Sub-Series I: Legislative Assistants Files,, 1958-1982.
Dates
- 1958-1982.
Scope and Contents
Legislative Assistants Files includes those files that appear to have been maintained by various staff members responsible for supporting HAW in legislative matters. These staff members included those with the title of Legislative Assistant, as well as those who were legislative research assistants, Committee attorneys and professional staff members performing non-Committee-related work for HAW, and others. Although many files appear to have been maintained by only one person, many others show evidence of having been handed down over time to successive staff members.
The bulk of the material in Legislative Assistants Files are background reference documents, much of it printed material. Library of Congress Legislative Reference Service/Congressional Research Service reports, government publications, and position statements from trade/industry associations and other interest groups comprise the bulk of the reference material. Working files, correspondence, drafts of bills and HAW remarks, and staff notes are also found in the series.
Legislative Assistants Files, taken as a whole, did not exist as an organized set of files in HAW's office. Rather, the sub-series was organized by the archivist to combine disparate groups, or sets, of folders found throughout the original collection. Accordingly, the scope and strengths of Legislative Assistants Files varies sharply among the 13 sets of folders comprising the sub-series. Following is a scope description of each set. (See the Arrangement section below for further description of how these sets were established and arranged.)
Set A appears to be files of Legislative Assistant ArDee Ames from the early 1960s regarding mass transportation legislation. The material includes bill drafts, correspondence, staff notes, and notes on hearings concerning HAW bills S.3278 (1960?), S.345 (1961), and S.6 (1963).
Set B appears to be files of short-term Legislative Assistants Gerry Studds, Jim Leutze, and Woodruff (Woody) Price (1964-65), with some older material from Ames. New Jersey issues and projects are well-represented in the set, including Singer lay-offs in Elizabeth, IUE labor strife at ITT/Vortac, New Brunswick urban renewal, charges by a New Jersey firm of collusion in asparagus pricing, and HAW's efforts on behalf of a Jersey City fuel oil firm to acquire residual fuel supplies. National issues include HAW's resolution and statements in support of disarmament proposals.
Set C appears to be files of Gerald (Jerry) Feder, committee counsel, concerning work he did for HAW on non-committee work, specifically a 1970 effort to create a "Marshall Plan" for economic and military support of Israel. This set includes HAW speeches, correspondence, drafts, background material, etc. concerning policy toward Israel. The files also include materials concerning HAW positions on various topics, apparently prepared mostly in connection with HAW's 1970 re-election campaign.
Set D appears to be files from 1970-71 of legislative intern Mark Brodie and Legislative Assistant Al Saunders. The set concerns the aides' research into food and drug safety issues for the purpose of developing potential legislation. The bulk is reference material, including copies of articles, essays, Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Legislative Reference Service documents, along with some staff notes and correspondence.
Set E appears to have been maintained by Legislative Assistant Nik Edes and concerns the nomination of House Minority Leader Gerald Ford as Vice President. The bulk of the material consists of photocopies of newspaper and magazine articles regarding Ford and his nomination and transcripts of the Rules Committee hearings. The set includes some original material regarding proposed lines of inquiry for HAW to pursue at the hearings.
Set F appears to be files of Mike Schonenberger of HAW's office. The bulk is reference material and relates principally to the 1973-74 pension reform effort, but also to the nation's economic situation and other matters.
Set G appears generally to be files of Legislative Assistant Jim Matthews, as well as Dennis Peregrin (mid-1970s), Marcia Wolf (1976-80), Phil Egger (1979-80), Mark Brown, and others. The set, which is the largest of the sub-series, primarily concerns energy and conservation issues. Reference materials include Congressional Research Service reports; newsletters and briefings from House or Senate groups (e.g., Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition, Democratic Study Group, Environmental Study Conference); and newsletters, correspondence, and position statements from interest groups, such as Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin, Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC), Service Station Dealers of America, Independent Petroleum Association of America, utility and energy companies (e.g., PSE&G), and environmental groups, etc. The files also include Dear Colleague letters, bill summaries, photocopies of co-signed letters, HAW remarks, staff notes, and other material. Major topics include: Tocks Island project, Clinch River breeder reactor (involving Burns & Roe, an Oradell engineering firm), Pinelands preservation, New Jersey hazardous waste and the lead-up to the 1980 Superfund bill, proposals for utility rate increases to cover clean-up costs from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor incident, New Jersey water resources and drought, analysis of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, HAW's animal trapping bills of the late 1970s, and the effort to establish a VA Hospital in Camden.
Set H appears generally to be files of Legislative Assistant Paul Skrabut. The set generally concerns foreign relations, defense, immigration, and international trade. The set holds substantial material on refitting Merchant Marine vessels for Navy sealifts and on other military equipment related to Lakehurst Naval Station and other New Jersey base and port support (e.g., COTS and ARAPAHO programs). The set includes documents regarding HAW's legislative effort to declare the portion of Delaware River in Burlington County to be non-navigable. Documents concerning President Ronald Reagan's budget proposals and their impact on New Jersey programs are in the set.
