BREAKFAST WITH REPRESENTATIVE MCHUGH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000200310037-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 31, 2011
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: June 9, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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9 June 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM: Dave Grin'
SUBJECT: Breakfast with Representative McHugh
You are scheduled to host breakfast for Representative
Matthew McHugh on Tuesday, 10 June at 8:00 a.m. in the DCI
Dining Room. As you know, Rep. McHugh is a current member of
HPSCI. He is also a member of the House Appropriations
Committee, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.
Also attending the breakfast are Clair George and myself.
Talking points and a biographic highlight sheet are attached for
your information.
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Representative Matthew (Matt) McHugh (D., NY) joined HPSCI
in 1985 and must leave by 1991. He is on the Subcommittee on
Oversight and Evaluation. He is also a key Member of the House
Appropriations Subcommittee that handles foreign aid, and is
said to be a consultant for Secretary Schultz on such matters.
McHugh has a reputation as a thinking man, one much interested
in the philosophical issues that surround intelligence.
Items likely to be on his mind include:
-- Covert action. He has expressed interest in how new
findings are developed. This might provide you an
excellent opportunity to do some basic educating as
well as take advantage of his theoretical bent. He is
one of the many Members struggling with the
overt/covert issue.
Rights of Americans. He recently sought your written
assurance that the Agency does not provide false or
misleading information to the press or Congress as
alleged in a March Aviation Week article.
McHugh is said to read a fair amount of condensed
intelligence material and is interested in the quality of our
information. He may also want to ask you about your priorities
and where you think improvement is most needed.
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Biographic Highlights
Name (including party/state) : Matthew F. McHugh (D , NY)
District: Southern Tier - Binghamton; Ithaca
1974
Winning percentage in last election: 57%
Up for re-election: 1986
Past Service on intelligence committee: Yes No XX
Current service on intelligence committee: Yes XX No
Term on intelligence committee expires: 1991
Current committee assignments:
Appropri ati ons
Select Children, Youth and Families
Key votes:
Bar covert U.S. aid to Nicaragua (1983) - Y
Bar aid to anti-Sandinista forces in Nicaragua (1984) - Y
Authorize procurement of 21 "!X missiles (1985) - N
Sponsor of legislation affecting CIA:
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28 Matthew F.
McHugh (D)
Of Ithaca - Elected 1974
Born: Dec. 6, 1938, Philadelphia. Pa.
Education: Mount St. Mary's College, B.S. 1960;
Villenova U.. J.D. 1963.
Occupation: Lawyer.
Family: Wife, Eileen Alanna Higgins; three children.
Religion: Roman Catholic.
Political Career. Tompkins County District Attorney,
1969-72.
Capitol Office: 2335 Rayburn Bldg. 20515; 225-6335.
In Washington: It may not be strictly
true, as some members like to say, that Mc-
Hugh does not have an enemy in the House
after 10 years in office. He may have one
somewhere. But his quiet, courteous, pragmatic
style has made him a major player in nearly all
the issues he has'chosen to work on. Unflap-
pable even in the most trying negotiations, he
has the trust of those who deal with him on
both sides of the aisle.
Over nearly a decade on the Appropria-
tions subcommittee that handles foreign aid.
McHugh has supplied balance and direction to
its work and sometimes eclipsed Clarence D.
Long of Maryland, the subcommittee's eccen-
tric and 'unpredictable chairman for most of
those years. During the 98th Congress. Repub-
lican Secretary of State George P. Shultz often
consulted with McHugh over breakfast to find
out the political situation on the crucial suh-
committee-
In the 99th Congress, the climate has
changed dramatically. Long was defeated for
re-election in 1984, and succeeded as Foreign
Operations chairman by David R. Obey of
Wisconsin, a longtime McHugh ally.
` It remains to be seen whether the change
will make it easier to enact a regular foreign aid
appropriation into law. That has not been (lone
since 1981; foreign aid programs have been
enacted by annual stopgap spending bills. The
Appropriations Committee and the full House
passed a bill in 1984, but the Senate never took
it up.
