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7 Counsellor for Natural Resources Earl Butz: The Dutiful and Passive Super-Secretary
- Texas A&M University Press
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7 h Counsellor for Natural Resources Earl Butz The Dutiful and Passive Super-Secretary When Nixon met with Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz on November 20, 1972,at Camp David to notify him of his appointment as counsellor,they discussed two issues that signaled how Butz would approach the position. (Chapter 2 described Nixon’s bellicose comments at that meeting about wanting a tough and ruthless counsellor.) First, Butz mentioned that at sixty-three he was the oldest member of the (outgoing) Cabinet and that he felt he had been subject to “enormous wear & tear” during the first term and the reelection campaign. They talked about both Roosevelt presidents dying in their early sixties. Using a football analogy (a nod to Nixon’s favorite sport), Butz said that “when [a person is] a step too slow, [you] take yourself out” of the game. Second, Nixon pitched the appointment as signaling the preeminence of USDA over the Interior Department. For Butz, who had dedicated his career to the American farmer, it was validating to have the USDA secretary reign over Interior. Given the usual conflicts and rivalries between Cabinet departments, accepting the appointment was a way for Butz to further his own parochial policy interests. He had little interest in promoting environmental protection, especially if it conflicted with the interests of farmers. Loyal to the president and wanting to serve him (as well as advancing farming interests), Butz accepted the appointment as counsellor. He also accepted all the conditions in the loyalty check-off list developed by Ehrlichman and Haldeman, but cagily, he did not sign it. Given Butz’s concern about his age and health, they agreed that his acceptance was conditional on his passing a physical exam and the understanding that he was making Earl Butz : 157 a commitment to serve as counsellor (and, it was understood, as USDA secretary) for only two years.1 Clearly, Butz was not enthusiastic about the counsellor appointment and did not bring to it eagerness, freshness, or broader policy goals. For him, the appointment was a capstone to his pro-farmer career, and he would serve only two years—assuming his health held up.This stance did not mesh well (or, for that matter, at all) with Nixon’s stated desire for a tough and ruthless activist counsellor who would fight the bureaucracy. Instead, Butz’s record in office provided a case study of a dutiful but relatively passive and uncurious counsellor, significantly different from Weinberger’s assistant president and Lynn’s presidential coordinator. Scope h Inhismostextensivepublicdiscussionof thecounsellorship,Butzarticulated his views of the new position.First,he would be involved in“policy formulation ,” especially in “the resolution of differences” among departments and agencies in the natural resources area. When agreement could be accomplished ,thentherewouldbenoneedtogotothepresidentforadecision.This would push decision making farther away from the president.If the counsellor was unable to achieve unanimity,then he would serve as“arbiter,”that is, decisionmaker.2 However,thelosingdepartmentoragencycouldstillappeal Butz’sdecisionto,asappropriate,theDomesticCouncil,OMB,or,ifnecessary, to the president personally. This function could be deemed as dealing with “incoming”matters, although Butz did not use that terminology. Second,the counsellor would be“articulating the policies and programs of the President”internally,to his constituent departments and agencies— a form of“outgoing”communication (again,not his term).Thus,in Butz’s view, a counsellor generally had a role in preparing for policy decisions, deciding (sometimes),and then in disseminating the decisions.According to Butz,these activities should help“in making the whole process of Government flow more smoothly.”Super-secretaries would be“a mechanism to focus on problems of this kind to get action.”3 Third, externally, counsellors would be available to testify before Congress on administration positions relating to their respective policy areas. This would,theoretically,be helpful to Congress when it was interested in [44.204.34.64] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:08 GMT) 158 : chapter 7 a policy area that was broader than an individual department or agency. Butz told Congress that the doctrine of executive privilege (becoming very controversial due to Watergate) would generally not apply to counsellors. It would apply only to direct contacts with the president or confidential pre-decision situations. However,Butz was careful to focus on theinternal administrative nature of the counsellorship (the line determined by Dean and Ehrlichman back in November and December). The statutory duties of Cabinet secretaries and heads of administrative agencies were unaffected. If the law deemed them “the senior advisor to the President on ___,” that...