Richard S. Schweiker

Introduced Walter Annenberg, nominated as ambassador to Britain and a former constituent. When the chairman raised Annenberg's role in his 1968 defeat of Sen. Clark, he said Annenberg's Philadelphia Inquirer had not supported him editorially, that Annenberg played no part in his nomination or election, and that the paper's coverage of Justice Musmanno's death shortly before the election was ordinary reporting. AI summary

“Mr. Annenberg played no role in either my nomination or election, and I can recall on a few instances rather vividly when his editorials and column took rather severe issue with some of my campaign statements.” PDF p. 30

Submitted a statement asking the House subcommittee for $300,000 for the Forest Service at Warren, Pennsylvania, amid the region's gypsy moth infestation. AI summary

Joined Sen. Adlai Stevenson III in testimony urging more money for the Office of Coal Research and coal gasification during the energy crisis. AI summary

In his first hearings on the subcommittee, he asked the Library of Congress about Congress's handful of computers compared with the executive branch's thousands, urged combining congressional computer services and giving members bill summaries and issue briefs by computer, and asked about delays at the Congressional Research Service and staffing for the Capitol Police. AI summary

“I am one of those Senators who gets excited ... when someone says the executive branch has $2 billion worth of computers and we have $2 million.” PDF p. 184

Joined Sen. Adlai Stevenson III before the House subcommittee in the "Stevenson-Schweiker position" for expanded coal research funding, backed by a list of other senators. AI summary

Presided over a hearing on the Defense Department's plan to move the Marine Corps Supply Activity from Philadelphia to Albany, Georgia, questioning union and city witnesses about the cost to transferred employees, the Pentagon's claimed savings, and why so many base closings fell on the North and Northeast; he asked whether the move could instead run the other way. AI summary

Questioned the Comptroller General on GSA's charges to GAO for executive-branch building space and GAO's need for specialists beyond accountants, praised GAO's work, and welcomed its request for more staff to review federal energy allocation. AI summary

“GSA is dunning us to increase their authority to expand the executive branch at their expense, isn't that what they are doing?” PDF p. 54

Testified before Rep. Daniel Flood's House subcommittee for continued funding of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers job-training program; another member recalled that he and Schweiker, as authors of the CETA job-training law, had intended OIC programs to keep their funding. AI summary

Questioned the Army on why it canceled moving a branch of the Defense Language Institute to Fort Monmouth while seeking a new building at the Presidio, and asked Adm. Elmo Zumwalt the full cost of the planned Diego Garcia base and why a nuclear carrier task force could not do the job instead. AI summary

“Why can't we continue to use, say, a nuclear carrier task force as opposed to these added facilities?” PDF p. 382

Questioned Defense Secretary James Schlesinger on how the defense budget was counted (trust funds, outlays versus new authority, money carried over from earlier years), Soviet troop strength on the Chinese border, independent testing of weapons as the Fitzhugh Commission had urged, and whether U.S. arms sales and technicians in the Middle East could put Americans on both sides of a war. AI summary

“If war should break out there, would this not possibly put us in a position of having our people opposing each other on both sides of the war, and isn't that rather an unusual position to be in?” PDF p. 69

Questioned Air Force Secretary John McLucas and Gen. David Jones on the cost of a fourth B-1 bomber prototype and of the whole program, challenging the Air Force's claim that its estimate had come down and its attribution of most of the growth to inflation, and on its cost comparisons between the B-1 and the B-52. AI summary

“What caused that? That is unheard of in the 10 years I have been on the Armed Services Committee.” PDF p. 128

Praised Army Secretary Howard Callaway's support of the all-volunteer force and asked about the share of Black soldiers in senior enlisted ranks, where officers came from, and how to open more paths from the enlisted ranks to commissions. AI summary

Questioned the Library of Congress on a $20,000 computer program to keep OSHA injury records and on staff grades for copying-machine supervision, and pressed it on why the bill-status system it had ready since November was unused for lack of terminals in Senate offices. AI summary

“I can't believe that many other businesses buy a computer to comply with OSHA. That is hard for me to believe.” PDF p. 370

“We are wasting a resource that you folks are compiling for us.” PDF p. 440

Asked the Comptroller General about GAO's need for subpoena power and its review of the FBI's domestic intelligence operations (coming over from the HEW appropriations hearing he was chairing next door), questioned Capitol construction costs, the Government Printing Office's charges, the four separate calendars printed around the Capitol, and congressional computer services. AI summary

