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Home , Bert Combs, Earle Clements, Harry Lee Waterfield, John Sherman Cooper, Julian Carroll, Louie Nunn

THE PEOPLE'S REPRESENTATIVE, : HIS LASTING IMPRINT ON STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATION

CLE Credit: 1.0 Thursday, June 22, 2017 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. East Ballroom C-D Owensboro Convention Center Owensboro,

A NOTE CONCERNING THE PROGRAM MATERIALS

The materials included in this Kentucky Bar Association Continuing Legal Education handbook are intended to provide current and accurate information about the subject matter covered. No representation or warranty is made concerning the application of the legal or other principles discussed by the instructors to any specific fact situation, nor is any prediction made concerning how any particular judge or jury will interpret or apply such principles. The proper interpretation or application of the principles discussed is a matter for the considered judgment of the individual legal practitioner. The faculty and staff of this Kentucky Bar Association CLE program disclaim liability therefore. Attorneys using these materials, or information otherwise conveyed during the program, in dealing with a specific legal matter have a duty to research original and current sources of authority.

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Kentucky Bar Association TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Presenters ...... i

"For the People," Wendell H. Ford ...... 1

Federal Policies Influenced by U.S. Senator Wendell H. Ford ...... 7

Wendell Ford, Former U.S. Senator, Dies ...... 25

What Wendell Ford's Life Meant ...... 31

An Appreciation of Former Sen. Wendell Ford ...... 33

Photos ...... 37

THE PRESENTERS

Mindy G. Barfield Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP Lexington Financial Center 250 West Main Street, Suite 1400 Lexington, Kentucky 40507 (859) 425-1025 [email protected]

MINDY G. BARFIELD is a partner in the Litigation Department of Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP in Lexington and practices in the area of complex commercial litigation. She is admitted to practice before the District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Ms. Barfield received her B.A. from Transylvania University, her M.A. from George Washington University and her J.D. from the College of Law. She is a member of the Fayette County and Kentucky Bar Associations. Ms. Barfield currently serves as Chair of the Fayette County Bar Foundation, and serves on the Kentucky Bar Association's Board of Governors, Legal Aid of the Bluegrass Board of Directors, Transylvania University Board of Trustees, Kentucky State University Board of Regents, and Gods Pantry Food Bank Board of Directors. She is a Central Kentucky Inns of Court Master.

Robert Mangas Greenberg Traurig 2101 L Street N.W., Suite 1000 Washington, D.C. 20037 (202) 530-8507 [email protected]

ROBERT MANGAS is a Co-managing Shareholder in the Washington, D.C., office of Greenberg Traurig and practices in the areas of health care, energy, biotechnology, manufacturing and foreign affairs. Mr. Mangas served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Wendell Ford, 1995-1998. He received his B.A. from the University of Kentucky and his J.D. from Columbia Law School. Mr. Mangas is admitted to practice in and the District of Columbia.

i John T. McGarvey Morgan & Pottinger 401 South Fourth Street, Suite 1200 Louisville, Kentucky 40202 (502) 560-6759 [email protected]

JOHN T. MCGARVEY is a shareholder, chairperson of Morgan & Pottinger's Executive Committee and a member of the Marketing Committee. He practices in the areas of commercial litigation, Uniform Commercial Code, loan workouts, equine law, banking and finance, and bank counsel. Mr. McGarvey is also the city attorney for the City of Anchorage and served as press secretary for Wendell Ford during his first campaign for U.S. Senate. He received his B.A. from the University of Kentucky and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board. Mr. McGarvey is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States . He is a member of the Louisville, Kentucky, and American Bar Associations and the National Council of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Mr. McGarvey has held a position on the UCC's Permanent Editorial Board since 2015. He is an adjunct secured transactions professor at the University of Kentucky College of law, and has taught hundreds of seminars on legal issues involving financial institutions and credit extenders. Mr. McGarvey was named "Lawyer of the Year" for Banking and Finance Law in Louisville in 2015 by Best Lawyers in America.

ii "FOR THE PEOPLE" WENDELL H. FORD DECEMBER 7, 1971 – DECEMBER 27, 1974 John T. McGarvey

Wendell Ford served thirty-three years in elected office for the people of Kentucky. The first nine of those years were in state office: State Senator from Owensboro, 1965-1967; Lieutenant Governor, 1967-1971; and Governor, 1971-1974. His time in the Governor's chair was short; his list of accomplishments was long.

I. CREATION OF A UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM

Today's unified state court system, fully implemented July 1, 1976, was created on Ford's watch by the General Assembly in 1974. Police courts, magistrate's courts, and quarterly courts, with their overlapping jurisdictions, and where, particularly in rural cities and counties, many of the judges were not lawyers, were all merged into today's District Courts. The use of city police courts as a city revenue generator was eliminated. The single right of appeal from Circuit Court to the former Kentucky Court of Appeals grew into a modern appellate system with the right of appeal to the new intermediate Court of Appeals, and discretionary review available in the newly created .

Kentucky's effort at court modernization resulted in a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, and recognition of Kentucky as the first state in the nation to develop a comprehensive program of improvements in its courts and related activities. The related activities included first time funding for full-time and part-time assistant commonwealth attorneys in all of the states' fifty-five judicial districts to aid the lone elected commonwealth attorney in prosecution of criminal cases.

Judicial training was expanded and a continuing education system for other criminal justice personnel established through the State Judicial Training Council and the Justice Department's Bureau of Training.

II. OTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Taking Kentucky out of the age-old and antiquated system of appointed counsel for indigent criminal defendants, Ford established the office of public defender. In a press conference on October 17, 1972, he said: "The very essence of democracy is the concept of equal justice under law. Yet for most of our country's history, this right to counsel was applied only in federal prosecution."

In that same press conference, he announced his appointment of Kentucky's first public defender, Anthony M. (Tony) Wilhoit. Concluding the press conference, Ford expressed his respect and appreciation for the assistance of the Kentucky Bar Association and its work on the enabling legislation.

1 Ford also knew how important it was to upgrade the policing side of the criminal justice system. A program of salary supplements was developed for Kentucky's police officers and fire fighters. The supplements became available to those meeting specified state initial training requirements and continuing education requirements. Kentucky's small town police departments, sheriff's offices, and fire departments became professionalized.

Recognizing that the remained the primary law enforcement organization in much of Kentucky, in June 1973, Ford had good news for "the thin gray line." The KSP vehicle fleet was old and depleted. Ford found the funds to purchase 361 new police vehicles. And in typical Ford fashion, his KSP Commissioner, Ron Johnson, directed that all of the new vehicles go to road troopers, not to supervisors. To compensate the State Police more in line with the incentives being offered to local officers, he also announced a 5 percent increase for all troopers and the creation of the rank of Senior Trooper to retain those troopers with eight years or more experience. In his larger reorganization of state government, Ford removed the State Police from the Department of Public Safety and made it a free standing organization with its own Commissioner.

On the civil side of the judicial system, one of his accomplishments that today we take for granted, but required a big push from the Governor's office in the society of forty years ago, is Kentucky's no-fault divorce law.

III. REORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT

Some view Ford's reorganization of state government as the most significant accomplishment of his governorship. The organization chart of Kentucky state government, as it appeared at the end of the Ford administration, is appended to this paper. It takes only a quick glance at the chart to recognize that with only a few tweaks his reorganization of state government survives today. The reorganization enabled the Ford administration to render better services to the citizens of Kentucky more efficiently. The only significant change in the structure authored by Ford has been splitting the mammoth Department for Human Resources into two cabinets.

Ford's reorganization of state government was recognized by the Associated Press as halting what had been a rapid growth of state employment. Each of Ford's budgets allocated less money for state government administration than did its predecessor, and in each budget cycle, the cost for management of state government required less money than what the Legislature had appropriated.

IV. TAX REFORM

A subject of much discussion in the Commonwealth today, tax reform, was accomplished by Ford in his first legislative session in 1972. Moreover, it was progressive tax reform with a net revenue gain to fund essential state services; but without the burden of additional taxes being borne by ordinary Kentuckians. Ford's version of tax reform removed the state sales tax from food and medicine. (The popularity of that program helped propel him to the U.S. Senate two years later.)

2 However, Ford's modernization of state government needed replacement revenue for the lost sales tax dollars. The new funds came from a mineral severance tax, a two-cent increase per gallon in the gasoline tax, and an increase in corporate taxes.

By enacting a severance tax, Ford recognized he could export to other states part of the tax burden on Kentucky's citizens because 85 percent of the coal purchased in Kentucky was paid for by out-of-state entities. Conversely, the sales tax being removed from food and medicine was paid 100 percent by Kentuckians. The net revenue gain from Ford's tax reform fueled the additional and improved services delivered by the Ford administration while lessening the taxes paid by the average Kentuckian.

