{"conversationCode":"031-120","tapeNumber":31,"conversationNumber":120,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-031-120","startDateTime":"1972-10-18T21:28:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-10-18T21:38:00.000Z","startDate":"18-Oct-1972","startTime":"5:28 PM","endDate":"18-Oct-1972","endTime":"5:38 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Ehrlichman, John D.; White House operator; [Unknown person(s)]; Timmons, William E.; Nixon, Richard M. (President);","description":"On October 18, 1972, John D. Ehrlichman, White House operator, unknown person(s), William E. Timmons, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:38 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 031-120 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":4,"chronRelease":"Fourth Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"10-Dec-2003","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 31-120\n\nDate: October 18, 1972\nTime: Unknown between 5:28 pm and 5:37 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nJohn D. Ehrlichman talked with the White House operator.\n\n[See Conversation No. 803-22/804-1C]\n\n        Request for a call to William E. Timmons\n\nEhrlichman talked with an unknown woman (staff member in Timmons's office) at an unknown\ntime between 5:28 pm and 5:37 pm.\n\n        Request to talk to Timmons\n\nEhrlichman talked with Timmons at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:37 pm.\n\n[See Conversation No. 803-22/804-1C]\n\n        Congressional adjournment\n           -Thomas P. (“Tip”) O'Neill, Jr., Gerald R. Ford\n           -House of Representatives\n                -Passage of debt bill\n                -Adjournment\n                -Forthcoming meeting with the President\n                    -Ford\n                    -O’Neill\n                    -Michael J. Mansfield\n                    -Margaret Chase Smith\n                    -Carl B. Albert\n                -Highway bill\n                    -Quorum\n                         -Ford\n                         -Albert\n           -Senate\n                -Highway bill\n                -Securities bill\n                    -Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC]\n                         -Banks\n                    -Quorum\n                -Highway bill\n                    -Wallace F. Bennett\n                -Debt bill\n                    -Jacob K. Javits\n                    -Warren G. (“Maggie”) Magnuson's rider\n                         -Unemployment measure\n                -Delay in adjournment\n                    -Alexander P. Butterfield\n                         -The President’s possible meeting with Congressional leaders\n\nEhrlichman conferred with the President at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:27 pm.\n\n        Cancellation","filename":["031-120.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Ehrlichman, John D.","White House operator","[Unknown person(s)]","Timmons, William E.","Nixon, Richard M. (President)"],"prevCode":"031-119","nextCode":"031-121","transcript":[{"start":0.49,"end":6.48,"text":"Mr. Tim, he's on."},{"start":6.9,"end":16.33,"text":"Is John Ehrlichman around?"},{"start":16.59,"end":18.17,"text":"Mr. Ehrlichman, he's on the phone."},{"start":18.21,"end":19.03,"text":"We'll interrupt you."},{"start":19.09,"end":19.8,"text":"Thank you."},{"start":50.84,"end":54.29,"text":"Oh, the old president's wondering what your Congress is doing."},{"start":54.61,"end":55.83,"text":"Oh, God."},{"start":55.85,"end":56.03,"text":"What?"},{"start":56.05,"end":58.9,"text":"Oh, I was afraid somebody was going to ask."},{"start":58.92,"end":59.52,"text":"What's going on?"},{"start":60.54,"end":66.86,"text":"Well, the House moves along pretty good."},{"start":67.68,"end":72.05,"text":"I got debt passed without spending."},{"start":73.01,"end":73.49,"text":"I sent it over."},{"start":73.51,"end":76.12,"text":"They passed an adjournment signing diet to close the business today."},{"start":77.3,"end":82.13,"text":"Jerry Ford and Tip O'Neill called the president and said, we're prepared to adjourn."},{"start":82.19,"end":84.99,"text":"He said, no, but come down for coffee about four."},{"start":85.05,"end":89.52,"text":"I'm going to invite Mike and Margaret Smith to come down and speak here and whatever, you know."},{"start":90.11,"end":91.93,"text":"which I had greased up beforehand."},{"start":92.15,"end":102.73,"text":"So then they had to go back in to, they recessed and went back in because the highways bill came out of conference."},{"start":103.05,"end":104.62,"text":"But Jerry is going to object to it."},{"start":104.68,"end":111.91,"text":"There's no quorum in the House, and the Speaker, we think, will not want to vote on it because there'll be no quorum and they'll go out overnight."},{"start":112.23,"end":113.39,"text":"You know, it's over."},{"start":113.41,"end":115.98,"text":"So we think we'll bluff them down with Jerry Ford."},{"start":117.44,"end":122.45,"text":"In the meantime, in the upper body, they had highways up."},{"start":124.13,"end":126.5,"text":"They have set that aside temporarily."},{"start":126.47,"end":131.9,"text":"to take up a silly securities bill, which is finding an objection."},{"start":132.72,"end":135.07,"text":"And we think they'll knock securities down."