of legislation to amend, 36750-36752.

36750-36752; November 13, 1973; Muskie and Senator Church (D- Idaho) introduce two companion home health care bills: S. 2690, which would change the conditions under which medicare will reimburse home health care by making them less restrictive, expanding the number of home health visits allowed, and permitting for reimbursement of homemaker services, and S. 2695, which sets up a series of programs to finance home health agencies in rural areas and to encourage the training of home health care aides.

Maine: College of the Atlantic, 37643

College of the Atlantic: program, 37643.

College of the Atlantic, S. A. Eliot, Harvard Bulletin, 37643.

37643; November 19, 1973; Muskie makes a brief statement about the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, and recommends an article describing how the institution began to get on its feet in 1970, and how it sees its future.

Public Health Service: establishing home health services (see bill S. 2695), 42723

42723; December 20, 1973; Muskie’s name is added as a cosponsor of a Church (D- Idaho) bill, to establish grants to assist in the creation and start-up of home health care agencies. When this bill was initially introduced on November 13, it was introduced in tandem with Muskie’s own home health care proposal, S. 2690, whose purpose it was to alter some of the restrictive regulations which prevented reimbursement for home health care, particularly for the elderly. The introductory remarks on both bills may be read here.

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970: minimum Federal payments (see bill S. 261), 644.

644; January 9, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of a four-year extension of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act, S. 261, which authorizes federal payments to persons displaced through the construction of federal buildings, roads or other infrastructure.

Uniform Relocation Act Amendments: Introduction, 652.

652; January 9, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 261, the Uniform Relocation Act extension bill, noting that at the close of the previous Congress, the House and Senate conferees on an identical bill had reached agreement, but the Congress adjourned before either body could approve the conference report. He notes that the 4-year extension of an all-federal $25,000 displacement allowance is significant to all the states, because its lack would mean states and cities would be forced to come up with an estimated $125 million to pay their share of relocation costs, which might mean the end of urban development projects in various parts of the country.

Sunshine in Government, 1259.

Government: open procedures and hearings, 1259.

1259; January 16, 1973; Muskie makes a brief statement endorsing the purposes of Senator Chiles’ (D- Florida) Government in the Sunshine Act, a proposal to limit the extent to which the legislative and regulatory functions of both congressional and executive branch agencies can close their meetings to the public, saying that the claims of efficient government ought not to override the goal of a responsive government.

Report: Committee on Government Operations, 2626, 37197.

2626; January 31, 1973; Muskie reports S. 261, his bill to extend the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 from the full Committee on Government Operations, Report No. 93-10.

37197; November 15, 1973; Muskie reports S. 2299, his bill to provide for joint funding of state and local projects using more than one source of federal assistance, the Joint Funding Simplification Act. Report No. 93-506.

Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 834), 3964.

3964; February 8, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 834, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1973.

Questions: Federal grant system, to city officials, by, 3991.

Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1973: introduction, 3991-3993.

Text: S. 834, Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1973, 3993.

3991-3993; February 8, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 834, the intergovernmental cooperation act, noting that he has consulted state a local officials with an extensive questionnaire to determine if there is broad support for the concept of block-granting the various categorical grants by which the federal government shares tax dollars with localities, and discusses the Nixon administration’s proposals for "special revenue sharing" which would create four large bloc grants and do away with all smaller categorical grants.

Committee on Government Operations: notice of hearings, 4043, 6520, 8713 12659, 12978, 15438, 28488, 38088.

Committee on the Judiciary: notice of hearings, 8713.

Press Release: Ervin, Muskie, Kennedy subcommittees join for Executive privilege, secrecy hearings; 8713

4043; February 8, 1973; Muskie announces that the Intergovernmental Relations subcommittee will hold hearings on February 21, 23, 27, 28 and March 1 on the impact of the President’s proposals for a new federalism, by hearing testimony from state and local officials, administration officials and experts in intergovernmental relations.

6520; March 6, 1973; Muskie announces that his subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations will hold further hearings on the "new federalism."

8713; March 20, 1973; Muskie announces that he will be joining Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina), the Chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee, with some additional participation by Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts), Chairman of a separate Judiciary subcommittee to examine the claims made for the withholding of information from the Congress by the Executive Branch.

12659; April 17, 1973; Muskie announces that on May 2, 3, and 4, the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations will hold hearings on S. 1255, the property tax relief and reform bill, a continuation of hearings begun by the Subcommittee during the 92^nd congress.

12978; April 18, 1973; Muskie announces the full Government Affairs Committee will hold one day of hearings on S. 1214, a bill to amend the Budget and Accounting Act so as to provide the Congress with information relating to the budget requests of the various departments and agencies of the government, on April 27, 1973.

15438; May 14, 1973; Muskie announces that Daniel Ellsberg will testify on government secrecy issues at a joint Government Affairs and Judiciary Committee hearing on May 16, 1973. Daniel Ellsberg was responsible for providing the New York Times in 1971 with copies of the Pentagon Papers, a classified record of the decisions by which the Vietnam war was launched, and by the time this announcement was made, news reports had made public the fact that, apparently on orders from presidential appointees, the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist had been burglarized in an effort to steal Ellsberg’s psychiatric records, presumably for the purpose of discrediting him publicly.

28488; September 5, 1973; Muskie announces the subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations will hold hearings on a legislative reorganization bill, S. 1923, and on S. 2299, a bill to provide for joint funding of projects from multiple federal sources.

38088; November 27, 1973; Muskie announces that his subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations hired the Louis Harris organization to conduct a public opinion poll and also conducted a poll of state and local officials, both by mail and in person, to get a broad view of the public’s opinion on the various levels of government and their operation, and that a hearing on this will be held on December 3, 1973.

Appointed Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 4544.

4544; February 20, 1973; Muskie is appointed as one of the Senate’s members to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations by the Presiding Officer on behalf of the President of the Senate.

Political Gain: Billing It to the Poor, D. S. Broder, Washington Post, 4646.

Putting Strings on Federal Aid, A. J. Large, Wall Street Journal, 4647.

4647; [Actually p. 4646]; February 20, 1973; Muskie makes a brief statement about the “new federalism” announced by President Nixon, and includes a couple of news stories that treat the proposal with some skepticism.

New Federalism Policies, Committee on Government Operations, by, 4883.

4883; February 21, 1973; Senator Metcalf (D- Montana) mentions that hearings on the new federalism proposals of the Nixon administration have started under Muskie’s leadership and inserts Muskie’s opening remarks at the hearing, in which he contrasts the purpose of the revenue sharing program already enacted and the new federalism proposals to the detriment of the latter.

Impoundment Relies on Weak Arguments, L. Fisher, Washington Star, 5801.

Nixon's Federalism In Trouble, J. Doyle, Washington Star, 5803.

Sacrificing Legality for Efficiency, D. S. Broder, Washington Post, 5804.

Losing With a Landslide, D. S. Broder, Washington Post, 5804.

Short Rope, New York Times, 5805.

Telling It Not Quite Like It Is, T. Wicker, New York Times, 5805.

5801-5805; February 28, 1973; Muskie notes that the Nixon administration’s budgetary and programmatic initiatives are provoking a substantial amount of comment among state and local officials as well as in political circles, and includes a selection of such comments to illustrate the point. These present a useful compilation of the state of the national debate before the Watergate scandal took almost all other political arguments off the table in 1973.

Program Information Act: enact (see S. 928), 6138.

6138; March 1, 1973; Muskie is added as cosponsor to a Roth (R-Delaware) bill, S. 928, to require certain improvements in the production of the domestic program catalogue which the Office of Management and Budget puts together. A principal purpose of such a catalogue was to give local and state officials an easier way to discover the programs available, the conditions under which they would be funded, and the current funding status.

Freedom of Information Act of 1967: amend (see bill S. 1142), 6908.

6908; March 8, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1142, to amend the Freedom of Information Act of 1967 in order to make it more effective.

Freedom of Information Act: amend, 6929.

Analysis: Amendments to Freedom of Information Act of 1967, 6929.

Text: S. 1142, to amend the Freedom of Information Act of 1967, 6930.

6929, 6930; March 8, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory statement on the Freedom of Information Act Amendments, explaining that the proposal is designed to eliminate some of the ways in which bureaucrats have subverted the intention of the original law, which was to give citizens the right to know what government agencies are doing.

Nixon's Budget: Six Governors View, 6995- 7011.

Table: Maine: Impoundment of Federal funds, 6996-7001.

Table: Arkansas: Impoundment of Federal funds, 7003.

6995-7011; March 8, 1973; Muskie enters testimony from six Governors about the proposed Nixon budget, the effects of the impoundments of federal funds, and the issue of revenue sharing, all of which provoked substantial opposition from states fearing a large loss of federal funds on which their state budgets had come to depend.

Property Tax Relief and Reform Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1255), 8093

8093; March 15, 1973; Notice of Muskie’s introduction of his bill S. 1255, to provide incentives to the states to reform local and state property tax laws and provide relief to low-income property tax payers.

Property tax: introduction, 8108--8110.

Text: S. 1255, Property Tax Relief and Reform Act of 1973, 8112.

8108-8112; March 15, 1973; Muskie makes introductory remarks on S. 1255, his bill to provide relief to the states in the form of grants to states that enact property tax relief for low-income homeowners and renters, along with a programs of grants and no-interest loans to encourage the states to improve the assessment and operation of property taxes.

Budget: Cut in Social Programs, Andrew J. Biemiller, before Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, 8143-8148.

Budget: Cut in Poverty Program, Sargeant Shriver, before Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, 8145-8148.

New Federalism: Impact On State and Local Governments, by, Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, 8143

8143; March 15, 1973; Muskie notes that at his hearings on the "New Federalism" he has taken the testimony of Andy Biemiller, of the AFL-CIO, and the former director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Sargent Shriver. One of the principal goals of President Nixon’s 1974 budget was the abolition of the entire Office of Economic Opportunity and the Legal Services Program which was among its initiatives.

Federal Employee Privacy Art: enact (see bill S. 1688), 13980.

13980; May 2, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of S. 1688, an Ervin (D- North Carolina) proposal to establish a Board on Employees’ Rights for federal civil service workers to protect them against intrusive and illegal questioning and coercion by their superiors in federal agencies. At this time, personality tests, queries about ancestry and religion, and pressures to join in organized charitable giving were quite common throughout the federal workforce. The bill was designed to stem this burgeoning collection of information and to give civil servants a practical means of defending themselves against such practices.

Committee on Government Operations: hearings on property taxes, 14495.

Property taxes: hearings on, 14495

Property Tax Relief and Reform, Committee on Government Operations, B.L. Dorgan, J. Shannon, K. M. Curtis, A.C. Stauffer, T. Laverne, S. H. Hoyer, C. F. Brickfield (sundry), 14496-14512

Muskie Inclined To Agree With Allen on CLT Ties, F. Van Der Linden, Nashville Banner, 14512.

Table: Property taxes (selected data), 14498-14501

Muskie Raps Appraisal Firm Conflict "Look", E. Shannon, Nashville Tennessean, 14511.

14495-14512; May 7, 1973; Muskie says the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations has begun to examine whether property tax relief and reform might be accelerated with the help of a program of incentives to the states to streamline and professionalize the administration of state property taxes. At this time, the property tax was quite widely seen as the most unfair tax that homeowners had to pay and in some extreme cases, had even forced retirees and widows with small incomes to sell their homes because they could not afford the ever-increasing assessments which pushed their taxes up. In addition, in many states, the tax assessor’s job was an elective one, with no professional qualifications required, which did not give taxpayers the confidence that their property was being either fairly or accurately assessed. State appeals processes were typically difficult and subject to conflicts of interest, because the same taxing authority became the appeals authority, disclosure was often minimal, and important local businesses often refused to provide financial assistance to aid in achieving an accurate assessment of their properties.

Property Tax Relief and Reform Act of 1973, 14757.

What's Wrong With the Property Tax, P. Gruenstein, 14758.

Property Tax Reform Act of 1973, Committee on Government Operations, J. Rowe, 14759.

