IKE'S LOBBYISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP93-01161R000100010011-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: June 18, 1959
• Content Type: NSPR

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I ke's' Lobb fists
Administration Enlarges
Staff Assigned to Sell
Programs to Congress
Liaison Men Write Speeches,
Answer Questions, Set Up
Trips, Push Party Loyalty
Annual Costs: $3.5 Million
By LESTER TANZER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON-The White House official
leaned over the desk of the Midwestern Repub-
lican Congressman who had voted for an
Administration-opposed rural electrification
bill. "We need your vote to sustain the Presi-
dent's veto," the Eisenhower aide argued.
"This bill in itself isn't important, but the
Democrats have chosen it to see if they can
establish a pattern of overriding the Presi-
dent's vetoes. 'If they can win, they'll be in
a better position to override the vetoes of the
big spending bills later on."
At the Old House Office Building, in a tiny
third-floor room that once was a ladies' pow-
der room, sit Navy Capt. G. S. Bullen., and
Marine Lt. Col.. William Oliver, answering
phone calls or dictating letters. The two af-
fable officers get a steady stream of requests
from lawmakers on how to handle mail from
their constituents-dealing with such touchy
topics as a Marine sergeant who treats junior
too harshly; the failure of the Navy to serve
milk to an offspring four times a day; or a
sailor who wants to come home to support
his financially hard-pressed family.
Twenty-four hours before one of the Fed-
eral housing agencies publicly announces a
grant or loan for "urban renewal," college
housing or some other Government-aided hous-
ing program, William Henry Harrison, a for-
mer Wyoming Congressman and grandson of
the 23rd President, may pass the word along
to interested legislators. That, way, the law-
makers can tip off recipients and gain some
good will back home.
A Growing Corps
py're part of a sizable though little.
pUbIicized corps of ,pfli s, spread throu,,ii -1 I
st ev
r
a o
e
y Fecierai agency, whose lull-time
jtili it is_ toma4P_,_Congressional friends and
jWluence legislation. Already some 500 people,
many with Capitol Hill experience of their
own, are engaged, at an annual cost of $3.5
million, in the Federal endeavor known as
"Congressional liaison"-and their numbers
are growing steadily.
Behind the rise of this breed of Federal
employe, largely a post-World War II phenom-
enOn, lies the grbWth and complexity of mod-
ern Federal Government. As just one sign of
that underlying fact, Congress last year en-
acted 1;063 new laws; compared with 940 in
1940 and less than 500 in the 66th Congress of
1919-20. "Every time Congress adds a facet to
our operation," says Robert Forsythe, chief
liaison officer for the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, "the - volume of our
business increases."
Though it can't be measured precisely, the
work of the Administration's "lobbyists"
plainly has an impact on the current struggle
between President Eisenhower and the Demo-
cratic' Congress. The envoys to Capitol Hill
help shape their agencies' programs at the
start of each session. They aid in preparing
testimony for Administration witnesses at
Congressional hearings. They sound out law-
makers' reactions to specific proposals -and
try to sell their views to fence-sitters, usually
employing facts and reason or, if the target is
a Republican, an appeal to party loyalty.
Some Help Map Strategy
The Congressional ambassadors also help
write speeches or furnish information for sym-
pathetic lawmakers who want to speak out. for
an Administration measure. They may help
map Administration strategy once a bill nears
floor action, perhaps working out compromises
with key legislators when a measure_.is in
trouble. Not long ago, one Executive agency's
top liaison official saw to it that enough Re-
publican members stayed away from a Senate
committee's meeting to prevent a quorum--
thus delaying a vote on a particular Treasure
until the Administration could swing more sup-
port for the bill.
Not all the liaison forces' efforts are focused
so directly on specific legislation. Often, these
influence men drum up support for their de-
partment's policies, rather than for a particu-
lar bill. The Pentagon's Congressional envoys,
for example, arranged 221 air trips for one or
more lawmakers in 1958 to Cape Canaveral,
the Strategic Air Command's Omaha head-
quarters and to .other U.S. military instal-
lations around the :world.
"The more we get them out," reasons Brig.
Gen. William Fisher, head of the Air Force's
legislative liaison division, "the better edu-
cated decisions Congress will make."
Much of the liaison workers' time is taken
up with tasks less directly linked to legislation`:
Answering legislators' complaints and queries,
usually spurred by mail from constituents, and
otherwise building good will among lawmakers.
The lobbyists dig up answers for hundreds of
thousands' of letters that legislators pass on. to
the Executive agencies each year, perhaps
asking for advice on how to take advantage of
a Federal program or griping about some
Government activity.
