Bauer, Gary L.: Files, 1981-1989

Office of Policy Development

Policy Analyst, Policy Advisor, Deputy Assistant Director for Legal Policy (1981-1982), Assistant to the President for Policy Development and Director of the Office of Policy Development (1987-1988).

This collection is available in whole for research use. Some folders may still have withdrawn material due to Freedom of Information Act restrictions. Most frequently withdrawn material is national security classified material, personal privacy, protection of the President, etc.

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Scope and Content Note

** The following is a preliminary arrangement for the Bauer collection. The arrangement will not be completed until the full arrangement project for the Office of Policy Development is complete. **

Preliminary series are: SERIES I: Subject File, 1987-1988; SERIES II: Domestic and Economic Policy Council Meetings; SERIES III: President’s Weekly Update; SERIES IV: Patricia Hines Material; SERIES V: Chronological File; SERIES VI: Correspondence; SERIES VII: Department of Education Material; SERIES VIII: Subject File, 1981-1982; and SERIES IX: Publications.

Most material dates from Bauer’s time as Assistant to the President for Policy Development (1987-1988). A significant amount covers his time in the Department of Education. Bauer’s assistant, Patricia Hines, maintained material from his entire career in the Reagan Administration (1981-1988).

Franmarie Kennedy-Keel succeeded Bauer as head of OPD for the last few months of the Reagan presidency. It appears that the OPD staff combined much of her work product with the Bauer files that remained at OPD after he left. Some of these files have been transferred to a Kennedy-Keel staff file collection that the Reagan Library created as part of the Office of Policy Development arrangement project. Other files containing a mix of Bauer and Kennedy-Keel material have been left in Bauer’s collection.

We have ordered this material by series in a backwards chronological arrangement. Thus, there are two subject files (Series I, Series VIII), one for each of Bauer’s times in the Office of Policy Development.

Series List

SERIES 01: SUBJECT FILE, 1987-1988

This series consists of material from Bauer’s term as Assistant to the President Policy Development and Director of the Office of Policy Development. It represents the bulk of the collection. It is alphabetically arranged.

SERIES 02: DOMESTIC AND ECONOMIC POLICY COUNCILS, 1987-1988

This series consists of material regarding meetings of the Domestic Policy Council and the Economic Policy Council. The material consists of agendas, lists of attendees, and in some cases, background material for the meetings.

SERIES 03: PRESIDENT’S WEEKLY UPDATES, 1987-1988

This series consists of Bauer’s named copy of the “Weekly Update” on all offices at the White House which were provided weekly for the President. The updates are arranged chronologically from February 20, 1987-September 30, 1988 with some gaps in weeks.

SERIES 04: PATRICIA HINES MATERIAL, 1987-1988

Patricia Hines worked with Bauer in the Department of Education and come with him to the White House Office of Policy Development when he returned in 1987. She had a series of titles in both the Department of Education, and is listed as Executive Assistant to Bauer for his second time at the White House. The series is arranged in alphabetical order by folder title. The folders contain material where Hines appears to have had the key role and work product. There are many other documents in the collection which showed both Bauer and Hines activity. The material covers both the Department of Education and Office of Policy Development material.

SERIES 05: CHRONOLOGICAL FILES 1987-1988

This series consists of a formal chronological file for Gary Bauer covering March 1987 to January 1989.

SERIES 06: CORRESPONDENCE

This series consists of mostly outgoing correspondence and two incoming correspondence folders not identified as part of the formal Chronological File.

SERIES 07: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

This series contains material brought with Bauer and Patricia Hines upon Bauer’s return to the White House. A considerable amount of it relates to the family working group of which Bauer was chairman during the later time at the Department of Education. This material is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

SERIES 08: SUBJECT FILE 1981-1982

This series contains material from Bauer’s original service in the Office of Policy Development as a policy analyst. The material is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

SERIES 09: PUBLICATIONS

This series consists of books, pamphlets, leaflets, and other printed ephemera. The material appears to concern both general policy and education issues.

Biography

Biography

Gary Bauer was born in Covington, Kentucky on May 4, 1946May 4, 1946. He graduated from Newport Public High School in 1964, and Georgetown University in 1968. He received a Henry Cook scholarship from northern Kentucky businessmen to attend Georgetown Law School, where he earned a law degree in 1973.

Mr. Bauer worked in the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign as a senior policy analyst, and in the Office of the President-Elect as Assistant Director for Policy/Community Services Administration.

Bauer joined the White House staff in 1981 as a policy analyst in the Office of Policy Development (OPD). He was promoted to Policy Advisor to the President, then to Deputy Assistant Director of Legal Policy. Bauer left the White House in 1982 for the Department of Education, where he served as Deputy Under Secretary for Planning, Budget and Evaluation. He stayed active in the White House as the Department’s representative in the Cabinet Council on Human Resources, and was Chairman of the Working Group on School Discipline. Bauer was promoted to Under Secretary of Education in July 1985.

On January 30, 1987, Bauer returned to the White House as Assistant to the President for Policy Development and Director of the Office of Policy Development. He succeeded John A. (Jack) Svahn in the position of Assistant to the President for Policy Development. Unlike previous Policy Development Assistants, Bauer was also the Director of the Office of Policy Development.

Bauer resigned from OPD for the second time effective October 31, 1988. He became president of the Family Research Council, an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to promoting the traditional family structure. He left this position in 1999 to run for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. Bauer dropped out of the presidential race in February 2000, after failing to gain wide support. He served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2018 to 2021.

Bauer is currently president of American Values, an organization dedicated to promoting conservative views on marriage, abortion, and other cultural issues. He is also Chairman of Campaign for Working Families, a political action committee which works to elect conservative candidates to Congress. Bauer lives in the Washington, DC area.

Record Type

Textual

Last Modified Date

2026-08-14

WHORM Alpha File

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Bauer, Gary L.: Files, 1981-1989

Office of Policy Development

Policy Analyst, Policy Advisor, Deputy Assistant Director for Legal Policy (1981-1982), Assistant to the President for Policy Development and Director of the Office of Policy Development (1987-1988).

Box List

WHORM Alpha File

WHORM Subject File

Federal Papers

Donated Papers

Audiovisual