KENNETH RUSH FILES, 1974

As Counsellor for Economic Policy to President Nixon, a position of Cabinet rank, Rush became the President's "primary adviser for and the coordinator of foreign and domestic economic policy". He was often called upon to mediate disputes between other presidential economic advisers, particularly Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon and Office of Management and Budget Director Roy L. Ash. His responsibilities included preparing and following-up on Economic Policy Memoranda (EPM) and Economic Decision Memoranda (EDM); reviewing and coordinating economic speeches, statements, messages, and press releases; and consulting with economists and business leaders outside of the administration. Rush also chaired the daily 8 a.m. meeting of key economic advisers and attended senior staff meetings at the White House. As Counsellor, he sat in on meetings of the National Security Council and served as chairman of the Council on International Economic Policy (CIEP), the President's Committee on East-West Trade Policy, and the President's Food Committee.

After Gerald Ford assumed the presidency on August 9, 1974, Rush also became chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability and the presidential - congressional steering committee for the Conference on Inflation. On September 4, 1974, Ford named Rush as Ambassador to France and L. William Seidman assumed Rush's duties as White House economic adviser.

The Rush files consist only of a small amount of material concerning his activities in the first month of the administration. Included are memoranda on food production and pricing, crude oil price equalization, wage and price policies, and the FY1975 budget. Since the files are so fragmentary, it appears that Rush may have transferred some of his files to other staff members upon leaving the White House.

Related Materials (February 1982)
Other collections with material on economic concerns include the Council of Economic Advisers records, the papers of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns, the files of Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs L. William Seidman and his assistants, and several categories in the White House Central Files.