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Itineraries Arranged for Lawmakers
To keep lawmakers happy, the State De-
partment's liaison staff works out complete
itineraries, handling all necessary reserva-
tions, for legislators whb want to travel abroad,
for pleasure or business. General Services Ad-
ministration officials recently came up with a
two-decades-old Federal Government license
plate to fill a hole in a Congressman's collec-
tion. One young lady at G.S.A. spends most of
her time calling up lawmakers to give them
progress reports on Government buildings un-
der construction in their districts. The Post
Office Department's Congressional envoys ask
legislators for their personal views on the three
top prospects, as determined by Civil Service
exams, for postmaster jobs in their districts.
u 'little-adds- for Congress, to be sure,
---.Pdaase Turn to Page 25, Column 2
2
would be furn~~ss''hed even if Federal lobbyists
never lifted a finger for an Administration bill.
Nevertheless, there's a distinct connection be-
tween providing these services and influencing
legislation. "You do a good job handling the
personal problems and requests of a Congress-
man," a White House official figures, "and
you have an easier time convincing him to back
your program."
Actually, the heaviest wooing of lawmakers
on behalf of Administration programs is prob-
ably done by Cabinet members and other high
officials, rather than the full-time lobbyists.
Liaison men often call in their superiors when
an especially influential, legislator complains
Anderson's Luncheons
Just about every Cabinet member makes a
practice of.meeting informally from time to
time with lawmakers who deal in legislation
they're concerned with. Treasury Secretary
Anderson held a series of four buffet luncheons
in his private dining room earlier this year-
at his own expense-to explain the Treasury's
debt management problems to freshman legis-
lators and members of the House Ways and
Means and Senate Finance committees. Mr.
Eisenhower recently invited Republican mem-
bers of the House Commerce Committee for
late-afternoon drinks at the White House to ex-
press his personal apprecation for trimming a
Democratic-sponsored airport construction
measure.
For all this-hi h-level lobbying, it's the reg-
ular Congressional liaison officials who cement
the Administration's day-to-day relations with
Capitol Hill. In many cases, it's the liaison
workers who spot the targets for their supe-
riors and advise them how to handle lawmak-
ers. William :dacomber, Assistant Secretary of
State for Congressional Relations, for instance,
may remind Secretary of State Herter he'll be
seeing a key -lawmaker at an evening social
affair and suggest something to tell him; Mr.
Macomber is sure to set up private briefings by
Mr. Herter for members of the House and Sen-
ate Foreign Affairs committees when the Sec-
retary of State returns from the foreign minis-
ters' conference in Geneva.
Attempts by the Executive branch of Gov-
ernment to influence Congress, of course, are
as old as the country itself; back in 1781, Gen-'
eral "Mad Anthony" Wayne's Pennsylvania
regiments started marching on Congress in
Philadelphia until the lawmakers agreed to
make up the soldiers' back pay and discharge
troops who had served their full three-year en-
listment terms. But until rather recently, "Con-
gressional liaison" was just another job of Ad-
ministration officials-often the general coun-
sel of a department-who had many other du-
ties as well. This meant the wooing of Congress
usually was handled haphazardly or in rou-
tine fashion.
about something or a rank-and-file lawmaker
raises a major policy question. Comments an
Interior Department.liaison official, "It's more
discreet to send somebody on the policy level
than one of us from the working gang."
Besides his weekly meetings with G.O.P.
leaders, the President meets privately on oc-
casion with key lawmakers of both parties to
make a more personal appeal for a particular
program. On the eve of a big vote, he'll place
a number of private phone calls to try to sway
undecided legislators. Cabinet members, too,
phone fence-sitters before a bill comes to a
vote, even if the issue doesn't involve their own
field; usually, the Cabinet officials concentrate
on legislators from their home states or those
they know well.
But in recent years, Congressional liaison
has become more and more formal. In 1949,
for example, Congress officially created the
post of Assistant Secretary of State for Con-
gressional Relations; Mr. Macomber, who now
occupies that spot, has a 22-man staff that does-
nothing but deal with Congress. Before 1949,
the department's top officers had personal
aides who handled their bosses' relations with.
Congress as well as other chores, without nec-
essarily coordinating their efforts-"homeless
wanderers," one official calls them.