V. EDUCATION

Through increased tax revenue generated by tax reform and the economies achieved through government reorganization, education at all levels received substantial additional funding. During Ford's administration, state funding for Kentucky's elementary and secondary education, through what was known as the Minimum Foundation Program, was ranked ninth in the nation. A state-wide kindergarten system began under Ford. The number of special education classrooms in the state doubled and state funds were provided to construct new vocational schools across the commonwealth.

Another of Ford's accomplishments in education was a strengthened and reorganized Council on Public Higher Education. Through legislation passed on his recommendation by the 1972 General Assembly, the Council on Public Higher Education was given new direction and increased authority. It became the coordinating mechanism for programs of all of Kentucky's state universities.

VI. MAKING KENTUCKY A PROGRESSIVE STATE

Ford, remembered as a and social moderate, led the state during his tenure as Governor in a progressive direction. Calling the Legislature into special session in 1972, Ford saw to it that Kentucky was one of the first states to ratify the to the U.S. Constitution.

Other items on his progressive agenda included establishing the Kentucky Housing Authority, increasing workman's compensation benefits for black lung victims and other injured workers, and establishing protection for Kentucky's wild rivers and other unspoiled streams.

One Courier-Journal editorial on a Ford budget was titled "A Document with a Heart." Another editorial described his budget as "imaginative in response to human needs…fiscally sound…" Wendell Ford, for the people.

VII. HEALTHCARE

Ford funded $33,000,000 for the Louisville Teaching Hospital, funded the University of Kentucky Medical School's Division of Family Practice (now a leader in the nation), and secured federal aid for Norton's Infirmary directed toward

3 medical care for children (now Norton Children's Hospital). For the first time, there was a state plan to support volunteer rescue squads and the first step into helicopter air ambulance service through a program worked out with Ft. Knox.

VIII. "KENTUCKY'S FIRST URBAN GOVERNOR"

That was the title given to Ford by the Courier-Journal. Louisville, which today bemoans a net outflow of state dollars, in addition to funding of the Louisville Teaching Hospital and Norton's Infirmary, benefitted from the construction of the downtown Convention Center, improvements to the state fairgrounds, and increased funding for the that became fully integrated into the state system of higher education under Ford, finishing what his predecessor, , had begun. $19.5 million, $5 million in state funds matched by a $14.5 million federal grant, funded the construction of a new technical institute adjoining Jefferson Community College, in Louisville's medical center. The new facility, dedicated primarily to health occupations, provided training and career opportunities for 2,000 students.

Ford may have been an urban governor but he did not neglect Kentucky's counties and smaller cities. He established revenue sharing for counties, the Office for Local Government as part of Kentucky's executive branch, and passed legislation permitting home rule for cities and counties that placed some aspects of government closer to the people being served.

IX. FOR THE PEOPLE

Ford loved talking directly with the Kentuckians he served as their Governor. His "Take State Government to the People" days were some of his favorites. He would commandeer an office in a local courthouse. Advertisements that the Governor would be in town were placed in the local newspapers and run on local radio stations. Anyone who wanted to talk to the Governor about their concerns could get in line. No matter what your station in life, it was first come, first served. Notes were scribbled and aides dispatched to address problems brought to his attention.

He once told Al Cross he loved being Governor because he had the power to accomplish things quickly. More than once while serving in the U.S. Senate he expressed a preference for the Governor's office because it was there that he could quickly create change and see the benefit that change provided to the citizens of the Commonwealth.

X. THE MOVE TO WASHINGTON

Although he loved being Governor, he was term limited by Kentucky's Constitution and 's senate seat was up for election in 1974. The Lieutenant Governor, , did not want to run. The polls showed that Ford was the only Democrat who might take the seat. He did.

However, the process of his becoming a Senator was more than winning an election, it was one of a different era, a time of bipartisanship, and statesmanship by the person he defeated, Marlow Cook. When Ford resigned the Governorship

4 on December 27, 1974, Lieutenant Governor Carroll became Governor. Marlow Cook simultaneously resigned from the U.S. Senate. Governor Carroll appointed Ford to replace Marlow Cook in the U.S. Senate days before the other newly elected Senators were sworn in. Kentucky's new Senator thus got the jump on seniority to all other Senators first elected that year and with it came more ability to help the Commonwealth and its people.

5

6 FEDERAL POLICIES INFLUENCED BY U.S. SENATOR WENDELL H. FORD Compiled By Rob Mangas

Much has been written about the career of former Kentucky Governor and United States Senator Wendell Ford. When he retired in 1998 after four terms in the Senate, he was the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history, and served in his party's leadership for eight years as the Senate Democratic .1

A full discussion of the Senate career of Wendell Ford would include several topics, including (1) his four Senate elections in Kentucky; (2) his successful Senate leadership elections; (3) his interaction with various U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, including his role as the Master of Ceremonies for three Presidential Inaugurations; (4) his mastery of Senate procedure, as acknowledged by his Senate colleagues; (5) his key role in the daily administration of the U.S. Senate; (6) his successful efforts to secure federal funding for major projects and initiatives in Kentucky, such as the development, improvement and expansion of airports, roads, bridges, locks and dams; (7) his coalition building abilities that helped to block many Congressional proposals that would have had a negative impact on the Kentucky economy; (8) his devotion to Kentucky constituents and the thousands of individual "cases" where he advocated on their behalf with the federal government; and (9) his general legislative record and influence on federal policy.

This paper attempts only to address the last topic, and does so in a very summary fashion. Nonetheless, it is an attempt to list Senator Ford's key achievements that affected federal policies during his twenty-four years of service in the U.S. Senate.

I. FIRST TERM (1974-1980)

A. Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvements Act of 1976

Although the law creating the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1972 (Pub. L. 92-573; codified at 15 U.S.C. §2051 et seq.) excluded " and tobacco products" from the definition of "consumer product," questions existed as to whether CPSC could regulate tobacco products under authority granted by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (15

1 In addition to his leadership position as Democratic Whip, Senator Ford also held several key committee positions during his Senate career. He served as both Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. (He was Chairman when the Democrats were in the Senate majority and Ranking Member when the Republicans had control). He served on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and was Chairman or Ranking Member of its Aviation Subcommittee. He also served on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where he was Chair or Ranking Member of the Energy Research and Development Subcommittee. As past Chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, he was successful in cutting millions of dollars from the cost of government printing operations. Finally, he was Chair or Ranking Member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which was responsible for planning and conducting the Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in 1989, 1993 and 1997.

7 U.S.C. §1261 et seq.). Senator Ford offered an amendment2 to clarify that tobacco products were also excluded from the agency's jurisdiction under its hazardous substances regulatory authority. The legislation was enacted on May 11, 1976 (Pub. L. 94-284). The underlying legislation also exempted pesticides, guns, and ammunition.

B. Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1977

On August 3, 1977, Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (Pub. L. 95-87) to create an industry fund to clean up abandoned mines and to set new reclamation standards for surface mining after the date of enactment. Senator Ford was able to join with Senator Bennett Johnson (D-LA) in the Senate Energy Committee to provide a transition period before small mine operators would have to fully comply with the provisions of the new law. Senator Ford also offered an amendment3 that passed the Senate to allow some variance from requirements that mined land be returned to its approximate original contour where the variance renders the land suitable for agricultural, industrial, commercial, residential, or public use. The amendment was adopted by the Senate on May 20, 1977, and the proposal remains a part of the SMCRA statute (see §515 of SMCRA; 30 U.S.C. §1265).

C. Consumer Product Safety Act Authorization Act (1978)

On November 10, 1978, the Consumer Product Safety Act Authorization Act authored by Senator Ford4 was signed into law (Pub. L. 95-631). The legislation made the CPSC Chairman a Presidential appointment, established new procedures for the establishment of consumer product safety standards, created a Toxicology Advisory Board relating to the labeling of hazardous substances, and extended CPSC authority through 1981.

D. Dispute Resolution Act (1980)

On February 12, 1980, the Dispute Resolution Act was signed into law (Pub. L. 96-190). The legislation,5 introduced by Senator Ford, created a Dispute Resolution Resource Center within the Department of Justice that was designed to encourage States to develop alternative, less costly, and less formal means of resolving legal disputes. It was an early catalyst for developing alternative dispute arrangements that are commonplace today.

2 The Ford amendment was offered on June 24, 1975 during Senate Commerce Committee consideration of S.644 (94th Congress). The Ford language, added as §3(c)(1) of S.644, amended §2(f)(2) of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (15 U.S.C. §1261(f)(2)).

