JAMES H. FALK FILES, 1974-75 (1976)

James H. Falk joined the Domestic Council staff in March 1971 as a staff assistant to Edward Morgan, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. Falk was promoted to Associate Director in 1973 and assumed responsibility for activities associated with intergovernmental affairs, reporting directly to the director of the Domestic Council. He remained in this position until leaving the White House staff in December 1975 to accept a job with Touche Ross & Co., an accounting firm in Washington, D.C.

Falk's primary responsibilities included maintaining White House liaison with governors, mayors, state legislators, officials of counties and other local governments; and with organizations of state, local and intergovernmental officials. These organizations included the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, Council of State Governments, International City Management Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Regional Councils, National Governors Conference, National League of Cities, National Legislative Conference, Republican Governors Association, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

As intergovernmental liaison, Falk had a busy schedule of meetings, often seeing people that the President could not accommodate in his schedule. He handled much of the President's correspondence with state and local officials, often drafting letters for the President's signature. He also proposed presidential meetings with these individuals or groups, often participating in them himself. Falk also accompanied the President when he was invited to speak to groups of local government officials and helped to organize a series of working dinners with governors' groups across the country.

An important aspect of Falk's position was acting as the President's spokesman with state and local leaders and in turn, relaying their concerns to the appropriate White House officials. He also analyzed proposed legislation in terms of how it would affect state and local governments and worked with the New Coalition, a group of governors, mayors, state legislators and county officials, on the 1976 budget.

As intergovernmental liaison, Falk was a working member of several groups concerned with examining particular issues. He was appointed by Ford in August 1974 to a study group evaluating the general revenue sharing program and recommending whether or not the legislation for that program should be extended before its 1976 expiration.

Falk's files contain extensive material on this subject including correspondence from state and local leaders concerning renewal of the legislation; materials on alternative funding methods and adjustments to payment procedures; legislative strategy on general revenue sharing legislation extension and nondiscrimination provisions in the legislation.

Falk was also an active member of the Economic Adjustment Committee. Established by the President in 1968, this committee was responsible for coordinating and integrating appropriate federal programs into community recovery plans in areas where military bases were being closed or drastically reduced.

The Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Puerto Rico was another group in which Falk participated. The study group was created by President Nixon in 1973 to examine ways of granting Puerto Rico more self- government under its commonwealth status. When Falk left the Domestic Council he turned his Puerto Rico files over to Samuel Halper, a Domestic Council consultant on Puerto Rico. They are now included in Halper's Domestic Council Collection.

James Falk's files document his activities from the beginning of the Ford administration until December 1975, with a very small amount of earlier and later material. Falk's files from the Nixon administration are part of the Nixon presidential materials.

Related Materials (April 1982)
Related material may be found in other Domestic Council collections, particularly the files of Stephen G. McConahey, who replaced Falk as Associate Director for Intergovernmental Affairs; and Rayburn Hanzlik, McConahey's assistant. Patrick Delaney was Falk's assistant, and his materials often appear in Falk's files. There are also related materials scattered throughout the White House Central Files Subject Files.