How Ford Put the Lid on Cooper-Church

Two weeks ago, the Senate administered a mild rebuke to President Nixon when it passed the Cooper-Church Amendment cutting off funds for U.S. operations in Cambodia. The lengthy Senate debate embarrassed the Administration, and when the matter came before the House last week Republican Minority Leader Gerald Ford was determined that the embarrassment would not be repeated. TIME Congressional Correspondent Neil MacNeil explains how he did it:

THE parliamentary situation was this: the military sales bill that the House had passed some months back had been amended by the Senate and returned to the House in the form containing the Cooper-Church Amendment. The bill was destined for a House-Senate conference, but the rules provide for the House conferees to be "instructed" on their stance by the House itself. It was in this area that the game was played.

Under the rules, the minority party has the right to make the first motion to instruct. This option gave Jerry Ford a weapon that he used with devastating effect on the doves. He decided on a maneuver that would force the doves to lead from weakness. "I'm going to get the weakest guy on our side of the aisle to offer the motion," he told a fellow Republican. He picked Donald Riegle Jr. of Michigan, 32, a dove who Ford accurately figured would provoke maximum opposition to the doves' own cause. Riegle is a brash young second-term Republican who has offended members of the House by open criticism of his seniors. "They really had it wired," one dove said when he heard of Ford's choice. "They got this potato head to make the motion."

Some of the dovish Republicans tried to talk Riegle out of it, but he would not be denied his moment on center stage. Riegle offered his motion for the House to join the Senate in approving Cooper-Church. Wayne Hays of Ohio, a Democratic hawk, instantly asked House Speaker John McCormack who would assign the speaking time during the debate on Riegle's motion. Riegle, replied McCormack. The prospect of Riegle cavorting, however briefly, in even a minor leadership role was too much for Hays, a veteran of 22 years in the House. He moved to table Riegle's motion, which, under House rules, automatically cut off all debate.

Hays had taken Ford's bait. His own hawkishness and enmity toward Riegle overwhelmed any reluctance he may have felt as a Democrat to abet the Administration strategy. The House approved Hays' motion, 237 to 153. The House's doves, who had little hope of . winning on Cooper-Church but yearned for a floor debate on the war issue, had been outmaneuvered, outplayed and outvoted. Ford knew the rules, he knew his colleagues, and he knew how to use both to get what he wanted.

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