University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.
2003 University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.
In the book Congress and Its Members Congressional scholars Roger Davidson and Walter Oleszek discuss the"dual nature of Congress," observing that"there really are two Congresses. One of these is Congress as a lawmaking institution - the Congress of textbooks, of how-a-bill-becomes-a-law...There is also a second Congress...it comprises men and women of diverse backgrounds...whose electoral fortunes depend less upon what Congress produces as an institution than upon the support and goodwill of voters hundreds of miles away."1 This duality is revealed throughout the Silvio O. Conte Congressional Papers - from the vast array of bill files, position papers, mark-ups for consideration, reports, and floor statements, to the constituent mail, Conte speeches delivered throughout the district, returned constituent questionnaires, and the hundreds of photographs of Conte with his constituents.
The Silvio O. Conte Congressional Papers, 1950-1991 document Conte's public service first as Massachusetts State Senator for the Berkshire District, 1950-1958 and primarily as representative for Massachusetts's First District in the United States Congress for 17 terms, 1959-1991, where he made significant contributions in the areas of health and human services, the environment, education, energy, transportation, and small business.
The collection comprises 575 linear feet of those files maintained by Conte and his staff in Washington, D.C. and in the two district offices in Pittsfield and Holyoke (most of which is casework with restricted access), including correspondence, speeches, press releases, bill files, his voting record, committee files, scrapbooks, travel files, audio-visual materials and over 5,000 photographs and slides. The papers have been divided into five subgroups delineating broad functional areas of a congressional office: Personal/Political/Official; Legislative; Press Relations/Media Activities; Constituent Services; Office Administration. Each subgroup has been further divided into series based on file format and type of activity documented. Detailed descriptions of each of these 27 series are included in this guide.
There are folder title lists - which serve as primary subject access to the materials - for each series, although several have been omitted from this guide because of excessive length. The series excluded are: Legislative Subject Files, General Subject Files, Bills Files and item-level lists of VIP Correspondence, Speeches, Press Releases, Audio-Visual materials, and Photographs. These lists are available to researchers in the Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.
The State Senator series (Subgroup I, Series 2), documents Conte's beginnings as a politician. Divided into speeches, correspondence, campaign and subject files spanning 1950-1958, this valuable series illustrates issues central to 1950s politics on the national and state level. Other early files of significance exist in the Travel series (I, 3) which feature Conte's handwritten notes and taped recordings with his personal accounts of the inspection tours of U.S. foreign aid programs in Africa and Southeast Asia during the 1960s that he participated in as a member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee (see also Audio-Visual series, III, 6).
The bulk of the collection is contained in the two series identified as House Appropriations Committee Files (II, 3a-3m) and Legislative Subject/Correspondence files (II, 6a-6b). The Appropriations Committee Files reveal Conte's powerful position as ranking minority member of that committee from 1979-1991, a position that gave him a vote on all thirteen subcommittees. Although official committee records remain in Washington, D.C., housed in the Center for Legislative Archives, documentation of much of the work done by aides as they monitored the appropriations process and gathered information that Conte needed to make informed decisions remained within the collection. Although Conte served on the Small Business Committee from 1965-1991 and was very active in crafting legislation and providing vigorous support to small businesses in the First District, few files remain in this collection to document his influential role. Within the House Appropriations Committee Files, the Subcommittees on Interior and Health and Human Services are the largest of the subseries and cover areas in which Conte took a passionate personal interest and was an established leader in Congress.
The Health and Human Services Files (II, 3h.2) document Conte's largely successful efforts to continue full funding to the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research; and to support programs such as the low income home energy assistance program, (LIHEAP) and family planning centers in Western Massachusetts.
An ardent conservationist and outdoorsman, Conte fought for 10 years for passage of stringent acid rain legislation, and his efforts to clean up the Connecticut River and restore the Atlantic salmon to it are manifest in the Subcommittee on Interior Files (II, 3g). Within the General Budget subseries (II, 3a) are Conte's handwritten notes regarding periodic meetings (1983-1989) he attended at the White House with cabinet members, the Republican leadership, and the President as well as notes on his participation in the Budget Summits of 1987 and 1990. His attendance reveals his important position as ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee and his recognized ability for bipartisan compromise.
While supporting most large-scale social spending requests, Conte established himself as a fiscal conservative in other areas. A colorful figure with a penchant for theatrics, his vocal denunciations sometimes took the form of satirical poems or pranks. The later years of his longstanding crusade to limit the size of farm subsidies are documented in the Subcommittee on Agriculture Files (II, 3i). The Energy and Water Subcommittee files (II, 3d) reveal his opposition to water projects such as the Garrison Diversion project in North Dakota and the Dickey-Lincoln Dam project, both of which he viewed as environmentally damaging boondoggles. The Department of Energy Files (II, 3h.2), a segment of the Subcommittee on Interior Files, document his efforts to kill the Synthetic Fuels Corporation which he had accused of"bankrolling the pet projects of the fat-cat oil barons."
The Legislative Subject/Correspondence Files (II, Series 6) reflect Conte's early assignments on the Treasury-Postal Service & Foreign Operations Subcommittees and contain mostly constituent correspondence and the office's response. Issues documented include the invasion of Cambodia, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Civil Rights movement, communism, firearms control, abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, oil import quotas, the energy crisis, and federal aid to education.
Davidson and Oleszek make the observation that"Members of Congress . . . depend upon the support of their electorate in order to serve. In turn, they are expected to understand and promote the views of constituents and to serve as their links with the federal government."2 Two sections of the collection that illustrate this reciprocity are the Press Relations/Media Activities and Constituent Services subgroups. Conte kept in touch with his constituents by mail, by public appearances, and by radio and television appearances. The Speeches, Press Releases, Radio and Television Transcripts, and Newsletters series document this function. Maintained by staff more carefully than most other parts of the collection, the series offer valuable synopses of Conte's political career.
A large portion of the Audio-Visual materials (III, Series 6) consists of audio recordings of Conte's weekly radio show. Most of the 16mm films consist of Conte's five minute television programs, often condensed versions of the radio show, which aired mainly during 1959, 1961 and 1967-1968. Included here is an audio recording of a 1958 testimonial dinner honoring Conte's election to Congress; a 1967 film of an interview with John W. Lederle, President of University of Massachusetts; and an audio recording of the 1987 fund raiser for the endowment of the Silvio O. Conte chair at the University of Massachusetts.
Research strategies should be formulated carefully and researchers should keep in mind that there is substantial overlap of topical coverage and information is widely dispersed throughout this large collection. A good example of this is Conte's fight against oil import quotas. Because New Englanders are highly dependent on oil for heating fuel the quotas adversely affect them by causing oil prices to rise. Conte began his vocal opposition in his first year in Congress when the Eisenhower administration instituted the quota system. He continued to fight for free trade with regard to oil throughout his career. Discussion of his continuing efforts can be found within the Floor Statements series in the form of a compilation by staff of all floor remarks Conte made regarding oil import quotas and fees spanning the years 1959-1984; this issue is also documented in the staff-compiled Oil Notebooks located in the Issue Books/Briefing Books series. His efforts to inform his constituents of his activities are reflected in the Speeches, Press Releases, Radio and Television Transcripts, and Newsletters. Documentation of the legislative initiatives he sponsored exist in the Bill Files, Voting Record, and all the way up to the 1990 Budget Summit notes filed in the Appropriations Committee Series, which document Conte's efforts to block Senator Lloyd Bentsen's proposal to reinstate the quotas to increase revenues. And finally, constituents' opinion on this topic can be found in the Legislative Subject/Correspondence Files and annual constituent questionnaires.
Aside from the study of legislation, public policy debates, and the relationship between Congressman and his constituents, the Conte Papers are a history of the times in which he served. Spanning four decades and eight presidents, the papers offer an extraordinary perspective on the major social, economic, and cultural changes experienced by the American people.
1. Davidson, Roger H. and Oleszek, Walter J.,
2. Ibid.
This collection is organized as follows:
*Committee was restructured in 1980
The Silvio O. Conte Papers are open for research, except for a group of case files that are closed for a period of seventy-five years for legal reasons of confidentiality and privacy.
Inquiries regarding the Conte Papers should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Because the papers are stored off-site there may be up to a twenty four hour delay between request and retrieval of material. Photocopying and publishing from the collection are allowed subject to the policies of Special Collections and University Archives and fair use under the copyright act.