3 S.Amdt.280 (95th Congress).

4 See S.2796 (95th Congress).

5 See S.423 (96th Congress).

8 E. Energy Security Act (1980)

In the midst of a severe energy crisis that began in 1979, Congress considered several broad changes in energy policy. Senator Ford worked with colleagues on the Senate Energy Committee to develop legislation creating incentives to develop synthetic fuels. Title I of the Energy Security Act6 (enacted June 30, 1980; Pub. L. 96-294) was designed to encourage alternate fuels by converting coal to synthetic oil and gas and extracting oil from shale and tar sands, among other things. The legislation supported research and demonstration activities in these areas, setting a precedent for development efforts that continue today.

II. SECOND TERM (1981-1986)

A. No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act of 1982

In 1982, Senator Ford joined the efforts of Congressman Charlie Rose (D-NC), Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC), Dee Huddleston (D-KY) and others to reform the federal tobacco program. The No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act of 1982,7 enacted on July 20, 1982 (Pub. L. 97-218), began charging tobacco farmers an assessment to cover the administrative costs of the tobacco program, ending criticism that tobacco production was publicly subsidized. The tobacco program was to last for another twenty-two years.

B. Abandoned Mine Reclamation Funding (1982)

On December 17, 1982, the Senate approved a Ford amendment8 to expedite the distribution of abandoned mine cleanup funds to States within sixty days of a State request. The amendment was included in the Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.J.Res.631, enacted on December 21, 1982; Pub. L. 97-377).

C. Railroad Employee Unemployment Benefits (1983)

On March 11, 1983, the Senate adopted a Ford amendment9 to add $125 million in supplemental unemployment benefits for railroad workers with less than ten years of service. The amendment was included in the

6 See S.932. The Senate agreed to a conference report on June 19, 1979 by a seventy-eight to twelve vote. At the White House signing ceremony, Chairman Scoop Jackson (D-WA) singled out Senator Ford as one who "worked around the clock" to get the bill passed.

7 See H.R.6590 (97th Congress).

8 See S.Up.Amdt.1507 (97th Congress). The Ford amendment was co-sponsored by Senators (D-WV), Dee Huddleston (D-KY), (R-VA), and (D- WV).

9 S.Amdt.489 (98th Congress).

9 Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act (H.R.1718, enacted on March 24, 1983; Pub. L. 98-8).

D. Tobacco Program Improvement Act of 1985

On July 10, 1985, Senator Ford joined with Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and eight other tobacco-state senators10 in introducing the Tobacco Program Improvement Act. The legislation restored balance to the supply and demand mechanisms of the federal tobacco program, requiring tobacco product manufacturers to submit annual purchase intentions and providing an orderly process for disposing of surplus tobacco. The reforms were included in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (Pub. L. 99-272),11 which was enacted on April 7, 1986.

E. Age Discrimination in Employment Amendments of 1986

Senator Ford joined with Senator John Heinz (R-PA) and others to support compromise amendment language to legislation eliminating a mandatory retirement age for most Americans workers. Prior to passage of the bill, employers were allowed to mandate retirement for all workers reaching the age of seventy. The new legislation sought to eliminate this restriction. The Senate compromise language allowed transitional mandatory retirement arrangements for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and tenured professors to remain in place through 1993, at which point the age restrictions for these employees would be eliminated. The Senate amendment12 was included in the final version of the Age Discrimination in Employment Amendments of 1986, which was enacted on October 31, 1986 (Pub. L. 99-592).

III. THIRD TERM (1987-1992)

A. Trail of Tears (1987)

On December 16, 1987, legislation sponsored by Senator Ford13 was enacted to designate the Trail of Tears as a National Historic Trail administered by the National Park Service within the Department of Interior (Pub. L. 100-192).

10 See S.1418 (99th Congress). The other co-sponsors were Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), (R-SC), John East (R-NC), John Warner (R-VA), Paul Trible (R-VA), Mack Mattingly (R-GA), Fritz Hollings (D-SC), and Chic Hecht (R-NV).

11 H.R.3128 (99th Congress).

12 S.Amdt.3484 to H.R.4154 (99th Congress).

13 See S.578 (100th Congress).

10 B. Airport and Airway Safety and Capacity Expansion Act of 1987

Senator Ford introduced the Senate version of legislation14 to significantly increase airport capacity expansion projects, upgrade national collision avoidance system, require the use of transponders, and extend aviation revenue collections subject to a cap in the Aviation Trust Fund. The legislation was enacted on December 30, 1987 (Pub. L. 100-223).

C. Aviation Accident Investigations (1988)

The National Transportation Safety Board was made independent from the Department of Transportation in 1974 and given enhanced authority to investigate aviation accidents. Senator Ford sponsored the Independent Safety Board Act Amendments of 198815 to strengthen and extend NTSB authority. This legislation was enacted on July 19, 1988 (Pub. L. 100-372).

D. Aviation Safety and Capacity Expansion Act of 1990

On August 2, 1990, the House passed the Aviation Safety and Capacity Expansion Act.16 Senator Ford led the efforts to move the legislation through the Senate Commerce Committee, where it was reported on October 16, 1990. The legislation was included in Title IX of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-508), which was enacted on November 5, 1990. It significantly increased funding for airport capital investments, in part by allowing airports to collect passenger facility charges, increased research and engineering support for civil aviation, and required the development of a national aviation noise policy that required quieter aircraft going forward.

E. University Housing (1992)

On February 20, 1992, Senator Ford offered an amendment17 to the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 legislation that authorized the funding of infrastructure and housing projects on college campuses in an effort to address significant housing shortages that existed at that time. The legislation as introduced had limited funding to academic, research and library facilities. The Ford amendment language was enacted on July 23, 1992 (Pub. L. 102-325), and remains as a key component of the authority of the Student Loan Marketing Association.18

14 See S.1184, which was debated in the Senate on October 28, 1987. A similar bill (H.R.2310) had passed the House on October 1, 1987.

15 See S.623, which passed the Senate on March 25, 1987 by voice vote, and passed the House on April 12, 1988.

16 See H.R.5170 (101st Congress), which passed by a 405 to fifteen vote.

17 S.Amdt.1654 to S.1150 (102nd Congress).

18 See 20 U.S.C. §1087-2(d)(1)(c)(ii).

11 F. Uranium Enrichment (1992, 1996)

In 1989, Senator Ford introduced the Comprehensive Uranium Enrichment Act,19 which would privatize uranium enrichment operations in the United States by establishing the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) in an attempt to bring greater efficiency to enrichment operations. The legislation proposed establishing USEC as a government corporation, with the idea that it would eventually become a stand-alone private corporation. Similar legislation introduced by Senator Ford passed the Senate on June 12, 1991, on a unanimous vote.20 It was incorporated into the Energy Policy Act of 1992 as Title IX of that legislation,21 and became law on October 24, 1992 (Pub. L. 102-486).

On February 18, 1993, the U.S. and Russia initiated the Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement, which became known as the "Megatons to Megawatts Program." The agreement was part of a larger deal to reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles. It required Russia to convert highly enriched uranium from dismantled nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium, which would then be sold to the U.S. USEC became the commercial agent appointed by the Department of Energy to implement the agreement. The Megatons to Megawatts program dramatically changed the economic assumptions relating to the formation of USEC.

In 1996, Senator Ford joined with Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) and others to introduce the USEC Privatization Act.22 The legislation completed the process of structuring U.S. uranium enrichment operations as a private sector entity. It subsequently passed as an amendment23 to the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-134; enacted on April 26, 1996). The United States Enrichment Corporation operates today as a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corporation.

G. Retired Coal Miner Health Benefits (1992)

After a major coal strike in the fall of 1989, Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole formed an Advisory Commission of Mine Workers Retiree Health Benefits. The "Coal Commission" issued a report in November 1990

19 S.83 (101st Congress).

20 S.210 (102nd Congress).

21 See H.R.776 (102nd Congress).

22 See S.755 (100th Congress). The other co-sponsors were Senators Bennett Johnston (D-LA), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO), Craig Thomas (R-WY), and Alan Simpson (R-WY). Companion legislation was introduced in the House (H.R.1216).

23 The USEC Privatization Act was part of S.Amdt.3466, offered to H.R.3019, the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996. The amendment passed on March 19, 1996.

12 urging Congress to consider legislative options to prevent the collapse of major health trust funds providing benefits to retired coal miners. Many "orphan" retirees who had worked for companies that went out of business were in jeopardy of losing benefits. Early Congressional efforts to address this issue were not successful. In 1992, Senator Ford joined with Senators (D-WV) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) in negotiating with the Bush Administration to reach a compromise on shoring up the trust funds with a bipartisan agreement on financing. This compromise was reflected in the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1992,24 which became commonly known in the coal industry as simply the "Coal Act." It passed as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, enacted on October 24, 1992 (Pub. L. 102-486).