On the subcommittee, McHugh has
worked consistently to cut foreign military aid
in favor of increased economic and humanitar-
ian assistance. The one exception to his skepti-
cism about foreign military aid has been his
approach to Israel. McHugh has been it strong
to negotiate between Israel's even more milj
movement in the House.
McHugh used
.6. 98th Congress
I
,
n
the A
r .put-ons
-
.
pp
position on
-
`
e Reagan's foreign policy in Cents
n
ll
h
g
e
a
c
America. He sought to cut $34 million in mild,
and backed the,;;'-
lvador in 1984
EI S
id
,
a
to
tary a
cutoff of U.S. funding for the anti?Sandiniati
guerrillas fighting the. Nicaraguan governmenj }
After the cutoff passed. he noted that "there.i
a growing assertion by Congress of its legiti ,. I
mate right to participate in foreign policy.
international lending agencies, including tbt
International Development Association, the
arn. of the World Bank that lends to the
poorest nations. Conservatives have long op-
posed IDA. because it lends to communut
regimes. President Reagan came to office vow
ing to fulfill the U.S. obligation to pay $3.24
billion to IDA, but the administration later cut
U.S. contributions by 25 percent. McHugh said
the cutback would "cost in economic and pobti- I
cal terms much more than we'll save."
The intensity of McHugh's commitment
was shown in 1984 during debate on an admin.
istration proposal to spend $10 million on a
i
t
c... -----
new Unrr-:..,.er
-
make loans to businesses in the Western Hemi-
sphere. -lack F. Kemp of New York, the senior l
itt s
W
,
omm
Republican on the foreign aid subc tried to remove the $I() million. McHughspob
up sharply against him for the first ume,''
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New York 28
The elongated 28th reaches from high
above Cayuga's waters to high above those
of the Hudson.
The Triple Cities of Binghamton. John-
son City and Endicott are industrial but
politically marginal. This is the area in
which Thomas J. Watson located his first
IBM plant, and it still reflects some of the
corporate paternalism the Watson family
practiced for generations. In all three cities,
conservative working-class voters, many of
them Italian, join with white-collar techni.
cians and professionals to form a potent'
bloc for the GOP. Binghamton often elects
Democrats to the New York Assembly but'
its state senator is the Senate's Republican
leader. The small towns and farms of rural
Delaware and Tioga counties add to the
Republican totals.
McHugh's political base is Tompkins
County, site of Cornell University in Ithaca.
Cornell dominates Ithaca economically and
politically. The picturesque Ivy League
school, sitting on a bill overlooking Lake
Cayuga. keeps the city Democratic and rela-
tively liberal. The rural part-, of the county
have a Republican tilt.
Southern Tier -
Binghamton; Ithaca
Sullivan County, the northern portion
of which is in the 28th, is the only section of
the district where Democrats enjoy a party
registration majority, although the county
frequently votes for statewide and national
Republican candidates.
Heavily Jewish, it contains many resort
hotels, including Grossinger's, the famous
launching pad for comedians. The presence
of Sullivan County in the district makes
McHugh's support for Israel politically
helpful.
Ulster County lies at the district's east-
ern end. Its seat is Democratic-leaning
Kingston, a textile town of 24,481 people.
The county's other Democratic pocket - a
small one - lies in Woodstock, the artists'
colony that gave its name to the celebrated
1969 rock festival that actually was held in
Bethel.
Population: 516,402. White 492,630
(95%), Black 14,330 (3%), Asian and Pa-
cific Islander 4,309 (1%). Spanish origin
9,240 (2%). 18 and over 382,338 (74%), 65
and over 63,575 (12%). Median age: 30.
memory; Kemp's proposal lost.
Later in the. year, Congress cleared Mc-
Hugh's proposal to add $150 million in emer-
Kency food aid for drought-stricken areas of
Africa. The proposal survived months of bick-
ering and rewriting in the Senate.
McHugh first became a major player on
foreign aid in 1978, when he and Obey led the
-uccessful fight for the Carter administration's
X7.4 billion aid request, over the objections of
1. mg. who wanted to slash the amount.