14757, 14758, 14759; May 8, 1973; Muskie notes that the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations plans a series of hearings to examine what is failing with respect to the administration of the property tax system nationwide, and notes that states are beginning to hire mass appraisal firms, either under court orders or because of legislative changes demanding new assessments, and includes information about how the mass appraisal business works in the case one firm, along with testimony from a tax research group.

Property tax: reform 17271.

Property Tax Change, L. Stillwell, Albuquerque Tribune, 17272.

Tax Scandal, Cleveland Press, 17272.

Senate Eyes Tax-Exempt Property, L. Stillwell, Fort Worth Press, 17272.

Wendy Tells Tax Burden, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 17273.

Muskie May Hold Area Tax Hearings, T. Wyngaard, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 17273.

17271, 17272, 17273; May 30, 1973; Muskie notes that there is widespread evidence that taxpayers are increasingly reaching a point of revolt against the property tax system and offers a selection of reports to buttress this claim.

Property tax: Federal role, 19605.

Resolution, property tax relief and reform, National Governors Conference, 19605

Letter: Property tax relief and reform, C. L. Rampton, 19605.

19605; June 14, 1973; Muskie notes that the National Governors’ Conference has taken a policy position on the question of property tax reform and the federal role in any such effort, and includes a copy of it with his remarks.

Revenue sharing: study of State, 25159.

Report: Preliminary Survey of General Revenue Sharing Recipient Governments, Office of Revenue Sharing, 25159.

Urban Parks and Recreation Under the New Federalism, D. R. Dunn and L. X. Lee, Parks and Recreation. 25162.

25159; July 20, 1973; Half a year after the first general revenue sharing checks were mailed to state and local governments, Muskie notes the results of a survey showing that almost three-quarters of the funds were used for nonrecurring capital costs, such as buildings, equipment, and other infrastructure, while fewer than ten percent of the money was spent on services for the poor and elderly or other disadvantaged groups.

Property Tax Reform, Association of Assessing Officers, by, 26379.

26379; July 27, 1973; Senator Percy (R-Illinois) inserts the text of a Muskie speech defending his view of the federal government’s role in property tax reform to an association of tax assessors, in which he emphasizes that the federal role is not one of coercion but of providing incentives for both relief and reform of the administration of the property tax system.

Joint Funding Simplification Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 2299), 26792

26792; July 31, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 2299, a bill to expedite the process by which state and local projects could use resources from more than one federal assistance program.

Letter: Joint Funding Simplification Act of 1973, R. L. Ash, 26805.

Joint Funding Simplification Act of 1973: introduction, 26805.

26805; July 31, 1973; Muskie briefly notes that he is introducing S. 2299, the Joint Funding Simplification Act, at the request of the Nixon administration and that it is modeled on one title of his own bill, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, and includes a transmittal letter from Roy Ash, the director of the Office of Management and Budget explaining the need for the bill.

Federal agencies: keep congressional committees fully and currently informed (see bill S. 1923), 27860.

27860; August 3, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of S. 1923, a Mathias (R-Maryland) - Ervin (D- North Carolina) bill to make it an affirmative legal requirement that all federal agencies keep their congressional oversight committees adequately and currently informed on all matters relating to the committees’ jurisdiction. This proposal was another effort to overcome the secrecy with which the Nixon administration preferred to work, and to codify into law what had been a long-standing understanding between congresses and presidents since the beginning of the republic.

 

Maine: report on Intergovernmental Personnel Act, 28534.

Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970: Maine's assessment of, 28534.

Report: Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970-Maine Government Personnel Assessment and Training Programs, 28535.

Letter: Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 report, K. M. Curtis, 28535.

28534, 28535; September 5, 1973; Muskie reports on Maine’s experience in using the grants made available under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, and how the several training sessions have improved the work of public employees at the state and local level.

Government: access to information, 38117.

Freedom of Information: problems, 38117

Report: Access to Government Information, Conference on Advocacy, 38117.

38117; November 27, 1973; Muskie comments on the recommendations of an advocacy group with respect to public access to information held by the government, and notes that much of what is recommended is contained within his amendments to the Freedom of Information Act.

Crisis of Confidence, by, 39156.

Crisis of Confidence: Senator Gurney, 39157.

Crisis of Confidence: L. Harris, 39157.

Government: crisis of confidence, 39156.

39156; December 3, 1973; Muskie releases a Louis Harris opinion poll commissioned by the subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, to discover what can be known about the opinion of the public with respect to the private and governmental institutions of the country, and their feelings of confidence or lack of it in those institutions. This survey took place in September, 1973, before the October 20 so-called "Saturday Night Massacre", on which occasion President Nixon demanded that the Independent Prosecutor appointed to investigate the Watergate scandals be fired, which caused the resignation of the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, and his immediate subordinate in the Justice Department until the third-ranking official, Solicitor General, Robert H. Bork, carried out the directive and fired Archibald Cox, the Independent Prosecutor, for demanding that President Nixon turn over tapes of his Oval Office conversations at and after the time of the Watergate burglary. It is reasonable to conclude that by the time this survey was released in December, public confidence was somewhat lower than it had been in September. The poll was an unprecedented use of public-opinion sampling by the Congress, and as such, it commanded wide attention and interest.

Survey of Public Attitudes: print additional copies (see S. Con. Res. 61), 41559

41559; December 14, 1973; Muskie submits S. Con. Res. 61, a concurrent resolution to the effect that there be printed for the use of the Senate Committee on Government Operations 2000 additional copies of Part I of its committee print entitled :"Confidence and concern: Citizens View American Government – A Survey of Public Attitudes," dated December 3, 1973.

CIVIL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

McBridge, Roger: faithless elector, 414

Electoral college: reform, 414.

414; January 6, 1973; Muskie notes that when the Senate considers the count of the Electoral College following the 1972 election, there will be another elector who will ignore the votes of the people in the State of Virginia and cast his vote for the Libertarian candidate instead of for President Nixon, who won the Virginia vote, and says that this is yet another proof of the need to amend the constitution to provide for the direct election of the president. In 1969, four years earlier, Muskie attempted to get the Senate to bar the vote of a similar elector who cast his vote for Governor George Wallace, although his state, North Carolina, had voted for Nixon.

Nixon, Richard M.: separation of powers, 433.

Congress: erosion of powers, 434.

Tyranny of silence, New York Times, 434

No Exit for Congress, New York Times, 434

433, 434; January 6, 1973; Muskie makes a brief statement about the Nixon administration’s apparent unwillingness to cooperate with the Congress and includes a couple of editorials, one of which focuses on the previous month’s "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam, and the destruction of a hospital in Hanoi. This statement was made before the end-of-January Paris Peace Accords on Vietnam were signed.

News media: freedom of the press, 3021

Free press: public right to know, 3021.

3021; February 1, 1973; Muskie comments that a recent action of the Nixon administration in arresting a reporter even though he had not taken government documents or otherwise evidently broken the law constitutes an effort to intimidate free reporting and commentary by the media.

Speedy Trial Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 754), 3261.

3261; February 5, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of the Ervin (D- North Carolina) bill, S. 754, which was designed to give effect to the Sixth Amendment, the right to a speedy trial, by requiring each state to develop a plan under which criminal defendants would be brought to trial within 60 days, and providing help to the states to accomplish this goal.

Law Day: pay tribute to law enforcement officers (see S.J. Res. 11), 4038.

4038; February 8, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Hollings (D- South Carolina) resolution, S. J. Res. 11, to pay tribute to law enforcement officers on May 1, 1973, Law Day.

District of Columbia: representation In Congress (see S.J. Res. 76), 7714.

7714; March 14, 1973; Muskie is listed as a cosponsor of S. J. Res. 76, a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to grant the District of Columbia representation in the Congress.

Frostburg State College, by, 10471.

10471; April 2, 1973; Senator Hart (D- Michigan) inserts the text of a Muskie speech on the Nixon administration’s proposal to create a "National Secrecy Act" that would create a criminal felony for the possession of classified material by anyone not authorized to possess it. As Muskie notes, the secrecy provisions of this proposal would, in effect, require news reporters to incriminate both their confidential news sources and themselves if they published or used classified information of any kind – not just such classified information which might damage the security interests of the United States. At this time, with President Nixon’s own possible misuse of the FBI and the CIA under increasingly close scrutiny due to the Watergate scandals, there was intense debate over the right of a reporter to refuse to identify his sources, and Congress had before it proposals to create a "shield law" to grant news reporters greater immunity from potential prosecution.

Parole Commission Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1463), 10964.

10964; April 4, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. 1463, a Burdick (D- North Dakota) bill which would replace the Parole Board with a federal Parole Commission, and give its members a greater range of responsibilities and a smaller caseload. The bill was prompted, in part, by the Nixon administration’s claim that it had all the power necessary to reform the Parole Board and would not need legislative authority to do so.

Ash, Roy L.: refusal to testify, 10984.

Refusal of Roy Ash To Testify, Senators Ervin and, 10984.

Letter: Request to testify before Committee on Government Operations, exchange of correspondence between R. L. Ash and Senators Ervin and Muskie, l0985.

10984, 10985; April 4, 1973; Muskie notes that both he and Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) are dissatisfied with the refusal of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Roy Ash, to comply with their request that he provide testimony on government procedures for the release of information at their joint hearings on the questions of executive privilege and government information, and supplies copies of their correspondence. Roy Ash’s nomination was the catalyst that led Congress later in the year to require all future Directors of the Office of Management and Budget to be subject to confirmation. In addition to stonewalling the Senate on this specific matter, Ash had indicated he would not step aside from budget and management decisions at the Navy, even though there was an ongoing half-billion-dollar dispute between the Navy and his former employer, the defense contractor, Litton Industries.

Government secrecy, 11592.

United States Versus the People, New York Times, 11592.

11592; April 10, 1973; Muskie notes that he and Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) will co-chair hearings on the administration’s proposals on making release of classified information a felony offense in all cases, a proposal he criticized when it was first offered as part of a much broader codification of the criminal law.

Executive Privilege: R. G. Kleindienst, Senator Fulbright, and C. M. Clifford (sundry) 11621-11627.

11621-11627; April 10, 1973; Muskie reports on the joint hearings being held on the issue of executive privilege and provides the testimony of Attorney General Kleindienst, Senator Fulbright, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Clark Clifford, a former Secretary of Defense. The issue of executive privilege and the withholding of information from the Congress had been exacerbated at this time because a month earlier, amidst burgeoning Watergate stories in the media, President Nixon made the claim that he would not permit any of his White House staff to testify before any Congressional Committee, and that this immunity to examination would also be extended to former staff, even if they had returned to private life. No other president ever attempted to sweep such a broad swathe of potential information under the executive privilege shield, and because it was broadly suspected that the claim was made, not to serve any legitimate national interest, but to protect the President against investigations of his political committee’s activities in the 1972 election, the claim was not, at the time, very persuasive.

Executive Privilege: Senator Stevenson, 12172.

Executive Privilege: R. Berger, 12174.

12172; April 12, 1973; Muskie says the joint hearings being held by his subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations and the Ervin (D- North Carolina) subcommittee on Separation of Powers is exploring the claim of executive privilege by President Nixon in refusing to permit his White House staff, including former White House staff, to testify formally before any Congressional Committee on any grounds whatever.

In a March 2 press conference, the President said that although he would "cooperate" fully with Congressional investigations, he would not permit White House counsel to testify, and on March 12 released his formal statement on executive privilege and its application to former and current White House staff. By this time, John Dean had refused to testify in the hearings on L. Patrick Gray’s nomination to be the Director of the FBI, and on April 5, the Gray nomination was withdrawn. Despite his earlier claim of full "cooperation" in President Nixon’s March 15 press conference, he declined to permit White House staff to meet informally with Senators and said he would "welcome" a court test of his position.

Meantime, the press was reporting that in the preliminaries to the open public Watergate hearings, the President had suggested closed meetings between his staff and Senators, written interrogatories and other means of having the staff testify in any format except in the open public hearings that Senator Ervin insisted upon.

