In July 1963 Coad began working in the Kennedy Administration as a $75-per-day consultant for the Agency for International Development's office of material resources. However, when Iowa Senator Bourke Hickenlooper — serving as the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — learned of this, he contacted the head of the agency and raised an objection, based on what he described as Coad's "background and history and utter lack of qualifications for the job." Coad resigned the next day, and flew to Iowa to blast his critics.