Following the death in office of Silvio O. Conte in 1991, his widow, Corinne Conte, donated his congressional papers to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, located in Congressman Conte's First District, which he represented for over 31 years. The Conte Papers came to the University in two major installments. The first and larger group arrived in the Spring of 1991 directly from the Federal Records Center in Suitland, Maryland, where the records had regularly been sent by office staff since 1967.
The second installment came from Conte's Washington, D.C. office and the Holyoke and Pittsfield District offices -- hastily packed by staff in order to vacate the premises after his death. Three minor installments can be counted as well. In July 1994 a visit by the project archivist to Conte's eldest daughter's barn yielded several boxes of biographical and press-related files. The arrival of fifty missing scrapbooks from the Conte family complemented the twenty-eight already here. And, a shipment of eight boxes of Appropriations Committee files arrived as a result of the change in majority party in Congress (and consequently a housecleaning) following the November 1994 elections.
A few documents were sent to the National Archives for declassification.
The several long lists excluded from the printed guide as described in the Guide's Scope and Contents note are available in the Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room, W.E.B. Du Bois Library. An electronic version of the printed guide is available to be searched by keyword, and audio-visual materials have been indexed within a database with additional name and subject terms.
For materials relating to Silvio O. Conte and his contributions to the Small Business Committee, see:
Processed by Gail L. Giroux, with assistance from, Linda L. Seidman, Patrick Browne, Jared Crellin, Peter Fairman, Paul Fireman, Beth Jones, Elaine Parmett, and Peter Weis, 1985.
The Biographical Files provide background on Conte's life and political career. This series has been artificially created by drawing from other series within the collection. Materials within folders in this series are arranged chronologically and include biographical sketches generated by aides; feature articles on Conte; transcripts of interviews; guest lists and notes regarding both of Conte's well-known annual celebrations the Labor Day Atlantic salmon party (1985-1989) and his birthday party (1983-1986) at the Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C. There are also obituaries and several folders containing newsclips with substantive biographical content. This series contains a compilation of the famed rhymes he recited on the House floor and a few of his published writings. Tax returns from 1959 to 1975, and a few cards and notes from family members round out this key series.
The State Senate Files document Conte's eight-year tenure as a Massachusetts State Senator representing the Berkshire District. This series makes possible insight into Conte's formative years as a politician and public servant. The files reflect Conte's early involvement in what would become his major career interests: health and human services, education, the environment, and transportation. As a State Senator he served on more committees than had any other member of the state Legislature, and was the youngest legislator, in the history of the Commonwealth, to serve as chairman of the important Committee on Insurance.
This series documents his extensive involvement in legislative and investigative committees and his correspondence with constituents. Included in the nine boxes are campaign materials, correspondence, speeches, and subject files.
The one box of campaign materials is arranged in chronological order according to campaign year. Files for each campaign include addresses, correspondence with constituents and colleagues, newspaper clippings, endorsements, and campaign expenditures. Senator Conte's campaign addresses are particularly useful in revealing his political convictions as well as issues central to 1950s politics.
The four boxes of correspondence are the largest group of files within the State Senator series and reveal his diligent attention to his district's concerns and his dedication to serving his constituency. The correspondence, comprised of both incoming and outgoing letters, is almost entirely constituent-oriented with nearly one quarter of the correspondence consisting of general requests made by constituents, all of which were dutifully completed. The files are arranged both alphabetically by the name of the correspondent and by general subject.
Perhaps more than any other group of files in this series, Conte's speeches reveal his personality and opinions. Conte's speeches were candid, often humorous, and suggest that he was not afraid of difficult fights. The box of speeches is arranged in alphabetical order by subject or location of speech. Often folders contain more than one speech made on a single subject.
The subject files consist of three boxes and are arranged alphabetically. Each subject file contains an assortment of materials including correspondence, background material, newsclippings and Conte's handwritten notes. Most of the files pertain to legislation or committee activity. Prominent issues reflecting public sentiment during the 1950s McCarthyism, the Cold War and defense spending, unions, and the push for public works are recurring themes. During his years as a State Senator, Conte was particularly well known for his investigative work into mismanagement of union health and welfare trust funds; for authoring legislation establishing accident and health insurance for all state, city, town, and county employees, the first such law in the United States; and for introducing a bill outlawing communism in Massachusetts.
Also well documented in the subject files is his interest in the environment, evidenced in his work as chairman of the Conservation Committee and illustrated by his repeated efforts to obtain new state conservation and recreation areas.
His efforts to curb juvenile delinquency and his investigations of such health insurance agencies as Blue Cross and Blue Shield foretold his future vigorous support for health and social service programs in Congress. Conte also received attention for his vehement opposition to Governor Foster Furculo's proposal to establish the first sales tax in Massachusetts.
Included in the subject files are five folders of newsclippings provided by a newsclip service to which Conte subscribed. The clippings are extremely useful in obtaining background information on Conte's legislative and campaign activities.
The variety of subjects represented shows the diversity of Conte's interests, ranging from farming legislation to foreign affairs, and from an investigation of Gypsy Moths to authorship of a "Witches Bill" which exonerated the final eight victims of the Salem Witch Trials. Many topics represented in the subject files also appear in the State Senate speech files.
SEE ALSO: Crusade for Freedom
SEE ALSO: Tax, Sales
SEE ALSO: Youth Service Board
SEE ALSO: Pension Bills
SEE ALSO: Utilities, Public
SEE ALSO: Conservation Committee
SEE ALSO: Health and Welfare Trust Fund
The Travel Files is one of the few series in the collection to reveal at length Conte's own thoughts and impressions. These appear in the handwritten letters and taped recordings he sent to his staff while he traveled. This series contains itineraries, correspondence, background materials, transcripts of personal reports, newsclippings, press releases, thank-you notes, and speeches. The files are arranged chronologically and total two boxes.
Many of Conte's early trips stemmed from his service on the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. The trips were often inspection tours of America's foreign aid programs to developing nations. The most complete files concern Conte's six week tour of Africa and Europe in 1961, accompanied by his good friend and fellow committee member Robert Michel R-IL, and constitute nearly one-half of this series. Here Conte offers interesting commmentary on topics ranging from industrialization, agricultural practices, and political structures to descriptions of the climate and local customs. On that 1961 trip Conte made a stopover in Berlin. There he witnessed the flow of East German refugees into West Germany and the hardships endured by the German people as a result of the official separation of the city of Berlin by the construction of the Berlin Wall. His personal accounts of these events and others exemplify his concern for human rights and help to explain his strong support for well-funded foreign assistance programs to developing nations.
Although primarily known for his activism on the domestic front, Conte also played an international role by representing the United States when dealing with foreign leaders. His forays into diplomacy are documented in the China and Soviet Union files. The efforts of the Carter and Reagan administrations to improve Sino-American relationships are reflected in the files on the China Trips in 1977 and 1983. In 1985 Conte was a member of the first Congressional delegation to meet with the Soviet Union's leader Mikhail Gorbachev. As Tip O'Neill said in his eulogy of Conte: "I don't know how many places we went around the world together, but Sil could ask the leader of a nation the most pertinent question that would have taken a diplomat two years to ask. He could get to the point."
Conte occasionally made taped recordings while traveling and these audiotapes are included in the collection often accompanied by a typed transcript. The trip to Africa and Europe in 1961 is especially well documented with audiotapes and transcripts for nine different countries.
Additional series that document Conte's travels include the Speeches, Press Releases, Radio & TV Files, Newsletters, Photographs, and Audio-Visual Materials.
The VIP Correspondence series consists of three boxes of incoming correspondence designated by Conte or his staff for inclusion in a special "VIP" album. For preservation reasons all letters have been removed from the albums and placed in acid free folders.
Most frequent correspondents in the VIP series include: James A. Baker III, Charles E. Bennett, William Brock, Jimmy Carter, Lawrence Couglin, Elizabeth Dole, Michael Dukakis, Vic Fazio, Gerald Ford, Edward Kennedy, Robert Michel, James C. Miller III, Tip O'Neill, Leon Panetta, Ronald Reagan, Donald Regan, George Shultz, Olympia Snowe, David Stockman, and Jamie Whitten.
Although designated "VIP" by Conte's staff, many of the letters are routine they reflect the networking activities and daily interaction among members of Congress. There are notes thanking fellow members of Congress for small gifts (often home-state products), thank-yous for co-sponsorship of a bill or resolution, Dear Colleague letters, and occasionally a more substantive letter discussing an important national or local issue.