An Anti-secrecy Plan, Montclair State College, by, 14155

14155; May 3, 1973; Senator Hart (D- Michigan) inserts the text of a Muskie speech given at Montclair State College, describing the impasse between the legislative and executive branches over the scope and strength of the claim of executive privilege raised by President Nixon against the Congress.

Executive Privilege and Government Secrecy, Committee on Government Operations, Senator Hughes, 15161.

Establish Commission on Executive Secrecy, Committee on Government Operations, Representative Mink, 15163.

15161, 15163; May 10, 1973; Muskie notes that at the joint hearings he and Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) are holding on the broad question of executive privilege and secrecy, testimony from two members of Congress provides additional evidence of the way that executive refusal to share information impedes the work of the Congress.

Judicial disqualification bill: enact (see bill S. 1064), 16708.

16708; May 23, 1973; Muskie’s name is added as a cosponsor to S. 1064, a Burdick (D- North Dakota) bill which seeks to amend the Canons of Judicial Ethics in conformity with the recommendations made by the American Bar Association in August, 1972, so as to clarify the disqualification rules under which federal judges can seek to avoid sitting on cases where their impartiality may be in question. This clarification of rules arose in the wake of the Senate’s 1969 refusal to confirm the nomination of Judge Clement Haynsworth to the Supreme Court, in part because of ethical questions raised during the confirmation hearings.

Federal officers and employees: relative to information by (see S. Con. Res. 30), 18792.

Executive Privilege, by, 18793.

18792, 18793; June 8, 1973; Muskie is a principal sponsor, along with Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) of a concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 30, which was developed as a result of their joint hearings on the claims of executive privilege made by President Nixon during the preceding weeks, generally in defense of his refusal to permit his staff to testify about their knowledge of the Watergate break-in and related matters. By the time of introduction of this resolution, the top presidential staff had resigned, the president’s counsel had been conspicuously fired, and the Attorney General, Richard Kleindienst, had also resigned. The Senate Watergate Committee, which was chaired by Senator Ervin, had begun its hearings in mid-May.

Essay: Secrecy and the Presidency, R. Berger, 25651.

25651; July 24, 1973; Muskie notes that Raoul Berger, a noted constitutional scholar, has remarked that President Nixon’s contemporaneous refusal to permit the files of his former White House staff to be produced for the Watergate investigation is tantamount to permitting a bank to dictate which books a bank examiner may see, and concludes that this assertion of a right to withhold information from the Congress is extremely dubious.

Bitsakou, Penelope C.: for relief (see bill S. 2306), 27114.

27114; August 1, 1973; Notice only of the introduction of S. 2306, a private bill for the relief of Penelope C. Bitsakou. Private bills were more frequently used at this time to rectify unforeseeable problems that periodically arose when agency regulations or limits on agency actions created unfair situations. Persons who were unable for legal reasons to bring suit for redress would request private legislation to carve out an exception to take account of their individual circumstances.

As the administrative flexibility and reach of agencies has expanded over the decades, the need for such private bills has also contracted, although any Senator can introduce a private legislative relief bill whenever a situation arises that seems to call for this solution. Private bills are generally processed by the Judiciary Committee, which seeks to secure administrative relief wherever possible. In that sense, private bills can be seen as a kind of extended casework, where an individual’s claim is pursued by people expert in the field.

Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Select): Watergate Investigation, 27146.

Executive privilege: claim overruled, 27146.

27146; August 1, 1973; Muskie notes that in an instance arising during the Watergate hearings, Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) the chairman, rejected a Presidential claim to withhold testimony requested by the committee. By this time, the fact that President Nixon had taped virtually all his Oval Office conversations had been made public and the Watergate investigating committee had requested that tapes relevant to the dates on which significant Watergate-related conversations had occurred be turned over. President Nixon refused, a refusal that made many Americans suspect that he was holding back, not because of a desire to protect the privileges of the presidency, as he claimed, but rather to protect himself. This public suspicion was exacerbated when H.R. Haldeman, formerly the White House chief of staff, revealed that he had been permitted to hear some portion of the tapes, but that he could not describe what they contained because the President had claimed a general broad right to withhold all the tapes from any and all persons. It was this refusal to testify about a matter which was directly at the heart of the conflicting claims in Watergate on which Senator Ervin overruled the presidential claim.

Congressional Right to Information enact (see bill S. 2432), 30066.

30066; September 18, 1973; Notice only of the introduction of S. 2432, a bill jointly sponsored by Muskie and Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) which would require federal executive agencies to produce information that is requested by the Congress.

Introduction of Congressional Right to Information Act, by, 30072.

30072; September 18, 1973; Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) and Muskie both make introductory remarks on the bill they jointly sponsor, S. 2432, the Congressional Right to Information Act, a bill favorably reported by Muskie’s subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, which allowed for withholding the salary of a federal civil servant and supervisor who refused to provide information requested by a committee of the Congress, following the approval of a concurrent resolution to impose such a sanction. This measure was part of the overall year-long argument between the Congress and the President over the existence and reach of the claim of "executive privilege" which President Nixon made often. The argument was exacerbated by the Watergate scandals, a central element of which was President Nixon’s refusal to release the tapes of Oval Office conversations requested by the special committee holding hearings on the scandals.

Special Prosecutor: establish independent (see bill S. 2611), 35076.

35076; October 26, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of S. 2611, a Bayh (D- Indiana) bill to establish an Independent Prosecutor to take up the Watergate case. This bill was introduced six days after the event that became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre." On October 20, at about 8:30 in the evening, the White House Press Secretary announced that the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, had resigned, the Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus had been discharged, the Independent Counsel appointed by the Attorney General had been dismissed by Solicitor General Robert Bork, along with his 81-man staff and their offices sealed by the FBI. Richardson and Ruckelshaus both issued letters of resignation, saying they could not, in good conscience, fire Cox.

This event, which effectively began the process of unraveling the Watergate coverup, came as the climax of a period during which President Nixon sought ever-more-unlikely ways of preventing the tapes of his Oval Office conversations from being disclosed. He had reached an agreement with the committee that he would release a summary of the conversations they sought, but that only one person, Senator Stennis (D- Mississippi), to whom he rather bizarrely referred to as "Judge" Stennis (Stennis served as a Mississippi circuit judge from 1937 to 1947), could listen to them. Cox said he refused to agree with this proposal and would continue to turn to the federal district court to demand the tapes for his criminal investigations, whereupon Nixon issued the instruction to fire him.

Public outrage was immediate and massive, as the White House phone lines were jammed and

telegrams and letters poured into congressional offices. Several bills of impeachment were introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate began to look at ways of preventing any future independent counsel suffering the same fate as Cox.

Resolving the Constitutional Crisis, University of Toledo, by, 36143.

36143; November 7, 1973; Senator Hart (D- Michigan) inserts the text of a Muskie speech on the Watergate situation, given three days after the event known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", when President Nixon instructed the independent counsel investigating Watergate to seek no more information or data of any kind from the White House and, on his refusal to agree, fired him, forcing the resignations of the two top officials in the Justice Department first. Muskie concludes, in this speech, that the time for impeachment has come.

Electronic surveillance: committee hearings on, 41564, 41565.

Wiretapping: committee hearings on, 41564, 41565.

41564, 41565; December 14, 1973; Muskie describes the creation of a new Subcommittee on Surveillance, which he chairs and which was an outgrowth of the confirmation hearings on Henry Kissinger’s nomination to be Secretary of State. Kissinger had the office and home telephones of some of his staff and some reporters tapped in the effort to discover who was leaking information to the press.

Congressional Right to Information Act bill (S. 2432) to enact, 42104.

Federal officers and employees: procedure assuring Congress of access to information from, 42104.

42104; December 18, 1973; During debate on S. 2432, the Congressional Right to Information Act, Muskie speaks briefly, noting that the subject matter of the bill is not one that can be written into law and that the bill, instead, provides an orderly process for adjudication by the courts when there is a conflict between Congress and the Executive over information sought by the former which the latter does not wish to provide.

42106; December 18, 1973; Following debate and unanimous votes on both S. 2432 and S. Con. Res. 30, which provides internal Senate and House rules for considering disputes over information withheld by the Executive branch, Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) thanks Muskie for the work he shared in putting both legislative proposals together.

MISCELLANEOUS

1973 1^st Session, 93^rd Congress

Harry S. Truman Institute, by, 365.

Truman, Harry S: eulogy, 364, 365, 3507, 4403

Memorial Service for President Truman. D. Berent, 4403.

364, 365; January 4, 1973; Muskie speaks on the death of former President Truman, who died on December 26, 1972, while the Congress was out of session. It is customary for the Senate to offer eulogies on the first available day of a new session when the death of a former colleague or President has occurred during a period of adjournment.

3507; February 6, 1973; During a time formally set aside for memorial tributes to the late President Truman, Muskie makes his statement. Formal sessions of this nature make it possible for Members to schedule to attend and speak, and it is a tradition in the Senate that remarks delivered in such a session are collected and printed as a book for the family of the deceased.

4403; February 19, 1973; Muskie mentions he has had many letters and expressions of sorrow over the death of President Truman and includes a speech given at a memorial prayer service held on December 31, 1972, in Lewiston, Maine.

Martin Luther King Day: designate (see S. J. Res. 20) 1138

1138; January 16, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Brooke (R-Massachusetts) resolution, S. J. Res. 20, which would designate January 15 of each year as Martin Luther King Day.

Johnson, Lyndon B.: eulogy, 1846, 2097.

1846; January 23, 1973; Muskie makes a statement on the death of former President Johnson, focusing on his domestic policy goals and his strong record of achievement in fields ranging from health care to civil rights.

2097; January 24, 1973; Muskie makes a somewhat longer statement on the death of former

President Johnson. It is the practice to reproduce the remarks of Members of Congress on the death of former Presidents in a specially published book for the family members and associates of the deceased.

Afro-American History Week: proclaim (see S.J. Res. 56), 6517.

6517; March 6, 1973; Muskie’s name is added as a cosponsor to S. J. Res. 56, a Cranston resolution to authorize the president to proclaim the week containing February 12 and 14 as Afro-American History Week.

Essay: My Responsibility to Freedom, Ruth E. Comber, 6556.

6556; March 6, 1973; Muskie notes that on a recent visit to his office by a group from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he was given an essay on freedom by one of his constituents, and includes it with his remarks.

National Hunting and Fishing Day: establish (see S.J. Res. 24), 8712.

8712; March 20, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. J. Res. 24, a McIntyre (D-New Hampshire) resolution to establish the fourth Saturday of each September as National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Smith, Margaret Chase: tribute, 9181.

Margaret Chase Smith 9181.

9181; March 22, 1973; Muskie announces that former Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s home in Skowhegan, Maine, will become a library in her honor, and pays tribute to the courage she showed during the McCarthy period, when she helped lead Republican Senators in a Declaration of Conscience.

Town Meeting: Alive and Well In Maine, Day Thorpe, Washington Star-News, 9175.

9175; March 22, 1973; Muskie recommends an article about the Town Meeting in Blue Hill, Maine, which describes the town itself and the manner in which it determines its spending and other priorities.

Sermon, Forgotten Values, W.J. Robbins, 11910

11910; April 11, 1973; Muskie notes that a memorable sermon was recently delivered at a Maine church and includes the text of it.

What's Margaret Smith Doing? B. Caldwell, Maine Telegram, 12674.

12674; April 16, 1973; Muskie inserts a press article to answer questions he says he’s always being asked about what former Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) is doing in her retirement. Following the 1972 elections, in which Senator Smith was defeated, stories in some Maine papers appeared to suggest that the electoral defeat had rendered her a bitter recluse, an impression this article seeks to set straight.

Relative to sympathy on death of mother of, 17566.

17566; May 31; Senator Mansfield (D- Montana), the Senate majority leader, makes a brief comment of sympathy on the news of the death of Muskie’s mother. During the previous year’s campaign, Josephine Czarnecka Muskie had attracted some news stories with her reaction to her son’s career.

