At the time, inflation was over twelve percent. When Ford assumed office, he inherited Nixon's Cabinet. During his brief administration, he replaced all members except Secretary of State Kissinger and Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon. Political commentators have referred to Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 as the 'Halloween Massacre'. One of Ford's appointees, William Coleman—the Secretary of Transportation—was the second black man to serve in a presidential cabinet (after Robert C. Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration. The federal budget ran a deficit every year Ford was President. Despite his reservations about how the program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States.
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