An oral history interview with Robert L. Kuttner

              WISCONSIN
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
An Oral History Interview with
ROBERT L. KUTTNER
Interviewer: .Anita Hecht, Life History Services
Recording Date: July 9, 2011
Place: Boston, Massachusetts. Length: 1 hour 40 minutes
Robert Kuttner was raised in New York City and graduated from Oberlin College in 1965 before earning
his M.S. degree from the University of California. He then worked for journalist I.F. Stone and as a
legislative assistant for the anti-war Congressman William Fitts Ryan. Kuttner also served as Washington
bureau chief for Pacifica Radio and worked as a journalist for the Village Voice, the liberal Catholic
weekly, Commonweal, and The Washington Post.
When Sen. William Proxmire became the new chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing,
and Urban .Affairs, Kuttner worked with Sen. Proxmire's staff as chief investigator. He researched foreign
bribery by U.S. corporations, leading to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; mortgage redlining, leading to
the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.
Kuttner recalls that "Sen. Proxmire was that rarest of political creatures, a tight-money populist. He was
as tough on the excesses of capitalism as any member of the House or Senate. He believed that powerful
industries needed to be regulated in the public interest. But he was just as tough on government excess."
"ranscript 1 Proxmire Oral History Project