Gerald Ford

Hart-Scott-Rodino Act Requires Pre-Merger Notification, Last Major Antitrust Strengthening Before Reagan Dismantlement

| Importance: 9/10

President Gerald Ford signed the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (HSR Act), requiring companies to notify the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division of large proposed mergers and wait 30 days before consummating transactions, giving regulators time to …

Gerald Ford Senator Philip Hart Senator Hugh Scott Representative Peter Rodino Federal Trade Commission +1 more antitrust merger-enforcement regulatory-framework corporate-power premerger-notification
Read more →

Ford Refuses NYC Bailout, "Drop Dead" Headline, Austerity Era Begins

| Importance: 9/10

At the National Press Club on October 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford gave a speech refusing to provide federal assistance to New York City, which was on the verge of bankruptcy after losing nearly 600,000 jobs and hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing to the suburbs or Sunbelt. The New York …

Gerald Ford William Simon Alan Greenspan Donald Rumsfeld Hugh Carey +1 more economic-policy austerity neoliberalism financial-crisis
Read more →

Voting Rights Act Extension of 1975: Expands Protection to Language Minorities Including Latino, Asian, and Native American Voters

| Importance: 7/10

President Gerald Ford signed the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, extending the VRA’s special provisions for seven years and dramatically expanding its scope to protect language minorities—including Latino, Asian American, Native American, and Alaska Native voters. The amendments …

Gerald Ford Congress Barbara Jordan Edward Roybal Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund voting-rights federal-legislation language-minorities latino-rights native-american-rights +1 more
Read more →

Ford Issues Full Pardon to Nixon for All Watergate Crimes, Ensures No Criminal Accountability

| Importance: 10/10

On Sunday, September 8, 1974—exactly one month after Nixon’s resignation—President Gerald Ford addressed the nation from the Oval Office to announce his decision to “grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard …

Gerald Ford Richard Nixon watergate presidential-immunity accountability-failure institutional-corruption rule-of-law
Read more →

ERISA Pension Law Creates Framework for Corporate Benefit Cuts

| Importance: 7/10

President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) into law on September 2, 1974, Labor Day, following near-unanimous passage in Congress (85-0 in the Senate, with only two House representatives opposed). The legislation responded to catastrophic pension failures like …

Gerald Ford Jimmy Hoffa labor-rights corporate-profit pension-theft institutional-capture
Read more →

Richard Nixon Becomes First U.S. President to Resign, Gerald Ford Sworn In as 38th President

| Importance: 10/10

On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation and announced his intention to resign, effective at noon the following day. At noon on August 9, 1974, Nixon officially ended his term, departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn. Minutes later, …

Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Spiro Agnew watergate presidential-accountability constitutional-crisis institutional-corruption
Read more →