Organizational History
Founded as Former Members of Congress in 1970, the name of the organization was changed to Former Members of Congress, Inc. in 1980, to Association of Former Members of Congress in 1981, and to United States Association of Former Members of Congress in 1983. Shortly after its founding, Brooks Hays and the staff of the organization began recording interviews with Hays's former congressional colleagues. The oral history program was established on a more formal basis in 1973, and additional interviews of former congressional representatives were conducted by the organization's members and college professors. The project expanded in 1977, when Former Members of Congress launched a major oral history initiative, The Modern Congress in American History, that produced most of the transcripts in this collection. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation were the principal funding sources for the project. Preliminary research was undertaken at the Library of Congress and at state and local libraries, and the personal papers of congressional representatives were frequently consulted before the interviews were undertaken.