NORMAN ROSS FILES, 1974-75

The Ross collection covers the period August 1974 to June 1975 and details his work on environmental matters, agriculture, Indian affairs, and territorial matters. Frequently, earlier materials from the Nixon administration appear in the files. Although Ross divided his files among several successors when he left the Domestic Council, his collection now includes most of this material. After his successors finished using his files, they usually retired the materials virtually intact to the White House Central Files.

Ross joined the Domestic Council staff in January 1974, after serving for several months on detail to the Council. He was one of two assistants to Richard Fairbanks and Michael Raoul-Duval, who successively headed the natural resources policy area.

Like most of the Domestic Council staff, Ross was responsible for policy formulation; the preparation and review of such documents as decision memoranda, briefing papers, legislative proposals, fact sheets, and responses to correspondence; soliciting comments and recommendations from White House staff and agency officials; and maintaining ongoing contact with federal agencies and Congress on behalf of the President.

Within the natural resources policy area, Ross specialized on issues relating to agriculture, the environment, Indian affairs and territorial affairs. He worked closely with officials from such agencies as the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Water Resources Council, and the Council on Environmental Quality.

During the eleven months that Norman Ross served on the Ford Domestic Council, he appears to have been most active on issues related to the environment and to Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories. His environmental files contain material on such subjects as air pollution, water quality, the National Ocean Policy Study, and the construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. The files contain little on automobile emission standards and strip mining, which Glenn Schleede, also assistant director for natural resources, usually handled. A few items relate to the work of Douglas Costle, whom Ross began training in May 1975 to assume responsibility for environmental matters. However, Costle left the Domestic Council after only a few weeks.

Several folders on environmental issues contain material from 1973. While most of the 1973 material consists of press releases, material from as early as January 1974 appears in the files. One Ross file relates entirely to proposed input on natural resources issues for President Nixon's 1974 State of the Union Address and a follow-up environmental and natural resources message.

The most significant Ross file on Interior Department matters relates to the status of Puerto Rico, especially the work of the Ad hoc Advisory Committee on Puerto Rico. Ross served as the President's representative on theis body from April 1974 to June 1975. His files include correspondence, memoranda, drafts of the Compact of Permanent Union, testimony and newspaper clippings concerning both administrative matters relating to the operation of the Committee and the policy proposals it developed.

Ross was apparently not as active on agricultural issues. The Ford administration offered few agricultural initiatives, so much of his material concerns complaints about the general state of American agriculture or the problems involved with raising a specific crop or producing livestock.

Related Materials (May 1982)
Materials related to the Ross files can be found in the Domestic Council staff files of his successors - Paul Leach (agriculture); Tod Hullin and George Humphreys (environment); James Falk, Sam Halper and Dean Overman (Puerto Rico and the territories); and Arthur Quern, Spencer Johnson and Sarah Massengale (food stamps). Material on Indian affairs appears in the Domestic Council files of Janet Brown and the White House staff files of Theodore Marrs, Bobbie Kilberg and Bradley Patterson. Ross' files of Q and A briefing sheets, 1974-75, can be found in White House Central Files OA 3264.