[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 638 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 638

Commemorating President Gerald R. Ford and the invaluable impact of his 
 service to the United States in honor of the 40th anniversary of his 
                              Presidency.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 23, 2014

 Mr. Huizenga of Michigan (for himself, Mr. Benishek, Mr. Bentivolio, 
Mr. Camp, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Levin, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, 
Mr. Peters of Michigan, Mr. Upton, Mr. Walberg, Mr. Rogers of Michigan, 
 Mr. Kildee, and Mr. Amash) submitted the following resolution; which 
    was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Commemorating President Gerald R. Ford and the invaluable impact of his 
 service to the United States in honor of the 40th anniversary of his 
                              Presidency.

Whereas on August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald R. Ford takes the Oath of 
        Office in the East Room of the White House becoming the 38th President 
        of the United States;
Whereas in his swearing-in remarks, President Ford announces ``In all my public 
        and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of 
        openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best 
        policy in the end. My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is 
        over.'';
Whereas following the ceremony, President Ford goes immediately to work meeting 
        with Congressional leaders, senior White House staff, senior economic 
        advisors, and foreign emissaries;
Whereas on August 19, 1974, on his first Presidential trip outside of 
        Washington, DC, President Gerald R. Ford delivers an impassioned speech 
        to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Chicago;
Whereas President Ford announces his policy for the ``earned re-entry'' return 
        for Vietnam Era draft resisters to the mainstream of United States 
        society;
Whereas ``earned re-entry'' requires two years of performing alternative public 
        service and President Ford also creates a clemency board to review 
        previous related cases;
Whereas on August 22, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford, along with First Lady 
        Betty Ford, announces his support for the Equal Rights Amendment;
Whereas Mrs. Ford is a strong proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and 
        actively joins in the nationwide movement by speaking about women's 
        issues, lobbying Congress and participating in public appearances;
Whereas the following year, President Ford signs an Executive order establishing 
        the National Commission for the Observance of International Women's Year 
        (1975);
Whereas on September 2, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signs the Employee 
        Retirement Income Security Act guaranteeing the pension rights of 
        23,000,000 people in the United States;
Whereas appropriately, President Ford signs the ERIS Act on Labor Day 1974 which 
        establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and 
        provides for extensive rules on the Federal income tax effects of 
        transactions associated with employee benefit plans;
Whereas on September 26, 1974, through September 28, 1974, President Gerald R. 
        Ford stands strong by his beloved wife First Lady Betty Ford as she 
        courageously and openly battles Breast Cancer;
Whereas Mrs. Ford says, ``Lying in the hospital, thinking of all those women 
        going for cancer checkups because of me, I'd come to recognize more 
        clearly the power of the woman in the White House. Not my power, but the 
        power of the position, a power which could be used to help.'';
Whereas the national coverage of Mrs. Ford's public recovery leads to greater 
        awareness and years of future research that will save thousands of 
        lives;
Whereas on September 30, 1974, after the White House convenes the ``Summit 
        Conference on Inflation'', President Gerald R. Ford creates the Economic 
        Policy Board to bring balance and vitality to the economy;
Whereas the Board's mission is to oversee the formulation, coordination and 
        implementation of all economic policy of the United States to help with 
        rising grocery prices, eroding purchasing power because of inflation, 
        rising costs of business, and thousands of unemployed who want work;
Whereas on October 15, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signs the Federal Election 
        Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, which seek to regulate campaign 
        fundraising and spending;
Whereas this is the most significant attempt at campaign finance reform since 
        the 1920s;
Whereas President Ford approves congressional revisions in the Federal Elections 
        Commission and Federal Election Campaign Act to permit resumption of 
        Federal check-off subsidies for all Presidential campaigns;
Whereas on November 23, 1974, and November 24, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford 
        and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev meet in Vladivostok, U.S.S.R.;
Whereas during this meeting, they confer on and sign a joint communique on the 
        limitation of strategic offensive arms;
Whereas by the end of their discussions, President Ford feels confident that 
        ``as soon as technicians had ironed out the few remaining problems, we 
        would sign a SALT II accord'';
Whereas this accord would continue the tradition of arms limitation set forth by 
        the SALT I accord signed in May 1972;
Whereas on January 1, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signs the Privacy Act of 
        1974, ensuring individual privacy for Americans which established a Code 
        of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, 
        use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about 
        individuals that is maintained in systems of records by Federal 
        agencies;
Whereas on January 15, 1975, in his first State of the Union Address, President 
        Gerald R. Ford announces bluntly that ``the state of the Union is not 
        good. Millions of Americans are out of work. Recession and inflation are 
        eroding the money of millions more. Prices are too high, and sales are 
        too slow.'';
Whereas to remedy these problems, President Ford proposes tax cuts for United 
        States families and businesses and also strongly advocates for the 
        reduction of government spending;
Whereas in April 1975, President Gerald R. Ford orders the emergency evacuation 
        from South Vietnam of children in Operation Babylift which results in 
        the adoption of over 3,000 children throughout the world;
Whereas President Ford greets a planeload of orphans at San Francisco 
        International Airport upon its arrival in the United States;
Whereas President Ford also oversees the evacuation of 7,000 United States 
        personnel and high-risk South Vietnamese nationals as Saigon falls to 
        Communist forces in Operation Frequent Wind;
Whereas on July 26, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford departs on a trip to Europe 
        for visits to West Germany, Poland, Finland, Romania, and Yugoslavia;
Whereas in Helsinki, President Ford joins leaders from 34 nations in signing the 
        Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe also 
        known as the Helsinki Agreement;
Whereas the Helsinki Agreement ratifies post-World War II European borders and 
        supports human rights; and
Whereas the Helsinki Agreement's human rights provisions greatly help Eastern 
        Europeans seeking an end to their communist regimes: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives commemorates the 
Presidency of Gerald R. Ford and the extraordinary contributions he 
made to the United States.
                                 <all>