The complex funding solution in the Coal Act compromise lasted for well over a decade. It was updated once more in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Control Act Amendments of 2006 (see Division C, Title II of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, Pub. L. 109-432). The compromise was further amended in 2016 when additional retirees affected by coal bankruptcies were added to the health funds covered by the Coal Act (see Continued Benefits for Miners Act, added as §167 of the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act of 2017, Pub. L. 114-254; 30 U.S.C. §1201 note).

H. Tobacco Quota Transfers (1992)

In 1992, Senator Ford introduced legislation25 to allow dark tobacco quotas to be transferred on an acre-for-acre basis for certain commodities. The change was enacted on October 28, 1992 (Pub. L. 102-566).

I. Family and Medical Leave of 1993

In September 1991, the Senate began debating the Family and Medical Leave Act,26 which would have provided up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, the need to care for a spouse or parent with a serious medical condition, or a worker's own serious illness. Employers with fewer than fifty employees were exempt. The bill was subject to a Senate filibuster and its passage was uncertain. Senator Ford joined with Senators (R-MO) and Dan Coats (R-IN) to develop a compromise that addressed certain concerns of the business community and attracted additional support. The "Bond-Ford-Coats amendment" allowed employers to exempt key employees, tightened the bill's applicability to part-time workers, and reduced the likelihood of civil

24 The negotiations built upon comprehensive legislation introduced in 1991. See S.1989, H.R. 4013 (102nd Congress).

25 S.3327 (102nd Congress).

26 See S.5 (102nd Congress).

13 litigation against employers. The amendment passed by a sixty-five to thirty-two vote on October 2, 1991, and the bill passed the Senate on the same day.

The legislation was ultimately vetoed by President George H.W. Bush on September 22. While the Senate voted sixty-eight to thirty-one to override the on September 24, 1992, the House subsequently failed to override the veto.27 However, a nearly identical bill28 including the Bond- Ford-Coats language was introduced in 1993, passed the House and Senate, and was signed into law by President on February 5, 1993 (Pub. L. 103-3).

IV. FOURTH TERM (1993-1998)

A. National Voter Registration Act of 1993

The "Motor-Voter" law (Pub. L. 103-31) created uniform federal election voting registration procedures, requiring states to coordinate voter registration with driver's license application procedures. The law also requires states to take certain steps to assure the integrity of federal voter registries. The Motor-Voter law is credited with increasing national voter registration from roughly 70 percent of the voting age population to 80 percent, and to 87.4 percent of the "citizen voting age population" (excluding adults ineligible to vote).29

The road to passage was not easy. An early version introduced by Senator Ford was debated on the Senate floor in September, 1990, but was subject to a filibuster.30 During the next Congress, the legislation passed the Senate and House of Representatives,31 but was vetoed by President George H.W. Bush on July 2, 1992.32 Finally, the effort to pass the Motor-Voter law succeeded in 1993. The measure passed both the

27 The House voted 258 to 169 on September 30, 1992, falling short of the required two-thirds vote.

28 See H.R.1 (103rd Congress).

29 See "The Impact of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 on the Administration of Elections for Federal Office 2011-2012, A Report to the 113th Congress June 30, 2013," U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

30 An effort to end the filibuster on the National Voter Registration Act of 1989 (S.874; 101st Congress) failed in the Senate on September 26, 1990, by a fifty-five to forty-two vote, falling short of the required sixty votes.

31 The proposed National Voter Registration Act of 1992 (S.250; 102nd Congress), passed the Senate on May 20, 1992, by a sixty-one to thirty-eight vote, and passed the House of Representatives on June 16, 1992, by a 268 to 153 vote.

32 An attempt to override the veto of S.250 failed in the Senate by a vote of sixty-two to thirty-eight on September 22, 1992, falling short of the two-thirds vote required.

14 House and Senate with significant support,33 and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on March 20, 1993 (Pub. L. 103-31).

B. Tobacco Tariff Rate Quota (1993-1995)

Tobacco leaf imports surged from 413 million pounds in 1990 to over 1 billion pounds in 1993, causing great instability in tobacco farming. Senator Ford led efforts by a coalition of tobacco-State Senators to pass legislation requiring domestic manufacturers to certify the amount of imported tobacco used in their products and to impose a "domestic marketing assessment" on amounts above 25 percent in order to stabilize domestic markets. This provision was included in §1106 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, enacted on August 10, 1993 (Pub. L. 103-66).34

The domestic marketing assessment led to provisions relating to tobacco imports in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (Pub. L. 103-465),35 authorizing the President to increase duties on imported tobacco and set a tariff rate quota for imports of tobacco leaf. As part of the arrangement, the legislation also eliminated the domestic marketing assessment.36 These provisions generated trade negotiations with major tobacco leaf importing countries. As a result of these negotiations, President Clinton proclaimed a tariff-rate quota (TRQ)37 effective September 13, 1995, which placed a country-by-country limit on tobacco leaf imports.

C. First Female U.S. District Court Judge from Kentucky (1993)

Early in 1993, Senator Ford recommended to the White House that the existing judicial vacancy in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky be filled by Jennifer Coffman, who among other things had a very successful private practice, had served on the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee for the District Court, and chaired the Kentucky Bar Association Annual Convention the previous year. She was nominated on August 6, 1993, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on

33 The National Voter Registration Act of 1992 (H.R.2; 102nd Congress) passed the House on February 4, 1993, by a vote of 259 to 160, and a similar version passed the Senate on March 17, 1993, by a sixty-two to thirty-seven vote. A House-Senate conference committee was formed to resolve minor differences, and the conference report was approved 259 to 164 in the House on May 5, 1993, and sixty-two to thirty-six in the Senate on May 11, 1993.

34 The Ford language was included in the Agriculture title of S.1134, the Senate version of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It was subsequently included in H.R.2264, the House version, which became law.

35 See §421 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which passed the House and Senate as H.R.5110 and was enacted on December 8, 1994.

36 See §422(a) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

37 Proclamation No. 6821, 3 C.F.R. 71 (1995).

15 September 30, 1993, to become the first female federal judge from Kentucky. Judge Coffman served for almost twenty years until January 9, 2013, including serving as Chief Judge for the Eastern District for her last five years of service.

D. Preempting State Regulation of Package Delivery Services (1994)

On , 1994, legislation authored by Senator Ford was enacted to preempt States from regulating the "price, route or service of any motor carrier" with respect to the "transportation of property," or regulate "a price, route, or service of an air carrier or carrier affiliated with a direct air carrier through common controlling ownership when such carrier is transporting property by aircraft or by motor vehicle." (See §601 of Pub. L. 103-305). These changes equalized the regulatory structure between United Parcel Service (then defined as a surface carrier) and Federal Express (then defined as an air carrier).38 The final provisions applied broadly to interstate trucking operations.

E. Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994

Senator Ford was the leading Senate sponsor of comprehensive FAA legislation that was signed into law on August 23, 1994 (Pub. L. 103- 305).39 The legislation established procedures for resolving disputes over airport landing fees, which allowed the broader program funding airport construction grants to move forward. The bill increased the independence of the FAA by creating a five year term for the Administrator. It also restricted foreign airline access to U.S. airports if the country in question did not grant similar access to U.S. airlines.

F. Interstate Banking and Branching (1994)

In 1991, Congress began a major debate on interstate banking and branching. With more than 12,000 commercial banks in the U.S. at the time, many felt that the banking system was inefficient and did not maximize economic growth nationally, while others felt that the role of small community banks continued to be vital to small and mid-size cities and towns. The House of Representatives had failed to agree on an approach to interstate banking and branching, rejecting an amendment that would have prohibited branching unless a state "opted-in" by passing a law authorizing interstate branching. The Senate Banking Committee had approved a bill that would have mandated interstate branching "de novo," meaning that large out-of-state banks could set up new branches

38 The scope and applicability of these provisions continues to be litigated (see, e.g. Dilts v. Penske Logistics, LLC, 769 F.3d 637 (9th Cir. 2014); Ortega v. J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., No. 14- 56034 (9th Cir. 2014)).

39 The House and Senate bills (H.R.2739 and S.1491, respectively; 103rd Congress) were combined, and the conference report passed the Senate on August 8, 1994, by voice vote.

16 in states where they previously had no presence. The Senate had reached an impasse on moving to floor debate.