When that hill went to conference, Long
and tither House negotiators were adamant
mKainst. Senate language providing for aid to
*~cria. It finally became law after McHugh
Added a provision authorizing the president to
'grove aid to Syria only if he thought it would
er?e the process of peace in the Middle
Fast -
In 1981. the next time a foreign aid bill
tressed the House, McHugh spent much of his
t'oooe trying to preserve multilateral assistance
im-grams over conservative opposition. On the
House floor, he and other Democrats joined
forces with the Reagan administration to block
moves by Republicans to reduce funding for
the World Bank.
The next year, the coalition splintered.
McHugh and other influential Democrats were
dismayed over the administration's request for
increased military aid. McHugh said the ad-
ministration "should have known that people
on this side would be deeply offended." Demo-
crats on the panel succeeded in blocking the aid
request.
Later that year, though, McHugh helped
form a coalition to approve $:150 million for
President Reagan's Caribbean Basin Initiative.
The aid was approved as part of a measure
Reagan vetoed; Congress overrode the veto.
Beyond McHugh's personal reserve lies it
reservoir of ambition. To make it to the Appro-
priations Committee in 1978, he had to win the
support of the New York state Democratic
delegation. 't'hat was a difficult task because
the delegation is New York City-dominated,
and the seat's previous occupant was from
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Matthew F. McHugh, D-N.Y.
Manhattan. There was already an active candi-
date from the city, James H. Scheuer. But
McHugh campaigned assiduously and defeated
Scheuer, 14-11, drawing several city votes.
He was less successful 'in 1980, when he
tried to become chairman of the House Demo-
cratic Caucus. The other candidates, Gillis W.
Long and Charlie Rose, were both Southerners,
and he saw an opening for a moderate liberal
from the Northeast. But he'started late, and in
challenging Long, he was up against one of the
most popular members. McHugh finished a
distant third, with 41 votes, to 146 for Long and
53 for Rose.
In the 98th Congress, though, he had his
first important leadership position - as chair-
man of the Democratic Study Group (DSG),
the organization of liberal and moderate Demo.
crats in the House. McHugh won it without
opposition.
The DSG, long an influential force in
House Democrats' internal affairs, had been
less conspicuous in the early 1980s; McHugh
set out to reverse this trend.
Under his leadership in 1984 DSG drafted
an alternative budget, one of more than half a
dozen alternatives to the official product of the
House Budget Committee. This proposal, of-
fered by McHugh on the House floor, would
have reduced the federal deficit by about $260
billion in three years, chiefly by freezing de-
fense spending at the inflation rate and in-
creasing taxes substantially. Although its ap-
peal beyond the ranks of liberal Democrats was
limited, it still drew 1:12 votes, more than any of
the tither alternatives to the Budget Commit-
tee's resolution.
At Home: McHugh's victory in the 1974
Democratic sweep made him the first Democrat
to represent the Binghamton area in this cen?
tury. He succeeded a popular Republican,
Howard W. Robison, promising to carry on in
the retiring Robison's moderate tradition. He
was helped in that stance by the hard-line
conservative campaign of his Republican oppo?
rent, 41inghamton Mayor Alfred I.ibous.
Since then, Republicans have had a habit
~Hc gputting up h. In 1978 and 1980, businessman against Neil challengers
Tyler Wallace demonstrated an abrasive per.
sonality that cost him votes. In 1982 lawyer
David F. Crowley seemed a bright and formida.
ble challenger until he committed a series of
gaffes that doomed his candidacy.
In an attempt to show how military spend-
ing could be cut, for instance. Crowley sug.
gested that the military's LAMPS III helicop.
ter be scrapped. It turned out that a plant in
the 28th District made parts for the aircraft,
McHugh won comfortably.
That track record did not dim Republi-
cans' optimism about their chances against
McHugh in 1984. Their candidate, former Cor-
nell University administrator Constance E,
Cook, had built up a reservoir of name recogni
tion as a member of the New York Assembly
for a decade until her retirement in 1976. Cook
also benefited from the special interest the
national GOP took in female congressional can
didates that year.
Unlike Crowley, Cook avoided making an
glaring errors. But the 65-year-old Republica
still had formidable problems in trying to bl
a comeback trail. She expressed reservatio
about the Reagan administration's cuts in
cial welfare programs, and scored McHugh f
opposing federal funding for abortion - stand
which did not sit well with many of the di
trict's conservatives. Further. Cook negotia
a campaign spending limit with McHugh tha
wound up impairing her ability to spread h
name outside of her Ithaca base.
