Documents / Official release
This file from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library holds press releases and statements that House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford issued between January and April 1966. Most cover Vietnam policy, the war on poverty, inflation, foreign aid, the federal budget and changes in his press staff. An April 21, 1966 statement says the Air Force told Ford it would contract a university with no close Air Force ties to have scientists study unexplained UFO sightings and make the report public. According to Ford, his call for congressional hearings led to this study.
CONGRESSMAN GERALD R. FORD HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER FOR RELEASE UPON RECEIPT NEWS RELEASE APRIL 5, 1966 STATEMENT BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER GERALD R. FORD, R-MCIHIGAN In line with his "jawbone" campaign to cool off the economy and try to halt inflation, President Johnson is setting an example by postponing construction of "two little rooms to a house that we have down home that we will occupy some of these days." If Mr. Johnson thinks it important to defer adding "two little rooms" to a house he owns, then it would be only logical for him to veto the Hubert Humphrey House bill now awaiting his signature. By vetoing that bill, the President would deal inflation a much weightier blow than by his deferment of the two-room addition he speaks of. He would be putting off a $750,000 construction project which hardly falls into the category of essential wartime spending. In explaining his decision to postpone the two-room addition to his house, Mr. Johnson said: "I asked Mrs. Johnson ••• to defer those two rooms because the construction people who would be working on them would be very much in demand." The same is true, of course, about Hubert Humphrey House. Mr. Johnson said his two-room addition was "a little thing" but added that if everybody postpones non-essential building "the economy won't get out of our hands, and the prices won't go up five per cent in the next five months." I suggest to the President that he could set an even better example for the people by vetoing the bill which will put Hubert Humphrey House on the drawing boards. He has until Saturday to sign the bill. He can strike a blow against inflation by vetoing it.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.