To break this impasse, Senator Ford developed a compromise amendment40 that was approved by the Senate on November 14, 1991. The amendment allowed out-of-state banks to engage in interstate branching, but only through the acquisition of an existing in-state bank. It gave states the right to "opt-out" of this arrangement by passing laws prohibiting the practice. Further, the amendment gave states the right to "opt in" to de novo branching, by passing a law specifically allowing out- of-state banks to set up new branches in their state if they chose. While the Ford compromise passed the Senate, the House and Senate failed to take final action on the bill during that Congress.

However, the Ford language formed the basis for the interstate branching provisions of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-328). The 1994 law, enacted on September 29, 1994, also included an additional language promoted by Senator Ford regarding foreign banks, requiring them to be subject to most of the same consumer laws and pay deposit insurance premiums just like U.S. banks. This basic structure for interstate banking and branching remains in effect today (see 12 U.S.C. §1842(d); 12 U.S.C. §1831u).

G. Support for National Guard (1994, 1998)

In 1989, Senator Ford (who previously served in the Kentucky National Guard) joined with Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) to form the Senate National Guard Caucus, a bipartisan group of Senators focused on assisting the National Guard and Reserves. Senators Ford and Bond would serve as Co-Chairs of the group through the end of 1998.

Senator Ford expanded representation41 on the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces and required the Commission to conduct a review of the role of the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. He also joined with Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) to authorize the transfer of excess M1A1 to the Army National Guard.42 These provisions were included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995, enacted on October 5, 1994 (Pub. L. 103-337).

Senator Ford also authored an amendment43 with Senators Kit Bond (R- MO), (R-MS), (R-AK), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

40 See S.Amdt. 1342, which passed as an amendment to the Comprehensive Deposit Insurance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 1991 (S.543). The extended Senate debate can be found at 137 Cong. Rec. 32251-32203 (1991).

41 S.Amdt.2204 (103rd Congress).

42 S.Amdt.2158 (103rd Congress).

43 S.Amdt.2740 to S.2057 (105th Congress).

17 to revise and clarify the authority and compensation of National Guard personnel with respect to drug interdiction and counter-drug activities. This amendment passed the Senate on June 19, 1998. It was included as section 1022 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1999, which was signed into law on October 17, 1998 (Pub. L. 105-261).

In recognition of Senator Ford's efforts through the years, the Kentucky Army National Guard training center in Greenville, Kentucky, is known as the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center.

H. Use of Funds by Defense Contractors (1994)

Senator Ford co-authored an amendment44 with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to prohibit the use of funds by defense contractors to lobby state legislatures or local officials. The amendment was included in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-355, enacted on October 13, 1994), and is codified at 10 U.S.C. §2324(e)(1)(B).

I. Independent Safety Board Act Amendments of 1994

On October 25, 1994, legislation authored by Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN) in the House and Senator Ford in the Senate45 was enacted to reauthorize the National Transportation Safety Board and extend Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements to public aircraft (Pub. L. 103-411).

J. Fund for Rural America (1996)

On February 7, 1996, the Senate approved an amendment46 offered by Senator Ford and Senator (D-SD) to create the Fund for Rural America. The amendment was included in the 1996 farm bill, formally known as the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-127). The Ford amendment created a three year, $300 million fund to finance agricultural research (directed at farming competitiveness and profitability) and rural infrastructure development (including water and sewer development, housing, and rural business enterprise grants). It set the precedent of providing mandatory spending (not subject to annual Congressional appropriations) for agricultural research programs for the first time.

44 S.Amdt.1751 to S.1587 (103rd Congress).

45 See H.R.2440; S.1588 (103rd Congress).

46 The Ford-Daschle amendment, S.Amdt.3449 (104th Congress), was included in the Senate version of the farm bill (S.1541). The provision was then incorporated into H.R.2854, which was enacted into law.

18 K. Impact Aid (1996)

The Impact Aid program provides assistance to local school districts that have a reduced tax base because the federal government owns large portions of land in their district (such as a military base). Senator Ford offered an amendment47 that was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of fifteen other senators to lower the threshold for calculating when a school district qualifies for assistance, providing additional assistance for more than 400 school districts across the country. The amendment was enacted on September 23, 1996, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (Pub. L. 104-201), and is codified at 20 U.S.C. §7703(a)(3).

L. Disposal of Chemical Munitions at Lexington Blue Grass Army Depot (1996, 1998)

On June 28, 1996, Senator Ford and Senator Hank Brown (R-CO) offered an amendment48 to require the Secretary of Defense to conduct a pilot program that would demonstrate feasible alternatives for the destruction of chemical weapons stored at the Kentucky facility. The amendment provided $25 million, contributing to a process that has taken more than two decades to complete. The amendment was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (Pub. L. 104-201), which was enacted on September 23, 1996. Senator Ford worked with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) during the next two years to obtain adequate additional appropriated funds for the project, and Senator McConnell has continued these efforts in the years after Senator Ford retired.

Senator Ford also authored subsequent legislation49 with Senator Mitch McConnell that was designed to assure continuity in the development of alternative technologies for the destruction of chemical weapons. This provision directed the program manager of the initial pilot program to continue to manage the development and testing of alternative technologies for the destruction of lethal chemical munitions under the direction of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The Ford-McConnell amendment, which was adopted by the Senate on June 24, 1998, was included as section 142 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1999. That legislation was enacted on October 17, 1998 (Pub. L. 105-261), and the Ford-McConnell language is codified at 50 U.S.C. §1521 note.

The Blue Grass Army Depot stores more than 500 tons of nerve agents such as sarin, VX, and mustard gas. The eventual groundbreaking for a chemical destruction facility occurred in October 2006.

47 See S.Amdt.4112 to S.1745 (104th Congress), agreed to in the Senate on June 28, 1996.

48 S.Amdt.4419 to S.1745 (104th Congress).

49 S.Amdt.2992 to S.2057 (105th Congress).

19 V. PLANTING THE SEED

Many of the federal policy changes summarized above took multiple years to travel through the legislative process. Senator Ford also had a major influence in advancing a handful of major federal policies that were not formally enacted until after he had left the Senate. Three prominent examples are described below.

A. Tobacco Farmer Transition

On June 20, 1997, major tobacco companies and attorneys general from more than forty states announced a proposed "Global Settlement Agreement" of major pending class action litigation. The agreement was designed to settle all pending claims involved in litigation. While negotiated without any involvement from Congress, the agreement contemplated federal legislation to authorize Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry. The proposed settlement included no compensation for tobacco farmers, who were certain to face a negative economic impact.

Senator Ford formed an informal working group with Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Lauch Faircloth (D-NC), and began a months-long process of outreach to tobacco farming groups to develop a legislative proposal providing economic assistance. These efforts produced the Long-Term Economic Assistance for Farmers Act, or "Leaf Act" (S.1310), which was introduced on October 23, 1997. In addition to Senators Ford, Helms, McConnell, and Faircloth, the legislation was also cosponsored by Senators Max Cleland (D-GA), Fritz Hollings (D-SC), Strom Thurmond (R-SC), Paul Coverdell (R-GA), and Bill Frist (R-TN). The legislation provided a basic payment structure for lost tobacco quota revenue funded by tobacco manufacturers, tobacco community development grants, tobacco worker transition assistance, and education opportunity assistance grants for tobacco farming families. The basic payment structure would have provided $8 per pound for tobacco quota holders and $4 per pound for tobacco quota producers. In total, the legislation would have provided $28.5 billion in assistance to tobacco farmers and tobacco communities.

The payment structure of the Leaf Act was to be considered as part of comprehensive tobacco control legislation (known as the National Tobacco Policy and Youth Smoking Reduction Act), which was debated on the Senate floor from May 14, 1998, through June 17, 1998. The bill was pulled from the floor when the Senate failed to garner enough votes to end a filibuster maintained by several senators.

The global settlement agreement was modified, and a Tobacco "Master Settlement Agreement" was signed by major tobacco companies and attorneys general from forty-six states in November, 1998. A second agreement, creating the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust, was signed in July, 1999, by major tobacco manufacturers and representatives from fourteen tobacco producing states. This second agreement provided $5.15 billion over twelve years in payments to

20 tobacco growers and quota holders to compensate for the negative economic impact of the Master Settlement Agreement.

By 2002, tobacco state members of Congress began to show strong interest in transitioning away from the traditional federal tobacco program.50 To provide compensation to tobacco growers and quota holders, these bills proposed the payment structure created in the original Leaf Act developed by Senator Ford and the working group described above. On July 30, 2003, Senator McConnell introduced the Tobacco Market Transition Act (S.1490), which included the $8/$4 per pound payment structure over six years for tobacco farmers. The leading House bill, introduced on March 25, 2004, by Rep. Bill Jenkins (R-TN) and known as the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 (H.R.4033), included a $7/$3 per pound payment structure over five years for tobacco farmers. Ultimately, the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act (FETRA) was included as part of a major tax reform bill.51 The new law provided $7 per pound for tobacco quota holders and $3 per pound for tobacco quota producers, payable over ten years.