Remarks in House relative to: Muskie, Josephine Czarnecka, eulogy, 18410

18410; June 6, 1973; Congressman Cohen (R-Maine) makes a brief comment expressing the sympathy of the people of his district upon the death of Muskie’s mother.

Constitution Day: designate (see S.J. Res. 117), 19969.

19969; June 18, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to S. J. Res. 117, an Inouye (D- Hawaii) resolution to request and authorize the president to issue a proclamation designating September 11, 1973, as Constitution Day.

Cayer, Robert H.: tribute, 20868.

Coughlin, James B.: death In Rabat, Morocco, 20868.

Letter: Tribute to Robert H. Cayer, by E. C. Coughlin, 20868

20868; June 22, 1973; Muskie notes that a constituent from Rumford, Maine, died unexpectedly in Rabat, Morocco and that his family has asked him to mention in the Congressional Record the help and sympathy they received at the hands of Robert H. Cayer, the Vice Consul, in being able to travel in time to be at their son’s bedside before his death.

Letter: Termination of status as a Senator, Margaret Chase Smith, 22588.

Letter: Recent activities of Margaret Chase Smith, W. C. Lewis, 22588.

Smith, Margaret Chase, recent activities 22588

22588; June 30, 1973; On the occasion of her severing her final official ties with the Senate, following a six-month period in which Senators were given mailing privileges and permitted some space to pack up and remove their papers, former Senator Margaret Chase Smith sent a letter to her former colleagues along with some information on her activities and plans for the future. Muskie made mention of this on the Senate floor.

Stennis, John C.: return to Senate tribute, 28474.

28474; September 5, 1973; Muskie makes brief remarks welcoming back Senator Stennis (D- Mississippi) who had returned to the Senate after having been absent for some months. Senator Stennis was the victim of a shooting in the course of an attempted mugging and because he was 70 years old at the time, his recovery had taken several months.

Crank Call Saved by Bell, Washington Star-News, 30514.

30514; September 19, 1973; Muskie announces that in a recent hearing where the citizens of the town of Bryant Pond defended their old magneto telephone system, the public services commission had concluded that the problems arising with it stemmed from the unfamiliarity of Bell Telephone personnel being unfamiliar with the magneto system, and not from any fault in the system itself. Bryant Pond became the last town in the country to have hand-cranked telephones. The system remained in service until October 11, 1983.

Senator Hughes Wants to Work for God, L. Shearer, Parade, 35387.

Hughes Harold: tribute, 35387.

35387; October 30, 1973; Muskie makes a statement about the forthcoming retirement of Senator Harold Hughes (D- Iowa) who had announced he did not plan a reelection run in 1974 and was instead turning to a career as a lay preacher.

Marcy, Carl M.: retirement, 38610.

38610; November 20, 1973; Muskie speaks about the planned retirement of Carl Marcy, who served as chief of staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 18 years, and had announced he would leave at the end of December.

Johnson, Nicholas: retirement tribute, 40176.

40176; December 7, 1973; Muskie notes Nicholas Johnson’s retirement from a seven year term of service as a Federal Communications Commissioner, and praises his approach to the regulation of the broadcasting industry.

POLITICAL, CAMPAIGN REFORM

1973 93rd Congress, 1st Session

Voter Registration Assistance Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 472), 1340

1340; January 18, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of a Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) bill, S. 472, to establish a Voter Registration Bureau within the Census Bureau, and to establish a system of grant incentives to the states to encourage voter registration and modernize and improve registration practices, on a voluntary basis.

Voter Registration Administration: establish (see bill S. 352), 4373.

4373; February 19, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor of McGee bill S. 352, creating a voter registration administration in the Census Bureau, and establishing a system for postcard registration for federal elections, with funds to help states process the postcard registrations and encourage the broad adoption of a national registration system for both federal and state elections by providing funding incentives.

Presidential Election Campaign Fund: designation of payments on front page of income tax return (see bill S. 1109), 7771.

7771; March 14, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Mondale (D- Minnesota) bill, S. 1109, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide that the designation of voluntary contributions to the presidential election campaign fund which taxpayers can choose to make with no increase in their tax burden, be placed on the front page of the taxpayer’s income tax return form. The strong opposition of many Republicans to the presidential election fund made some at the time fear that even though Congress created the fund, the means to put it into effect could be defeated if it became part of a separate tax schedule or was in some other way made inconspicuous or difficult to find.

Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act: amend (see bill S. 1121), 8398.

8398; March 19, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) bill, S. 1121, to amend the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act to broaden its requirements for registering and reporting to persons and organizations expending more than $250 per annum on direct lobbying, instead of the existing requirement in the law that regulated only persons whose principal activity was lobbying. The bill would also cover grassroots groups expending more than $1000 per annum.

Response to President's TV address, 10648.

10648; April 3, 1973; The Majority Leader of the House, Thomas (Tip) O’Neill (D-Massachusetts) expresses frustration that when the Democratic Leadership of the Congress chose Muskie to deliver a response to a Nixon broadcast speech, the three networks refused to provide live coverage, thus, in effect, allowing the President untrammeled and uncontested access to an estimated 100 million Americans. At this time, virtually the only television most Americans could receive were the three national networks. When they chose to carry a live program simultaneously, they reached the entire potential audience and, moreover, created a situation in which many had no alternative except to watch. At this time, the cable industry was in its early infancy and used primarily for providing television access where broadcasting air waves could not, for topographical reasons, be received, and the network of public broadcasting stations did not cover the whole country.

Senator Muskie's Response to Nixon address, 10677.

10677; April 3, 1973; Senator Mansfield (D- Montana), the Majority Leader, questions the judgment of the media in refusing to carry a Congressional response to a Nixon speech, and includes the text of Muskie’s speech.

At this time, the Watergate affair had not yet forced the President to let his senior advisors resign, and he was still claiming that "executive privilege" allowed him to bar all his staff from testifying about it. But more and more questions were being raised, and press reports were increasingly expressing skepticism at the claim that there was no White House involvement in Watergate.

On March 23, just eleven days earlier, Judge Sirica presided over the sentencing of the Watergate burglars and read aloud a letter from James McCord, one of those convicted, which asserted that political pressure had been brought to bear to ensure their silence and that perjury had been committed in the course of the trial.

At the same time, there was increasing Congressional and public opposition to the idea of providing foreign aid to North Vietnam while cutting domestic programs, which the President had announced, inflationary pressures were high, and the President continued to veto popular legislation, such as health care for veterans, the vocational rehabilitation act, wastewater treatment funding, as well as impounding appropriated funds without consultation with Congress.

Following his reelection in November 1972, President Nixon announced he had won a "mandate" and in many respects proceeded to behave as though he was unaccountable to anyone for his decisions and actions.

Presidential election campaign of 1972: Appoint Special Prosecutor (see S. Res. 109), 14704.

Letter: Appointment of independent prosecutor in Watergate affair, E. L. Richardson, by, 14704.

14704; May 8, 1973; Muskie is shown as a cosponsor of S. Res. 109, a Stevenson (D- Illinois) resolution spelling out the precise authority and rights of any Special Prosecutor who might be appointed by the Attorney General, a question which arose when the serving Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, was forced to resign along with President Nixon’s Chief of Staff and Domestic Policy advisor and Nixon proposed to fill the position with Elliot Richardson, who had been serving as Secretary of Defense, after having also served as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

In the course of his confirmation hearings, Richardson said he intended to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair, but indicated that such an individual would still be an employee of the Justice Department and thus, could be dismissed. Muskie and others wrote a letter to Richardson setting forth their understanding of the extent of independence that a Special Prosecutor ought to have if his investigation of the administration were to be credible.

Press and the Politicians, Public Society of America, C. Daniel, 14751

14751; May 8, 1973; Muskie notes that Clifton Daniel, the Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, has given a speech about the first amendment issues implicated in the Pentagon Papers case and in the current debate over news reporters’ shield laws.

Letter: Appointment of prosecutor to investigate Watergate affair, E. L. Richardson, by, 16754.

16754; May 23, 1973; During the course of debate on the nomination of Elliot Richardson to become Attorney General, Senator Stevenson (D- Illinois) includes an exchange of letters about the powers of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair free of control by the Department of Justice.

President Nixon nominated Elliot Richardson to become Attorney General when Richard Kleindienst, who held the job, was forced to resign, as it became evident that he had had some involvement in the Watergate affair. As a condition of confirmation, the Senate Judiciary Committee had demanded that Richardson offer certain guarantees about the conduct of the Watergate investigation, and Muskie was one of those who signed onto the letters from Senators setting forth terms. Richardson dispelled most of these concerns by naming a former solicitor general, Archibald Cox, to the post before his confirmation. Although the insistence by Senators on specific issues can appear obsessive, it is hard to overstate the extent to which President Nixon’s post-election behavior and actions had increased suspicion of his motives by this time.

Leaders Must Tell Truth, Grave of Franklin D. Roosevelt, by, 17283.

17283; May 30, 1973; Senator Hart (D- Michigan) notes that Muskie spoke about the need for leaders of a democratic society to be honest with the people at a commemorative for Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Hyde Park, and includes the text of the statement. In these remarks, Muskie is clearly speaking about all the penchant for secrecy which was a hallmark of the Nixon presidency and became exaggerated immediately after his reelection in 1972, and worsened as the flow of news about the Watergate affair became a flood.

News media: Nixon administration's relations with, 19456.

Report: Press Covers Government: Nixon Years From 1969 to Watergate, American University, Report: Department of Communication, 19456-19469.

19456-19469; June 13, 1973; Muskie presents a report jointly developed by the National Press Club and the Department of Communication at American University, which studied the relations between the Nixon administration and the national media during the first term. The report is critical, but there is little question that the hostility in this relationship was present on both sides in at least equal intensity. The document is an excellent and contemporaneously accurate rendering of the mutually incompatible goals of the Nixon administration and the press.

Political campaigns: public financing of, 25981.

Congressional Election Finance Act of 1973 bill (S. 1103), 25981.

25981; July 25, 1973; Muskie joins in a colloquy with other Democratic Senators to speak out on the proposed campaign finance reform bill that the Senate will take up, and makes the argument that because those who contribute to political campaigns do so to the candidates who share their views, there is an insurmountable public perception that the process is corrupt in some way, and that this can only be corrected by eliminating private contributions and relying on public financing of political campaigns.

By this time, the hearings of the Watergate committee had generated enough information about the conduct of fund raising in the 1972 Nixon campaign to spur a great deal of self-protective effort in the Congress to reform the whole system. At the time, the Nixon administration’s fund raising efforts were seen as something of a shakedown racket, with some reason.

Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1973: amend bill (S. 372) to enact, 26314.

26314; July 27, 1973; During debate on S. 372, the campaign financing reform bill, Senator Hart (D- Michigan) asks that Muskie be added as a cosponsor of his amendment to propose limits to the contributions that individuals can made to candidates.

Watergate Affair, by, 29432

29432; September 12, 1973; Senator Mansfield (D- Montana), the Senate Majority Leader, recommends and includes the text of a speech Muskie gave at Georgetown University defending the Watergate investigative hearings by the Senate committee as an exercise in regaining control of the institutions of government. By this time in the course of the Watergate scandals, the Nixon administration and the President himself were accusing the committee of partisan witch hunting, although few Americans gave much credit to such claims.

Presidential Response Time Act: enact (see bill S. 2699), 37027.

Presidential Response Time Act: Introduction, 37028.

Text: S. 2699, Presidential Response Time Act, 37028.

Television: political use of, 37028.

Opposition Needs a Fair Shake on TV Time, N. Minow, J. B. Martin and L. M. Mitchell, Washington Star, 37029.

37027; November 14, 1973; Notice only of the introduction of Muskie’s bill, S. 2699, a proposal which would require that during elections years, equal time be provided to the opposition party whenever a president seeks national broadcast time for himself.

37028, 37029; November 14, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 2699, the Presidential Response Time Act, and notes that scholars of television and its impact on the public and political debate have advocated a range of steps that could be taken to preserve the balance between presidential and congressional authority in establishing national policy.

