Dunlop, Becky Norton: Files, 1982-1983

Office of Cabinet Affairs: Special Assistant to the President & Director of the Office of Cabinet Affairs, 1982-1983

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Scope and Content Note

Scope Note

Ms. Dunlop joined the Office of Cabinet Affairs in March 1982 as Special Assistant to the President and the Director of the Office of Cabinet Affairs. She replaced T. Kenneth Cribb who returned to work in the Office of the Counsellor (Ed Meese) as the Deputy Counsellor.

Dunlop’s function was managing the Cabinet Affairs staff, coordinating Cabinet meetings, and coordinating and documenting the seven Cabinet Council meetings and circulating the position and policy papers for these meetings. In addition, Dunlop oversaw the day-to-day communication and coordination of Reagan Administration policies with the Cabinet agencies.

Dunlop started in the White House with Presidential Personnel and she returned to that office in June 1983. Currently the Library does not have a Dunlop collection for this time period. This may changes as the Library has not completed a full review of the contents of the Office of Presidential Personnel.

Dunlop was continually interested in placing personnel with specific conservative principles and experience, and her Cabinet Affairs collection reflects this continued interest. Her collection arrived at the Library with a significant amount of empty subject folder within the Cabinet Affairs material. Since Dunlop carried over various functions from both her offices, please consult her collection for the Office of Presidential Personnel and personal papers here at the Library to see a full view of her work product.

The Dunlop Cabinet Affairs collection consists of 10 series: SERIES I: Cabinet; SERIES II: Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade; SERIES III: Cabinet Council on Economic Affairs; SERIES IV: Cabinet Council on Food and Agriculture; SERIES V: Cabinet Council on Human Resources; SERIES VI: Cabinet Council on Legal Policy; SERIES VII: Cabinet Council on Management and Administration; SERIES VIII: Cabinet Council on Natural Resources and the Environment; SERIES IX: Subject File; and Series X: Chronological File.

Series List

SERIES 01: CABINET

This series contains material relating to Cabinet meeting agendas, participant lists, and briefing papers and decision memos on the following topics: US-USSR Grain Agreement, product liability legislation, agricultural credit and marketing orders, distributing excess commodities in food banks, reforming the Combined Federal Campaign, reforming the personnel incentive system, abolishing the Federal Regional Council system, federal procurement policy, reforming food stamp regulation, status of immigration reform legislation, and a group of women’s issues including child support, insurance and IRA spousal contributions. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 02: CABINET COUNCIL ON COMMERCE AND TRADE

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists, and briefing and background papers on the following topics: financing and exports, space commercialization, trade with Japan, Houidaille Petition, FCC syndication and financial interest rule, trade reorganization, auto industry, minority businesses and the SBA, enterprise zones, airline industry, patent and trademark infringement, DISC (Domestic International Sales Corporation), intellectual property sugar quotas, and government laboratories. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 03: CABINET COUNCIL ON ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Economic Affairs meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: Hungarian application for IMF membership, financial markets, monetary policy, exchange rates, African Development Bank, unemployment insurance benefits, job training, international state debt problems, public employee pensions, rural housing block grants, transportation user fees, federal credit policy, unemployment, education saving, pensions, farm credit system, windfall profit tax, crude oil decontrol, guarantees of tax exempt bonds, housing policy, stockpile methodology, revenue sharing, health insurance for the unemployed, railroad retirement benefits, tax benefits, Williamsburg Economic Summit, and general review of the economy and the economic outlook The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 04: CABINET COUNCIL ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Food and Agriculture meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: rural development strategy, rural electrification, agricultural exports, and agricultural marketing production control orders. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 05: CABINET COUNCIL ON HUMAN RESOURCES

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Human Resources meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: mandatory retirement ages, health care incentives, Medicare options, drug abuse prevention, job sharing, child support, urban conditions and policy, and the Depository Institution Holding Company Deregulation Act. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 06: CABINET COUNCIL ON LEGAL POLICY

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Legal Policy meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: civil rights policy, pension equity for women, antitrust issues, fair housing, “toxic torts,” Intercircuit Tribunal proposal, and fee cap legislation. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 07: CABINET COUNCIL ON MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Management and Administration meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: work space management, reports of Inspectors General activities, real property reforms, federalism, capital formation, debt collection, reduction-in-force reform, personnel incentive system reform, procurement reform, and cash management. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 08: CABINET COUNCIL ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

This series contains material relating to the Cabinet Council on Management and Administration meeting agendas, meeting minutes, participant lists and briefing and background papers on the following topics: Synthetic Fuels Corporation, cost sharing for federal water projects, Environmental Protection Agency legislation, environmental speech, Clean Water Act reauthorization, nuclear licensing and regulatory reform, the Clean Air Act, Outer Continental Shelf revenue sharing, international population, international environmental issues, coal slurry pipelines decision, and oil price declines. The material is arranged in chronological order by meeting dates.

SERIES 09: SUBJECT FILE

This series contains material relating to the management, procedures, and structure of the Cabinet Council system; a limited amount of monthly reports from agencies for 1983; yearly accomplishments for agencies for 1982; a limited amount of planning matrixes for Administration proposals; and the following topics: Freedom of Information Act amendments; Department of Education reorganization; sunsetting the Civil Aeronautics Board; status reports on computer support for White House offices; issue alerts from the Environmental Protection Agency, acid rain; the Reagan response to critics of the Administration’s social policies (Fairness II notebook); Federal labor-management relations; budget issues and budget reviews; hazardous substances export policy; infanticide, problems for independent oil producers; State dinner guests; the coal slurry pipeline, environmental speech, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, food stamp regulatory reform; Outer Continental Shelf revenue sharing; and merit system standards. The material is arranged alphabetically.