Larger Liaison Staffs
As the Federal Government has grown, the
size of liaison staffs has increased. At the out-
set of World War II, the Army, which. then
included the Air Force, employed only five
full-time lobbyists. - By the end of the war, the
number had soared to 65. At last count, the
Army and Air Force together employed 238
legislative liaison workers. Franklin D. Roose-
velt and Harry Truman, who were their own
chief lobbyists, had only one or two White
House aides whose sole job_ it was to sway
Congress. .Ur; Eisenhower now has six full-
time envoys to Capitol Hill plus Gen Wilton
Gerry) Persons, his chief oa; staff who spends.
much of his time dealing with lawmakers.
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The total number of people trying to im
prove the Administration's relations with Con-
gress is still going up. The Pentagon's legis-
latiye liaison force, the biggest in Government
at 330, is scheduled to expand by a dozen or
more in the next year; spending. will increase
from $2.6 million in the fiscal year coming to
an end June 30 to $2.9 million in fiscal 1960.
The three-member staff at the recently-created
National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion will shortly go up to six. Just the other
day, the staid old Interstate Commerce Com-
mission set up the first Congressional liaison
office in its 72-year history.
The apparently irresistible impulse to ex-
pand doesn't stem just from the Administra-
tion's desire to sway Congress. The lawmakers
themselves have had a considerable hand in
the steady growth of legislative liaison, with
their persistent demands for information or
help in handling their mail. "When Congress
becomes'aware of the existence of a legislative
liaison office," notes an Administration lobby-
ist, "it's amazing the way your work load
increases."
Congress played a major role in the recent
creation of the I.C.C.'s three-member liaison
staff. After the recent House investigation of
pressures on regulatory agencies, according to
one high official, many lawmakers became
leery of direct contact with I.C.C. commis-
sioners, even on routine questions from con-
stituents on matters pending before the com-
mission. So the legislators prodded the com-
mission into creating a sort of "middle man"
to handle such matters, and thus forestall pos-
sible complaints that they were trying to in-
fluence the I.C.C., improperly.
Congress' own urge to have Executive-
branch liaison workers handy probably ac-
counts in large measure for the lawmakers'
generous interpretation of laws designed. to pre-
vent use of appropriations "directly or indi-
rectly" for Administration lobbying.
But the lawmakers do occasionally snap
back at the Executive branch. Last year Con-
gress forced a cutback to 330 from 360 in the
number of Pentagon liaison staffers, out of re-
sentment against the services' intensive lobby-
ing on the Administration's Defense. Depart-
ment reorganization bill. But the size of the
Pentagon staff is creeping back up again.- And
he lawmakers show little disposition to ques-
tion the liaison activities of other Federal agen-
cies.
No two Administration agencies handle their
Congressional liaison, exactly alike. In size,
.the Executive Departments' lobbying forces
range from the Treasury's lone liaison hand-
former Columbia College football all-American,
Gene Rossides-to the Pentagon's seven pla-
toons of manpower. Some agencies with large,
staffs, including the Army, Navy and Air I
Force, the Veterans Administration and the
Civil Service, Commission, have offices right
on Capitol Hill-paid for by Congress-to pro-
vide quick access to lawmakers.
For ,all the diversity, a pattern of opperation
is -clearly discernible throughout the Adniinis-.
tration. The ranks of the lobbyists ' abound
with men with Congressional experience. They
include former lawmakers, such as the White
House's Jack Z. Anderson, onetime G.O.P. Rep-
resentative from California; old Congressional
committee hands, including George Moore,
once chief counsel of the House Post Office
panel, and a large number of people who used
to work for one lawmaker or another. Lawyers
without such political background are numer-
ous, too. Less typically, there's even a car
dealer among the Administration's legislative
contact men-George Vaughan, who ran a
Buick agency in Los Angeles before taking
over the Defense Department's legislative af-
fairs office earlier this year.
Personality, as well as experience, is a
major factor in selecting a man for liaison
work. "We run a low-key operation with no
high-pressure types or brash personalities,"
claims a White House lobbyist. The Air Force's
Brig. Gen. Fisher describes a typical liaison
aide this way: "He has a combat record,
which inspires confidence among Congress-
men. He needs good judgment in dealing with
people and a friendly personality, so he can
handle difficult situations. He's got to be able
to say 'no' pleasantly."
Object: A Friendly Atmosphere
The idea, of course, is to create a friendly
atmosphere between the Administration and
Congress; at the least, that can make the
basic tools of the liaison staffers work more
effectively. The lobbyists' chief tools: Facts
"presented in the right manner and at the right
time," according to one Administration student
of the art, and party loyalty. When it comes to
efforts to influence legislation, "liaison workers
deal mostly, though not exclusively, with
Republicans, leaving largely to higher officials
the job of selling Administration programs to
Democratic leaders.