The preponderance of letters from such individuals as David Stockman, White House Budget Director; James C. Miller III, Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and President Ronald Reagan document the major reworking the national budget sustained during the Reagan presidency and underscores the administration's need for Conte's cooperation as the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee in order to implement "Reaganomics." These letters illustrate the growing urgency of the federal budget deficit as a potent political issue by the 1980s.
An alphabetical index to letters is available in Special Collection and Archives Reading Room.
Over the course of 17 congressional elections Conte won both party nominations three times and ran unopposed eight times and often won elections by 70% of the vote or more. Full-fledged campaigns were seldom necessary.
The files for each campaign include Conte's official candidacy announcements, correspondence expressing support or congratulations to Conte, information on the Republican party campaign fundraisers and national platform, and Conte's campaign newspaper, The Conte Record.
The later campaign files (1978-1990) contain the so-called Issue Books, which were prepared by Conte's staff to provide detailed, factual summaries of Conte's recent (usually in the last Congress) legislative accomplishments and his stance on important campaign issues.
Other series that relate to campaigns include the Scrapbooks, Issue Books/Briefing Books, Biographical Files, and Speeches.
Files regarding Conte's first Congressional campaign in 1958 can be found in the State Senate series.
The 10 boxes in this series consist of accepted invitations and daily schedules. The original size of this series was reduced by sampling. Whenever possible daily and weekly summary sheets of Conte's appointments were retained. Arranged chronologically, this series reveals the sheer volume and diversity of requests made on the Congressman's time.
The 80 scrapbooks in this collection cover Conte's eight years in the State Senate as well as every year Conte was in Congress. Compiled by staff, the majority of the scrapbooks comprise news clippings in which Conte's name appears. There are also campaign scrapbooks from the years 1952, 1954, 1958, 1960 (2), 1964, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, topical scrapbooks on the 1976 Republican presidential primary, the 1976 election, the 1980 election, the Fall 1987 budget appropriations process and three scrapbooks documenting the annual congressional baseball game for the years 1973-1974 and 1977-1979.
There is a small amount of memorabilia contained in Series 8. Items include a model General Electric power transformer, a framed Treasury check payable to the University of Massachusetts, and House of Representatives cufflinks. There are numerous campaign pins, bumper stickers, and fliers.
A few of the many plaques and awards Conte received over the years can be found here as well. These have been listed below in chronological order.
The Voting Record contains printed summaries of Conte's votes in Congress. In addition to the record supplied each member by the House Clerk, this series also includes vote analyses supplied by special interest organizations such as the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Farmer's Union. From the 86th to 89th Congresses there are charts comparing Conte's vote with the votes of House and Senate leadership and the GOP; and from the 87th to 91st Congresses there are useful summaries that provide a synopsis of the bill's intent and the rationale for Conte's vote.
Beginning with the 99th and continuing through to the 102nd congress the more voluminous Clerk-produced "Legislative Activity Guides" replace the smaller Roll Calls. To supplement these guides there are "Legi-Slate" reports for the 98th and 99th congresses. These reports were obtained for members by the Congressional Research Service using a commercial on-line database and are simply a compilation of all votes by the congressman for that particular session, with a short explanation of the bill.
This series represents Conte's staff's efforts to maintain files on the bills sponsored or cosponsored by Conte. The bills are arranged in chronological order by Congress. Except for the first two Congresses in which Conte served the 86th and 87th covering the years 1959-1963, and the 96th and 97th Congresses which cover 1979-1982 each bill is in an individual folder and arranged by the assigned number.
Exceptions to the folder level arrangement include the 86th Congress, which consists of one folder containing a list of Conte sponsored legislation, and the 87th Congress, which consists of two folders for each session, each containing a list of Conte-sponsored legislation along with a printed bill. Other exceptions to folder level arrangement by bill number can be found in the 96th and 97th Congresses (1979-1982), which have computer generated "Legislative Profiles" produced by the House Office of the Clerk. The profiles summarize bills sponsored or cosponsored by Conte under broad topic.
The contents of the folders vary depending on which staff member maintained the files. Many of the files contain printed bills and drafts of bills, reports, statements, correspondence from constituents, members of congress and lobbyists, press releases, newsclippings and Congressional Record tear sheets; other files contain only a copy of the printed bill.
All types of legislative proposals: bills, both public and private; House Resolutions; House Joint Resolutions; and House Concurrent Resolutions are included and have been arranged in that order. Within each type the folders have been arranged numerically. There are numerous private bills interspersed among the public that pertain to individual matters, such as claims against the government, immigration and naturalization cases, and land titles.
Prominent issues reflect Conte's interests and committee assignments. There is much legislation in the areas of small business, farm subsidy reforms, social security, medicare, clean air and conservation, energy issues especially concerning oil import quotas and trade.
There is overlap within the collection and other series that are likely to have information supplementary to this series include the Legislative Subject/Correspondence Files, Floor Statements and Appropriations Committee Files.
The complete folder-title list for this series has not been included in this guide owing to its great length. It is available in the Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.
Series 3, House Appropriations Committee Files, consists of the files created and maintained by the minority staff assistants who helped Conte to meet the responsibilities of his position as ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee.
This series does not fully cover Conte's Appropriations Committee activities. Prior to Conte becoming ranking minority member in 1979, most appropriations-related materials were filed by his staff in the Legislative Subject/Correspondence files.
The files span the 1970's through 1991, and contain documentation of many of Conte's favorite issues and important legislative initiatives. In addition to a subseries for each subcommittee, there are also subseries for General Budget Files, Correspondence, and Markup Books.
Several of the subseries have been further divided. The Interior Subcommittee files have been subdivided into four segments: Acid Rain files, Department of Energy files, Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC), and Tim Shea Subject Files. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee files have been further divided into Health and Human Services (HHS) files and Education and Labor files and the one box of materials on the Joint Commission on the Coinage has been placed under Treasury-Postal Service Subcommittee files.
There are no files on the Legislative Subcommittee or the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary.
The General Budget Files represent files not directly related to any one subcommittee but created as a result of Conte's leadership role and expertise in the appropriations process.
Subseries 3l, Markup Books, consists of the background information compiled by staffers in their effort to monitor Subcommittee Appropriations bills. The typical markup book consists of a looseleaf binder containing budget justification tables, correspondence from lobbying groups, committee recommendations, report language, and floor statements.
Subseries 3m, two boxes, Appropriations Correspondence, consists of copies of minority staff assistants' outgoing correspondence, filed by the name of the staff member within chronological periods.
The files have been arranged chronologically except for the last box, which contains the Budget Summit notes for 1987, 1990, and the White House Notes, 1983-1989.
These files cover general appropriations issues not related to specific subcommittee bills. This includes Office of Management and Budget proposals and overviews, deficit reduction agreements and supplemental and urgent appropriations bills. Notable files in this series include Conte's notes (some with accompanying typed transcripts prepared by office staff) on the meetings he attended as a participant in the Budget Summits of 1987 and 1990. The summits called together cabinet members, leadership in congress, and the president to work out solutions to the budget deficit crisis. Some of the notes have typed transcripts to accompany them. Also of interest are typed transcripts of his notes taken during meetings at the White House spanning 1983-1989. Though other topics were discussed in the White House meetings, topics predominantly pertained to budget issues.
Related series include VIP Correspondence and Scrapbooks.
Files for both subcommittees are combined because the files were maintained by the same individual, contain similar subject matter, and were kept in the same physical space. The folders are filed alphabetically under "Appropriations Bills," then chronologically by fiscal year.
The files for both the defense and military construction subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee were maintained by minority staff assistant George Allen, and later by Charles (Chinch) Wollerton and by legislative assistant Patrick Larkin.
Materials in this series are typically correspondence from contractors, constituents, and government agencies, Dear Colleague letters, and internal memos, and especially reflect First District concerns. District defense industries from large General Electric and Smith & Wesson to small Kollmorgen sought Conte's support, as did local defense installations like Westover AFB. From national concerns like Arms Control, SDI ("Star Wars") and the MX Missile to First District controversy over noise from Westover Air Force Bases's C-5A transport planes or the proposed construction of two unpopular communications systems (one in Amherst, the other in Hawley). This series reveals Conte's interest in and influence over defense issues most significantly through the appropriations process.