SERIES 10: CHRONOLOGICAL FILES

This series contains material relating to chronological memos and letters with White House staff, her direct supervisor, Craig Fuller, agency staff, Congress and the general public. There are two sets of chronological correspondence. One is arranged by date and the second is arranged by date and alphabetical. This series contains a significant amount of material indicating Dunlop was continuing her work to place conservatives within the Reagan administration while working in Cabinet Affairs.

Biography

Biography

Becky Norton Dunlop was born in 1951 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At a young age, her family moved to Columbus, Ohio where she grew up and went to school. Dunlop's father was a Baptist minister and her mother was a registered nurse who interupted her work to raise her children.

Dunlop recalls being a conservative at a young age, and being the only person backing Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 at her middle school. She was introduced to Goldwater by reading The Conscience of a Conservative, a gift from her brother. He father introduced her to Phyllis Schafley with A Choice not an Echo around the same time.

Dunlop went on to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she was active in the College Republicans. She graduated from Miami in 1973, majoring in political science with minor in history.

After college, Dunlop first job was with the American Conservative Union from 1973-1980, completing her service as assistant executive director and consultant to the board. It was through ACU that she started doing "grass-roots" campaigning for the unsuccessful presidential bid of Ronald Reagan in 1976. She was also at the beginnings of the ACU sponsored C-PAC annual convention.

In 1977 she founded Century Communications, Inc., which focused on strategic planning, communications and managing for results.

Dunlop continued her involvment with the Reagan Presidential Campaign in1980. Dunlop met Pen James through the campaign and was recommended to assist sorting out resumes and finding qualified Reagan supporters for Reagan Administration posts. She was first a volunteer and then a “Service by Agreement” employee within the Office of Presidential Personnel, 1981-1982. In early 1982 she was given a permanent position at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Cabinet Affairs handling the day-to-day coordination of Reagan Administration policy with Cabinet level appointees and managing the staff of the office.

In June 1983, Dunlop returned to the Office of Presidential Personnel as Deputy Assistant to the President and remained in that position until early 1985. She served in the Department of Justice in 1985-1986 as Senior Special Assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese managing Cabinet level domestic policy issues including environment, family policy, federalism, tort reform, privatization and welfare reform.

During 1987-1989, she was Deputy Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior and Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. President Reagan also appointed her to head the Interagency Committee for Women's Business Ownership, a U.S. Commissioner to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and as his Personal Representative to the Northern Marianas.

In the 1990s Dunlop served as the Secretary of Natural Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Cabinet of Governor (later Senator) George Allen. Her responsibilities included the Departments of Environmental Quality, Historic Resources, Game and Inland Fisheries, Conservation and Recreation, the Marine Resources Commission, the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department and the Natural History Museum. She was the principal environmental policy advisory to the Governor and held this post from 1994 to 1998. During her tenure, the agencies were stream-lined, decentralized and down-sized. Governor Allen also appointed Mrs. Dunlop to serve as co-chair of the Governor's Council on Self-Determination and Federalism and Vice-Chair of his Commission on Environmental Stewardship. Dunlop is one of the few “free-market environmentalists” to have headed a government agency and put ideas into action. Her book, Clearing the Air: How the People of Virginia Improved the State’s Air and Water Despite the EPA, (Tocqueville Institution, 2000) chronicles her experiences.

Dunlop also served in the administration of President George W. Bush. In 2002, Bush appointed her to a part-time post as chairwoman of the Federal Services Impasse Panel, which resolves disputes between agencies and labor unions.

In 1998, Becky Norton Dunlop joined the senior management team of The Heritage Foundation as Vice President for External Relations. Her responsibilities included the departments engaged in strategic outreach and communication to conservative public policy institutions and other leadership organizations, international, state and local government officials, business leaders and conservative policy activists. She represented Heritage and presented conservative policies and views in national and international venues.

In May 2016, Dunlop was appointed the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. She succeeds Edwin Meese who took emeritus status in 2016. in this position Dunlop focuses on keeping the legacy of President Reagan's principles and practices alive for modern conservatives.

In addition, Dunlop is a frequent speaker in the United States and internationally and writes and is a contributor to electronic and print media. Dunlop serves on a multitude of boards and foundations including the National Wilderness Institute, Defenders of Property Rights, the Family Foundation of Virginia, the Virginia Institute of Public Policy, the American Conservative Union, the Association of American Educators, the Institute for 21st Century Agriculture and the Reagan Alumni Association, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the American Conservation Union and the Phillips Foundation.

She is on the Advisory Council for the Landmark Legal Foundation and Hunters for the Hungry, a member of the Philanthropy Roundtable and a Fellow with the Atlas Foundation. She recently served as an appointee of the Senate Majority Leader on the Women's Progress Commemoration Commission. She was a 15-year member of the Board of Governors of the Reagan Ranch, Rancho del Cielo, in Santa Barbara, California.

Dunlop resides in Arlington, Va., with her husband, George S. Dunlop. Mr. Dunlop’s former employer, Senator Jesse Helms gave Mrs. Dunlop away at their wedding.

Record Type

Textual

Last Modified Date

2024-02-26

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See Also

See Separate Inventory

Dunlop, Becky Norton: Papers, 1985-1989

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Dunlop, Becky Norton: Files, 1982-1983

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