},{"start":135.11,"end":138.15,"text":"It's a fight between the banks and the SEC on some damn thing."},{"start":138.19,"end":141.28,"text":"But because they don't have a quorum either, they don't have to vote."},{"start":141.98,"end":145.28,"text":"And when somebody raises an objection, they just take it off the calendar to hell with it."},{"start":146.04,"end":147.05,"text":"They go back on highways."},{"start":147.25,"end":151.49,"text":"We were trying to find somebody in the Senate to take on highways, just like Jerry's going to do in the House."},{"start":151.79,"end":152.79,"text":"But we can't find anybody."},{"start":152.85,"end":153.92,"text":"Nobody's around."},{"start":153.9,"end":158.22,"text":"Wallace Minnitz there and a few others, but they said they're doing other stuff and just couldn't do it."},{"start":159.56,"end":162.15,"text":"But we think protected in the house unless Ford keeps it."},{"start":162.17,"end":163.55,"text":"Well, are they going to bounce back and forth?"},{"start":163.61,"end":167.09,"text":"Well, and then they've got debt, the debt bill."},{"start":167.27,"end":168.09,"text":"So they haven't done that."},{"start":168.11,"end":168.77,"text":"They haven't done it."},{"start":169.23,"end":169.79,"text":"Oh, my God."},{"start":169.81,"end":174,"text":"And Javits is holding Ford, saying that they came out."},{"start":174.04,"end":176.94,"text":"You remember Ryder was on that one, Extended Employment Conversation."},{"start":176.96,"end":178.14,"text":"Yeah, Magnuson."},{"start":178.5,"end":178.72,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":179.14,"end":186.17,"text":"They get their pound of flesh by getting the House passed a version of that as opposed to the Senate version in return for spending."},{"start":186.47,"end":187.19,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":187.21,"end":188.44,"text":"And he's saying, the hell with that."},{"start":188.76,"end":192.2,"text":"He said, you pass my pins and needles bill."},{"start":192.32,"end":192.8,"text":"Oh, Lord."},{"start":192.86,"end":194.74,"text":"Which has got the big, that tax thing?"},{"start":195.53,"end":195.89,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":196.09,"end":197.11,"text":"What, there's an amendment to it?"},{"start":197.33,"end":198.99,"text":"Yeah, it's already on there."},{"start":199.22,"end":204.81,"text":"Magnuson's big unemployment thing that covers New York is on the pins and needles bill."},{"start":205.19,"end":210.03,"text":"So he says, you house, pass my pins and needles bill, and I'll take the whole lot for this damn thing."},{"start":210.75,"end":212.25,"text":"Consequently, they're dragging on."},{"start":213.01,"end":214.16,"text":"God knows what's going to happen."},{"start":214.88,"end":221.57,"text":"I called Butterfield a few minutes ago and said, the president ought to make a deadline for me at 6 o'clock or something."},{"start":221.61,"end":224.65,"text":"If no action, let me call him and say, forget it, gang."},{"start":224.67,"end":227,"text":"Well, it's 5.30 now, Bill."},{"start":227.82,"end":229.56,"text":"Why don't you do that?"},{"start":230.26,"end":230.7,"text":"Okay?"},{"start":231.22,"end":233.57,"text":"Just knock it off."},{"start":234.07,"end":237.32,"text":"Well, should I ask Alex to check with the president?"},{"start":237.34,"end":238.56,"text":"Should I just go ahead and knock it off anyway?"},{"start":238.86,"end":242.59,"text":"Well, the president said he'll wait over at the house for a call."},{"start":242.77,"end":243.15,"text":"Okay."},{"start":243.45,"end":246.32,"text":"And just forget the coffee if they're in that much disarray."},{"start":246.52,"end":246.88,"text":"Okay."},{"start":247.58,"end":248.03,"text":"I'll do it."},{"start":248.09,"end":248.65,"text":"Will you?"},{"start":248.67,"end":248.93,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":248.95,"end":249.51,"text":"Okay."},{"start":249.53,"end":249.75,"text":"Bye."},{"start":249.77,"end":250.71,"text":"Good."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"John Ehrlichman and William Timmons discussed the chaotic status of congressional adjournment, specifically the legislative hurdles involving highway, debt, and securities bills in both the House and Senate. Due to a lack of quorums and ongoing disputes over riders, the administration struggled to secure definitive legislative action. President Nixon ultimately authorized Ehrlichman and Timmons to cancel a planned meeting with congressional leaders and terminate the unproductive session if no progress was made.","topics":["Congressional adjournment","Legislative strategy","Debt bill","Highway bill","Quorum","White House-Congress relations"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T03:57:04.419Z"},"topicSlugs":["congressional-adjournment","legislative-strategy","debt-bill","highway-bill","quorum","white-house-congress-relations"],"audioDurationSec":256,"audioFiles":[{"file":"031-120.mp3","bytes":6149014,"durationSec":256.15,"bitrate":192046,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:28.234Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:42:40.110Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/031-120.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/031-120","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/031/conversation-031-120","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}