SEE ALSO: MX Missile
This series contains legislative materials relating to Conte's place on the District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee. Part of a group of appropriations subcommittee files maintained by Tim Shea, they have been segregated to reflect the work of the individual subcommittee. Although supplemental appropriations bills are all-encompassing, that is, not tied to individual subcommittees, supplemental issues relating only to District of Columbia appropriations have been included in this series.
The files relating to the Subcommittee on Energy and Water of the House Appropriations Committee contain materials relating to passage of specific appropriation bills and supplementals as well as to subjects of both one-time and ongoing interest. These subjects include the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which provided federally funded employment through energy and water related projects and the Conte-sponsored "Buy American" provisions for government procurement contracts, particularly aimed at helping General Electric obtain contracts to provide generating equipment to hydroelectric plants. (Files related to JTPA can also be found in the L-HHS-ED Subcommittee files, Labor and Education subseries.) The appropriations bills are arranged chronologically by fiscal year and subject files follow in alphabetical order.
Also of interest are several files on individual hydroelectric projects, notably the Garrison project in North Dakota and the Dickey-Lincoln Lakes School project in northern New England, which illustrate Conte's efforts to balance clean energy production with the potentially devastating consequences of dam building to wetlands, conservation areas, and wildlife. Conte's dual concern for environmental and fiscal issues is also apparent in his opposition to the Clinch River breeder reactor and the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) projects. Many of the projects overseen and funded by the Subcommittee on Energy and Water were once the province of the now defunct Subcommittee on Public Works. For this reason some material in these files, generated during the latter part of the 1970s, may seem out of place here. Another issue outside the province of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water is the Synfuels debate. This Department of Energy issue relates to the Interior Subcommittee. Nevertheless, several folders of Synfuels material appear in this series.
In general, these files consist of materials relating directly to markup and passage of appropriations bills, including (but not limited to) floor statements, hearing materials, amendments, conference notes, staff memos and correspondence from colleagues, constituents and lobbying groups. Subject files contain correspondence of the types just mentioned, staff memos, newsclippings, and some printed materials from lobbying groups.
There is also material relating to First District projects funded by the energy and water appropriations bill in the Project/Grant Series.
SEE ALSO: Water Resources Development Act of 1979
SEE ALSO: Souris Valley
SEE ALSO: "Buy American"
The files in this series document Conte's role as ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Committee, his position as an ex officio member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, and his commitment to human rights.
Arranged alphabetically by folder title, the files include correspondence, memoranda, news clippings, and legislative reference material. Much of the correspondence, and most of the policy research, was conducted by Jim Fairchild, minority staff assistant, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, 1980-1990; Bob Goudie, Conte's legislative assistant from 1983-1987, who was extensively involved in the formulation of Conte's policies regarding Central America; and Ed Gresser, legislative assistant to the Congressman in 1989.
Conte's interest in foreign affairs can be attributed to, in part, his service on the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee in the 1960s. During that time he undertook a number of trips through Africa. (Files related to these subjects can be found in the Legislative Correspondence/Subject Files, Travel Files and Audio-Visual materials).
The files most often deal with problems within Africa, the Soviet Union, and Central American countries and cover a variety of issues including world hunger, human rights, refugees, international debt, trade and tariffs.
A large number of files in this series concern foreign aid appropriations. Other files concern human rights issues of interest and concern to Conte, unrelated to appropriations. Still others represent a synthesis of appropriations and human rights issues, such as those instances in which funding or aid is tied to human rights records. Of particular interest are the files on Conte's involvement in funding for the government of El Salvador and the Nicaraguan rebels. The Congressman often took positions on these issues that opposed the positions of the Republican administration. His commitment to fighting for human rights is demonstrated by his involvement in a number of cases concerning individuals such as Argentinean journalist Jacob Timmerman and ethnic groups such as Soviet Jewry and starving populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
SEE ALSO: Pease-Conte Trade Bill
Congressman Conte championed the interests of his district by seeking funding for First District projects in the appropriations phase, and represented those interests as an intermediary between constituents and the bureaucracy once a grant application was filed or a project under way.
The HUD subcommittee files document Conte's efforts, through his influence on the appropriations committee, to strengthen the economy of Western Massachusetts and to assist the elderly and low-income residents of Western Massachusetts through a myriad of housing and community development grants. Most of the files in this six box subseries relate to the appropriations of monies for programs such as Urban Development Action Grants (UDAG), Housing Development Action Grants (HODAG), Community Development Block Grants, funding for public works projects, housing for the elderly, and other HUD-related grants.
The contents here include correspondence, memoranda, news clippings, legislative reference materials, notes, speeches, and federal grant applications. The files are arranged alphabetically by folder title. Most of the files are under the first town or city for which the project was intended. There are also several files relating to the annual HUD-IA appropriations bill.
As a long-time supporter of public housing, Conte was extensively involved in procuring federally funded, low-income housing projects and developments in his district. As a result, he often found himself in the position of being a mediator between low-income constituents in need of affordable housing and those constituents who were opposed to housing projects in their neighborhood. Towns most often mentioned are: Pittsfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Greenfield, and North Adams.
Congressman Conte's interest in the environment and his concern for the homeless are evident in his legislative and constituent correspondence regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), two of the several independent agencies within the HUD subcommittee's jurisdiction. There are several files regarding EPA projects in the First District, most of which relate to water pollution control and wastewater treatment. Other independent agencies represented in these files include the Veterans Administration, NASA, and the National Science Foundation.
The staff members most frequently represented in correspondence and memoranda are Gayl Mileszko and Mary Silveira, with assistance from Peter Gossens, James Ogsbury and James Kulikowski, all minority staff assistants.
Researchers should note that many subjects are to be found in a mixture of Appropriations Bills, Independent Agency, and First District Town or City files. This is due to the fact that many projects, such as a sewage treatment plant, may be requested by a town, funded by a HUD grant, and monitored by the EPA.
The Interior files are arranged with five boxes of appropriation bills first, followed by eight boxes of subject files. The bills files have been arranged by fiscal year. Within a given fiscal year an Interior Appropriations bill can be tracked from bureau and departmental requests through subcommittee and full committee markup, to floor action and conference committee. The amount of information available within a given fiscal year varies considerably. The subject files are arranged alphabetically.
The subject files reveal Conte's interest in environmental and conservation issues. Subjects of national importance include Antarctic preservation, wetlands acquisition, prevention of development of Matagorda Island, Texas, the last untouched barrier island and home of the whooping crane, and other National Wildlife Refuges, and the North American Waterfowl Conservation Act. Issues more specifically related to Interior concerns in Massachusetts' First District include the files on the restoration of the Atlantic salmon and striped bass to the Connecticut River through projects like the Northeast Anadromous Fish Lab in Turners Falls and the Sunderland holding station, obtaining federal Clean Water Act funds for Massachusetts, and Appalachian Trail relocation plans for the Berkshire County towns of Tyringham and Sheffield. For his many years of hard work and dedication to preserving the environment he was honored by many environmental organizations including the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society.
Despite Conte's interest in environmental and interior issues, he served only as an ex officio member of the Subcommittee on Interior, a position granted by his status as ranking minority member.
In general, these files consist of materials relating directly to markup and passage of appropriations bills, including (but not limited to) floor statements, hearing materials, amendments, conference notes, staff memos and correspondence from colleagues, constituents and lobbying groups. Subject files contain correspondence of the types just mentioned, staff memos, and newsclippings. From 1985-1991, the Interior Subcommittee files were maintained by Tim Shea, minority staff assistant for the Interior subcommittee and primary staff member represented in these files.
Although supplemental appropriations bills are all-encompassing, that is, not tied to individual subcommittees, supplemental issues relating only to Interior matters have been included in this series.
There are four subseries of the Interior Subcommittee files: Acid Rain, Department of Energy, Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, and Tim Shea General Subject Files.
SEE ALSO: Kesterton Reservoir
SEE ALSO: Atlantic salmon
Conte's concern for the environment is well documented in the Acid Rain subseries of the Interior Subcommittee files. The files were maintained primarily by minority staff assistant, Tim Shea. Divided into legislative (bill materials arranged chronologically) and subject (arranged alphabetically) subseries, the files document Conte's ongoing interest in combatting acid rain. Writing and cosponsoring both clean air and clean water legislation for over a decade, Conte established himself as a congressional leader in the fight against acid rain.