At this time, the Federal Communications Commission enforced an "equal time" requirement on broadcasters to the effect that broadcasts on significant public issues had to be balanced by an opportunity for those on the other side to present their differing views. In practice, this meant that some television stations provided a once-a-week opportunity for members of the public to make a brief editorial comment on local news shows. In general, however, the requirement was not strongly enforced and many stations did little or nothing to affirmatively adhere to it. This requirement, of course, did not apply to network broadcasting, which was then by far the most significant disseminator of national issues.

Sabotage of 1972 political campaign, 37265

Sabotage of Political Campaign, B. I. Bernhard, 37265.

37265; November 15, 1973; Senator Hughes (D- Iowa) inserts the testimony of Berl I. Bernhard, the campaign manager of Muskie’s 1972 presidential race, before the Watergate committee, detailing the various political tricks and tactics with which the campaign had to contend and which had since been shown to be a consciously planned tactic of the Nixon reelection effort. By the time this testimony was given, the committee’s daily hearings were no longer televised, as the earlier ones had been, and the so-called Saturday Night Massacre of October 20, 1973, when the President ordered the Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox, to be fired, remained a far more newsworthy issue.

Effects of Watergate, University of Nevada, by, 37768.

Opinions on Watergate, 37768.

Muskie Says Impeachment May Be Best, Las Vegas Sun, 37770.

37768, 37770; November 20, 1973; Senator Stevenson (D- Illinois) says a recent Muskie statement at the University of Nevada summarizes the dilemma bought on by President Nixon’s actions in firing the special prosecutor in the Watergate case on October 20. By mid-October, the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, had been pursuing several of the taped conversations that the President had around the time of the Watergate break-in and with his counsel, John Dean, who in testimony had given his version of those conversations.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals had ruled that the President must permit the judge in the Watergate case, John Sirica, to listen to the tapes in order to determine whether or not their contents would be relevant to the case. The President’s argument was that the tapes were covered by "executive privilege" and could not be heard by anyone, a claim that was somewhat undermined when his ex-chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, revealed that he had listened to several tapes at the President’s own instruction.

On Saturday, October 20, President Nixon instructed his Attorney General to fire the special prosecutor, thus precipitating the resignation of Attorney General Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. He took this action after he had announced he would not comply with the Appeals Court order to turn over the tapes and would not appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court for a final adjudication, but would, instead provide "summaries" of the tapes, allegedly authenticated by Senator Stennis (D- Mississippi). The "Saturday Night Massacre", as this firing became known, caused a massive outpouring of negative public reaction, directly to the White House as well as to the Congress, and more than one impeachment resolution was immediately introduced. When the President later that week placed all U.S. troops, worldwide, on alert – the first worldwide alert since the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 – the nation began to question, not merely the President’s honesty but his stability. His belated promise to turn the tapes over to the judge did little to allay the situation.

When the tapes were turned over, two were claimed not to exist and one was found to have an eighteen and a half minute buzz instead of the recorded conversation. This outcome did not increase confidence in the President.

Debt limit: amend bill (H.R. 11104) to increase, 38088, 38177.

38088; November 27, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) amendment, No. 651 to the debt limit bill, H.R. 11104. The amendment would have added a provision to cover House and Senate elections to the public election funding provisions for presidential campaigns.

38177; November 27, 1973; Muskie is again listed as one of the cosponsors when Senator Kennedy calls up his amendment and discusses it.

Debt limit: bill (H.R. 11104) to provide for a temporary increase in public, 38197.

Public financing of Federal election campaigns: amendment to bill (H.R. 11104) to provide, 38197.

38197; November 27, 1973; During debate on H.R. 11104, Muskie speaks in favor of an amendment that would have established public campaign financing for congressional and presidential elections, describing the structure of the proposal and saying its cost would be minimal compared with the reform it would introduce to the entire political system. By this time, a General Accounting Office audit of the Nixon election campaign finances had already resulted in a eight guilty pleas by the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) and the fact that Maurice Stans, the former Commerce Secretary who became the 1972 campaign’s chief fund-raiser had controlled a cash account worth $350,000 was known, along with the many complaints from corporate executives of what was essentially a shakedown by the Nixon fundraisers in pursuit of dollars for the reelection campaign. Maurice Stans raised an estimated $60 million for the Nixon reelection effort, an unprecedented sum at this time.

Ford, Gerald R., nomination to be Vice President, 38221.

38221; November 27, 1973; On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and made a court appearance at which he pleaded "no contest" (nolo contendere) to a charge of federal tax evasion in exchange for the government’s dropping charges of political corruption. Agnew’s downfall was caused by his habitual acceptance of bribes from Maryland construction firms, a practice he apparently began as governor of Maryland, and which he continued while serving as Vice President.

President Nixon nominated the minority leader of the House, Gerald Ford of Michigan to replace him, and to ensure that no possible scandal could be attached to Ford, an extremely exhaustive background check was undertaken. While the Ford nomination was pending, the President fired the Special Prosecutor in the Watergate case, an action which precipitated a firestorm of public anger and led to calls for his impeachment. This was the first and so far only time in U.S. history that it seemed possible that both presidential and vice presidential slots might be unoccupied at the same time, a possibility not foreseen by any provision of the Constitution. As a result, Muskie’s statement on the Ford confirmation refers to the proposals some made to have a special election instead of allowing President Nixon to select his own successor.

New Breed in Maine Legislature, J. Brunelle, Maine Telegram, 39053.

Maine: tribute to legislature, 39053.

39053; December 1, 1973; Muskie notes that since his days in the Maine legislature and as Governor, he has always believed the States have the capability to take a real share in government and illustrates his views with a story about the maturation of the Maine Legislature from the Maine Sunday Telegram.

SENATE RULES, PROCEDURES, ASSIGNMENTS, HOUSEKEEPING

1973 1^st Session, 93^rd Congress

Elected to Committee, 320

320; January 4, 1973; Muskie’s name appears along with those of all other Senators, as pro forma votes are taken on the Committee memberships for the new Congress. Committee membership assignments are made in each party’s caucus and formally ratified on the Senate floor.

Committee reports: new forms (see bill S. 200), 2707

2707; January 31, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) bill, S. 200, which would have required that any new forms, reports, and revisions of forms required by a proposed piece of legislation be contained in the reports of the committees to allow those potentially affected by the legislation to see what paperwork would be associated with it if it became law.

Memorials of legislature: Maine, 4395, 9977, 35393.

4395; February 19, 1973; Muskie, for himself and Hathaway (D- Maine) notes the passage by the Maine Legislature of a resolution passed by the Maine state legislature in recognition of the end of the war in Vietnam.

9977; March 28, 1973; Muskie, for himself and Hathaway (D- Maine) introduces two resolutions adopted by the Maine state legislature, one in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion and the other in support of demanding a full accounting of all American prisoners of war and those missing in action.

35393; October 30, 1973; In the course of a Muskie statement about the Passamaquaoddy power project, an idea first launched in 1919 to utilize the high tides on the Maine-Canadian border to generate power, he includes a copy of a memorial passed by the Maine legislature in favor of the proposal.

Senate: privilege of the floor, 11036, 15214, 20401, 21663, 22296, 24545, 25054, 41047, 41636, 41917.

Senate rules permit that only Senators and direct employees of the Senate, such as the desk clerk, may speak or act on the Senate floor. Staff who are on a list of persons having "floor privileges" may obtain a time-limited pass to the Chamber, but must leave when a vote begins. Staff are permitted to remain physically in the Chamber throughout votes and without being time-limited only with the unanimous consent of all Senators. The normal practice is to request consent for staff members, by name, for the duration of a debate.

11036; April 4, 1973; During debate on a budget amendment to S. 929, Muskie asks unanimous consent that two committee staffers, Jim Hall and Al From, be given the privilege of the Senate floor.

15214; May 10, 1973; During debate on S. 373, the budget and impoundment bill, Muskie asks that Al From and Jim Hall be given the privilege of the Senate floor.

20401; June 20, 1973; During debate on S. 268, the land use planning act, Muskie asks that Leon Billings and Don Alexander have the privilege of the Senate floor.

21663; June 27, 1973; During debate on H.R. 8410, to lift the statutory debt ceiling, Muskie requests that Reid Feldman of his staff be given the privilege of the Senate floor.

22296; June 29, 1973; Before beginning to speak on the Clean Air Act and the auto industry, Muskie asks that Leon Billings and Barry Meyer have the privilege of the floor.

24545; July 18, 1973; At the beginning of debate on S. 440, the war powers bill, Muskie asks that Maynard Toll be given the privilege of the floor.

25054; July 20, 1973; At the beginning of further debate on S. 440, the war powers bill, Muskie asks that the privilege of the floor be granted to James Woolsey, Nancy Berg, and Allan Platt.

41047; December 12, 1973; During debate on H.R. 11576, the supplemental appropriation, Muskie asks that Leon Billings and Karl Braithewaite have the privilege of the floor.

41636; December 14, 1973; During debate on the waste water treatment funding allocation bill, S. 2812, Muskie asks unanimous consent that the principal legislative staff of the Public Works Committee be given the privilege of the Senate floor.

41917; December 17, 1973; During debate on the auto emissions standards issue related to H.R. 11576, the supplemental appropriation, Muskie asks unanimous consent that the principal legislative staff of the Public Works Committee be granted the privilege of the Senate floor.

Cloture motion, 13765, 14095, 38902, 39060, 39166, 40258, 40259, 40708, 40759, 41458, 41464

The combination of the Senate’s tradition of "unlimited debate" led to the development of the process of "unanimous consent", by means of which all Senate scheduling must have the consent of all Senators, and when such consent is not forthcoming, a filibuster can result. A filibuster arises when unanimous consent to the conditions of a debate on a bill cannot be reached, and the Senators who oppose the debate (usually because they oppose the substance of the measure) speak on the Senate floor without permitting a motion to be made to move Senate business forward. Normally, filibusters are particularly common at the end of a long session, when most members are anxious to leave for home. Over the course of the years, procedures have been developed by which filibusters can be ended.

Filing cloture is the term used to describe the process by which a filibuster can be ended in the Senate. In 1973, the requirement was that a cloture petition, signed by no fewer than 16 Senators, be formally presented to the desk where Senate business is filed, and that a cloture vote, a vote on the petition, be held no sooner than 48 hours thereafter. A successful cloture vote required the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the Senators in the Chamber at the time, a high hurdle to overcome. Signing a cloture petition was a way for a Senator to indicate stronger-than-average support for a position in favor of or against the pending legislation.

13765; May 1, 1973; Muskie is listed as on the cloture petition for S. 352, a bill to establish within the Bureau of the Census a Voter Registration Administration for the purpose of administering a voter registration program through the Postal Service. At the time this bill was being filibustered, voter registration systems in the various states continued to contain elements of discrimination, and additionally led to long disenfranchisement for citizens who moved from one state to another. The fight for some form of postal registration did not end until 1993, when the National Voter Registration Act became law.

14095; May 3, 1973, Muskie is on an identical cloture petition, filed two days later, when a vote to invoke cloture failed. It is common for supporters of a bill to make several attempts to invoke cloture.

38902; November 30, 1973; Muskie is shown on a cloture petition filed to H.R. 11104, the conference report on the debt limit bill. The bill had been amended by the addition of a public financing provision to cover Senate and House election campaigns, an amendment widely supported in the Senate, but without majority support in the House. The minority of Senators who objected to the campaign financing provision were aided by the Nixon administration in rounding up Senators and providing Air Force or other government planes to make sure they could return to the Senate to vote against cloture and deny those in favor of the campaign finance provision the two-thirds majority of those voting which was then needed to end a filibuster.

 

39060; December 1, 1973; Muskie is shown on a second cloture petition on the conference report on H.R. 11104, the debt limit bill. The debt limit expired on November 30, 1973, at which point the federal government could no longer issue bonds, and the pressure on those in favor of campaign financing became considerably stronger, although they claimed it was the opposition which was denying an increase in the debt limit. Since the proposal lacked the necessary House support to be adopted, it was a somewhat disingenuous argument.