B. Campaign Finance Reform

As Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Senator Ford was closely involved in several efforts to develop campaign finance reform legislation to increase disclosure and limit the influence of certain sources of money in federal elections. On April 29, 1987, the Senate Rules Committee reported the Senatorial Election Campaign Act of 1987.52 Over the next ten months, the legislation would be subject to a record eight separate cloture votes on the Senate floor in an effort to bring debate to a close, but the Senate could not end the filibuster.

On May 9, 1992, President George H.W. Bush vetoed the Congressional Campaign Spending Limit and Election Reform Act of 1992,53 which also originated in the Senate Rules Committee and passed both chambers. The Senate failed to override the veto.54 Among other things, the legislation placed new limits on unregulated "soft money" donations to national political parties, and required candidates to take responsibility for the content of their advertising by including a direct statement.

50 See, e.g., H.R.5035, introduced on July 12, 2002, and S.2995, introduced on September 24, 2002.

51 FETRA was included as Title VI of H.R.4520, the American Jobs Creation Act, which was enacted on October 22, 2004; Pub. L. 108-357.

52 S.2 (100th Congress).

53 See S.3 (102nd Congress).

54 On May 13, 1992, the Senate vote to override the veto of S.3 was fifty-seven to forty-two, falling short of the required two-thirds margin.

21 On March 27, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-155). The legislation originated in the House,55 and faced a filibuster in the Senate. However, on March 20, 2002, the Senate voted sixty-eight to thirty-two to end the filibuster, and then voted for final passage on the same day by a sixty to forty vote.

The Constitutionality of the new law was challenged in two cases that reached the Supreme Court.56 These decisions upheld the ban on soft money contributions to national political parties and the candidate disclaimer provisions that have their roots in the earlier Senate proposals.

C. Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century

Two major domestic aviation accidents in 199657 caused Congress to reevaluate the adequacy of aviation safety requirements under federal law. When the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration was considered in 1998, much attention was given to new provisions to advance aviation safety. On July 9, the National Air Transportation System Improvement Act was introduced in the Senate.58 Similar legislation was introduced in the House.59 When the Senate Commerce Committee considered the legislation, an amendment was offered to change the name of the bill to the "Wendell H. Ford National Air Transportation System Improvement Act." Although the House and Senate passed similar versions of this legislation, the two chambers were unable to resolve all differences before the end of Senator Ford's term in 1998.

Nearly identical competing bills were introduced on March 4, 1999, in each chamber, and both were named in Senator Ford's honor.60 Among other things, the legislation helped to stop the distribution of non- conforming aircraft parts, provided whistleblower protections throughout the aviation industry, and provided funding guarantees for airport construction and related capital improvements. On April 5, 2000, the

55 H.R.2356 (107th Congress), was introduced on June 28, 2001, and passed the House on February 14, 2002, by a 240 to 189 vote.

56 See McConnell v. Federal Election Com'n, 540 U.S. 93 (2003) and Citizens United v. Federal Election Com'n, 558 U.S. 310 (2010).

57 On May 11, 1996, Valujet Flight 592 crashed into the Everglades, killing 110 people. On July 17, 1996, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, N.Y., killing all 238 people on board.

58 S.2279 (105th Congress).

59 H.R.4057 (105th Congress).

60 See H.R.1000 (106th Congress), the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century; and S.536 (106th Congress), the Wendell H. Ford National Air Transportation System Improvement Act.

22 Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century was signed into law by President Bill Clinton (Pub. L.106-181).

23

24 ∗ WENDELL FORD, FORMER U.S. SENATOR, DIES Reprinted with permission from The Courier Journal, January 22, 2015; Updated January 23, 2015.

Wendell Hampton Ford, whose deep roots in Kentucky politics led him to a successful but controversial tenure as governor and later to four terms as an influential defender of Kentucky interests in the U.S. Senate, died early Thursday morning at his home in Owensboro.

He was 90 and had been ill with lung cancer.

Ford held elective office for thirty-three years – the last twenty-four of them as a U.S. senator – and was the only Kentuckian ever to win election to consecutive terms as lieutenant governor, governor and senator.

To many Democrats, Ford was the most popular, effective and enduring politician the state party had produced in the last half century, and many sought his blessing and support before launching their own political campaigns.

In retirement, he founded the Wendell H. Ford Government Education Center at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History, where he taught middle and high school students about civics and public service until just months before his death.

And he continued to politic for Democrats he supported until the end – sometimes upstaging the candidate with his fiery speeches blasting Republicans. "From the start to the end, he was a Democrat, a 'yellow-dog' Democrat," said Mike Ruehling, who served as Ford's spokesman for fifteen years.

Ford was remembered Tuesday in Kentucky and Washington, D.C., as an affable and humble politician who looked out for the commonwealth in each post he held.

"Kentucky has lost one of its great statesmen, and we all have lost a friend," said Gov. , whom Ford mentored as a young politician forty years ago. "In every office in which he served, his methods were simple: Wendell Ford listened, he cared, and he got the job done. Our state and our nation are better places for his decades of thoughtful, cooperative work to help people."

"Few in politics were as admired as he, and few have had as great an impact on his beloved Kentucky," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

And speaking in the well of the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Ford was much more than the "dumb country boy with dirt between his toes" that he portrayed himself to be when he got to Washington.

"Ford shaped the history of the commonwealth in ways few others had before him. He never forgot the lessons about hard work he learned while milking cows or tending to chores on the family farm," McConnell said.

∗ Reporter Joseph Gerth contributed to this story.

25 Ford's Political Climb

Intense and hard-driving, a cigarette always at hand, Ford quickly climbed the state's political ladder, winning election as a state senator in 1965, lieutenant governor in 1967, governor in 1971 and U.S. senator in 1974.

In the Senate, where he served four terms, Ford was known as a shrewd, behind-the- scenes operator who concentrated on defending Kentucky interests. On many Kentucky- related issues, especially tobacco, he found himself fighting rear-guard actions.

"There are no victories in Washington," he would say, "only varying degrees of defeat."

As governor, Ford presided over an unusual period of prosperity in which the state treasury was flush with the proceeds of a booming economy and federal largesse.

The General Assembly, at Ford's request, passed the severance tax on coal and other minerals, which produced enough money to let Ford eliminate the sales tax on groceries, a major political plus for him.

During his political climb, he developed a broad following that spawned a class of successful Democratic politicians, including former U.S. Sen. Walter "Dee" Huddleston, former Gov. and Beshear.

However, Ford's tenure as governor, like that of Julian Carroll, the lieutenant governor who succeeded Ford when he was elected to the Senate, was tainted by a protracted federal grand jury investigation.

Federal prosecutors recommended indictments be sought against Ford and Carroll, but their superiors in Washington overruled them. Republicans later charged Ford took the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying. Ford never commented on the charge.

At the center of the investigation was a commission-sharing scheme based on insurance policies purchased by the state as part of the state Democratic patronage system. One of Carroll's close associates, Democratic State Chairman Howard "Sonny" Hunt, went to prison as a result of the investigation.

In 1985, Republicans demanded a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Ford's relationship with his family's Owensboro insurance agency. The agency, which displayed the senator's name and from which he drew substantial income, had sold insurance to the financially troubled Big Rivers Electric Corp., a Henderson-based cooperative. Ford denied any wrongdoing, and the ethics committee later cleared him.

In the Governor's Mansion

As governor, Ford dealt with two tumultuous periods in the state. In April, 1974, tornadoes swept through the nation's mid-section, killing scores in Kentucky. The widespread destruction produced one of the bleakest periods in Kentucky history.

26 During the same period, Arab nations imposed their oil embargo, creating shortages across the country. Ford urged the nation to adopt an energy policy and to develop synthetic fuels made of coal. Such a program would help one of the state's major industries and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

Later, Ford would say that the synthetic fuels program, authorized by President and dismantled by President , was both his greatest accomplishment and disappointment.

Overall, Ford's record as governor reflected many of the commitments he made, in particular to women and to the Louisville area, where he won a decisive margin in the 1971 Democratic primary. At his request, the legislature, meeting in special session in 1972, ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making Kentucky one of the first states to do so.