Cook got a much-needed boost in mi
September, when President Reagan spoke
the district on her behalf. But even that did n
hell) her generate sufficient momentum. M
Hugh, who openly attacked Reaganomics a
embraced Walter F. Mondale's call for a
increase, took 57 percent of the vote district
wide.
Before running for Congress, McHu
served as district attorney of Tompkil
('aunty. at the far western edge of the sprawl,-
ing district. As disc ric?t attorney, he was popula
with the Cornell university community in lt6-
acs. He organized a local drug treatment facC'
ity and demanded peaceful handling of student
protests.
K
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Committees
Appropriations (19th of 35 Democrats)
Agriculture. Rural Development and Related Agencies; Foreign
Operations.
Select Children. Youth and Familles (5th of 15 Democrats)
Task Forces: Economic Security; Prevention Strategies.
Select Intelligence (9th of 10 Democrats)
Oversight and Evaluation.
1914 General
Matthew F. McHugh (D)
Constance E. Cook (R)
1942 General
Matthew F. McHugh (0)
David Crowley (R)
Previous Winning Percentages:
1976 (67%) 1974 (53%)
123.334 (57%)
90,324 (41%)
100.665 (56%)
75,991 (43%)
1980 (55%) 1971 (56%)
District Vote For President
1964 1960 1976
D 94.304 (39%) D 83,039 (38%) D 110,702 (48%)
R 147.818 (61%) R 108.287 (49%) R 121,263 (52%)
1 24,117 (11%)
Campaign Finance
Rocoipts ' Expand-
Receipts from PACs itures
1964
McHugh(0) $390,103 $134,111 (34%) 5381.056
Cook (R) $138,619 $20,400 (15%) $136,255
1962
McHugh (D) $447,496 $139,648 (31%) $454.513
C,owley(A) $278,405 $115,781 (42%) $277,732
Voting Studies
Presidential Party Conservative
Support Unity Coalition
Year S 0 S 0 S 0
1914 35 62 89 9 24 75
1983 24 76 92 5 12 87
1982 39 53 89 8 19 at
1981 32 68 89 11 19 80
1960 76 20 88 8 11 84
1979 82 16 86 12 16 83
1978 84 15 84 13 12 87
1977 72 20 74 16 21 67
1976 24 75 87 11 t8 77
1975 35 63 88 7 11 86
S = Support 0 - Opposition
Key Votes
Raise Social Security retirement age to 67 (1983) N
Bar covert U.S. aid to Nicaragua (1983) y
Reduce dairy price supports (1983) N
Pass Equal Rights Amendment (1983) Y
Freeze physicians tees under Medicare (1984) N
Bar aid to anti-Sandinista forces in Nicaragua (1984) Y
Pass bill to revise immigration laws (1984) Y
Cut education spending (1984) N
Authorize procurement of 21 MX missiles (1985) N
Interest Group Ratings
Year ADA ACA AFL-CIO CCUS
1984 75 5 38 19
1963 90 11 88 30
1962 100 17 95 23
1961 95 8 73 11
1960 83 21 72 64
1979 89 4 90 13
1976 75 15 80 28
1977 70 10 80 33
1976 80 4 77 32
1975 95 7 95 6
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*Deletion-9 June 86
**Addition-9 June 86
TIME/DAY/DATE: 0800-Tuesday, 10 June 1986
BREAKFAST XX LUNCHEON DINNER
HOST: DCI DDCI XX EXDIR OTHER
PLACE: DCI D. R. XX EDR OTHER
GUEST LIST: Mr. Robert Gates, host
Representative Matthew McHugh, guest of honor
Mr. Clair George, DDO
*+k-. Riehard Kett, DBi-
**Mr. William Donnelly, DDA
Mr. David Gries, OCA/DCI
TOTAL: **5
WILL ORDER FROM MENU
Mr. Donnelly
Mr. G rge Mr. McHugh
Mr. Gates
(host)
(WINDOWS)
CONFIDENTIAL
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