39166; December 3, 1973; Muskie is listed on a third cloture petition on H.R. 11104, the debt limit bill when the vote on cloture on the second petition again failed to gain the necessary two-thirds of those present and voting.

40258, 40259; December 7, 1973; Muskie is listed on cloture petition on S. 1868, a bill that bans imports of Rhodesian chrome. Muskie was a cosponsor of S. 1868. At this time, the country known as Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was under a United Nations embargo imposed in 1966, when it became apparent that the white settlers would not agree to a political settlement that gave Africans the vote. Southern Rhodesia was a British Crown Colony, and by those terms, it could gain independence only if the British offered it; Britain wanted to develop a political settlement before granting independence as it had done with Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), but in 1965 Ian Smith, then leader of the country, announced a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The only countries to accept this were South Africa and Portugal. The United Nations sanctions followed, but repeated efforts were made in Congress to ignore the sanctions and import chrome from Rhodesia on the grounds that half of U.S. chrome imports then came from the Soviet Union, and that chrome was a "strategic material" for which it was important to have diverse sources. There was also some unstated but evident sympathy for the whites of Rhodesia. In 1971, the effort to break the sanctions succeeded.

40708; December 11, 1973; Muskie is listed on a second cloture petition on S. 1868, the Rhodesian chrome bill, when the first vote failed.

40759; December 11, 1973; Muskie is listed on a cloture petition on S. 2686, a bill to shift the legal services program from the Office of Economic Opportunity and transfer it to the Legal Services Corporation. By the close of 1973, the Nixon administration’s efforts to virtually close down the "war on poverty" by dismantling the Office of Economic Opportunity was on the verge of success. The goal of shifting the legal services component was primarily to save the structures of those services from being dismantled. In 1971, Congress had passed a bill creating a Legal Services Corporation, but President Nixon vetoed it because it did not give him control of the governing board, and created a Legal Services Corporation by executive order. The filibuster reflected the fact that conservatives have never approved of the concept of legal services for the poor in civil suits, regarding them as an illegitimate means of using the courts to force social change.

41458; December 13, 1973; Muskie is listed on a third cloture petition on S. 1868, the Rhodesian chrome import bill.

41464; December 13, 1973; Muskie is listed again on a cloture petition on S. 1868; the Rhodesian chrome import bill. GO BACK AND DOUBLE CHECK THIS PAGE.

Appointed Conferee, 14111, 26866, 26884, 33579, 41935.

Because both Houses of Congress must agree on all elements of a bill before it can be placed before the President to be signed into law, temporary committees of conference are created to meet and iron out differences in the two versions of the bill as passed by each House. Service on a conference committee can be extremely significant to the final shape that a law takes.

14111; May 3, 1973; Muskie is appointed a conferee on the federal-aid highway act, S. 502.

26866; July 31, 1973; Muskie is appointed a conferee on S.373, the impoundment procedures bill.

26884; July 31, 1973; Muskie is appointed a conferee on S. 440, the war powers bill.

33579; October 10, 1973; This is an error; there is no appointment of conferees on this page.

41935; December 17, 1973; Muskie is appointed a conferee on S. 2589, the National Energy Emergency Act.

Legislative program, 20332.

20332; June 19, 1973; During debate on S. 268, the land use planning bill, Senator Byrd lays out the order of debate and the amendments scheduled to be considered, and Muskie inquires if the legislative program will allow for the consideration of additional amendments, to which Byrd responds that there will be that opportunity.

BUDGET, TAXES, FISCAL POLICY

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Impoundment of funds by the President: notification of Congress (see bill S. 373), 1137.

1137; January 16, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of many cosponsors of an Ervin (D- North Carolina) bill, S. 373, to limit the authority of the President to impound appropriated funds. The bill required the President to notify Congress of a proposed impoundment and its amount and prohibited the continued withholding of the funds unless Congress approved a concurrent resolution affirming the impoundment. The structure of this proposal creates what became known in the subsequent decade as a "legislative veto" which the Supreme Court ultimate ruled is unconstitutional.

Congress: require Presidential notification when impounding funds, 1152.

Impoundment of funds: legislation, 1152.

President: impoundment of funds, 1152.

1152; January 16, 1973; When Senator Ervin (D- North Carolina) introduces S. 373, his impoundment control bill, Muskie makes also makes a brief introductory statement, pointing out that the Nixon administration’s secretive and combative efforts to impound funds that have been directed to be used for specific purposes undermines the constitutionally established balance of powers in the federal government.

Income tax: proposed reforms, 1848-1851

Analysis: Muskie Tax Reform Act of 1973, 1851

Cowboy Arithmetic, J. Rowan, Washington Post, 1854.

My Turn: "Gimme Shelter", A. Smith, Newsweek, 1854.

Screwing of the Average Taxpayer, J. Fallows, Washington Monthly, 1856.

Secret Way the Rich Escape, P. M. Stern, Washington Monthly, 1859.

Death of the Christmas Tree Bill, 1859.

Tax Reform Act of 1973: Introduction, 1848-1851, 10432.

1848-1859; January 23, 1973; Muskie offers some information in news stories and a memorandum detailing the nature of tax shelters and their effects on shifting the tax burden to the public and away from wealthier taxpayers, and notes that he will be introducing a bill to repeal or phase in changes in 24 different aspects of tax law.

10432; April 2, 1973; Muskie introduces S. 1439, a bill encompassing all the favored tax reforms current in 1973. Claiming it would raise $18 billion in 1975, Muskie says his proposal would not be economically disruptive, would not affect the deductions used by middle- and lower-income taxpayers, such as state sales taxes, mortgage interest and property taxes, but would instead target tax loopholes used by the very wealthy, and phase in marginal increases in capital gains, in the amounts subject to estate tax, a decrease in the percentage depletion allowance for oil, and an increase in the minimum tax. The federal income tax was far more steeply progressive in 1973 than it became in the 1980s and 1990s, and few, at this time, sought to change income tax rates. Instead they focused on loopholes which allowed extremely wealthy individuals and corporations to legally pay a minimal amount in taxes. This became a volatile political issue later in the year, when it was revealed that President Nixon, with an income of well over $250,000 per year, paid less than $1000 in federal income tax in 1970 and 1971. But even at the time of introduction, the political debate over budget deficits, spending and impoundments had made the issue of tax fairness salient to many Americans.

Office of Management and Budget: confirmation of Director and Deputy Director by Senate (see bills S. 37, 518), 1930, 2263.

1930; January 23, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a Metcalf (D- Montana) bill, S. 37, which would require Senate confirmation of the Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This proposal emerged from the growing power held by the Office of Management and Budget over the budgets of other agencies and over the decisions on impounding appropriated funds, one of the principal causes of dissension between the Congress and the President.

2263; January 26, 1973; Muskie is one of many cosponsors added to an Ervin (D- North Carolina) bill, S. 518, which would require that the appointees to the offices of Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget be subject to Senate confirmation. This proposal, like others introduced in 1973, arose in part because of the excessive control wielded by the Office of Management and Budget following internal reforms in 1972. In addition, the nomination of Roy Ash, formerly Chief Executive Officer of a defense contractor, Litton Corporation, had raised questions, because Litton was in a half-billion-dollar dispute with the Navy over a ship building contract and Ash had said he would not recuse himself from budget decisions affecting the Navy. Ash also trailed a lengthy stream of litigation stemming from his years at the aerospace division of Hughes Tool, also a defense contractor, where it was alleged that his management of the cost-accounting process led Hughes to overcharge the Air Force by more than $40 million.

Executive Office of the President: require Senate confirmation of certain appointments in (see bill S. 590), 2395.

2395; January 29, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of S. 590, a Percy (R-Illinois) bill requiring Senate confirmation of the National Security Advisor, the Executive Director of the Domestic Council and of the International Economic Council. One element of the disagreements between the Congress and the President during the Nixon administration was the question of accountability for appointees who, in practice, wielded as much or more authority than the Cabinet officers responsible for executing the laws in the identical policy area. The fact that the National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, had virtually cut the Secretary of State out of the loop on questions like recognizing the Peoples’ Republic of China, the Pakistan-East Pakistan war and the Vietnam war negotiations was merely the most spectacular example of this tendency. The administration refused to allow appointees to testify before congressional committees, an added point of friction.

Public Budgeting and Rulemaking Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 676), 2628.

2628; January 31, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of a bill, S. 676, to improve the budget and rulemaking process by making it more transparent and providing Congress with more original information on agencies’ budgetary requests.

Public Budgeting and Rulemaking Act of 1973: introduction, 2687, 2688.

Budget: provide requests of agencies shall be made public, 2687, 2688.

2687, 2688; January 31, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 676, a bill that would require each federal department and agency to make its own individual budget request and send it to Congress when it is transmitted to the Office of Management and Budget, and to limit the comment period on new regulations to the same time frame for the public and for other federal agencies. The bill would also have made all this information publicly available. Its purpose was to override the secretive processes by which the Office of Management and Budget had become a sort of super-agency within the Nixon administration, able to make final decisions on budgetary requests and to guide the federal rulemaking process in directions of the administration’s choosing. The Nixon administration may have been the first to use the Office of Management and Budget as an enforcement agency, but it was hardly the last.

Tax-exempt organizations: lobbying, 2771.

Direct Lobbying Activities of Public Charities, A. J. Geske, ABA Tax Journal, 2772.

2771, 2772; January 31, 1973; Muskie makes a statement pointing out that he is again working with the Senate minority leader, Senator Scott (R-Pennsylvania) to develop a bill to permit tax-exempt organizations to lobby without losing their exempt status, and invites comment by his colleagues.

Office of Management and Budget: bill (S. 518) to require Senate confirmation of Director and Deputy Director of the, 3341, 3342.

Acknowledging the Status of OMB, Washington Post, 3342.

3341, 3342; February 5, 1973; During debate on S. 518, the bill requiring Senate confirmation of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Muskie remarks that a lack of the confirmatory authority in the Senate permits what might be the second-most powerful job in Washington to be held by individuals who are not answerable to the Congress.

Budget: A Question of Priorities, C. Fritchey, Washington Post, 3801.

3801; February 7, 1973; Muskie points out that President Nixon’s election-year promises of aid to the elderly and other groups are entirely absent from his proposed 1974 budget, and includes a news column spelling out the four-year Nixon budgetary history.

President's Budget, National Legislative Conference, by, 4071.

4071; February 8, 1971; Senator Hart (D- Michigan) inserts the text of a Muskie speech about the 1974 Nixon budget to a group of state legislators. Muskie’s major point is that the thrust of the 1974 Nixon budget is to shift tax demands from the federal level to the local level, even though most of the states and localities lack the ability to provide the needed levels of funding.

Weinberger, Caspar W.: nomination, 4095.

4095; February 8, 1973; Muskie speaks during the debate on the nomination of Caspar Weinberger to be Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, briefly making the point that while he believes a President deserves to have his own preferences confirmed for Cabinet posts, the intentional effort of some of the Nixon nominees to continue with the policies of impoundment and ignoring congressional directives make it impossible for him to support this nominee.

Nixon, Richard M.: budget, 5156

Side-Effects of Nixon's Budget, W. W. Heller, Wall Street Journal, 5157.

5156, 5157; February 22, 1973; Muskie notes that Walter Heller, then a well-known and reputed economist, has asked many of the same questions about the 1974 Nixon budget as he has himself, and includes a column spelling them out.

Tax-exempt Organizations: legislative activity (see bill S. 1036), 5741.

5741; February 28, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1036, his bill to permit tax-exempt organizations to lobby legislatures without losing their tax exempt status.

Tax-exempt organizations: define legislative activity by, 5746.

List: Organizations supporting bill S. 1036, 5747.

Text: S. 1036, defining legislative activity by tax exempt organizations, 5747.

5746, 5747; February 28, 1973; Muskie makes his introductory remarks on S. 1036, his bill to clarify the standards under which tax exempt organizations can engage in lobbying of legislatures. Noting that businesses are permitted to make such costs deductible against taxes, he points out that the existing Internal Revenue Standard is so vague as to be unintelligible, so its actual effect is to stifle all such activities by tax exempt organizations, even though legislators may well benefit from the input of such organizations.

