VERNON C. LOEN and CHARLES LEPPERT FILES, 1974-77

The Loen and Leppert files document White House liaison with the House of Representatives, 1974-1977. Max Friedersdorf was in charge of House liaison through December 1974, and he was succeeded by Vernon Loen (Jan. 1975 - March 1976) and then Charles Leppert (April 1976 - Jan. 1977). This collection includes material produced by all three and their assistants.

The Congressional Relations Office lobbied for the administration's point of view on proposed legislation, informed the President and his staff of congressional views and the status of legislation, assessed the potential outcome of key congressional votes, and arranged meetings and telephone calls between the President and members of the House. Much of the staff's time, however, was consumed by more routine tasks such as clearing personnel appointments with the Minority Leader's office; responding to Congressional mail concerning personnel appointments; monitoring congressional invitations to White House social events; notifying congressional offices of disaster declarations, government grants and presidential trips; and handling congressional requests for photographs, birthday and anniversary greetings for constituents, and Kennedy Center tickets.

This collection documents, at least in part, all of these congressional liaison functions. The materials concerning legislation and issues show interactions between the Congressional Relations staff and the President, other White House staff, and agency officials. Occasional assessments of congressional opinion and legislative status are also included. For the most part however, the collection does not document the lobbying of members of Congress on specific legislation, much of which was apparently carried out orally.

The Congressional investigations of abuses by the intelligence community, especially the organization and operation of the House Select Committee on Intelligence (the Pike Committee), is well documented. Approximately 2,000 pages concern this subject. Significant materials appear on most major energy issues facing the Ford administration and several other domestic issues which were the subject of considerable congressional debate. A few foreign policy questions which required congressional action such as the Sinai Agreement, military aid for Turkey, and the end of American involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia are also documented here. This collection also includes much material relating to the involvement of the Congressional Relations Office in personnel matters. Included are mail logs, responses to congressional mail, and materials showing the clearance of each appointment with House Minority Leader John Rhodes. Formal briefing papers and schedule proposals, with some related correspondence and memoranda, document the role of this office in arranging meetings between the President and members of the House. The vast majority of these meetings were routine in nature, however, and did not relate to issues or legislation.

Related Materials (September 1984)
Most collections at the Ford Library contain some information on relations with congressmen and issues which engaged House attention. Especially noteworthy are the files of Loen and Leppert's colleagues in the Congressional Relations Office and files of Counsellor John March, to whom the office head reported. In White House Central files, categories LE (Legislation) and FG 37 (Congress and its several parts) provide some overview of White House relations with Congress.