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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 999

Q:

You haven't been at this for nothing, have you?

Lasker:

Well, no, I haven't. This is the only way you can move them, because otherwise it's all a ball of max that you can't push.

So believe it or not, they finally finished with the bill. Congress stayed in session longer than they always said they would. They finally finished with the bill, although we kept on trying to get the Senate bill. Many difficulties. We got no place because Rogers was so determined, when he finally finished his bill in which he made this adjustment about the cancer Attack Board and a few other changes, that he had rally done such a job of lobbying the House that there was no way to defeat him.

Q:

What about the President and his position?

Lasker:

The President couldn't really -- they didn't make a maximum try on it, but they really felt that Rogers had so much going that they didn't really make a major effort. They didn't go to Jerry Ford and say “This is a party matter, let's go down the line about this.” Rogers had his own subcommittee under control to such an extent that when it came up in the full committee, Staggers and Torbert McDonald weren't even present. They were doing something else. And even the full committee went along with the subcommittee, in spite of what Staggers had said to me about holding the hearings himself, you know.

Q:

He's an elderly gentleman, isn't he?

Lasker:

Well, he's not all that elderly, no. So Rogers at least got the House under control.





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