“I wondered why we had four different calendars being printed around the Capitol. We have enough to do.” PDF p. 355

Questioned families of men given LSD in Army and CIA tests, an Edgewood Arsenal researcher, and Defense officials on a bill extending human-subject protections to military and intelligence research. He proposed that the commission keep a register naming everyone who approved a test, said the long delay in disclosure showed Congress was not exercising its oversight, and, when Defense witnesses said their opposition came from the Office of Management and Budget, asked that OMB itself be called to testify. AI summary

“It seems to me that one of the areas that we should include in the legislation is to mandate the Commission to keep a register ... and to make official not only who initiates the tests, but everybody who approves a test or program.” PDF p. 145

“They gave you a choice, but you really had no choice. You had the habit, and the Government was hooking.” PDF p. 259

“I can't comprehend that the Office of Management and Budget should be able to set a policy like this.” PDF p. 320

Questioned the Architect of the Capitol on why items such as the book conveyor, security system, and smoke and fire controls were added to the Library of Congress's Madison Building only after bidding, leaving the project $33 million over its estimate. AI summary

“When you are $33 million off, something is wrong with the system. We want to get the total bad news first, not last.” PDF p. 45

Introduced former Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton, with whom he had entered Congress in 1961, calling him an effective administrator and negotiator; Sen. Percy recalled that he and Schweiker had urged President Ford to give moderates a stronger voice in the Cabinet. AI summary

“I think there is no one better able to handle this difficult and challenging assignment, and we in Pennsylvania, Mr. Chairman, are very proud of President Ford's choice.” PDF p. 6

Presided over part of the hearing and questioned Comptroller General Elmer Staats on the Cost Accounting Standards Board, the federal paperwork burden and GAO's review of regulatory agencies' forms, GAO's ability to analyze tax expenditures, and its request for new energy-verification staff; later told the Congressional Budget Office that the Senate itself needed to spotlight spending. AI summary

“I think we are putting our finger on the problem. This is not just the CBO problem. It is a Senate problem.” PDF p. 562

“You need to get a deputy just to speak to Congress.” PDF p. 90

Testified against the Army's request to shift money to expand New Jersey's Picatinny Arsenal after it had already decided to close Philadelphia's Frankford Arsenal, objecting that the closing had come in "a back door" with no real hearing, and asked for clarity for Frankford's workers. AI summary

“Shutting down a base like this, they come in a back door after it is all over and say you have no choice now but to reprogram because we already moved the base.” PDF p. 31

Chaired part of the hearing on one-year extensions of health programs and pressed HEW over the Carter budget's $24 million cut in health-profession student loans against only a $5 million increase for National Health Service Corps scholarships, the program he and Kennedy had meant as the main remedy for doctor shortages; he also asked when an Assistant Secretary for Health would be named. AI summary

“Well, then let's fund it.” PDF p. 48

Introduced the University of Pittsburgh's chancellor as a witness and asked about small research teams and the share of NSF science-education grants going to two-year colleges after Congress dropped a set-aside. AI summary

Asked the education nominees to consult the Senate on choosing a director for the troubled National Institute of Education, about the advisory panel he had sponsored to review its labs and centers, and about tougher measures against student-loan defaulters who could pay but would not. AI summary

Opened the hearings with Chairman Harrison Williams, citing figures showing that since 1972 underground metal and nonmetal mines had become deadlier than coal mines, which supported bringing them under the coal-mine law; praised the mine workers' leadership; and pressed mining companies on how to penalize operators who ignored repeated violations, as at the Scotia mine. AI summary

“Up until 1971, the most dangerous place to work was in an underground coal mine in terms of fatalities per man hours. Then, in 1972, it just completely shifted.” PDF p. 99

“The question is how do we get the guy who is cheating and what do we do with him?” PDF p. 182

Presided over a day of public testimony on National Institutes of Health research funding (arthritis and metabolic diseases, neurological disorders, allergy and diabetes), noting the Senate had added $13.7 million for the arthritis and metabolism institute in a supplemental bill against the House's $7.5 million. AI summary

“It is an all-Pennsylvania day here this morning.” PDF p. 563

Pressed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on why it had not told workers in its studies that they had been exposed to cancer-causing substances, reading the law to argue that NIOSH already had the authority, and noted he was drafting a bill to make NIOSH notify exposed workers. AI summary

“If we at least inform the people at risk, they can seek their own medical counsel and seek their own medical help. That is the first thing I or you would do, if we were at risk.” PDF p. 24

