Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Presidential and Vice Presidential addresses; presentations by Cabinet Undersecretaries on federal programs in the planning and legislative stages; and addresses by Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) Secretary George Romney, chair of the cabinet committee on voluntary action, and Bud Wilkinson, head of the new National Center for Voluntary Action, on the need to involve citizens in planning and implementation of joint private-public projects.

Points of Interest:

In an address to the Governors, President Nixon expressed optimism about the chances for enactment of his welfare reform plan—known as the Family Assistance Program. He was less certain, however, about revenue sharing, although he argued that it had a much greater chance of adoption if the Governors put the full weight of their support behind it. The President also spoke at length about the environment, telling Governors that the term 'conservation' had become an inadequate term that needed to be replaced with 'restoration.' Given that sources of environmental solution did not stop at state boundaries, Nixon argued for the adoption of national standards.

John Ehrlichman, the President's domestic policy advisor, introduced cabinet officials who in turn briefed Governors on the work their departments and agencies were doing. Following are some highlights.

• An urban mass transit initiative was under way to serve the majority (80 percent) of Americans now living in urban areas.
• The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was implementing one of the most stringent automobile emission regulations for motor vehicles in the nation's history, designed to reduce the volume of air pollutants 25 percent by 1975. HEW was also seeking authority to set stack standards for new facilities and for industries (such as chemical, steel, and power generation) where pollution was a major danger.
• The Food Stamp program was expanded both financially and geographically.
• Manpower programs had been consolidated, with provision for planning and administration at the state level subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Labor. Governors were promised increased funding, better control of funding at the local level, and the ability to link manpower programs with educational and social welfare programs.
• Efforts were being made to increase minority business ownership.
• Governors were told that Mayors welcomed the participation of state government in the coordination of Model Cities programs. Governors were also asked to help ensure the success of Operation Breakthrough [a program under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designed to help develop technologies for use in the construction of affordable housing] by reviewing relevant state building codes and eliminating zoning obstacles.
• Revenue sharing, which was stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives, would—if enacted—be divided among states according to population, but with provision for states to receive bonuses if their own revenue-raising efforts exceeded the national average.

Concern was expressed about whether the application of federal pollution standards would dumb-down more stringent state standards, about how the federal standards were to be enforced, and about the fact that so many federal agencies were involved with pollution control. Governors were told that states could maintain more stringent standards if they chose, and that it would be left to them to enforce whatever standards were to be followed, provided their state abatement plan passed federal scrutiny. In addition, it was expected that various environmental control functions would be consolidated within one or several agencies.

Governors also pressed federal officials regarding cutbacks in federal highway construction grants and questioned the fairness of withholding money that had been appropriated. They were advised in response that cutbacks were required to help address inflation and stabilize prices. At the same time, no mandatory reductions in allocations to the highway trust fund had been required for FY70 thanks to the fact that a number of states had offered voluntary reductions. And John Ehrlichman expressed hope that Governors could work with federal officials to find alternative ways of financing interstate highway programs.

During presentation of committee reports, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York noted that the Human Resources Committee had reaffirmed the view that the federal government should assume the full cost of welfare on a phased basis, given that welfare involved freedom of movement and the right of individuals not to be subject to state variations in welfare benefits. However, alternatives that had been discussed with federal officials included: (1) state assumption of a set maximum of welfare costs; (2) 100 percent federal financing of cost-of-living increases; (3) 50 percent federal sharing of costs of state supplementation of a federal minimum; and (4) transfer of adult public assistance and assistance for the aged, blind, and disabled to the Social Security system. The Human Resources Committee also continued to favor universal health insurance via a contributory system.

Memorable Quotes:

President Richard Nixon said: "Seventy years ago Theodore Roosevelt caught the imagination of this country and, incidentally, the admiration of the world when he spoke of…conservation; conservation was the right term for that time. Conservation today, I submit to you, is an inadequate term to describe what we need to do. What we need to do now is not to conserve simply what we have in the way of natural beauty and natural resources…We need restoration, restoration of the beauty of waterways, and of air, and of land, which has been destroyed or virtually ruined by reason of this economic progress which, on the one hand, has its advantages but on the other hand brings with it some side effects that all of us, of course, want to deal with effectively…we should combine that, it seems to me, also with another very positive word…the word reform...We need to reform the instruments of government at the Federal, State and local government levels if we are effectively to deal not only with problems of the environment, but also in terms of family assistance and…those [other issues] that you have been discussing…And then the final word that I would suggest we might constantly emphasize is that of renewal. And, here, when I speak of renewal I mean renewal of the spirit of this nation and particularly renewal of the spirit and of the challenge for the young people of this nation…A few months ago when I was traveling in Europe I was discussing with a major European leader the mutual problems that we had, the problems that we had with our youth…and I pointed out to him that there were many in this country who thought that once the war in Vietnam was over that the problems of our youth would disappear…He said, "I don’t agree that that would happen…The problem with your youth is peace." What he was, of course, suggesting was not that what they needed was war…But, what he was suggesting was that the problem of youth today is much more profound simply than to find a society in which we have an absence of war because there needs to be a positive thrust, a renewal of the spirit…unless we can give to our youth and to all Americans, for that matter, a sense of challenge; a sense of excitement; a sense of participation in building the "New America" in this program of restoration and renewal and reform…we are not going to give them the satisfaction."

