In January 1983 Plitt Theaters filed a lawsuit to obtain a permit to demolish the historic Chicago Theatre. Mayor Jane Byrne and other civic leaders appealed to Rostenkowski to assist them in obtaining a federal Urban Development Action Grant to save the theater. Grants of this kind were being frozen from Chicago by Samuel Pierce, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in reprisal for Rostenkowski's opposition to the Reagan administration's Urban Enterprise Zone bill. Rostenkowski considered these zones a Republican gimmick that would help businesses escape taxes without addressing chronic inner-city unemployment. Rostenkowski called his friend Vice President George H. W. Bush, "If I don't get that grant, you're going to have one very pissed off chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for your administration's pending tax bill". Shortly thereafter, Pierce phoned Rostenkowski to ask if he could come up and see him. Sure, the congressman replied, just bring the papers for the theater project.