As ranking Republican he challenged HEW Secretary Califano's proposed cap on hospital costs: it exempted federal hospitals, left untouched the doctors who order services, would steer patients to hospitals with costly equipment, could make expensive patients a red flag for administrators, and bypassed the health-planning agencies Congress had just created. AI summary

“Every time we pass a law we manage to exempt the Federal establishment, setting up a double standard.” PDF p. 58

“You do not have to have a cap to do it; we can do it now through the HSA's. That is why we passed the Planning Act.” PDF p. 127

Endorsed Dr. Julius Richmond and questioned him about how American health care compared with other countries, the role of diet and nutrition in health and behavior (citing nutrition committee testimony on hyperactivity and hypoglycemia), and how few medical schools taught nutrition. AI summary

“Our society emphasizes drug-oriented treatment. We haven't done enough research in the field of diet and health.” PDF p. 22

Questioned Sloan-Kettering's Lewis Thomas on the institute's Laetrile experiments and whether a clinical trial was warranted, asked who was behind the Laetrile promotion campaign, and pressed its advocates on why they would not accept a controlled test with terminally ill patients. AI summary

“I'm trying to find out how to find out.” PDF p. 276

“Well, what's wrong with a test involving one group that's taking it and one that isn't?” PDF p. 277

Questioned CIA Director Stansfield Turner on newly found MKULTRA records. Drawing on his Church committee work, he said limits on access to a 1957 Inspector General report had left it unclear what that committee had seen; pressed Turner on federal construction funds and a CIA-financed hospital wing, asking whether terminally ill cancer patients had been experimented on and why a passage was still classified; and asked about "perfect concussion" experiments with blackjacks and sound waves. AI summary

“I certainly hope that the new Intelligence Committee will not be bound by procedures that so restrict its ability to exercise effective oversight.” PDF p. 23

“The agreement documents say that the CIA would have access to one-sixth of the space involved in the construction of the wing ... I cannot believe it was empty.” PDF p. 25

“Of course, after a few drinks, it is questionable whether informed consent means anything to a person in a bar anyway.” PDF p. 26

At a field hearing at the CDC in Atlanta, he questioned investigators closely about the 1976 Philadelphia outbreak at the Bellevue-Stratford: the hotel lobby's air-conditioning, its link to the "Broad Street pneumonia" cases, the uncleaned filter and a dug-up parking lot, how long the organism survives, and whether federal and local authority had been adequate. AI summary

“Since air-conditioning systems are suspect, don't we need some definition of this, or am I missing something?” PDF p. 28

As a cosponsor, he questioned health statistics officials about epidemiology studies, overlap with the CDC and the supply of epidemiologists, and suggested the new agency's name, with "Care" in it, would be confused with Medicare and Medicaid. AI summary

“It seems to me that the word "Care" conjures up medicaid and medicare, which I think is completely off-target of what we mean in the bill.” PDF p. 258

Questioned Senate officers on the budget, asked whether Senate staff pay should rest wholly on merit or on longevity, and proposed letting senators pay travel costs for members of the merit-selection panels he used for service academy nominations and federal judgeships. AI summary

“In trying to get a truly heterogeneous board, with different economic sections represented ... you really impose a hardship on people who might live in Philadelphia and might have to fly to Pittsburgh three or four times a year.” PDF p. 53

As the bill's lead sponsor with Kennedy, he opened the hearing on extending federal support for HMOs, questioned GAO on why some federally aided HMOs were failing and whether his fraud-and-abuse section was adequate, pressed HEW Under Secretary Hale Champion on staffing and on rural Pennsylvania's share of health-service funds, and chaired part of the session. AI summary

“How do you translate your information into administering the law in a way that we know what is happening in time to do something about it, rather than wake up some day and find out it's too late.” PDF p. 49

Asked FDA Commissioner Donald Kennedy why so many clinical investigators failed inspections, and objected to a drug study that sought mothers' informed consent during labor for research on their newborns, recalling his own presence in the delivery room. AI summary

“I cannot imagine a worse situation in which to obtain fully informed consent.” PDF p. 32

Mentioning his new bill to improve the National Health Service Corps, he pressed HEW on how well it could project the demand for nurses and what the administration's cuts in nurse-training grants would do to nursing schools and tuition. AI summary

Submitted a statement as the subcommittee's ranking Republican supporting the NSF authorization and its science education programs. AI summary