"You tell the Congressman, 'Look, here's a
good bill,' and, you make your detailed case for
the bill," explains one Administration lobbyist.
"You tell him the President is quite anxious to
get his vote. Unless he's under strong local
pressures in his district, he'll go along with
you. If he sits on the fence, well, you find
people who know him best or you get, the
l Republican Party leadership to work him
over."
There are, of course, various ways of get-
ting facts across to a legislator. "Your
approach varies with the individual," notes a
liaison official now trying to get the House to
toughen the Senate-passed labor reform meas-
ure. Listen to his distinctions: "If you're talk-
ing to an old Eisenhower Republican, who may
be somewhat liberal, you ask for support of the
President rather than your legislation. If it's a
real conservative, who wants an even stronger
bill, you point out what your bill has that he
'wants and play down Eisenhower. If you find
a guy 100% for you, then you use him to keep
open your lines of communication with both
extremes in case you have to work out a
The State Department, for one, likes to be
sure it knows how various lawmakers feel
about issues it's involved in. So a lady on the
agency's 22-member liaison staff spends almost
compromise."
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all her time keeping an up-to-date file on
legislators, clipping newspaper reports of
their votes on diplomatic issues and all their
speeches, in Congress and out, on foreign
matters.
Localizing Arguments
Whenever they can, Administration influ-
ence men like to bring their facts home to
their targets. A case that is regarded as a
classic among Administration lobbyists was
the Commerce Department's breakdown of
what last year's reciprocal trade extension
bill meant to individual states and districts.
Such reports were furnished to 170 lawmakers
who requested them; they showed, among
other things, the firms in a given area and
the number of their employes making goods
sold abroad-all of whom would supposedly
benefit from extension of the' trade act.
From all the outward signs, there's little
evidence that any high-pressure tactics are
employed-at least by the liaison men. "You
occasionally hear rumors of deals to get a
key man on your side," admits one Congres-
sional contact man, "but if that happens, it's
handled at a higher level than mine."
Nevertheless, a lawmaker's desire to get a
friend a Federal job or get a military base
built in his district is often a help to the
liaison man. "I never went up to a guy and
said, `Vote this, way and get a job for your
constituent,' " says an Administration lobby-
ist, adding, "But you've got the basic laws
of human nature on your side. If the fellow
wants a favor, he's likely to vote your way
just in case he thinks it might do him good."
Even if crude force is not employed, the
Administration's envoys to Congress find sub-
tler ways to apply pressure: The more impor-
tant the selling job, the higher ranking the
officials who will be put into service. The
top liaison men for the Army, Navy and Air
Force are almost invariably of at least one-star
rank, with impressive records; the Army's
Lt. Gen. John Michaelis is a- much-decorated
Korean War hero. "You can't help but be im-
pressed," concedes a Midwest Republican
,
when a big-name general sits down to answer :1
your questions." , i
The mere presence of a White House lobby-
ist on behalf of a bill stamps it as a major
issue; Mr. Eisenhower's own ambassadors to
Congress step in on only the most vital meas-
ures-including almost all the major spending
bills this year. "There are lots and lots of bills
before Congress," comments an Eisenhower
aide, "and the Administration has a position
on all of them. But when the White House steps
in, you're letting the Congressmen know the
President really cares."
Degrees of Pressure
Liaison officials sometimes call in assistant
secretaries or even department heads to sway
a reluctant lawmaker. "You can entreat with
various degrees of intensity," notes a Veteran
Administration lobbyist. "If the Cabinet mem-
ber can't swing it, you may bring in the Presi-
dent himself. And you can apply different de-
grees of pressure by sending the Congressman
a letter, phoning him or talking to him in
person."
Though the liaison men themselves largely
confine the selling end of their business to
Republicans, their public relations and per-
sonal service work is pretty much bipartisan.
All lawmakers get letters at the start of each
session, telling them whom to get in touch with
at the Executive agencies for information on
legislation, help in answering constituents' re-
quests and other such aid. The Air Force fig-
ures it gets 2,000 letters a week from Congress,
plus about as many phone calls.
Prompt, courteous replies are a yule in most
agencies. But the agencies can't always de-
liver. Take the case of the, House member who,
after receiving a heart-rending letter from a
serviceman's wife about her financial plight,
went to work to obtain a hardship discharge
for the soldier. The Army was anxious to co-
operate, too, until it got a terse note from the
soldier: "I joined the Army to get away from
that woman.'. . . Now leave me alone."
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