HODSOLL, FRANCIS (FRANK) S.M.: Files, 1981 – REAGAN LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

This collection has been reviewed by the Reagan Library staff and it is available for research. You may access this collection in our research room. There is no need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any of the contents of this collection

HODSOLL, FRANCIS (FRANK) S.M.: Files, 1981. 6.3 ft.

Office of the Chief of Staff: Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy to the Chief of Staff, 1981

Frank Hodsoll served in the Reagan White House from January to November 1981. He advised Chief of Staff James Baker on policy issues, especially those with a foreign relations aspect. He also assisted Baker in issue identification, management matters, and policy execution, and was a designated liaison to various outside groups.

Hodsoll was born in Los Angeles in 1938. He obtained degrees from Yale University (B.A.), Cambridge University (M.A. and LL.B.), and Stanford Law School. During his Army service in 1959-1960, he was also a legislative assistant to Congress. Hodsoll held a wide variety of employment in the 1960s and 1970s, including stints as a State Department foreign service officer, service with a British trading company in the Philippines (1964-1971), a year as an associate with a New York law firm (1965-1966), and positions in the Council for Environmental Quality (1972-1973), Environmental Protection Agency (1973-1974), and Department of Commerce (1974-1977). James Baker, who had been Under Secretary of Commerce when Hodsoll was in the Commerce Department, made Hodsoll staff coordinator for Ronald Reagan’s debate preparation during the 1980 Presidential campaign. After Election Day, Hodsoll worked for the 1980-1981 Reagan transition staff, handling staffing matters involving the incoming Administration.

Hodsoll served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts after leaving the Reagan White House. He held this position until early 1989, then worked in the Office of Management and Budget until George H. W. Bush left the Presidency in 1993. Hodsoll later served as county commissioner for Ouray County, Colorado. He has also worked for the National Association of Counties, been a consultant on federal management and policy, and served on the US National Commission for UNESCO.

Hodsoll’s files are arranged in two series. Additional Hodsoll material is interfiled in the James Baker collection and other collections in the Chief of Staff office.

SERIES I: SUBJECT FILE, 1981 (3.0 l.ft., Boxes 1-8)

Alphabetically arranged files pertaining to issues in which Hodsoll was involved. Topics include immigration and refugee policy, the Americans formerly held hostage in Iran, US policy toward Iran and other selected countries, court claims by foreign nationals, unsolicited resumes, the National Security Council’s internal organization and processes, US intelligence policy, telecommunications policy, the space shuttle, the March 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, and taxes and other selected domestic issues. There are also many documents pertaining to Hodsoll’s involvement with the White House Fellowship program, the Wilson Center, the celebration of the bicentennial of the Battle of Yorktown.

Many of the documents pertaining to foreign relations were still security classified, and closed to research, at the time the Reagan Library processed this series. In addition, Reagan Library staff has determined that a substantial portion of the material in this series consists of pre-presidential documents. These documents have been removed from this series and placed within the Transition of President-Elect Ronald Reagan collection. The pre-presidential material is not a Presidential record, and is therefore not subject to the Presidential Records Act nor the Freedom of Information Act.

SERIES II: PRESIDENT’S TASK FORCE ON IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE POLICY, 1980 – August 1981. (3.0 l.ft., Boxes 8-16)

This series pertains specifically to the President’s Task Force on Immigration and Refugee Policy, which was formed in March 1981. The Task Force officially consisted of: its Chairman, Attorney General William French Smith; Mr. Hodsoll, the White House representative; the Secretaries of State, Defense, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Treasury; and the heads of OMB and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Except for Hodsoll and French Smith, however, lower-level agency personnel usually attended meetings in place of the Secretaries and other agency heads. The Attorney General presented the Task Force’s final recommendations to President Reagan in a Cabinet meeting on July 16, 1981.

Another bloc of records on the Task Force is in the White House Office of Records Management (WHORM) Subject File category FG258-03 (Task Force on Immigration and Refugee Policy).

We have divided this series into two subseries: Subseries A: Subject File and Subseries B: Publications

Subseries A. Subject File. 1980-1981. (2.5 l..ft., Boxes 8-15)

Alphabetically arranged files pertaining to the functioning of the Task Force and the issues it examined. Topics include: refugees and immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, and Africa; the aftermath of the 1980 Mariel boatlift of Cuban refugees, including options for short-term housing sites; legal and illegal immigration from Mexico; the Carter Administration’s Select Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy; review of current Government policies toward immigrants and refugees; the membership and work of the Task Force’s working groups; the drafting of a fact sheet and Presidential statement on immigration and refugees; Government management, organization, and staffing issues pertaining to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and other agencies; background papers, agendas, and minutes for Task Force meetings; proposed immigration legislation; the March 1981 meeting between President Reagan and Mexican President Lopez Portillo; reports and statistical information on immigration and refugees; and a partial copy of the Task Force’s final report.