During his term, the legislature also strengthened the Council on Higher Education, passed a no-fault insurance law, established a program to provide training and supplemental pay to police officers, initiated the state's first public defender program for needy defendants, created the Kentucky Housing Authority, passed a no-fault divorce law, increased worker compensation benefits for black-lung victims and others, and increased corporate and gasoline taxes.

The legislature also approved the Wild Rivers bill to preserve a few of the relatively unspoiled streams in the state.

Ford's budget increased funding for the University of Louisville, which had been admitted to the state system several years before, and he pushed to pass a wide-ranging reorganization of state government.

He also proposed major improvements for the state's cities, including construction of the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. The stadium at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds was transformed from baseball to football under Ford. A decade later, when professional baseball returned with the Louisville Redbirds, the stadium was reshaped again.

Like a number of recent Kentucky governors, Ford had his roots in the Democratic faction dominated first by Gov. and later by Gov. . His father, the late Ernest M. Ford, served in the state Senate while Clements was Democratic . Wendell Ford later served as an aide to Combs, who was elected governor with Clements' backing. Ironically, Ford defeated Combs in 1971 to win the Democratic primary for governor.

Ford's first race for office – a 1965 campaign for the state Senate – came in the heat of a factional fight against the forces of former Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler. Democrats loyal to Chandler controlled the Senate early in the term of Gov. Edward T. Breathitt, who had been elected with Combs' support. Ford defeated Sen. Casper "Cap" Gardner, the Democratic floor leader, by a handful of votes, helping Breathitt win control.

Two years later, Ford won another closely fought primary, defeating then-Attorney General Robert Matthews for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. In the fall, voters chose Republican Louie Nunn as governor and Ford as lieutenant governor.

27 Ford and J.R. Miller of Owensboro, his choice as state Democratic chairman, took control of the party apparatus, setting Ford on the road to the governor's chair.

But there was a major obstacle. Combs, bored with life as a federal judge, decided to run for governor with the backing of The Courier-Journal and the Kentucky Education Association, among others. Combs belittled Ford's qualifications for the office.

Ford built his organization around a coalition of Jaycees, utility employees, women and young politicians. Ford was a past president of both the Kentucky and national Jaycees, and Miller was an Owensboro utility executive.

Making the KEA's support of Combs a central issue, Ford charged that Combs would raise taxes to pay for its program. The charge fell on fertile ground since Combs had pushed passage of a 3 percent sales tax while governor. Ford defeated Combs by 42,000 votes and in November, he won a hard fought campaign against , Nunn's choice for the GOP nomination, by 58,000 votes.

No "Dumb Country Boy"

In 1974, shortly after the legislature adjourned, Ford launched his bid for the U.S. Senate against Marlow Cook of Louisville, the Republican incumbent. He did so reluctantly after failing to persuade Lt. Gov. Julian Carroll to run. Ford made no secret that he would have preferred another term as governor had the allowed it.

Although the Watergate scandal made 1974 a Democratic year, it was a tough campaign. Cook charged Ford had rewarded his friends with state contracts. Ford labeled Cook "Marvelous Marlow, the wonderful wobbler." Ford won by a comfortable 70,000 vote margin.

He easily won re-election in 1980, 1986 and 1992. In the first two campaigns, Republicans offered token opponents. He defeated Mary Louise Foust in 1980 by 335,000 votes and in 1986 Ford carried all 120 counties over Jackson Andrews.

In 1992, he easily defeated then-state Sen. David Williams – who later became Senate president – who was a more experienced political figure than either Foust or Andrews.

In Washington, Ford liked to refer to himself as "a country boy from Yellow Creek," a reference to a rural area east of Owensboro where he was raised. However, he was anything but a country politician. He was an almost compulsive campaigner, who traveled the state between elections and kept in touch with his political lieutenants with daily telephone calls, from Frankfort and from Washington.

In the Senate, Ford was rarely in the spotlight and liked to say that the best floor fight was the one that never occurred. In assessing Ford's role, the 1986 edition of Politics in America , published by Congressional Quarterly, quoted Ford's description of himself as "a dumb country boy with dirt between his toes" and concluded he displayed a shrewdness that belied that description.

28 "It is the game that fascinates him, not the abstractions of public policy. Watching him puff on a cigarette, bantering with colleagues in his raspy twang, one is watching politics as Ford learned it in the state that may practice it more intensely than any other in the country."

The book also described him as one of the Senate's best horse traders. "He does not get everything he goes after, but he almost always comes away with something."

Ratings on Ford's voting record generally mark him as a middle-of-the-road member of the Senate.

Like the Kentuckians he represented, Ford was socially conservative, supporting efforts to limit abortions. While governor, he supported a move to call a convention to write an anti-busing amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Ford maintained ties to corporate interests and was a frequent target of consumer and environmental groups. His ties to business helped him raise money and were a factor in his selection as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 95th, 96th and 97th Congresses.

A Relentless Worker

For a good part of his Senate career, Ford said he was not interested in a leadership post because it would complicate what he said was his major responsibility – defending Kentucky's interests.

''You've got to defend this state. It's a full-time job to defend what we have here," he said. ...

However, in 1988, Ford tried unsuccessfully to unseat Sen. of as Democratic whip, the number two position in leadership. In 1990, he won the post without opposition.

In addition to serving on the Senate Commerce Committee, Ford was chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which gave him influence over the Senate's internal operations. As chairman of rules, he presided over the inaugurations of President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Under Clinton, he sponsored the motor-voter bill that made it easier for voters to register and was a key supporter of the family leave bill.

As governor and in the Senate, he was known as a relentless worker who let little stand in his way. In June 1972, for example, he underwent major surgery in Houston for an aneurysm in his abdominal aorta. A few weeks later, he was on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach at the head of the Kentucky delegation.

Asked during the 1986 campaign what he wanted people to think of him, Ford said: "That I've been a hard worker, and that I've stood up and fought for the people of this state. I didn't back off from anything controversial."

29 Generally, Ford found little to like in his party's presidential nominees. He supported moderate Democrats who rarely came close to the nomination. In 1972, for example, he supported Sen. of Maine and after Muskie faltered, Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, but to no avail. The nomination went to Sen. George McGovern of , who was soundly thrashed by President .

Ford retired, choosing not to run for what would have been a record fifth term in 1998.

Ruehling said that Ford wasn't having as much fun since Democrats were then in the minority and the thought of raising the money needed for reelection was "distasteful" to him. But maybe, most importantly, said Ruehling, it was the fact that Sen. John Glenn, of Ohio: Sen. , of : and Sen. Jim Exon, of Nebraska, his closest friends in the Senate were retiring at about the same time.

For the next sixteen years, he was a Democratic icon in Kentucky and the embodiment of what other Democrats in the state sought to be. The Jefferson County Democratic Party named its annual fundraising dinner and awards ceremony after Ford and until the last years of his life, he attended each year to give a rousing speech.

Ford went to work as a consultant for a Washington lobbying agency, which took him to the Capitol about one day a week. Ruehling said Ford left after a couple of years, never feeling comfortable in the role. He returned to Owensboro and his educational initiative and began serving on the advisory committee and as an instructor at the University of Kentucky's Martin School of Public Policy and Administration.

A staunch defender of tobacco who hung an old tobacco-cutting tool in his office, Ford gave up smoking about a decade ago after having hip surgery.

He announced in July that he wouldn't be able to join in her failed attempt to unseat U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell because he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer, which had spread.

"I am obviously disappointed that I won't be able to do everything I had planned, but you have to deal with things as they come along and some are beyond your ability to control," Ford said in a statement at the time. "I wanted to put the word out now about my health issues so that people would understand why I am not able to be out and about as I usually am. My wife, Jean, and I appreciate your thoughts and prayers."

30 WHAT WENDELL FORD’S LIFE MEANT AI Cross∗ Reprinted with permission from The Courier Journal, January 23, 2015; Updated January 26, 2015

When a person of importance dies, at least two big questions must be asked: What did this life mean, and how might it continue to guide us?

Soon after Wendell H. Ford died Thursday morning, his lasting nemesis, Mitch McConnell, was on the Senate floor with a stout assessment: "Ford shaped the history of the Commonwealth in ways few others had before him."

Stout, but not glowing. As a highly partisan Republican, McConnell probably disagrees with much, if not, most of what Ford did, especially keeping the Democratic Party strong in Kentucky as the national party embraced social issues that ran against the grain of many Kentuckians.

As governor and senator, Ford stayed in the mainstream of Kentucky's political feelings. His opposition to abortion and gun control was balanced by his support for causes such as organized labor and civil rights, the great social issues of the middle third of the 20th Century.

In the century's latter third, when he was Kentucky's dominant political figure, Ford's personal campaign skills created a following that sustained him even as television became more influential. That following is unlikely to be matched by any Kentucky politician in the foreseeable future.

