ARTHUR QUERN FILES, 1975-77

Arthur F. Quern held several positions with the Domestic Council and the White House between March 1975 and January 1977, but his files provide only sketchy documentation on many of his activities during this period. He transferred files to other members of the Domestic Council staff when his duties changed and materials from his work as James Cannon's deputy often appear in Cannon's files rather than his own.

Quern joined the Domestic Council in March 1975 as a staff assistant to deputy director Richard Dunham, but soon began working on issues in the human resources area. When human resources was divided into two policy areas in April 1975, Quern became associate director for health, social security, and welfare. Since there was no associate director for labor, education and veterans affairs (the other half of the human resources area) until the fall of 1975, Quern continued to work on some issues in those areas for several months.

As an associate director, Quern was responsible for policy formulation; soliciting documents and recommendations from White House and agency staff members; maintaining contact with federal agencies and Congress; and the preparation and review of decision memoranda, briefing papers, legislative proposals, speeches, fact sheets, and responses to correspondence. Pamela Needham served as his assistant until June 1975 and Sarah Massengale thereafter.

In January 1976, Domestic Council executive director James Cannon promoted Quern to deputy director for policy and planning. As deputy director, he assumed many of the duties of Richard Dunham, who had left the Council in October 1975. Cannon also assigned Allen Moore and Janet Brown to Quern as assistants.

During the summer of 1976, Cannon's other deputy, James H. Cavanaugh, transferred to Richard Cheney's office in the White House. Quern assumed Cavanaugh's administrative duties and supervision of issues work and also shifted from the Council payroll to the White House staff as deputy assistant to the President for domestic affairs. He served in this position until the end of the Ford administration.

Researchers interested in Quern's work as associate director of the Domestic Council may find his collection useful for studying the issues of food stamps and social security. The Quern files contain memoranda, reports, publications, and meeting agendas concerning the activities of the Domestic Council review group on food stamps and Quern's drafting of option papers on food stamps reform and decision memoranda on both short-range and long-term social security financing problems.

Quern coordinated Domestic Council input for the President's 1976 State of the Union address and his files contain suggestions from White House and Domestic Council staff members, drafts, comments on the drafts, and the long memorandum by which Vice President Nelson Rockefeller submitted the Domestic Council suggestions to President Ford in December 1975.

The most significant files from Quern's 1976 work are those concerning busing (he assisted associate director Richard Parsons on this issue), the work of the Economic Policy Board (he apparently received the agendas, memoranda and minutes for meetings as Cannon's deputy), the writing of the domestic affairs portion of the Ford administration two year report, and his review of budget proposals for various domestic departments and agencies.

Included in the Quern collection is a small file accumulated by his assistant Janet Brown. Approximately one third of her file relates to her work as Domestic Council liaison for Indian affairs. Her files include materials she inherited form Judith Hope, who worked on some Indian issues in late 1975 and early 1976, and copies of Theodore Marrs memoranda, but only occasional documents which Brown created.

Also included in the Quern collection is material which he inherited from Richard Dunham. Dunham' s correspondence and memoranda generally relate to administrative matters rather than issues.

The value of the Quern files is lessened by the fact that he transferred most of his health and welfare files to Spencer Johnson upon becoming deputy director. He also transferred a small quantity of material on education and labor issues to David Lissy.

Another weakness is that the files do not completely document the two positions which he held in 1976. There is little concerning the policy studies which he initiated as deputy director for policy and planning because much of the day-to-day work on these studies was conducted by Quern's assistants, other Domestic Council staff members, or the vice presidential staff. In addition, some materials resulting from Quern's administrative duties or his supervision of issues work were sent to James Cannon and incorporated into the Cannon files.

Related Materials (February 1982)
Collections containing related materials include the Domestic Council files of Spencer Johnson, David Lissy, James Cannon, and Allen Moore. Collections related to Janet Brown's work on Indians include the Domestic Council files of Norman Ross, White House Central Files subject file category IN (Indian Affairs), and the White House staff files of Theodore Marrs, Bradley Patterson, and Barbara G. Kilberg.