Subseries B: Publications, 1980-1981. (0.5 l.ft., Boxes 15-16)

This subseries consists of published materials accumulated by Hodsoll in the course of his work with the Task Force, and draft and final versions of Task Force reports. It is arranged alphabetically by author.

Box 1

SERIES I: SUBJECT FILE, January 1981-November 1981

Central America

Czech Claims (1)(2)

[Hostage Compensation, President’s Commission on] (1)(2)

Immigration (1)-(8

Box 2

International Year of Disabled Persons

Iran (1)-(10)

Iran Hostages (1)-(4)

Box 3

Iran Hostages (5)-(12)

Iran [Proposal]

Israel

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Joint Chiefs of Staff

Jordan

LOS [Law of the Sea]

March 30 [03/30/1981 Assassination Attempt]

Military Manpower (1)-(4)

NSC (1)-(3)

Box 4

NSC (4)-(6)

Refugees (1)-(6)

Resumes (1)-(9)

Box 5

Resumes (10)(11)

[Senior Staff Meetings] (1)(2)

Space Shuttle (1)-(5)

Supreme Court [Proposed Limits on Jurisdiction]

Tax Bill

Telecommunications (1)-(3)

United Nations – US-Soviet Relations (1)(2)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Voting Rights Act

Box 6

White House Fellows (4)-(8)

White House Fellows Commission (1)-(12)

Box 7

White House Fellows Commission (13)(14)

Wilson Center (1)-(10)

Yorktown [Bicentennial] (1)-(5)

Box 8

Yorktown [Bicentennial] (6)-(11)

SERIES II: PRESIDENT’S TASK FORCE ON IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE POLICY, 1980-August

1981

Suberies A: Subject File, 1980-1981

Box 8, cont.

Arkansas (1)(2) [includes material on Eastern European and African refugees]

Congressional Relations

Detention Center & Chaffee Working File (1)-(9)

First Asylum

Florida

Box 9

General Correspondence (1)-(4)

[Immigrant Labor] (1)-(9)]

Immigration and Refugee Announcement File

[Immigration and Refugee Policy Development] (1)-(3)

Box 10

[Immigration and Refugee Policy Development] (4)-(6)

[Immigration and Refugee Policy – Draft Public Statements]

Immigration and Refugees (1)-(12)

Box 11

Immigration and Refugees (13)-(18)

Immigration and Refugees [General] (1)-(11)

Box 12

Immigration and Refugees [General] (12)-(19)

Immigration and Refugees [Task Force] (1)-(9)

Box 13

Immigration and Refugees [Task Force] (10)-(23)

Immigration Fact Sheet and Statement – Comments [includes a Mexican Government study on Mexican

emigration to the US, and material concerning Puerto Rico and Haitian refugees] (1)(2)

Box 14

Immigration Fact Sheet & Statement – Comments [includes a Mexican Government study on Mexican

emigration to the US, and material concerning Puerto Rico and Haitian refugees] (3)-(10)

Lopez Portillo (1)-(3)

Lungren Bill (1)-(3)

Management (1)-(3) [President’s Management Council]

Box 15

Management (4)

Personnel

Refugee Resumes (1)(2)

[Refugees – National Association of Counties (NACO)] (1)(2)

Subseries B: Publications

Box 15, cont.

North, David S. Enforcing the Immigration Law: A Review of the Options

North, David S. Immigration and Income Transfer Policies in the United States: An

Analysis of a Non-Relationship

President’s Management and Improvement Council. Management Improvements in the

Immigration and Naturalization Service Volume I (1)-(5)

Box 16

President’s Management and Improvement Council. Management Improvements in the Immigration

and Naturalization Service Volume I (6)

President’s Management and Improvement Council. Management Improvements in the

Immigration and Naturalization Service Volume II. (1)-(5)

State Department, U.S. Country Reports on the World Refugee Situation August 1981

(1)(2)

State Department, U.S. Report to the Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions and

Allocations for Fiscal Year 1982 (1)(2) [Hodsoll copy of draft]