A key issue here, documented to some extent in the Department of Energy Appropriations files and the Energy and Water Subcommittee files as well, is funding for the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Board. Initiated partly to study means of producing non-polluting (non-acid rain-causing) fuels, Conte was soon convinced that it was a waste of tax dollars and sought to rescind its funding. Files on the Synfuels successor, or as Conte referred to it, the "son of Synfuels" the Clean Coal Program are also covered in this series. Seeing the Clean Coal Program as an example of corporate welfare, Conte believed clean coal technologies should be developed in the private sector. Without restrictions on acid rain-causing emissions, Conte viewed the program as simply an expensive replacement for emissions control legislation.
Otherwise, the subject files here generally provide background material to legislative bills.
SEE ALSO: Tall Stacks and Clean Coal Jan-Jul 1985
Though the appropriations for the Department of Energy are determined by two house subcommittees, Interior and Energy and Water, the files here generally relate more to the Interior subcommittee.
Principal subjects within this series include the home heating oil crisis of the late 1980s, outer continental shelf leasing and drilling moratoria (which Conte favored) and the maintenance of the strategic petroleum reserve. Some information on the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Board, a favorite target of Conte's, can be found in this series, but most of this information is located in the Acid Rain subseries.
SEE ALSO: Acid Rain, subject subseries
The Migratory Bird Conservation Commission was established in 1934, its mission to acquire, through the revenue raised from the sale of federal duck stamps, wetlands around the country to be designated as national waterfowl refuges. Appointed by President Johnson in 1965, Conte served for 25 years on the Commission's board, the longest time for any member.
Because the commission works closely with the Interior Department and because there are Interior Department documents interspersed throughout the MBCC files, this small group of files has been placed with Subcommittee on Interior files. The one box of MBCC files consists of a small assortment of program agendas, minutes, correspondence, hearing testimonies, and Interior Department press releases.
The files are arranged alphabetically by topic.
The four boxes of files reflect Tim Shea's work as legislative assistant for Conte in 1983-1984 and minority staff assistant on the Interior, Treasury-Postal-Service-General Government, and District of Columbia Subcommittees, 1985-1990. There are several files relating to the Smithsonian Institution, documenting Conte's position on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian, 1979-1991, and Tim Shea's role as staff liaison to the Board.
The majority of the files represent Interior-related activities, with particular emphasis on environmental research, clean-up programs, and wildlife conservation. The files also include an assortment of files relating to national issues or Conte sponsored legislation.
Conte was an outspoken proponent of federal funding for education. He successfully fought against proposed spending cuts year after year to ensure adequate student loans and grants to college students and vocational and adult education grants. The Labor and Education subcommittee files were maintained by minority staff assistant James Kulikowski and later by Peter Gossens and document only a very small portion of Conte's significant achievements in education and labor related appropriations. Additional information on education and labor issues can be found in the Legislative Subject/Correspondence series. Unlike some other Appropriations Subcommittee files, a separate legislative subseries for Appropriations bills has not been created. Instead, these folders have been filed alphabetically under "Appropriations Bills," then chronologically by fiscal year.
Aside from the material dealing with Appropriations bill markup and passage per se the salient subject matter here is First District educational grant proposals. The Holyoke Magnet Middle School and North Adams State College TRIO (programs for students from disadvantaged backgrounds) Grants are two noteworthy examples of Conte's efforts to obtain grant monies for his district. There is a small file on the proposed Polymer Science Center at the University of Massachusetts and files on other grants and programs; information regarding default rates for the Guaranteed Student Loans program and the successful passage of a Conte sponsored bill to increase handicapped education funds for Massachusetts. There is some information on the Job Corps and Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA); additional material on the JTPA exists in the Energy and Water files. (II, 3d).
Conte was also concerned about shortages in the availability of well-trained healthcare workers and provided program funding to aid individuals seeking an education in the health sciences and the institutions that provide the training. The files concerning his efforts in this area are in the part 2. HHS subcommittee files.
In general, these files consist of materials relating directly to markup and passage of appropriations bills, including floor statements, hearing materials, amendments, conference notes, staff memos and correspondence from colleagues, constituents and lobbying groups. Subject files contain correspondence of the types just mentioned, staff memos, and newsclippings.
SEE ALSO: individual institutions
SEE ALSO: Student Aid, Massachusetts
SEE: Individual Institutions, esp. North Adams State College and Northfield Mount Hermon School
In 1971 when Conte actively sought and obtained a seat on the subcommittee on Health, Education and Welfare (and in so doing relinquished his seats on the subcommittees on Foreign Operations and Treasury, Postal Service) he commented that "health, education and welfare deals with the quality of our lives and will play an even stronger role as the country prepares to move from a war economy to peacetime pursuits."
Eight years later Conte became ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Committee and, by his choice, ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (as it became known in 1980).
The HHS files consist of 15 boxes of materials which include correspondence from agency officials, fellow members of congress, constituents, community organizations, lobbying organizations and non-profit agencies and foundations; speeches; floor statements; memoranda; and background information.
Conte focused a great deal of his energy and attention on the L-HHS-ED subcommittee appropriations process, becoming a recognized leader in national health policy and social service programs. He consistently fought successful battles against attempts by the administration to dismantle and cutback on the number of HHS programs and was effective in reordering spending priorities to benefit these programs.
His emphasis on funding for biomedical research is revealed in the files on the National Institutes of Health, Cancer, and Mental Health that document his work to increase funding for research into diseases such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes, arthritis, birth defects, AIDS, cancer, and Alzheimer's. His belief in the need for more research into mental illness and neuroscience is revealed in the files pertaining to a resolution he sponsored to designate the 1990s as the "Decade of the Brain." Issues affecting the elderly and the poor are documented in the files on Medicare, Medicaid, catastrophic health care, and various outreach programs. Issues affecting children and adolescents are well documented here with files on legislation concerning child abuse and runaway youths, teenage mothers, infant mortality rates, Child Welfare Resource Centers, lead poisoning prevention programs, and maternal and child health programs.
The voluminous files on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program are testimony to his strong advocacy for continued full funding of this program amid massive budgets cuts during the Reagan administration and gave him the nickname "father of low-income fuel assistance."
The abortion and family planning files reflect his anti-abortion stance while also documenting his major support for federal funding of family planning facilities. There is much correspondence from both pro-choice and anti-abortion lobbyists and family planning center administrators. His active opposition to repeated efforts to eliminate funding to family planning centers earned him several awards over the years, among them a distinguished public service award in 1981 from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Council.
SEE ALSO: Family Planning
SEE ALSO: Medicaid/Medicare
SEE ALSO: Abortion
SEE ALSO: Holyoke Health Center
SEE ALSO: Aged, Older Americans Act, Medicaid/Medicare
SEE ALSO: Abortion, Family Planning
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture and Related Agencies files (hereafter Agriculture files) primarily relate to appropriations bills for individual fiscal years, as well as the so-called "Farm Bills" of 1985 and 1990. These bills set federal fiscal policy on agriculture for five-year cycles. The agriculture files were administered by House Appropriations minority staff assistants Gayl Mileszko and Bob Gibson.
Of particular interest in this series are a succession of subsidy limitation bills and amendments sponsored by Conte and others which attempted to curb large payments to agricultural producers, especially producers of honey and sugar. Files document Conte's vehement opposition to the beekeeper indemnity program. Conte was in the forefront of the battle over the wetlands reserve measures (the so-called "Swampbuster" provisions) of the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills. Some "Swampbuster" material can also be found in the Interior Subcommittee Series under "Wetlands Acquisition and Preservation." First District and Massachusetts issues in the Agriculture Files include cranberry juice labelling, and the Integrated Pest Management program at Hampshire College.
In general, these files consist of materials relating directly to markup and passage of appropriations bills, including (but not limited to) floor statements, hearing materials, amendments, conference notes, staff memos, and correspondence from colleagues, constituents, and lobbying groups. Subject files contain correspondence of the types just mentioned, staff memos, newsclippings, and some printed materials from lobbying groups.
