Manuscripts Collection
Rod Grams was born February 4, 1948 at Princeton, Minnesota, and grew up on a dairy farm. He attended St. Francis High School, Anoka-Ramsey Junior College (1970-1972), Brown Institute (Minneapolis) (1966-1968), and Carroll College (Helena, Montana) (1974-1975).
Early in his career Grams worked as an engineering consultant for Orr-Schelen Mayeron and Associates (Minneapolis). He then spent a number of years in television and radio broadasting, working as a producer and anchorman at KFBB-TV (Great Falls, Montana); WSAU-TV (Wausau, Wisconsin); and WIFR-TV (Rockford, Illinois). He was the senior news anchor at KMSP-TV (Minneapolis-St. Paul) from 1982 to 1991. In 1985 he formed Sun Ridge Builders, a Twin Cities construction and residential development company, and served as its President and CEO.
Grams was elected to Congress in 1992, defeating incumbent Democratic Representative Gerry Sikorski. He represented Minnesota's sixth congressional district for one term (1993-1995). In the House he served on the Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, and Science and Technology committees, and was the freshman Republican Whip. He gained the distinction of being the first freshman in the 103rd Congress to get legislation enacted into law: a bill to provide regulatory relief for loans for those devastated by the 1993 Midwest flood.
Grams was elected to the United States Senate in 1995, replacing retiring Republican senator Dave Durenberger. His Senate campaign focused on the themes of cutting taxes, controlling government spending, and ensuring safety against crime and criminals. In the Senate he served on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, Foreign Relations, Joint Economic, and Budget committees. His legislative priorities included deficit reduction, congressional reform, health care reform, and economic growth. He was also interested in revamping Social Security. His signature achievement is said to have been passage of a $500-per-child tax credit. Grams lost his bid for reelecton in 2000 to Democrat Mark Dayton.
After leaving the Senate Grams worked in Washington, D.C. as a consultant, and with his wife was the owner of three radio stations in Minnesota. In 2006 he was endorsed to run for Congress in Minnesota's eighth district against long-time Democratic incumbent James L. Oberstar.
Grams and his wife Laurel have four children: Michelle, Tammy, Rhiannon, and Morgan.
The papers include personal/political/official records; legislative records; constituent services records; press relations/media activities records; office administration records; and two boxes of congressional papers. There are correspondence and subject files, bills, briefing books, government and other publications, some voting and attendance records, press releases, statements and position papers, and some newspaper clippings documenting Grams' legislative work and his interaction with constituents, businesses and other organizations, interest groups, federal and state officials, and with colleagues and others. There are two CD-ROM disks utilizing unknown software (perhaps WordPerfect 5.1) that contain constituent correspondence. There are also audiocassettes and videocassettes, but there are no photographs.
The bulk of the collection consists of Grams' legislative assistants' files, which typically include correspondence and memoranda, publications, reports, and other background information relating to agricultural, defense, educational, foreign relations, tax and budget, trade, and veterans issues and legislation; energy and natural resources; and to the Whitewater Investigation.
There are two boxes of files dating from and documenting Grams' one term in the United States House of Representatives. Most of this consists of VIP correspondence.
While access to most of the collection is restricted, news releases, speeches, and newspaper clippings are unrestricted.
Grams' papers are organized in accordance with the structure recommended in
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Accession number: 15,813
Processed by: David B. Peterson, June 2006
Catalog ID number: 6165220
This material is mainly correspondence with elected officials and Clinton Administration officials. It is nationwide in scope. Each of the folders is labeled with the name of the recipient and contains an individual letter and related papers.
Individually-numbered correspondence with VIP officials, constituents, and organizations in Minnesota. There is no index.
This file concerns the management of low-level radioactive waste.
These CD-ROMs contain Senator Rod Grams correspondence archive. CD One contains two directories. The TEXT directory contains all text items which were used to comprise constituent correspondence. The DATA directory contains ARCHIVE1.DAT, which is the data file containing the first one million records of correspondence. Records are in alphabetical order and begin with the first record and continue through PETERSON, TODD AND KATHY. The second CD contains only the continuation of the data file (ARCHIVE2.DAT), which is the records starting with PETERSON, TODD B. through the end. A total of 1,437,100 data records exist (indicating pieces of correspondence).
Other files on CD One are: the file README.TXT, which is an explanation of the information concerning the CD, and the file LAYOUT.TXT, which is a record layout describing fields, length, position and data type of ARCHIVE*.DAT. These archive files contain all correspondence histories of Grams' term in office.
It is not clear what software was used to access these files, but it seems somewhat likely that it could be WordPerfect 5.1.
Looseleaf, 3-ring binders containing press releases, media advisories, and media alerts issued by Grams' office.
Looseleaf, 3-ring binders containing Grams' speeches, statements, and hearing testimony.
Audiocassettes are housed in small gray archival boxes, four of which are housed within each regular-size archives boxes. They are grouped by year. There is no index.
This is an index to the numbered videocassettes listed below, including both the large general run and the Washington Report videocassettes.
These have been grouped by year. They do have individual titles, which are not given here. They do not appear in the index in the first box, above. This group contains at least 2 Betacam videocassettes.