Budget Cuts, Committee on Government Operations, J. Wurf, 5786.

5786; February 28, 1973; Muskie provides testimony about the priorities in the 1974 Nixon budget, given during hearings by the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations on the overall questions raised by the budget cuts and President Nixon’s avowed intent to spend funds as he chooses, regardless of the priorities Congress establishes for programs.

Budget requests of various Government agencies: provide Congress with information relating to (see bill S. 1214). 7713

7713; March 14, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1214, a bill to amend the Budget and Accounting Act, 1921 so as to provide the Congress with information relating to the budget requests of the various departments and establishments of the Government.

Congress: legislation to provide information relating to budget requests to, 7740.

7740; March 14, 1973; Muskie makes a brief statement describing his bill to require that Congress receive the budgetary information from each agency instead of through the Office of Management and Budget, S. 1214. This bill was a substitute for an earlier introduction, S. 676, which would have required similar disclosure of budget requests, as well as making the information public.

Budget Information, 7863.

Report: Budget and Accounting Act of 1921: Background and Analysis of Executive Confidentiality in Relation to S. 676, J. Braden, Library of Congress, 7864.

7863, 7864; March 14, 1973; Muskie describes a report he requested from the Congressional Research Service about the statutory basis for limiting budget information or withholding it from the Congress. The report concludes there is no statutory basis for withholding individual agencies’ budget requests from the Congress, as Muskie’s bill, S. 1214, would require.

Document, Budget Effects on Education, 8139

8139; March 15, 1973; Muskie notes that when he spoke at a new institution, the College of the Mainland in Texas recently, he was presented with the budgetary effects that the college’s administrators identified as being due to the cuts in the proposed Nixon 1974 budget.

How to Find a Loophole, Washington Post, 8140.

Loopholes and Little Guys, Hobart Rowen. Washington Post, 8140.

8140; March 15, 1973; Muskie recommends two news stories responding to the President’s domestic policy advisor’s appearance on a Sunday talk show, where he alleged that there was no possible way to raise money by closing tax loopholes without abolishing the mortgage interest deduction and perhaps the charitable contribution deduction. It was a favored ploy of the Nixon administration to change the subject when the question of tax loopholes and tax reform arose, a habit that has appeared in later administrations as well.

Tax Reform Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1439), 10427, 12976.

Analysis: S. 1439, Tax Reform Act of 1973, 10433

Text: S. 1439, Tax Reform Act of 1973, 10434.

10427; April 2, 1973; Notice only of Muskie’s introduction of S. 1439, a tax reform proposal based on closing those loopholes he found most egregious.

10432, 10433, 10434; April 2, 1973; Muskie introduces S. 1439, a bill encompassing all the favored tax reforms current in 1973. Claiming it would raise $18 billion in 1975, Muskie says his proposal would not be economically disruptive, would not affect the deductions used by middle- and lower-income taxpayers, such as state sales taxes, mortgage interest and property taxes, but would instead target tax loopholes used by the very wealthy, and phase in marginal increases in the capital gains tax, in the amounts subject to estate tax, a decrease in the percentage depletion allowance for oil, and an increase in the minimum tax. The federal income tax was far more steeply progressive in 1973 than it became in the 1980s and 1990s, and few, at this time, sought to change income tax rates. Instead they focused on loopholes which allowed extremely wealthy individuals and corporations to legally pay a minimal amount in taxes. This became a volatile political issue later in the year, when it was revealed that President Nixon, with an income of well over $250,000 per year, paid less than $1000 in federal income tax in 1970 and 1971. But even at the time of introduction, the political debate over budget deficits, spending and impoundments had made the issue of tax fairness salient to many Americans.

12976; April 18, 1973; Senator Mansfield (D-Montana), on behalf of Muskie, asks that Senator Cranston’s (D- California) name be added to S. 1439, the Muskie tax reform bill, as a cosponsor.

Par Value Modification Act: amend bill (S. 929) to require congressional approval to change dollar exchange rate, 10735, 11038

Impoundment-Spending ceiling Amendment, by, 11043.

Impoundment and spending ceiling measures, 11043, 11044, 11052.

Par Value Modification Act: bill (S. 929) to amend, 11043, 11044, 11053.

Analysis: Title II of S. 929, 11044.

10735; April 3, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the cosponsors of an Ervin (D- North Carolina) amendment to S. 929, the Par Value Modification Act. The amendment took the language of Ervin’s impoundment bill, S. 373, which Muskie also cosponsored, and which had been approved by the Government Operations Committee.

11038; April 4, 1973; During debate on S. 929, the Par Value Act, the Ervin impoundment control amendment is offered as a substitute for a similar but simpler pending amendment, and Muskie’s name appears in the list of cosponsors.

11043, 11044; April 4, 1973; During debate over the Ervin impoundment amendment, Muskie describes the provisions of Title II of the amendment, which would establish a 1974 spending limit of $268 billion, $700 million lower than the President’s recommendation.

11052, 11053; April 4, 1973; During debate on the impoundment amendment, Senator Hathaway (D- Maine) asks Muskie to clarify whether there is some way in which the President could use the authority provided in the language to end a program with which he did not agree and Muskie points out the specific language which is designed to prevent that outcome.

"Battle of the Budget, 1973," administration distribution of kits entitled, 11872.

Budget: White House propaganda, 11872.

PR Men Gird for "Battle of Budget" M. Causey, Washington Post, 11873.

White House Girds for Budget Battle, D. Broder, Washington Post, 11874.

Letter: Investigate "Battle of the Budget, 1973" kits, Elmer B. Staats, by, 11873.

Excerpts from "Battle of the Budget 1973", 11875.

"Far-Out 15" Skirmish Now a Battle, M. Causey, Washington Post, 11873.

11873; April 11, 1973; Muskie comments on the Nixon budget public relations war, and reveals that he has asked the General Accounting Office to determine whether the effort to enlist federal workers in a lobbying campaign is against the law. The Nixon White House became known for its indefatigable efforts to manufacture "support" for the President’s actions, whether through "grass roots" citizens’ committees or through generating an outpouring of telegrams and letters from supporters on cue. The term "astroturf" to describe phony public support groups began to be heard in these years.

Tax reform, 12004, 12005

12004, 12005; April 12, 1973; Muskie takes part in a colloquy on tax reform, making the argument that while spending proposals expire regularly and receive scrutiny both when they are authorized and when appropriations must be made, tax preferences, once in the law, receive no comparable review, with the result that it is not known if they are serving their alleged purposes as well as direct spending might, although they have the same effect, of draining tax dollars from the federal budget.

List: Participants in budget panel, 12982.

Maine: citizens view budget cuts in, 12982-12984

Table: Impact of Federal impoundments and budget cuts on Maine (sundry), 12984-12990

Budget cuts: impact on Maine, 12982-12984.

12982-12984; April 18, 1973: Muskie reports on a congressional delegation hearing in Maine at which citizens and state and local officials expressed their views on the effect the proposed budget cuts would have on Maine citizens, in terms of both services and jobs.

Congressional Budgetary Procedure Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1541), 14465

14465; May 7, 1973; Muskie asks that his name be added as a cosponsor to S. 1541, an Ervin (D- North Carolina) bill setting forth budgetary procedures for the Congress. Because of the growing contest over the wholesale impounding of appropriated funds by the Nixon administration in the

preceding years and especially for the 1973 fiscal year, Congress in late 1972 created a Joint Study Committee on Budget Control, which held hearings in March, 1973 to devise proposals for consideration by the standing congressional committees. In the Senate, the Committee on Government Operations, which Senator Ervin chaired, was responsible for developing the budgetary machinery.

Federal Impoundment Control Procedure Act: bill (S. 373) to enact, 15223 15240-15242.

Impoundment of funds: bill (S. 373) to limit Presidential powers, 15223, 15240-15242.

15223, 15240-15242; May 10, 1973; During debate on the Impoundment Control Procedure Act, S. 373, Muskie explains the intent of Title II, which contains a budget ceiling and a means by which it can be enforced, which he introduced at a committee markup.

15240-15242; May 10, 1973; During continued debate on S. 373, the impoundment legislation, Muskie makes the argument that a proposed amendment to establish a permanent limit on federal spending should not be approved when the legislative committees are actively working on a permanent budgetary procedure.

Financial institutions: NOW accounts, 16493.

Interest rates: bill (S. 1798) to extend for 1 year regulation of financial institutions, 16493.

16493; May 22, 1973; During debate on S. 1798, a bill to extend regulation of financial institutions, Muskie speaks briefly to express his support for the provisions in the bill which would provide for consumer protection and FDIC regulation of NOW accounts in two New England states, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. NOW accounts were first authorized in 1972 in New England, and allowed the mutual savings banks to issue Negotiable Orders of Withdrawal to their customers while paying interest on the customers’ accounts. At this time, the services and interest rates which different kinds of financial institutions were allowed to offer were directly regulated, and there were no interest-bearing checking accounts available. Needless to say, most commercial banks strongly opposed allowing the mutual savings banks to offer a service which was, in effect, a checking account that paid interest. Mutual savings banks were non-profit institutions, but over time most of them chose to become savings establishments instead.

Public debt limit: amend bill (H.R. 8410) continue existing temporary increase, 21081, 21764.

Public debt ceiling: bill (H.R. 8410) to continue temporary increase in the, 21667, 21669-21671, 21675, 21689.

21081; June 25, 1973; Muskie is listed as one of the sponsors of a Bayh (D- Indiana) amendment to H.R. 8410, the debt ceiling bill. The amendment was a two-pronged tax reform proposal; one part would have repealed the accelerated depreciation rules which allowed business a much faster write-off on equipment, the other was intended to strengthen the provisions of the minimum tax, which applied to those who succeeded in shielding most of their income from regular income taxes through tax preference items.

21764; June 27, 1973; Muskie is one of numerous Senators added as a cosponsor to a Church (D- Idaho) amendment to the debt ceiling bill, H.R. 8410, to express the sense of the Senate that the administration withdraw proposed changes to the Medicare program which would have the effect of increasing the out-of-pocket costs of medical care for the elderly.

21667; June 27, 1973; During debate on H.R. 8410, the debt limit bill, Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) calls up his amendment on the minimum tax, which would change it so as to not permit the deduction of income taxes paid against the tax owed on tax sheltered income, and Muskie makes a brief supporting statement, illustrating the reasons why he thinks this change in the minimum tax is needed.

21669; June 27, 1973; When Senator Long (D- Louisiana), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has made his arguments against the Kennedy minimum tax amendment, Muskie makes a somewhat caustic response to the claim that the Senate should not be taking up tax changes on the Senate floor. It is a truism that under the Senate rules, not only is there virtually no requirement that an amendment be germane to the underlying bill, but virtually no Senator has a career in which he does not either offer or vote for an unrelated amendment at some time.

21675; June 27, 1973; When Senator Bayh (D- Indiana) calls up his amendment, to eliminate an accounting procedure called the Accelerated Depreciation Range, which permitted depreciation on equipment to be taken at a rate 20% faster than the Treasury Department’s guidelines on useful life for equipment, Muskie speaks up in favor of it.

21689; June 27, 1973; During continuing debate on the debt ceiling bill, Muskie speaks in favor of the Church (D- Idaho) amendment which expresses the sense of the Senate against the Nixon administration’s proposals to increase out-of-pocket medical costs for the elderly and also requires the administration to develop proposals to strengthen the Medicare program by September 1.

Budget reform, 29038, 31939.

Shaping the Budget: A Way Out of Chaos, A. M. Rivlin and C. L. Schultze, Washington Post, 29038.

Analysis: Proposed Muskie-Brock-Saxbe amendment to reform the congressional budget process, 29040.

29038-29040; September 10, 1973; Muskie notes that a news article about desirable budget procedures for the Congress contains some well developed and innovative ideas and inserts a summary of the Muskie-Brock-Saxbe amendment to the budget reform bill for comparison. The congressional budget debate was largely driven by the extremely combative stance the Nixon administration took on spending and cutting programs, a combativeness underlined by steady partisan attacks on the Congress itself.

