Housing-Staff, 1997

Congressman Fawell's office created and maintained a series of Issues Files for topics which were high profile, and for legislation not under the authority of the Education and Labor Committee, Science Committee, or the Select Committee on Aging. Major topics represented in these files include: abandoned babies (legislation generally geared towards easing time restraints on adoptions when a baby is abandoned early in its life); abortion; environment; telecommunications; trade including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and transportation. Many of the transportation files contain information on local issues including: Federal Aviation Administration hearings regarding the failure of the Aurora Air Traffic Control Center computers; DuPage County Airport issues; train whistle regulations in crowded suburban areas; Peotone airport; and local federally-funded street repair projects. The files contain "Dear Colleague" letters sent to and received from members of Congress; analysis and reactions; bills and committee reports; correspondence with government officials, private individuals and groups, and business representatives; internal memoranda and notes; printed copies of electronic mail; research reports by government agencies and other groups; news clippings; notes from and for meetings, and speeches. Some non-Science and Labor Committees hearing materials in the files include testimony, briefing materials, and news clippings. Subtopics include either subjects or formats. For example, there are two folders within the same topic titled "Abandoned Babies-Memoranda-HWF, 1989-1991" (a format title) and "Abandoned Babies-Multiethnic Placement Act-HWF, 1994" (a subject title). For researcher ease, the bill numbers assigned at the time of filing are included in parentheses following the title of the bill in the container list. The files were received in alphabetical order, which has been maintained, and as three separate series, one created by Congressman Fawell, one by staff, and one by the district office staff. These three series were integrated for ease of use by researchers, with the provenance maintained by the folder title "-HWF" or "-Staff" or “-District Office Staff."