Politics aside, Ford in large measure gave us the state government we have today: A sales tax that doesn't apply to food and medicine, because that revenue was replaced by a coal severance tax when he was governor in 1972; and a system of state administration that is pretty much the same as he remade it in 1973.

Ford's impact began in the governorships of Bert Combs (1959-63), for whom he was executive assistant, and (1963-67). When Ford was elected to the state Senate from Owensboro in 1965, narrowly defeating Majority Leader Casper "Cap" Gardner, it was part of Breathitt's successful purge of less progressive senators aligned with Lt. Gov. , who presided over the Senate and blocked much of Breathitt's 1964 program.

The result of the purge – seven of ten Breathitt-backed challengers won – was a 1966 legislative session that passed fundamental environmental legislation, a meaningful strip-mine law and the first state civil rights law in the South. Then Ford won another close primary, was elected lieutenant governor and defeated Combs in the 1971 primary – largely by outworking his old boss.

∗ Al Cross, former C-J political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and associate professor in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications. His opinions are his own, not UK's.

31 Ford also had an impact on local government, instituting home rule for cities and counties and a system of salary supplements for police and firefighters who took state training. It professionalized small-town policing.

After Ford became a senator, his administration's use of commissions on state insurance policies to reward political allies, and related schemes, spawned a federal investigation that targeted him and his successor, Julian Carroll. They escaped indictment, but the probe eroded old-time patronage and led to the election of reform Democrat, John Y. Brown Jr., as governor in 1979.

Ford said he ran for the Senate in 1974 because polls showed he was the only Democrat who could beat one-term Republican Sen. Marlow Cook. That cut his gubernatorial term by a year, and more than once he considered running for governor again. After he retired, his email address, [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]), bespoke the job he liked best, because of its power to accomplish things quickly.

Ford chafed at the Senate's glacial pace, but became a master of its process and personalities, which made him a skilled forger of the deals and compromises – he called the latter "negotiated hurt" – needed in any legislative body. He could do that because of shared trust. The most common remark he made to me about colleagues was, "His word's good." They said that about him, too.

Ford never lost a race, but chose to retire in 1998 partly because he would have faced his most formidable challenger: then-Rep. . "The polls showed I was way ahead, but to stay ahead and win the race I'd have to raise $5 million," he told me in 2013.

There were losses of other kinds, sometimes to McConnell. He considered the Republican more of a threat than many Democrats did, saying after McConnell's narrow re-election as Jefferson -executive in 1981, "We'll rue the day we didn't take this guy out." Three years later, McConnell unseated Ford ally Dee Huddleston. In Ford's last year in the Senate, McConnell beat him on a big tobacco-buyout issue. Ford lived just long enough to see McConnell become Senate majority leader.

Ford didn't get the successor he wanted, or even get a Democrat, but kept trying. The closest he came was helping Attorney General come from behind to beat Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo in the 2010 primary. He never saw another Democrat carry a statewide federal election in Kentucky after he left office. Without him, Kentucky's Democratic center could not hold.

Ford wanted then-Louisville Mayor to run for his seat in 1998, but Abramson passed up his best chance for higher elective office. If he had run with Ford's support, he could have beaten Bunning, and that could have done much to bridge the Louisville-rural divide that has shrunk but still remains troublesome.

A big margin in Jefferson County was key to Ford's election as governor, and he rewarded Louisville so much that this newspaper's endorsement of him for the Senate called him "our first governor for urban Kentucky." He was good at building bridges and bringing people together, and at a time when our political parties think they can thrive on division and partisanship, his life is a lesson that public service demands something better.

32 AN APPRECIATION OF FORMER SEN. WENDELL FORD James R. Carroll∗ Reprinted with permission from The Courier Journal, July 19, 2014; Updated January 22, 2015

WASHINGTON – If ever there was a person in the nation's capital who did not intimidate with power and a title, it was Wendell Ford.

The former four-term Democratic senator from Kentucky, who served from December 1974 until January 1999, was and is as approachable and down to earth as they come. Warm, funny, folksy, Ford has a way about him that can turn heads and light up a room.

His Washington entrances were legendary.

"How are all you lucky people doing?" Ford would often bellow as he came through the door and started shaking hands. Sometimes, the senator would just shorten his greeting to "Hey, Lucky!"

Ford himself still would insist he has been lucky and more, but the 89-year-old former lawmaker is having a fight with bad luck right now: lung cancer that is spreading according to a news release on Friday from his former press secretary, Mike Ruehling. Ford is being treated with chemotherapy in his beloved hometown of Owensboro, Ky.

This seems a good moment to offer an appreciation for a Kentucky public servant who has been a fierce partisan when necessary but never disagreeable about it. For that, he has many friends in both parties.

Ford's closest friend in the Senate, the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, met the Kentuckian in 1974.

"I could see that he was 'truth in packaging' personified," Inouye said in 1998. "There were no fancy frills, or bells, or ribbons around him. He was down to earth."

There are a lot of Ford stories that testify to his unassuming good nature, but one told by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is representative.

"A member of my staff had brought his five-year old son to work for the day," Levin said in his 1998 tribute to Ford (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-105sdoc31/pdf/CDOC- 105sdoc31.pdf). "The staff member, needing to attend an important meeting, left his son to play with paper, crayons and stapler, under the supervision of several co-workers. He returned to find his son no longer at the desk where he had been left.

"A quick search followed. The young boy was found just outside the office in the Senate hallway, where he had stopped Senator Wendell Ford and attempted to sell him a book (artful pages of crayon scribbles, stapled togther) [sic] for a nickel. Senator Ford was in the act of earnestly requesting two and trying to convince the young man to accept a dime as superior to the requested nickel."

∗ Follow James R. Carroll on Twitter @JRCarrolICJ (https://twitter.com/JRCarrollCJ). He can be reached at (703) 854-8945.

33 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who in 2009 eclipsed Ford's record as the longest-serving Kentucky senator, said at that time that Ford stood with the other great figures who have served the commonwealth in the Senate: , John Breckinridge, A.B. "Happy" Chandler, Alben Barkley and .

Ford was successful as a politician, McConnell said, "because even while he attained high office, he never forgot the lessons he learned working alongside his parents on the farm."

"Countless times he reminded voters he was 'just a country boy from Yellow Creek,'" McConnell said. "And Kentuckians respected him for proving that a country boy could walk the corridors of power, dine with kings and presidents, and still come back to Yellow Creek and be right at home."

During his time in Washington, Ford was instrumental in passing many important laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, changes that made voting easier (the so- called "motor voter" law) and funding for energy research including clean coal technology.

On a personal note, I first encountered Ford well before I started covering Washington for The Courier-Journal in late 1997.

As a reporter for what was then Knight-Ridder Newspapers, I covered aviation safety regularly almost from the day I arrived in the nation's capital in 1983. Reporters couldn't cover aviation safety without paying attention to the senior senator from Kentucky. The mid-1980s were plagued by multiple deadly airliner crashes, and Ford was outspoken in his disappointment with federal safety regulators and his determination to identify the problems and make fixes.

The senator could be tough on committee witnesses who he thought were being less than open about the state of the nation's aviation system.

A landmark aviation safety bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000 was named the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century.

Ford's loyalty to Kentucky's cash crop, tobacco, was unquestioned. Often with a cigarette in hand or nearby, he battled hard to protect the industry and farmers, even as the tide of public opinion continued to turn strongly against smoking. (Ford quit smoking about a decade ago.)

Ford fought Clinton over a plan to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco, but the agency eventually got the authority after Ford left Congress.

Even so, their differences did not stop Clinton from raising money years later for the Wendell Ford Government Education Center in Owensboro. Ford's friendships run deep and so does the affection of people who know him.

Most telling, perhaps, is how the senator's own staff felt about him as a boss.

Near the end of Ford's Senate service, then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D- S.D., read a letter to the Kentuckian (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-

34 105sdoc31/pdf/CDOC-105sdoc31.pdf) composed by the people who worked for the Kentuckian.

"These weeks have given us the opportunity to hear others tell you what we've also known all along: your legacy of serving our state, your labor of love on behalf of all Americans, and the unfailing kindness you've shown during your time in the U.S. Senate will never be forgotten," the aides wrote.

"On top of just being a plain 'ole good boss, you've also been a mentor, a teacher, and someone we could always look up to for guidance and support, no matter the situation. But most importantly, you've been a friend to all of us."

Get well, senator.

Follow politics and government news on The Courier-Journal's politics blog and Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cjpolitics (http://www.facebook.com/%20cjpolitics)

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