Sub-Series

Sub-Series II: Private Bills,, 1959-1980.

Dates

1959-1980.

Scope and Contents

Private Bills includes legislation introduced by HAW for the benefit of specific individuals. Some files concern legislation introduced in the House by members of the New Jersey delegation, rather than by HAW. For the most part, the situations concern immigration matters.

Although many files contain only the printed bill itself, many files include additional documentation such as correspondence with the subject of the bill or his/her sponsor, correspondence with government officials, staff notes, etc. The files are particularly useful for perceiving the influences and background behind these private bills. Some of the cases documented in this sub-series attracted considerable publicity at the time, including the effort of war veteran John Lynch of Hoboken to bring his Vietnamese wife and child to the US, and the effort of the Workers Defense League to keep anti-Franco Spanish "shipjumpers" from being deported. Some cases received less publicity, such as those concerning a Rutgers University graduate student and an acquaintance of former Governor Alfred Driscoll.

Although a few business and university-related private bills appear in this sub-series, these types of cases will be found more commonly in the sub-series Bills.

There are markedly few private bill files for the 92nd - 97h Congressional terms (1971 - 1982) when compared to earlier terms. It is not known whether this is because HAW introduced fewer bills during this period or that the files are no longer extant.

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Undetermined .

Physical Description

(3.25 cubic feet)

Additional Description

Arrangement

Private Bills is arranged in seven sets, following their original order. The first six sets advance in rough chronological order by Congressional term. There is some overlap as the first two sets include bills from both the 86th and 87th Congress (1959 - 1962). The second set also includes bills from the 88th Congress (1963 - 1964). The third through fifth sets cover the 89th through 91st Congress (1965 - 1970). The sixth set covers the 92nd Congress forward (1971 - 1980). Within each set, arrangement is alphabetical by last name of subject. The final set consists of various lists of private bills sponsored by HAW found scattered in the collection and brought together by the processing archivist.

For the Inventory container list, the date range of the Congressional term of the subject bill was used to establish the date range of the folder descriptions.

Commonly, a private bill was re-introduced over time in two or more Congressional terms. When a case was re-introduced, it appears that HAW's staff carried all prior term paperwork forward into the new term's folder, leaving an empty folder behind. (These empty folders were discarded during processing.) The fact that multiple bills are documented in a folder may or may not be indicated in the folder description, depending on how HAW's staff treated it. This means that folders with a date range in the Inventory container list for only one Congressional term may have documents from earlier terms.

At least in some years, HAW's staff maintained two sets of private bill files: one holding just the printed bill and the other holding correspondence and other working papers, as well as the bill. During processing, when the two files for a case were found, the archivist merged the contents.

Related Series

CASE FILES, WASHINGTON OFFICE; CASE FILES, COMMITTEE ON LABOR & HUMAN RESOURCES; and DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE include folders concerning private bills. These folders are identified by the use of the index term "private bill."

Some expressions of gratitude for HAW's assistance with private bills can be found in LAUDATORY CORRESPONDENCE and in GENERAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, & PUBLIC RELATIONS CORRESPONDENCE.