Coming Conflict Over The House Rules Committee

...f First, it can be placed on the Consent Calendar, which is called twice monthly to expedite passage of non-controversial measures...

...Sometimes these rules specify that no amendments or only certain amendments shall be offered...

...Although the national interest is often an elusive object to identify, these leaders are more likely to grasp and consider such interests than is the Rules Committee...

...There are only two ways of getting a conference with the Senate when the House disagrees with that body on the form of a bill which both houses have passed...

...It costs him the good will of the chairman, a large measure of which is essential to the member succeeding with his own bills...

...His decision not to seek reelection in 1960 will elevate Clarence Brown of Ohio to the number two position and open the way for a new member...

...Like Smith, in recent Congresses, he has more often voted with a majority of the Republicans in the House than with the Democratic majority...

...Even when a majority favors a bill locked in the Committee, individual Representatives may not feel strongly enough to sign the petition, for fear that if the practice becomes a habit their own committees may be similarly discharged...

...A Committee majority could direct the chairman to perform any of these functions differently, but only in rare instance would it do so...

...The role of Congress in the making of national decisions has gradually shifted from initiating and originating legislation to accepting or amending bills sent to it by the Executive...

...Money bills are put on the Union Calendar, all other bills on the House Calendar...

...The obstacles to the apparent majority sentiment in 1960 were two Democratic members who frequently voted with the Republicans to delay or deny consideration of bills favored by the majority party and the majority of the House...

...On the Republican side, Leo Allen has been the ranking member since Joe Martin left the Committee in 1939...

...Allen, Brown, and their colleagues, B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee and Hamer Budge of Idaho, could be dubbed Taft Republicans, although they quickly transferred their loyalty to President Eisenhower, at least on procedural matters...

...A further effect of such a reform, which strengthens the House leadership, could very well enhance the powers of the Congress vis-a-vis the Presidency...

...Although much of the business of the House is transacted under these procedures, the most important and most controversial bills obviously cannot be handled this way...

...As Madden and Delaney have given into their constituency preferences on oil and gas, so Thornberry and Trimble have followed their Southern constituencies on civil rights...

...Inasmuch as it is the chairman's office which calls all committee members before a meeting, the chairman is much more likely than his colleagues to know whether and when it is to his advantage to vote on certain issues...

...On the bottom half of the Democratic side are Homer Thornberry of Texas, James Trimble of Arkansas, Richard Boiling of Missouri, and T. P. O'Neill of Massachusetts...

...Although the responsibility for the death of these three bills rests with no single person or committee, the fact is that the House Rules Committee was heavily involved in each instance...

...When Chairman Smith disappears to his dairy farms in Virginia, the Committee cannot act...

...The history of the Presidency, Professor Edward Cbrwin has written, is one of aggrandizement, and as Professor David Truman has shown, the Twentieth Century has been hard on national legislatures everywhere...

...As chairman he usually can perform the following functions without consulting his colleagues: call meetings...

...This, however, is impracticable because more bills are reported than the House ever considers, and committees do not necessarily report bills in the order in which the party leaders wish to consider them on the floor...

...The Rules Committee has had a stormy and controversial history...

...But his personal skills are only part of his influence...

...Upon the recommendation of the Majority Leader, after consultation with opposition leaders and committee chairmen, the Senate sets its agenda by unanimous consent agreements...

...call a vote...

...For example, both voted against a rule to allow the House to consider the bill regulating natural gas in 1957...

...Moderate and liberal Congressmen from the North and West are now protesting the conservative coalition dominating the Committee to the extent that one may confidently predict that the Eighty-seventh Congress, which convenes in January, will witness a vigorous attempt to curtail the influence of the Committee as a veto-group on the House agenda...

...The Rules Committee, with its jurisdiction over the agenda of the House, is thus capable of affecting the legislative output of Congress...

...Two kinds of proposals have been broached...

...were not appointed until the Committee on Rules first exacted a promise that they would not agree to more than $1.15 an hour—rather than the $1.25 demanded by sponsors of the legislation...

...It has been suggested that the number of signatures required to discharge the Rules Committee be reduced...

...The motion will probably be made by Chairman Smith that the rules of the Eighty-sixth Congress be adopted for the Eighty-seventh...

...Those proposals, which are largely within the discretion of the Democratic caucus, include the election of members of the Rules Committee rather than appointment by strict adherence to seniority...