Set I appears generally to be files of Legislative Assistant Phil Corwin. The set generally concerns law and order (e.g., civil/voting rights, arson, gambling, immigration, gun control, drug paraphernalia), telecommunications reform, taxation/economy, and the auto industry. Substantial material can be found on auto imports, loan guarantees to Chrysler Corp, telecommunications reform (especially as it related to cable television), fair housing legislation, and HAW's bill proposing the elimination of tax withholding on gambling income (supported by horse racing associations).
Set J appears generally to be files of Gerry Wyrsch, as well as William (Bill) Schnorr, Phil Egger, and Diane Pluchino. Major topics in the set concern aging, senior citizens, Social Security, HAW's bill to expand Medicare to cover low vision treatment, food stamps, child nutrition, agriculture, and foreign trade, especially with respect to steel. The set includes a working file for preparation by HAW's office of a 1978 handbook of services for the elderly in New Jersey; the various materials collected from the state document a cross-section of perceived services to the elderly at this point in time.
Set K appears generally to be files of professional staff members Denny Medlin, Maureen Dollard, Nancy Tampio, and Nancy Olson (Olson & Tampio may be the same person). The set concerns human resources, including aging (especially as it relates to employment and service), children (e.g., nutrition, adoption, abuse), CETA/youth employment, training, health, alcoholism, and compulsive gambling. The emphasis of some files is on the impact of the Reagan budget cuts, including the impact on New Jersey. In addition to reference material and copies of staff notes, the set includes some constituent correspondence directed by HAW's office to Medlin for resolution, with attached carbon copies of HAW's outgoing responses.
Set L appears to be those of Paul Armstrong, a short-term legislative aide. The small set includes useful material from 1971 on HAW's remarks regarding consideration of reform of the Senate seniority system in relation to leadership selection.
Set M includes miscellaneous subject files of a legislative/regulatory nature found throughout the original collection, principally from the boxes of material taken from HAW's office in 1982. Significant topics include staff notes from 1969 on the controversial possibility of terminating the Migratory Labor Subcommittee, advocacy materials from conservationists in relation to the 1980 Alaska Lands bill, and notes on an employment discrimination case involving Bethlehem Steel Corp.
Language of Materials
Undetermined .
Physical Description
(41 cubic feet)
Arrangement
Legislative Assistants Files consists of 13 sets of folders, each proceeding in rough chronological order, with exceptions for Set L (found by the archivist after the other sets were processed) and Set M (which has miscellaneous materials from a wide date range).
Each set consists of folders that appeared to the archivist to be closely related, that is, likely to have been maintained by one person or handed down by successive individuals having the same responsibilities over time. Such linkages were determined by reference to the physical proximity of the folders (i.e., folders boxed together by HAW's staff), intra-staff transmittal documents within the folders, original folder descriptions, subject themes, etc. Each set was assigned an alpha code from A to M by the archivist; folders belonging to a particular set are identified by use of the alpha code as a prefix in their folder descriptions. For example, all the folder descriptions with prefix "A:" belong to Set A.
Sets A-F and L were found in boxes sent to the Federal Records Center by HAW's staff. These relatively small sets (ranging from 0.25 to 1.5 cubic feet) were readily linked together by the archivist. Sets G-K, comprising the bulk of Legislative Assistants Files, came from the boxes of material taken from HAW's office when he left the Senate in 1982; their linkages are more tenuous at points. Accordingly, a researcher should bear in mind that the placement of materials within a set was a result of the archivist's interpretation and considered judgment as to the source of the material. It should also be recalled that these sets, as presented, did not exist in HAW's office, but were created by the archivist solely as a means of facilitating the organization and description of the material.
None of the sets were found by the archivist in any discernible order. Within each set, the archivist attempted to arrange the material by placing folders with common topics together and, in some instances, in alphabetical order by subject. Overall, though, arrangement within sets is minimal, especially for the larger sets, and the material is presented generally as found and processed by the archivist.
The original folders were retained for Set B because of their relatively good condition and useful labeling. Most material, however, was found in unlabeled folders, in re-used folders with multiple and incorrect descriptions, in dirty and damaged folders, and in folders with unclear or barely legible descriptions. Hence, most material was refoldered by the archivist. All original folder descriptions were recorded by the archivist on the new folders and in the container list. Where no descriptions existed on the original folders, the archivist supplied a description based on the content; these archivist-supplied descriptions are in [brackets]. Words added to original folder descriptions by the archivist to clarify content are also in [brackets].
Much of the material taken from HAW's office was loose, that is, not in folders or binders. The archivist arranged this material as seemed most appropriate given its subject content and context. All loose material was foldered and given an archivist-supplied description in [brackets]. Archivist Notes were placed in these folders, documenting for a user the fact that the folder's content consisted of material compiled by the archivist from loose matter.
Appraisal and Discard Information
Generally, all subject files were retained. Newsprint clippings, Federal Registers, and Congressional Record pages were discarded. Government publications, especially oversized or thick items, were discarded if not needed for context for other materials. Archivist Notes describing the extent of discards were placed in any individual folders from which substantive material was discarded. Empty folders or those with non-substantive matter were discarded.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository