Sub-Series VII: Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66,, 1977-1982.

At some point in mid-1977, HAW's office implemented the Correspondence Management System (CMS), which replaced the term "legislative correspondence" with "issue correspondence." Within CMS, issue correspondence was further categorized by HAW's staff into one of five "type" codes. Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66 includes three of these types and includes the files of correspondence received by HAW on legislative matters from constituents and others from 1977 until the end of HAW's tenure in the Senate in March 1982. Types 50, 51, and 66 appear to have been used for issue correspondence receiving highly standardized responses from HAW. Please see Appendix B for a description of CMS, its correspondence coding structure, and other considerations integral to understanding the Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66 sub-series.

Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66 includes the same kind of subject material found in other LEGISLATIVE/ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE sub-series, especially Robos and much of Legislative Correspondence by Committee. However, the CMS implementation resulted in several significant changes in the filing structure and folder descriptions of correspondence.

Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66 also includes generally the same kind of subject material as the sub-series Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 70 and 71. Types 70 and 71, however, appear to have received more individualized responses, and were filed separately by HAW's staff.

Several themes are well-represented in Issue Correspondence: CMS Types 50, 51, and 66. Internationally, debates over the Panama Canal Treaties, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II), aid to El Salvador, and the sale of military equipment to Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries dominate. On the national front, concerns over energy resources are a major theme, recurring in various forms: gasoline shortages and rationing, utility and gas costs, extent of regulation of the energy industries, the potential and risks of alternative sources such as nuclear and solar power, and an oil industry windfall profits tax. Economic concerns related to inflation, social security benefits, civil service compensation, taxes, and the debate over President Reagan's 1981 budget cuts are also well-represented. Legislation related to the conservation of land in Alaska, the extension of the ratification period for the Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment, trucking industry deregulation, gun control, reinstatement of military draft registration, abortion, and humane treatment of animals are among the domestic issues with significant material in the sub-series.

The files include the original incoming constituent correspondence. HAW's response is not in the files. Instead, the CMS work orders indicating the standard text number used in the response are included.

The sub-series generally includes only correspondence incoming from constituents. It includes little correspondence from other legislators, or HAW-initiated material.