In response to a question about multiagency jurisdiction over pollution, John Ehrlichman, President Nixon’s domestic policy advisor, said: "We have under very active study at the present time the question of how the Federal Government can best be organized to sustain [an] attack on the problem of degradation of the environment. I would guess that in a matter of two or three months we will have a recommendation from…a citizens commission appointed by the President to study questions of the organization of the Executive Branch…I suspect without really knowing that we will be moving toward a consolidation of these various environmental control functions in one or several agencies where you will get a more integral approach, and a more constancy of philosophy than we presently find. [NOTE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established four months later.]

Governor Warren Knowles of Wisconsin said that a member of his congressional delegation had told him "…that he looks upon his present job as being that of a glorified errand boy," to which the Governor responded, "…in my opinion I thought that he and other members of Congress were somewhat responsible for putting themselves in this position, and the Governors recognized that with some 470 categorical aid programs with all of the units of Government looking to Congress in Washington that they ought to take a good solid look on how they can get out of the business of operating all government out of Washington, and return the government to the people at the State level of government where we think, as Governors, that we are capable of administering the government for the benefit of the people; where we can do it more closely at home, and certainly more efficiently and economically at home…"

Former Maryland Governor and now Vice President Spiro Agnew said: "At no time in our history have we seen a greater preoccupation with the machinery of government, a greater fascination with the ideas of the "in group" of bureaucrats and professional experts, and less attention to the true functions of leadership…No one knows better than a Governor who digs his way through reams of paper…through studies and consultants’ reports ponderously redundant…how easy it is to get caught in the make work climate of modern government. I used to sit in my office in Annapolis and occasionally look up at a portrait of some ancient predecessor and wonder what it was like before the typewriter, and the duplicating machine, visited these miserable torrents of minutia upon us—before committees, and study groups, and lobbies, convinced of their unique knowledge and the originality of ideas born and discarded from the time of George Washington down, thrust themselves upon us. I would suspect that these early executives had more time to devote to creative thought and the assessment of the direction of their constituents. Today we have a dangerous delusion—words masquerading as decisions, activity masquerading as progress, and non-productive dissent masquerading as constructive debate. It is easy to be deceived into thinking that because we are busy we are making progress. To the contrary, I would suggest that the destructive forces gathering strength in the country today are equivalent to enormous headwinds on the nose of the ship of state. Our engines are flailing but we are not getting very far very fast. Until we accept the necessity of facing our leadership obligations and stating a direction for our people, we will continue to lose ground."

Vice President Agnew also said: "What is the greatest issue today? It is not the war in Vietnam, nor inflation, nor the environment…Simply stated it is, "Will the Government of this country remain in the hands of its elected officials, or will it descend to the streets?" It is not unusual, nor should it be distressing, that individuals of monumental ego among the failures of our society should attack everything fundamental to our free culture. They are simply lashing out in all directions because they cannot bear to face their individual inadequacies. Neither should it overly concern us that certain brilliant but sequestered academicians are criticizing the Government. This has always been so, and probably will always be so. Sometimes it does some good. Also, we should not seem surprised that the neophyte politically ambitious loudly champion all causes of the least affluent. That works beautifully until they get elected and have to represent all the people. Why then, if these political phenomena are standard to a democratic government should we be disturbed about them today? The answer lies not in a fear of the kooks or demagogues themselves, but in their current respectability. Never in our history have we paid so much attention to so many odd characters. Twenty-five years ago the tragic-comic antics of such societal misfits would have brought the establishment running after them with butterfly nets rather than television cameras…Courts are becoming carnivals, laws are flouted, criminals commit their despicable acts against society in the name of political activity. Gentlemen, I propose that all of us elected to positions of governmental responsibility should speak out forcefully and directly against the outrageous patterns of conduct which have become so fashionable of late. Whether or not one agrees with every ruling that the judge made in the recent Chicago trial [the trial of the "Chicago Seven," in which dissidents were tried in federal court for conspiracy to incite violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention] is not the point. The point is that a handful of oddballs deliberately set out to politicize a simple criminal proceeding and to disrupt the most basic protection of our society—the dignity of our courts…The spread of revolutionary conduct, as you are well aware, is not limited to the courtrooms of the nation. We find it in our educational systems and, in fact, beginning to spread from college to high school to junior high school…The purpose is clear and obvious—to immobilize and incapacitate the normal procedures of our constitutional government…We can exert our governmental authority to protect the people who placed us in these positions of responsibility. This requires firm, decisive action and a willingness to withstand the criticisms of the liberal community, who are presently so blinded by total dedication to individual freedom that they cannot see the steady erosion of the collective freedom that is the capstone of a law abiding society…Of equal importance, we can begin to lead American opinion. I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans will follow the lead of their Governors, and other elected officials, if we will just launch a campaign to exert the force of public opinion to drive these bizarre extremists from the preemptive positions on our television screens, and on the front pages of our newspapers."

Presidential Addresses: