JUDITH R. HOPE FILES, 1974-77

Judith Richards Hope, a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School, was associated with law firms in Washington, DC and California. She also spent one year as deputy director of the California Rural Development Corporation before joining the Domestic Council.

Hope was appointed to the Domestic Council Staff on a part-time basis as a consultant in October 1975. In her first few months she handled policy studies on paperwork reduction, antitrust matters, and prison reform. In January 1976 she was named Associate Director for Transportation and served in that position until the end of the administration.

While most of Hope's materials date from 1976-1977 she inherited earlier files from both her predecessors, Michael Raoul-Duval and Stephen G. McConahey. Raoul-Duval was in charge of transportation as Associate Director for Natural Resources until May 1975, then became Associate Director for Energy and Transportation. McConahey was hired as an assistant to Raoul-Duval in September 1975 and was named Associate Director for Transportation upon Raoul-Duval's departure from the Domestic Council in October. In January 1976 McConahey became Associate Director for Intergovernmental Affairs and Judith Hope took over transportation.

As Associate Director for Transportation, Hope handled policy formulation and policy coordination in the transportation area. She worked closely with officials in the Department of Transportation, the Office of Management and Budget, and other government agencies on the development of Ford administration legislative proposals, analysis of bills before Congress, drafting briefing materials for the President, and coordinating the administration's response to issues that developed. For the most part Hope handled only the domestic aspects of transportation issues and not matters relating to international policy.

This collection documents Hope's work with the Domestic Council both as a consultant and as an Associate Director. The paperwork reduction subject file and several folders in the general subject file relate to her work as consultant. The transportation files relate to the movement of both people and freight by airplanes, boats, motor vehicles, and trains.

Throughout the administration the Ford White House was very active in transportation matters. One of the main thrusts of the Ford regulatory program was in easing controls over transportation industries and bills reforming the regulation of airlines and railroads were passed by Congress in 1975 and 1976. Paul Leach of the Domestic Council handled most regulatory reform matters, but Judith Hope and her predecessors shared responsibility with him for proposals relating to the transportation industries.

Hope's work on regulatory reform of the transportation industries is documented by memoranda between her and other government officials, correspondence from companies affected by the changes, copies of legislative proposals, analyses of bills before Congress, and Congressional testimony. Other major transportation topics include the development of the National Transportation Plan, the bombing at La Guardia airport, restrictions on aviation noise, the budget of the Department of Transportation, highway construction, the Marine Affairs Council, labor agreements with transit unions, Amtrak, and Conrail.

Hope's files consist of correspondence with local transportation officials and executives of transportation corporations, memoranda between Hope and her White House colleagues or other Federal officials, press releases, briefing papers, referral sheets, Congressional testimony, budget proposals, reports, publications and newspaper clippings. Most of Hope's mail from the general public was referred to the Department of Transportation for a reply.

Related Materials (February 1980)
Researchers should consult the transportation files of Michael Raoul-Duval and Stephen G. McConahey for additional materials which they did not pass on to Judith Hope. Another collection containing related material is the Domestic Council files of Paul Leach who handled regulatory reform. Hope worked briefly on Indian Affairs before taking over responsibility for transportation issues and a small amount of Hope material on Indians can be found in the Janet Brown series of the Arthur Quern files.