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As of May 1998, the Ford Library had not located any formal typed minutes for this Cabinet meeting. The following document describing the discussions at that meeting has been substituted.
N E W S C 0 N F E R E N C E
AT THE WHITE HOUSE WITH JACK HUSHEN
AT 4:05 P.M. EDT
SEPTEMBER 17, 1974 TUESDAY
MR. HUSHEN: Let me just give you a brief fill, and it will be brief, on the Cabinet meeting.
The President met with the Cabinet for about an hour and 20 minutes this morning. The Cabinet members heard reports from Secretary Schlesinger and Attorney General Saxbe on the amnesty program, similar to the briefing they gave at the bipartisan Congressional meeting yesterday.
(END OF PAGE 1)
Secretary Kissinger discussed foreign policy and Roy Ash, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, discussed fiscal policy, and the Administration's efforts to reduce expenditures.
Now we had some questions. There was quite a bit of interest this morning on the story in the Los Angeles Times about a recommendation supposedly pending for the President to restore the power and the independence of the National Security Council.
I checked, as best I can, with as many sources as I can, including the President, and the President said that the transition team was told specifically not to go into this area of the White House makeup.
Q: By Kissinger?
MR. HUSHEN: No, the President told the transition team.
Q: Into the area of the what?
MR. HUSHEN: Of the White House makeup. There is nothing in the final report given to the President by the transition team which touches on the National Security Council, and there is no recommendation awaiting any Presidential action.
Furthermore, it is my understanding that one of President Ford's first acts upon becoming President was to reaffirm his desire to keep the National Security Council as his principal forum for foreign policy decision making and to keep Dr. Kissinger as an Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
Q: In essence, you are saying the Los Angeles Times story is absolutely false?
MR. HUSHEN: I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Q: Jack, why did the President rule this area off limits for his transition team?
MR. HUSHEN: I can't go into that. All I can say is that he did not want the transition team to spend its time reviewing this area for making any recommendations.
(END OF PAGE 2)
Q: You say they didn't make any recommendations in the final report. How about any interim or off-to-the-side recommendations.
MR. HUSHEN: Well, I have only been able to talk to two members of the transition team -- I am sorry, Mr. Buchen was not a member of the transition team, although I did talk to him.
I also talked to Jack Marsh. Neither one of them have ever heard of it. We are trying to talk to Don Rumsfeld now.
Q: Did you say Marsh and Rumsfeld?
MR. HUSHEN: No, Marsh and Buchen. Buchen was not a member of the transition team, but he was obviously actively involved in it.
Q: Jack, is there some misunderstanding here because the stories should have said they recommended some reorganization and recasting of the NSC staff rather than abolishing the staff or abolishing the Kissinger role?
(END OF PAGE 3)
MR. HUSHEN: Well, all I can say is that the transition team was not supposed to get into that area on orders from the President. And if a staff member was doing something, he may have been going off on his own.
What I am saying is there is no recommendation pending before the President. Nobody spoke to the President about it, the best I could tell from the nature of our conversation.
Q: Did the transition recommendation touch in any way on the amnesty?
MR. HUSHEN: Not at all.
Q: Do you have any idea where all these bum stories are coming from? (Laughter)
Q: Are you saying, then, that the President--
Q: No, I am serious, really. You know we have two stories that you have just really denied flatly today. Both were quite detailed and I wonder if there is someone doing this to be mean.
MR. HUSHEN: Well, I guess it just goes to show your sources really have to be checked closely.
Q: Jack, I don't understand what you mean by this terminology, President Ford wants to keep the NSC as his principal forum for foreign policy decision making.
MR. HUSHEN: That is the area where foreign policy decision is going to be discussed.
Q: It is the architect?
MR. HUSHEN: And the architect.
Q: Where does that leave the State Department?
MR. HUSHEN: What is the address?
Q: Jack, does the President at this time plan to retain Dr. Kissinger in the dual role? You said he made that one of his first acts, but has he reconsidered that, or is it still his plan to keep Dr. Kissinger --
MR. HUSHEN: I have nothing to indicate to the contrary.
(END OF PAGE 4)
Q: Is Governor Scranton still around, and was he not a member of the transition team?
Q: Who?
MR. HUSHEN: Bill Scranton, yes, he was a member of the transition team. We are trying to contact him but I understand he is traveling somewhere.
Q: Jack, did the transition team recommend a change in the role of the Domestic Council?
MR. HUSHEN: I can't answer that. I don't know.
