White House Congressional Affairs Symposium

On September 12–13, 2003, the Miller Center's Presidential Oral History Program sponsored a roundtable symposium on White House congressional relations. The featured guests at this group oral history were seven former White House congressional liaison, representing every president from Richard Nixon through Bill Clinton.

This first-of-its-kind symposium was intended to supplement the Center's continuing work on individual presidents by providing a forum for considering White House congressional relations comparatively, over a significant span of modern American political history. The results were approximately eight hours of candid insider accounts of how presidents attempt to extend their influence on Capitol Hill.

The seven former assistants to the president for legislative affairs in attendance were: Max Friedersdorf (Nixon, Ford, Reagan); Frank Moore (Carter); William Ball III (Reagan); Frederick McClure (Reagan, Bush 41); John Hilley (Clinton); Lawrence Stein (Clinton); and Charles Brain (Clinton).

The lead interviewers for the symposium were Richard Neustadt (Harvard University, emeritus); Russell Riley (Miller Center, Virginia); James Thurber (American University); and James Young (Miller Center, Virginia).