SEE ALSO: Subsidy Limitations
SEE ALSO: Granville Apple
SEE ALSO: Newsclippings, Dairy
SEE ALSO: FmHA, Forfeit
SEE ALSO: Farm Credit, Forfeit
SEE ALSO: Food Stamps, HNIS Nutrition, WIC
SEE ALSO: FNS, HNIS, Nutrition, WIC
SEE ALSO: IPM
SEE ALSO: Subsidy Limitations, Beekeeper Indemnity Program
SEE ALSO: Guarding Dogs
SEE ALSO: FNS, Food Stamps, HNIS, WIC
SEE ALSO: Subsidy Limitations
SEE ALSO: Subsidies
SEE ALSO: Subsidy Limitations
SEE ALSO: FNS, Food Stamps, HNIS, Nutrition
The Subcommittee on Transportation subseries documents Conte's long-time advocacy for efficient, reliable rail transportation systems for both freight and passenger service as well as low-cost mass transportation systems for urban areas. Included in the four boxes are correspondence, memoranda, news clippings, speeches, legislative drafts, reference material, and statements. The bulk of materials in this series span the dates 1982-1989; however, the "Railroad" files contain documents for as far back as 1973.
The largest group of files in this subseries is the "Railroads" file. Of particular interest to Conte were the Northeast Corridor rail project; the Montrealer line that traveled through Amherst; the Berkshire Scenic line; and the development of high-speed rail service. The Railroad files contain mostly constituent correspondence. Other correspondents include members of Congress and Federal agency officials mostly from the Interstate Commerce Commission, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Railway Administration, and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation. Jeffrey Jacobs, minority staff assistant for the Subcommittee on Transportation from 1983-1987, maintained the bulk of these files.
Within the files on railroads is a group of files on Guilford Transportation Industries. Guilford owned Maine Central, Boston and Maine, and the Delaware and Hudson railroads, which were plagued by labor disputes, safety violations, and service complaints which adversely affected workers, employers and shippers in Mr. Conte's district over a period of years. Extensive records on Guilford were maintained by Mr. Conte's staff revealing his repeated intervention on behalf of his constituents.
Files pertaining to the Coast Guard user fee contains constituent correspondence, with unusually emotional tone. Although Conte was committed to full funding for the Coast Guard, he was unwilling to provide that funding at the cost of increasing the budget deficit. His solution was to propose a user fee to be paid annually by boaters who rely on the Coast Guard's services. This proposal generated an outcry of protest from boaters, nationally and locally. In spite of the unpopularity of this measure with a very vocal group of voters, Conte attempted (unsuccessfully) to pass his user fee year after year, from 1986 to 1989.
The correspondence in the files provides the researcher with interesting examples of correspondence received by members of Congress, and illustrates Conte's willingness to pursue policy objectives in the face of substantial voter opposition. The Coast Guard files were maintained separately by the office staff, suggesting the importance of this issue.
SEE ALSO: Berkshire Scenic
Although not as extensive as the Interior Appropriations files, the five boxes of Treasury, Postal Service and General Government (hereafter T/PO) appropriations files are arranged similarly with Appropriation bills first followed by subject files and were also maintained by minority staff assistant Tim Shea. The appropriations bills are arranged chronologically by fiscal year. Within a given fiscal year a T/PO Appropriations bill can be tracked from bureau and departmental requests through subcommittee and full committee markup, to floor action and conference committee. The amount of information available within a given fiscal year varies considerably.
Although supplemental appropriations bills are all-encompassing, that is, not tied to individual subcommittees, supplemental issues relating only to Treasury and Post Office matters are included in this series.
Subject files are arranged alphabetically. Federal agencies represented in the files include the Bureau of Customs; Drug Enforcement Agency; Postal Service; National Archives; National Endowment for the Humanities. There is a file on Conte's attempt to acquire funding through the General Services Administration appropriations bill for the Calvin Coolidge Archives in the Forbes Library, Northampton, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in the Boston area.
The subseries General Subject Files (Series 3g-4) kept by Tim Shea, contains some T/PO related information as well.
Conte was a logical choice for appointee to this commission when it was created under the Coinage Act of 1965. As ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Treasury-Post Service and an strong advocate for reform to the coinage system, Conte was the leading spokesman in the House for the elimination of silver from the subsidiary coins.
This subseries contains newsclippings, press releases, testimonies, statements, correspondence, committee reports, and bills relating to the so-called "silver issue," and the Coinage Act of 1965. The Act was passed in response to a multi-year coin shortage throughout the country as a result of several factors: a post-World War II population explosion, an increase in the use of coin-operated machines throughout the economy, and speculators hoarding coins.
Conte was an original designer of the Act which provided for minting of dimes and quarters from nonprecious metals, the first fundamental change to be made in the coinage system since 1792.
Markup books are the working files of the minority staff assistants compiled in the effort to monitor various appropriations bills. The typical markup book, categorized by subcommittee appropriation bill and organized by fiscal year, consists of a binder containing budget justification tables, correspondence from lobbying groups, committee recommendations, memoranda, report language and floor statements regarding the bill under subcommittee consideration.
Because much of the material contained in the Markup books is available for research in The Center for Legislative Archives, the repository for the official records of Congress, only a sample has been retained here.
The files have been arranged alphabetically within chronological periods.
This two-box series contains copies of outgoing correspondence sent by Conte's staff and concerns the following appropriations subcommittees: Labor-HHS-Ed, Interior, Defense and Agriculture, Energy and Water.
There are also many letters concerning issues of general interest such as foreign policy, the environment, trade, education, and the budget deficit.
This series represents the office staff's efforts to maintain files of Conte's remarks on the floor as printed in the Congressional Record.
The files are arranged chronologically and there are no floor statements prior to 1965. There is one folder for the years 1965-1966. Beginning in 1967, the files become more numerous with a folder for each month. From 1975 to 1990 there are item lists for each year except 1976 and 1979. These lists have been filed at the beginning of the box.
Lists by subject cover the years 1981-1982 and include three valuable compilations as well: "Farm Subsidies," 1969-1972; "Petroleum Issues," 1959-1984; and "Agricultural Bills," 1968-1978. Documented here is Conte's outspoken opposition to oil import quotas and farm subsidies throughout his career which resulted in the introduction of much legislation.
Conte's floor remarks can be found scattered throughout many of the other series including Legislative Subject Files, Committee Files, and Speeches, and have been reprinted in Press Releases and Radio Transcripts.
Series 5, Briefing Books/Issue Books, one box, is a small series consisting of materials compiled for quick reference on key issues of concern to Conte and his constituents. Compiled sporadically by staff, the typical briefing book is an indexed compilation of materials focusing on a particular subject. The files have been arranged chronologically and materials include correspondence, floor statements, press releases, op-ed articles, newsclippings, speeches, and data sheets.
Notable compilations include a Farm Subsidies Book, 1973; two Oil Notebooks with accompanying item-level lists from 1959-1973, and a related Energy Issues Book, 1971-1973; and a Peace Record generated in response to the Vietnam War containing a summary of Conte's votes in Congress on issues concerning defense appropriations, foreign aid, and military campaigns in Vietnam. The Nuclear Freeze briefing book, 1982, documents Conte's actions in Congress regarding the move to nuclear disarmament.
For ease of access and preservation reasons, the books have been disassembled and items placed in acid-free folders.
The Legislative Subject/Correspondence Files comprise one of the largest series in the collection. It consists of 106 boxes and has been divided into two subseries: Subseries a, the "7,000" Files, contains files spanning 1959-1979, that were assigned a 7,000 number by office staff. The original office filing system has been retained with the folders arranged alphabetically by topic or by agency or department that the issue pertained to; and, except for the first four years of Conte's service in Congress (1959-1963), are grouped in one-year periods mirroring the sessions of Congress.
A large percentage of the files contain constituent correspondence, often with Conte's outgoing response attached; other correspondents include congressional colleagues, state and local officials, agency officials, and lobbyists. Also contained within these files are printed bills; committee reports; press releases; floor remarks, newsclippings and background materials.
Topics reflect Conte's early committee assignments on the House Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees on Foreign Operations and Treasury-Postal Service (1959-1971) and later assignments on the subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (1971-1991) and Transportation (1973-1991) and to a smaller degree, the less visible Small Business Committee (1965-1991).
Topics of national issues reflected here include the Watergate Hearings, invasion of Cambodia, federal aid to education, the threat of communism, labor legislation, federal tax revisions, human rights, restrictions on importation of oil, gun control, civil rights legislation, appropriations for the Supersonic Transport, Roe vs. Wade, the Russian wheat deal of 1974, veterans legislation and the Vietnam War. There is a good deal of overlap in this series with similar topics and materials to be found in the General Subject Files and Bill Files.
Among several issues in this series that generated large amounts of constituent letters is H.R. 17735, a bill calling for a ban on interstate mail order sale of firearms and ammunition and introduced in response to the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy.