Q: Did Dr. Kissinger express any concern or make any expression to the President or any of the President's chief aides today about this particular story?
MR. HUSHEN: You can address that to Dr. Kissinger. I have no information on that. Q: I think State says he already has discussed it with the President.
MR. HUSHEN: He may have. Q: And was assured by the President? MR. HUSHEN: Jack, is there any White House concern over this rash of stories that you are flatly denying, and any attempt to find out what in fact is behind them?
MR. HUSHEN: Well, we are not going to start an investigation. (Laughter)
Q: Is there any concern in the White House?
MR. HUSHEN: There is always concern when misinformation goes before the public because it is often difficult to catch up with the story,
Q: Does the President share the view of some people in the White House that there is a reasonably concerted campaign underway to get at people who are carry-overs from the old Administration?
MR. HUSHEN: I can't really respond to that. I have often noticed when there are changes from one Administration to the next, that you tend to get some speculative stories by people who think they know more than they actually do know.
(END OF PAGE 5)
Q: Has Dr. Lukash told the President that the former President intends to be hospitalized for treatment of phlebitis?
MR. HUSHEN: I don't know.
Q: Jack, do you have any information on the meeting that is, I guess, just breaking up on the Pan Am --
MR. HUSHEN: No. Q: Will you have anything? MR. HUSHEN: I don't know. I will talk to the people there and see if there is anything we can tell you.
Q: Were you able to track down the apparent contradiction between the Governors' report and the President's statement?
MR. HUSHEN: No. I'm sorry, I haven't yet. I have been trying to track down this NSC matter.
Q: On the NSC matter, then, you are saying that everything is status quo, the same as when the President took over, and he plans no changes? Is that right?
MR. HUSHEN: As far as I know. I am saying that there was no recommendation for change contained in the report. The transition team was specifically told not to get into that area.
Q: Yes, but is anybody else making any study?
MR. HUSHEN: Not that I am aware of.
Q: Are we to assume, then, that the President is perfectly satisfied with the way the NSC organization is set up?
MR. HUSHEN: That is a conclusion you will have to draw. I didn't ask him are you satisfied with the way the NSC is running. I was trying to figure out whether or not there was any truth to this report.
Q: Aside from the report, is the President satisfied with the foreign policy operation?
(END OF PAGE 6)
MR. HUSHEN: I will just take that question. I didn't come up here to launch into --
Q: There is no plan, then, to reorganize this NSC?
MR. HUSHEN: Not that I am aware of.
Q: Well, you are denying there is a plan?
MR. HUSHEN: Yes. You know, you can interpret my words, if that is what you want to do.
Q: I would rather be clear on your words.
Q: Jack, you said there was no recommendation.
MR. HUSHEN: Right.
Q: Is that the same as saying there is no plan to reorganize?
MR. HUSHEN: You are asking me to read the President's mind, and I am not in a position to do that. I am just telling you, you have a story here that says one thing and I am out here saying, according to the best checks I can do, that is not true.
Q: Granted in the Ford Administration the daily schedule is much more detailed than it was previously and one of the things I have noted, for instance, is that Scowcroft is listed as sitting in on these morning sessions between the President and Dr. Kissinger. Scowcroft went over with the astronauts and the President.
Is it a fact, or is it not, that Mr. Scowcroft is much more closely involved with this President than he was with Mr. Nixon? Maybe Les Janka could help us.
MR. HUSHEN: I am really not in a position to address that because I don't know what his role was previously.
Q: Is he just being added to the schedule now and nothing is really changed as to his access to the President, or is he closer to the President?
MR. HUSHEN: Why don't you ask me that question tomorrow. Maybe I can do a better job of answering.
(END OF PAGE 7)
Q: Did Secretary Butz make any presentation at all? Did he object to the proposal on the food point?
MR. HUSHEN: I don't know.
Q: Jack, can you tell us any more about these presentations that were made, especially by Ash, on fiscal policy?
MR. HUSHEN: I cannot.
Q: Was a decision made on world food shortages?
MR. HUSHEN: I don't think so, not at the Cabinet meeting.
Q: Are we going to get a text of the speech before --
MR. HUSHEN: We are still working on that.
Q: What are the leaders at the dinner tonight going to talk about?
MR. HUSHEN: We are trying to get it down below $300 billion.
THE PRESS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
END (AT 4:17 P.M. EDT)
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Last Updated: Tuesday, July 14, 1998