As the member designated by Javits to help lead the hearing, he asked why the FDA was not mining NIH's $150 million 1959-65 perinatal study for evidence on drugs in pregnancy, urged adding newborn specialists to its obstetrics advisory committee, and questioned witnesses on whether electronic fetal monitoring was driving up cesarean rates without improving outcomes. AI summary

“Nobody's life was saved and no baby's health was improved by using cesarean section techniques coupled with monitoring techniques versus other techniques, is that what you are saying?” PDF p. 59

Asked Sen. Richard Lugar whether the bill's "make whole" remedy for workers might be acceptable if courts rather than the NLRB applied it case by case. AI summary

Supported former House colleague Jerome Waldie and introduced A. E. Lawson of Pittsburgh, assistant general counsel of the United Steelworkers, as nominees to the new mine safety review commission. AI summary

Presiding for part of the hearing, he questioned ACTION Director Sam Brown about a congressional investigation that found inflammatory training literature handed to VISTA volunteers by a grantee, the Midwest Academy, and asked what screening would prevent it; he also questioned Labor Department officials about unspent job-training funds and a new $400 million request for private industry councils. AI summary

“What safeguards can be taken to make sure things like this don't happen again?” PDF p. 170

“This just sort of seems ironic that with hundreds of millions unspent, we're saying let's hold what we haven't spent and ask for another $400 million.” PDF p. 385

Questioned HEW Secretary Joseph Califano on entitlement versus discretionary spending, new programs requiring legislation, and student-aid default rates, then CDC Director William Foege on a stalled international yaws program, diabetes control, flu and venereal disease; he complained that HEW had ignored modest sums Congress earmarked, as it had earlier done with his diabetes money. AI summary

“It's very frustrating for a legislator who acts in what I consider good faith, and picks a modest amount out for a $2 or $3 million program ... and then also exercises legislative restraint by not mandating.” PDF p. 184

“Hasn't our experience been that with a level or with a reduced budget we see a resurgence of VD?” PDF p. 189

Questioned education officials on impact aid and on magnet-school grants, then pressed Mary Berry and Ernest Boyer at length on how HEW defined the "consultant services" the subcommittee had capped at $194 million, given that it had also mandated outside program evaluations. AI summary

“I think that evaluation is a very important part of your work. We've mandated evaluations. I think you have to have outside people do some of your evaluation.” PDF p. 241

Questioned HHS Secretary Patricia Harris on uncashed Social Security checks, refugee education money placed in Social Security's budget, slowing paperwork reduction, and Pennsylvania's six years of federal money for a welfare computer system it never built; later asked about rural health projects and community health centers. AI summary

“They've been taking that money for 6 years in Pennsylvania, and we're no nearer a computer program than the man in the Moon.” PDF p. 68

Pressed Labor Secretary Ray Marshall on rumored budget cuts and defended the Schweiker amendment exempting small, low-hazard businesses from routine OSHA inspections, which Marshall wanted dropped; he then cited a small contractor charged under affirmative-action rules for lacking "two-tenths of a woman" on a four-person crew. AI summary

“If you have three people, and you need two-tenths of a woman, what do you do? Do you fire two-tenths of a man?” PDF p. 342

“Of course, my amendment doesn't exempt the hazardous places, Mr. Secretary.” PDF p. 337

Presided over public panels on neurological, digestive and other disease research, including actor Philip Anglim of The Elephant Man and Marjorie Guthrie; he criticized the administration's cuts in research training and wished health research had the protection of an entitlement. AI summary

“It's just a shame we don't have some kind of entitlement feature built into this health component, because basically in terms of human need and human suffering ...” PDF p. 347

“There are not many panels who get interviewed by Schweiker and Weicker, so I will make note of that. We would make a good law firm, except I am not a lawyer.” PDF p. 345

His confirmation hearing as HHS secretary. He called Social Security his top priority, promised proposals covering both its short- and long-term problems and opposed a "Bandaid approach"; said any health insurance proposal would be limited to catastrophic coverage with strict limits on growth; put the PSRO program at the top of his list for review or repeal; and said he favored demonstration projects for competition in health care. AI summary

“I sort of know where a lot of bodies are buried, I think people are going to have trouble pulling the wool over my eyes in terms of spending and cost-effectiveness issues” PDF p. 17

“I think you probably have three options: raise taxes, reduce benefits, or gradually raise the age of eligibility.” PDF p. 20

“I think this has been one of our serious errors in the past, that we have put programs in and then just watched them grow through the roof.” PDF p. 24