By the mid 1970's the files are overrun with constituent correspondence. This series ends in 1979 when Conte's office adopted a computerized correspondence system to handle the rapidly increasing amounts of mail. From that time on, most of the constituent correspondence which had been filed either in this series, or in its parallel series, General Subject/Correspondence, would be filed in numerical order according to an automated correspondence system.
Subseries b: Legislative Issues, consists of post-1980 files maintained and passed down among several legislative assistants. The nine boxes of files are arranged alphabetically and relate to issues of international, national, state and local interest.
Documented here is Conte's opposition to humanitarian aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, and the 1983 Immigration Reform Act, which focused on immigration and refugee policies. There is considerable attention paid to international trade policies as reflected by the files on the Export Trading Company Act of 1982 and the Export-Import Bank.
Issues of national interest documented here include abortion, the budget deficit, and education funding as well as Conte's well-publicized battle to defeat honey subsidies and loans during the late 1980s. There are many topics pertaining to Massachusetts and the First District. Especially well documented is the Clay-Conte-Ford Plant Closing Bill, which sought to mandate advanced notice to plant workers in the event of lay-offs and to provide assistance to displaced workers. Other First District issues addressed include the excessive air traffic of C-5 transport planes from the Westover Air Force Base, grants to local housing authorities, and Conte's efforts to provide funding for Amtrak, Pioneer Valley Railways, and other railway corporations.
There are several files on the Pittsfield General Electric plant documenting Conte's efforts to protect jobs by generating manufacturing opportunities and by obtaining contracts for the plant. Related to those efforts are files pertaining to the Phalanx Liquid Propellant defense system and to airplane engine manufacturing. Protection of jobs is apparent in the 1984 files which discuss the strong "Buy American" provisions Conte advocated for government procurement of electric transformers.
There are files on environmental issues such as hazardous waste in Williamstown and Millers Falls, and animal and wetlands conservation efforts throughout Western Massachusetts.
As is the case with the Bill files, the complete folder title list for this series is not in this guide owing to its long length. It is available in the Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.
Conte's speeches reflect his thoughts, opinions and philosophy. Here are documented Conte's public views on a wide variety of issues of importance to 20th-century America.
Conte's rigorous schedule of public appearances is revealed here; he appeared before professional associations, unions, church and civic groups, fraternal organizations, and veterans groups. He attended dedications, receptions, inductions, groundbreakings, commencements, and many other special events.
The five boxes of speeches are arranged chronologically and usually contain the official text of Conte's address. Sometimes there are annotated drafts of speeches as well as background information and correspondence related to the occasion. Also included here are floor statements and some campaign speeches. Most are identified by location of speech.
The seven boxes of Press Releases provide highlights of Conte's political career, legislative activities, honors and awards, and also serve as a useful summary of federal grants and projects procured by Conte for the First District.
There are extensive chronological item-level lists for both Speeches and Press Releases available in Special Collections and University Archives.
This three-box series is arranged chronologically
Much of the material in this series consists of radio show transcripts. The weekly 15-minute radio programs were taped in the House recording studio and mailed to radio stations in the First District.
Titled "This Week in Washington," "Congressional Report," and "Report from Washington" at various times, the radio programs are an excellent source of information on Conte's legislative initiatives and the current issues facing the First District, Congress, and the nation. The programs offer background histories of long-standing issues and detailed accounts of the appropriations process while illustrating the day-to-day operations on Capitol Hill. Transcripts range from as far back as Conte's freshman year in Congress and up to October 1990.
Conte frequently conducted interviews on the show. Interviewees were typically fellow members of Congress or federal department officials.
The few television files contain transcripts of programs from 1959; and background information and correspondence on various television interviews and special programs spanning 1960-1990.
Many of the radio shows exist in audiotape and audiocassette recordings (Audio-Visual Series). Often, Conte's radio shows, television programs, and speeches were reprinted as press releases. Thus, there is considerable overlap among the three series: Speeches, Press Releases and Radio & TV Transcripts.
Arranged chronologically.
With a folksy, informal style Conte updated his readers on his activities in Congress; the introduction of new legislation; current issues facing Congress and the First District and Conte family news. The newsletters in this series cover Conte's entire congressional career from 1959 to 1990 with 1971 missing.
Topics covered in the newsletters include: the Civil Rights Bill, farm subsidies, social security, foreign policy, medicare, trade, the energy crisis, acid rain, wildlife preservation, foreign aid, defense spending, wage and price controls, and federal aid to education. He often reported on recent trips taken, such as a trip to China (1977) and the Soviet Union (1985). There are newsletters devoted solely to Vietnam (1967) and the proposed impeachment of President Nixon (1974).
The newsletters also contain the tabulated results of Conte's annual First district questionnaire.
This series provides a photographic record of Conte's public service. There are over five thousand mostly black and white photographs and slides spanning four decades. The majority of photographs are of Conte posing with visiting First District constituents. Here are located photographs taken during his travels particularly in South East Asia (1959), Africa (1961), China (1977), Latin America (1978), and Hungary (1979); photographs of special events; with members of Congress, the Cabinet, Presidents, and other VIP's; and family photographs. There are slides of the annual Congressional baseball game and of the trip to the Soviet Union in 1985. Several photograph albums were disassembled and sleeved with the original order retained.
There is a chronological list of identified photographs in the collection available in Special Collections and University Archives as well as a database with additional subject and name indexing.
Series 6, Audio-Visual materials, includes a diverse range of formats and consists of audiotapes, audiocassettes, videotapes, and films.
A database, searchable by format, subject, name, and date has been created for all audio-visual materials and is available in Special Collections and University Archives.
The audio recordings are in both audiotape and cassette form and span the dates 1958-1991. Many document Conte's travels to Africa and Germany in 1961; Indonesia and Thailand in 1966; and Israel and Egypt in 1975. The trip to the Middle East in 1975 features recordings of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, Defense Secretary Shimon Peres and Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ismail Fahmy. Also well documented is a Conte-sponsored 1976 Western Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce symposium, a 1980 Energy Symposium, 1980 at UMass; and the biennial Issues Symposium from 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990.
There are many recordings of Conte's weekly radio shows spanning 1961-1990; there are assorted campaign spots; various appropriations hearings, and several interviews.
Included here is a recording of a 1958 testimonial dinner honoring Conte's election to Congress with Dr. Frank Boyden, Judge Francis Quirico and former Speaker of the House Joseph Martin speaking on Conte's behalf; and a 1987 fundraiser for the endowment of the Silvio O. Conte Chair at the University of Massachusetts with guest speaker former President and long-time friend of Conte's Gerald Ford, Vice President George Bush, and Senator Edward Kennedy. There is Conte's reaction to the Watergate Hearings; and a 1987 statement on the closing of the General Electric Corp.'s Power Transformer Plant in Pittsfield. Numbers in parentheses at the end of the title signify multiple tapes.
The fifty-three films mainly consists of Conte's five-minute television program and date from 1959, 1961 and 1967-1968. The television programs were often condensed versions of the radio programs. As is the case with the radio programs, many of the dialogues are reprinted in the Radio & TV Transcripts (Sub-Group III, Series 3).
Conte often interviewed a guest, usually a federal department or agency official or member of Congress, and discussed current issues before Congress. Guests range from John W. Lederle, the president of the University of Massachusetts (1967), Sargent Shriver, director of the Peace Corps (1961) to Governor of Massachusetts John Volpe (1967).
Because so many of the films were made in 1967-1968 there is much discussion of Vietnam, including Conte's stance regarding it, and First District constituents' response. Furthermore, the 1959 and 1961 films often address foreign aid, the communist "threat," and the Cold War. There are also a few films of the Congressional baseball game (1972, 1974) and of other special events.
There are 15 videotapes spanning 1976-1991. Here are campaign spots for local television stations, a few interviews including an undated 28-minute Channel 40 interview, a 1983 public broadcasting report on Congress which features Conte, a short 1990 interview regarding the House vote on the budget, and a 1991 35-minute promotional documentary produced by the Silvio O. Conte Education Foundation. There are tapes with House floor coverage including Conte's remarks on the line item veto (1984), and oil import fee (1989), and two statements by Conte on his sponsored "Decade of the Brain" Resolution (1990).
During the early years of Conte's tenure, the office staff's filing structure was broken down into two major divisions General Subject/Correspondence files in this series and Legislative Subject/Correspondence files (II,6). The General files document the more constituent-related services a member's office provides and the internal information needs of the office. The original order has been retained. For the first decade (1959-1968) of Conte's tenure in office the folders were arranged alphabetically by topic, and, except for the first four years of Conte's service in Congress (1959-1963), grouped in one-year periods mirroring the sessions of congress.