31940; September 28, 1973; Muskie introduces a proposal to amend the Congressional Budget and National Priorities Act, S. 1541, which he sponsors with Senator Brock (R-Tennessee), and which he says provides the flexibility needed for a workable budget system without the rigidities and needless additional rules imposed by the bill it is designed to replace.

Council on International Economic Policy bill (S. 1636) making a permanent part of Executive Office of President, 30645.

30645; September 20, 1973; Muskie speaks against the conference report on S. 1636, a bill to expand the Council on International Economic Policy because the provision in the bill calling for confirmation of its head was removed in conference. This was part of the continuing Senate effort to ensure that presidential policy advisors would have to testify before the Congress when invited, an issue which played a continued role in relations between the Congress and the President throughout the Nixon administration because of the use of unconfirmed officials to adopt policies unilaterally, such as in the case of the dismantling of the Office of Economic Opportunity, which was virtually eliminated in six months although under statute law it continued to have a two-year extension of life.

Economic conditions: failure of administration to control inflation, 31275.

Nixon, Richard M.: economic policies, 31275, 42380, 42381.

Inflation, 42380, 42381

Wage and price controls: record, 42380, 42381.

31275; September 25, 1973; Muskie speaks out on the inflationary economies over which President Nixon has presided and notes that wages have fallen behind, that food price inflation itself is among the most inflated of living costs and expressing the concern that exports of food have helped lead to spot shortages in the domestic market.

42380, 42381; December 19, 1973; During a Democratic colloquy on the economy, Muskie speaks about what the future economic policy ought to be when the President announces the end of Phase IV of the New Economic Policy. The Nixon economic policy was launched on August 15, 1971 with a 90-day price freeze, a 10% surcharge on all imports of goods and services, and the end of the American Gold Standard. It continued through Phases II and III, of controlled price and wage increases, achieved by Executive Orders and federal monitoring, a second, 60-day freeze in mid-June 1973, and a Phase IV which was, in essence, a holding action rather than a true control effort. Throughout these shifting phases, Muskie, like the majority of the Congress, continued to believe that the plan could hold down inflation if only certain elements of it were modified. In hindsight, this perspective was mistaken.

Budget Reform, Representatives Obey and W. A. Steiger, 31284.

31284; September 25, 1973; Muskie makes note of the testimony of two House members about the proposed budget reform bill and its shortcomings as a practical way to give the Congress a realistic opportunity to consider relative priorities for spending and to evaluate the economic outlook as Congress appropriates funds. The most difficult element of reforming any congressional procedure has proven to be the fact that those who must approve reforms are also, in many cases, comfortable with the existing situation and have little incentive to make reforms work.

Control Expenditures and Establish National Priorities Act: proposed amendments, 31939.

Congressional Budget and National Priorities Act of 1973: amend bill (S. 1541) to enact, 31939.

Budget Reform, Senator Brock, 31940.

31940; September 28, 1973; Muskie introduces a proposal to amend the Congressional Budget and National Priorities Act, S. 1541, which he sponsors with Senator Brock (R-Tennessee), and which he says provides the flexibility needed for a workable budget system without the rigidities and needless additional rules imposed by the bill it is designed to replace.

Tax-exempt organizations: constitutionality of control of legislative activities, 32705.

Report: Charities, Law-Making and the Constitution, T. A. Troyer, N.Y.U. Institute of Federal Taxation, 32706.

Constitutional Question of Tax Status of Lobbying Organizations, Tax Analysts and Advocates, U.S. District Court for District of Columbia, 32716.

Lobbying Organizations Tax Plan Sought (sundry), 32716.

32705, 32706; October 3, 1973; Muskie notes that a law journal article has raised questions of the constitutionality of lobbying restrictions on tax-exempt organizations, based on the issues of conditioning constitutional protections, the equal protection clause and the void-for-vagueness doctrine. The article notes that veterans organizations, fraternal associations, professional and labor organizations and others all qualify for tax-exempt status without restrictions on their right to communicate with the Congress in efforts to influence legislation.

Congressional Budget Control Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 1414), 37638.

37638; November 19, 1973; Muskie’s name is added as a cosponsor of S. 1414, a Chiles (D- Florida) budget reform bill, which is focused on the goal of receiving budget information early in the cycle and in a format which would permit similar functions to be examined at the one time, even if the specific programs through which they are carried out involve different executive departments and agencies.

Income tax: Kennedy minimum tax reform amendment to H.R. 3153, 38938.

Pamphlet: Tax Shelters; Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, 38938

Letter: Income tax reform, E. P. Doss, 38939.

Tax Breaks Lead to Executive Wealth, 38939.

38938; November 30, 1973; During debate on H.R. 3135, Muskie joins Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) and others in bringing up the minimum tax amendment to the social security bill. Although the underlying bill being debated addressed the Social Security system, it is not uncommon, particularly towards the end of the session, to bring up unrelated amendments, such as this one, directed at tax loopholes. The Senate has no germaneness rule, so amendments need not be directly relevant to the bill they amend. Bills emerging from the Finance Committee are particularly attractive for tax amendment purposes, and if they draw sufficient support in a floor vote can sometimes serve to warn the Committee that there is majority support for a particular tax change.

Disclosure of Corporate Ownership: authorizing the printing (see S. Con. Res. 59),40001.

40001; December 6, 1973; Senator Metcalf (D-Montana), on behalf of Muskie, submits a concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 59, for the printing of an additional 5000 copies of the compilation entitled : Disclosure of Corporate Ownership, jointly prepared by the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations and the Budgeting, Management and Expenditures Subcommittee.

Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Tax Act of 1973: amend bill (H.R. 8214), to enact, 41870.

Minimum tax amendment to H.R. 8214, 41871.

41870; December 17, 1973; Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) inserts a joint Kennedy-Muskie-Bayh (D- Indiana) statement on the minimum tax and notes it will be an amendment to H.R. 8214, a bill providing favorable tax treatment for POWs and MIAs. Muskie, along with Senators Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) and Bayh (D- Indiana) issue a press release announcing they intend to offer an amendment dealing with the minimum tax to the debt ceiling bill, H.R. 8410.

The statement noted that the recent disclosure that President Nixon had managed to reduce his tax liability to less than $800 in the prior two years would give impetus to a reform of the minimum tax. The President’s income was comfortably over $250,000 per year, and the fact that he had paid virtually no federal taxes on it apparently goaded a disgruntled IRS employee to leak the information about his returns – an illegal action. The President first sought to "clarify" the situation by releasing selective information from his returns, rather than the returns themselves, a course of action that was not well received when it was also seen he had given less than $300 to charity in one year.

By December 8, 1973, he asked the Joint Committee on Taxation to review his returns and promised to abide by their findings. In April 1974, the Joint Committee reported that he owed some $443,000 and the IRS, which had undertaken its own review, found an underpayment of $447,000. President Nixon did not pay any state taxes, since he did not claim any state as his residence. As a result, the states of California and Florida, where he owned homes, launched their own investigations into his residential and tax status.

TRADE, EXPORT SUBSIDIES, TARIFFS

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Cattlehides: reinstitute export controls on (see bill S. 791), 3762.

Cattlehides: permit President to reinstitute export controls on, 3763.

Export controls: cattle hides, 3763.

Footwear industry: problems, 3763.

Maine: leather footwear Industry, 3763.

3763; February 7, 1973; Muskie introduces S. 791, a bill to reinstate the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to limit the export of American cattle hides. In 1972, action by Argentina and Brazil to limit hide exports in order to develop their domestic leather goods industries led to a major increase in U.S. hide prices, as domestic manufacturers were forced to compete with international buyers. By July, 1972, the Nixon administration imposed a hide export embargo, but Congress more or less eliminated it several weeks later. In the meantime, Maine’s shoe manufacturing industry was hard hit, and this bill was Muskie’s response to that situation.

United States-Soviet Trade Conference, by 6540.

6540; March 6, 1973; Senator Ribicoff (D- Connecticut) inserts the text of a Muskie speech given before a U.S.-Soviet Trade Conference, in which Muskie warns that unless the head tax on Jewish emigrants is lifted, the sentiment in Congress against most-favored-nation status for the Soviet Union will ensure continued difficulties. Most-favored-nation (MFN) status at this time allowed the products of any country to be imported to the U.S. at lowest tariff rate for such products. It was acknowledged that the MFN designation would not be materially important, since the Soviet Union did not produce anything the U.S. wished to import, but the Soviets saw it as a barrier to their acceptance as a legitimate power in the broader world community.

Trade Reform Act of 1973: amend bill (H.R. 6767) to enact, 11550.

11550; April 10, 1973; Senator Jackson (D- Washington) introduces his amendment No. 79 to H.R. 6767, the Trade Reform Act, to prohibit the extension of credits, credit guarantees, investment guarantees and Most Favored Nation status to any nonmarket country which denies the right of free emigration. Muskie is listed among the 76 Senate sponsors of this amendment.

Russia: grain deal, 28928.

Agriculture: Sale of grain to Russia, 28928.

28928; September 7, 1973; Muskie compliments Senator Huddleston (D- Kentucky) on an analysis of the previous year’s Soviet grain sale. The Soviets successfully purchased the bulk of the U.S. grain crop in 1972 using a three-year loan from the U.S. government, and making purchase orders before U.S. grain suppliers and the Agriculture Department became aware of the magnitude of the sales. Food and feed grain shortages which subsequently developed – as well as the high costs of grain – all led to inflationary increases in food prices throughout much of 1973 and after.

China's grain purchase: calling for a report on (see S.J. Res. 147), 29429.

29429; September 12, 1973; Muskie is added as a cosponsor to a McIntyre (D- New Hampshire) resolution calling for a report by the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture on the impact of any grain deal with the People’s Republic of China. Soaring prices, particularly for beef, had persuaded many people at this time that the previous year’s sale of grains to the Soviet Union was, in part, responsible for the shortages of feed grains which kept meat supplies low and prices high, and the purpose of this proposal was to ensure that before any similar large-scale sale was consummated, there be adequate information about its potential effects available to the public.

HOUSING, URBAN RENEWAL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1973 1st Session, 93rd Congress

Disappearing Crisis, New York Times, 6593.

6593; March 6, 1973; Muskie notes that a New York Times editorial has responded to the Nixon series of State of the Union speeches by labeling them a fantasy. President Nixon chose not to give his State of the Union address at one time, but instead to issue a series of State of the Union speeches over the course of several months. He had just declared the urban crisis as ended.

HUD Offers Cities New Urban Plan, Floyd H. Hyde, Washington Post, 6599.

But Budget Cuts Stall City Housing, Roman S. Gibbs, Washington Post, 6600.

6599, 6600; March 6, 1973; Muskie notes that despite the Nixon administration’s claim that the funds for public housing will be adequate, the cuts proposed in the housing budget will severely shortchange the cities.

Gary, Indiana: governmental structure Problem in, 7846.

Gary: Epitaph for a Model City, G. Hodgson and G. Crile, Washington Post, 7846.

7846; March 14, 1973; Muskie talks about failure of urban redevelopment plans to have worked in Gary, Indiana, and points out that fragmented government structures at the city and county level create a situation where cities are often unable to generate the tax revenues they need to function properly even as they serve surrounding jurisdictions with city-paid services.

Emergency Rural Housing Act of 1973: enact (see bill S. 2190), 24030.

24030; July 16, 1973; Muskie is shown as one of the cosponsors of S. 2190, an Abourezk (D- South Dakota) bill which would create an independent agency with its own mortgage credit to provide a means of financing rural housing through a series of local cooperative associations.

Federal Housing Administration: extend insured housing loan authority, 25125.

Insured housing loans: resolution (H. J. Res. 512) to extend authority of FHA, 25125.

25125; July 20, 1973; During debate on H. J. Res. 512, a resolution revoking impoundment authority and extending housing programs, Muskie describes the need for subsidized housing in Maine, where the climate increases construction costs while the low income of citizens bars them from the private housing market.