The system changed in 1969; files were grouped by federal agency or department, or, by type or function of the document. For example, all requests (type) were grouped together as were files on the media (function). The system changed again in 1979, as reflected in subseries c, numbered correspondence.
Many of the files contain constituent correspondence with Conte's outgoing response attached. There are files on federal agencies and departments, the State of Massachusetts, the armed services, and First District businesses and industry. Much of the information was maintained for the purpose of obtaining grants and projects for First District towns, cities, small businesses, industry, and community organizations. There are files relating to General Electric, the proposed closing of the Springfield Armory, and Westover Air Force Base.
Information on the Republican National Committee, conventions and platforms and on various Republican candidates for office is filed here.
Although the parallel series, Legislative Subject/Correspondence files, usually contained the bulk of issue mail concerning legislative issues and bills before Congress, there is a substantial amount of "issue"-related correspondence in the General files as well; for example, the large amount of constituent correspondence regarding the Vietnam War.
The General Correspondence files illustrate Conte's inclination to answer all mail and to preserve the entirety of the records created by his office. Requests for materials such as flags, agricultural yearbooks, pictures, government publications, or gallery passes were filed within this series. In addition to such request files there are copies of correspondence that Conte staff wrote to constituents when their names appeared in the newspapers. New brides and parents of new babies were sent Department of Agriculture information booklets. Awards, anniversaries, elections to office, appointments to posts, deaths, weddings, all generated a brief letter of congratulations or condolence from Conte. Most of these routine files have been discarded to reduce bulk.
As is the case with the other large series in the collection, the folder title list is not included in this guide and is available in Special Collections and University Archives.
Arranged alphabetically by community.
This three box subseries contains correspondence from First District residents concerning problems with mail delivery, opinions for and against proposals for new post offices, and inquiries into employment opportunities within the Postal Service. Additionally, there is documentation of Conte's efforts to have particular commemorative stamps issued. These files differ from files in the Legislative Subject Files titled Postal, which mainly deal with Postal appropriations in the federal budget process.
The cards are filed alphabetically by constituent last name.
This series consists of 14 boxes of index cards from the Holyoke and Pittsfield District offices. The cards span 1959-1991 and contain a record of all constituent requests: by phone, person, or mail. Each time a constituent contacted the office, the type of request is recorded on the card, thus providing a history for each constituent.
In an effort to cope with the increasing amounts of incoming correspondence, Conte's office adopted an automated correspondence management system in 1979. Staff would prepare standardized responses to the letters received or expected to be received and store them in the computer to be printed upon demand.
As correspondence came in, staff would assign a unique document number to each piece of mail and index the document in a number of different ways: by subject (often multiple), correspondent's name, responding staff member, geographical location, and type of document.
The computer could sort the correspondence stored in it according to any of these identifiers and print out hard-copy lists. This made file copies of outgoing correspondence, either chronological or alphabetical, unnecessary.
Unfortunately all indexes were lost or destroyed in the haste to vacate the offices upon Conte's unexpected death. There are surviving print-outs of the indexing codes used by the office staff. These have been placed in the first box of this series.
The original 86 boxes of documents, arranged in numerical order, have been randomly sampled to reduce bulk. The 10 boxes that remain contain one of three things: constituent letters with indexing codes and office's response attached; a copy of the office's outgoing response only, or simply the constituent letter with codes.
This series documents the issues of national, state, and local concern to First District residents and the general public and Conte's response to those concerns.
This series has been broken down into two subseries. Subseries a consists of three boxes created and maintained by James Ogsbury, minority staff assistant assigned to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development in 1989 and 1990 and the Subcommittee on HUD-Independent Agencies in 1990.
The files outline housing and energy projects implemented by the communities of the First District and pertain to both of the above subcommittees. There are Eastern Massachusetts and statewide projects as well and information on a few national housing and energy agencies. The majority of the First District projects concern county and town housing authorities, with special attention to the Holyoke Housing Authority.
Also represented are many clean water projects, such as the Boston Harbor Project, the Hoosac River Project, and the Housatonic River Project. There is also a great deal of information pertaining to erosion of the banks of the Connecticut River.
The individual folders consist primarily of reports and correspondence from the individual agencies or projects and a few speeches given by Conte.
Related series include the Energy and Water Subcommittee and HUD Subcommittee files.
Every spring Conte sent out a questionnaire to First District residents. Used to gauge public opinion and identify trends, the questionnaire covers topics of national, state, and local interest. Over the years the questionnaires queried the First District about issues such as Vietnam, the invasion of Cambodia, the proposed impeachment of Richard Nixon and the subsequent pardon by President Ford, economic policy, aid for education, foreign policy, the federal budget deficit, tax reform issues, gun control, and many other topics.
Many constituents felt the need to elaborate on their answers beyond the required either yes/no or a check. Some attached separate letters, others scribbled notes all over the questionnaire.
The 24 boxes of questionnaires in this series represent all surviving returns found in the collection and are most substantial in the years 1970-1973.
The tallied results are available for most years, usually published in the follow-up newsletter or in a press release.
This one-box series documents Conte's function, as a member of Congress, to write letters of nomination on behalf of constituents trying to gain admittance to the Air Force, Military, Maritime, and Naval academies.
All files on individuals were destroyed to protect their privacy. Information retained includes Conte press releases announcing nominations, general information from the various academies documenting the application and nomination procedure, and summary sheets of nominees maintained by Conte's office staff.
In order to protect the privacy of the individuals involved, access to these files is restricted for a period of 75 years.
This voluminous series comprises over two hundred boxes. The files consist of requests from constituents for assistance with problems most often concerning the federal government. The cases can be divided into six major types: immigration and naturalization, social security, veterans, military (transfers, discharges), tax problems, unemployment and worker's compensation.
Patrick Larkin's long career with Conte began in 1979 when he became office manager of the Pittsfield district office. In 1981 he became Administrative Assistant in the Washington, D.C. office where he would remain until Conte's death in 1991.
This series reveals the diverse range of duties performed by Larkin. He fulfilled many roles including staff director, public relations contact, legislative specialist, caseworker, campaign worker, and speechwriter.
The files contain correspondence, memoranda, newsclippings, legislative reference material, campaign materials, and handwritten notes. The original boxes were labeled "Pat Larkin's misc. files" and document the seemingly routine duties of his position. Many of the files are incomplete: some contain only newsclippings, or handwritten notes, other files contain correspondence, internal office memos, and background reports.
The records reveal Larkin's duty to oversee key legislative issues and monitor Conte's political standing both locally and nationally on current issues such as the Persian Gulf War, abortion, acid rain, the capital gains tax, the budget deficit, and nuclear disarmament.
He monitored local federal projects and grants: two examples include the HHS grant to the Holyoke Health Center to combat high infant mortality rates in Holyoke, and an Urban Development Grant to the Hotel Northampton.
There is a file on a visit to the First District by Barbara Bush, files on Conte's birthday party, and a Channel 57 roast of Conte and fellow Congressman Ed Boland. There are files relating to the controversy over the proposed construction of communication towers in Hawley and Amherst.
As Conte's right-hand man, Larkin was responsible for handling the more sensitive correspondence and telephone calls; he negotiated with constituents, colleagues, and lobbyists. For example, the files contain angry constituent complaints, requests for job recommendations, assistance with governmental appointments, requests from Conte's personal friends and colleagues for sporting event tickets, and correspondence from First District business and industry asking for Conte's intervention in zoning regulations, obtaining contracts, and securing federal grants. The "public" nature of a congressperson's job is revealed in these files by the abundance of background materials and invitations related to the arrangement of numerous receptions, dedications, inductions, banquets, fundraisers, commencements, roasts, and assorted other public relations moments typical of Conte's schedule.
Series 2 documents a very small portion of the record-keeping functions of Conte's Pittsfield Office, and also contains the Federal Records Center inventory sheets 1959-1990. The Pittsfield Office records include eight telephone message books, from 1968, 1969, 1979 and undated; an address book, early 1960's; and two guest books from 1968-1970.
The Federal Records Center inventory sheets prepared by aides contain a box list of all materials shipped to the Suitland, MD facility for courtesy storage. The inventories reflect the evolving filing systems used by staff and help one to understand the organization of the office.