...Following the 1958 elections several prominent Democrats under the leadership of Representative Chet Holifield of California discussed challenging the Committee's power, but an informal — though subsequently ineffective—agreement with Speaker Rayburn called off the challenge...

...As in the Senate, it could eventually be combined with the Administration Committee which handles personnel and equipment...

...He is the author of a number of special studies on Congressional decision making and is now at work on a major book on the role of Congress in making American foreign policy...

...According to the rules of the House, bills are to be taken up in the order in which they are listed on the calendars...

...Amendments could be offered either to lengthen debate or give special consideration to an alternative form of the bill...

...Boiling is among the most skillful "brokers" in Congress...

...The Rules Commitee has one other agenda-making function...

...Amendments to the motion providing instructions to the conferees could be in order...

...The precedent that would be established by the election of the Rules Committee is perhaps less attractive than other alternatives...

...Such a departure from the seniority principle may be too radical for many members...

...This rule provided that when the Rules Committee did not act on a request for a rule within twenty-one days, the chairman of the committee which asked for the rule could bring the bill directly to the floor, but only if he could secure recognition from the Speaker, and on only two days each month...

...A less drastic version of this extraordinary alternative is to replace William Colmer but leave Howard Smith as chairman...

...Until the Democratic majority swelled with New Deal election victories, the number was 145 and before that 100...

...Who are the members of this Committee...

...This is unlikely to happen, unless the leadership is clearly frustrating the majority...

...For example, in the 1960 session it refused to give a rule to the housing bill...

...schedule witnesses...

...By the timing of Committee meetings, by requiring a quorum or ignoring the absence of one, by the order in which bills are scheduled, by encouragement or lack of it to witnesses, by deciding when to call a vote—by all these procedural decisions the chairman of this Committee, as with other committees, affects the legislative output of Congress...

...It was in no sense an automatic device, nor was it of any use late in the session...

...If a group of one hundred men can unanimously agree on their legislative program, surely more than four hundred men can operate by majority vote...

...Another intra-party tactic, for which there is precedent, is to give the Democrats a ninth member and limit the Republicans to only three seats...

...The chairman's discretion is not boundless, but it is broad...

...This proposed reform need not return the House to Cannon tyranny, if a motion to call up a bill is privileged and if it may be offered by any member...

...set agenda...

...It may cost him in the future, when he becomes chairman, as he may well aspire to become...

...Since the Rules Committee has jurisdiction over all proposals to alter rules of the House, there is only one time when the House can act decisively and without sending such proposals to the Rules Committee for interment...

...The reformers must be ready with an amendment to that motion incorporating their proposal...

...f Third, the rules may be suspended, but this requires a two-thirds majority, debate is sharply limited, and amendments are prohibited...

...Reform may be expensive to the committee member pressing it...

...it has varied according to the majority's needs...

...Nevertheless, these functions could be performed by someone other than the Rules Committee...

...they frequently confer advantage on the values of some groups at the expense of others...

...The Rules Committee would be retained to preside over basic questions of House procedure...

...f An aid-to-education bill which had passed the House and Senate in different forms did not become law because the Rules Committee refused to recommend that the bill go to a conference committee...

...There are several ways to take a bill buried far down on one of the calendars and consider it out of its regular order...

...As of now the leadership shares these responsibilities: after the Rules Committee grants a rule the Speaker and Majority Leader decide when to call it up, and when the rule is adopted the leadership determines when to debate the bill...

...report the Committee's bills and resolutions to the House...

...His role as chairman of the Rules Committee is not much different from that of any other committee chairman, but the influential position of his Committee enhances his personal influence...

...This depends partly on the size of the Democratic majority and and on whether the next President will take the extraordinary step of intervening in the internal procedures of the House...

...Representatives Howard Smith and William Colmer, whose conservative views are at odds with the moderate-to-liberal views of most of their party, frequently join with the minority party's conservative members and force defeat or compromise on the majority, which they would not be able to do were it not for the role of the Rules Committee...

...With Allen's decision not to run for re-election, there will be only three remaining Republican members...

...Communications coming to and from the Committee about legislative committee requests for hearings and about the views of members of the Rules Committee center around the chairman...

...Although the seniority system is widely criticized outside Congress, it is generally favored within...

...When they vote with the four Republicans, they can prevent a rule from being reported...

...The most revolutionary proposal, however, has not been seriously advanced, and that is to eliminate altogether the Rules Committee's participation in decisions affecting the House agenda...

...When he deliberately obstructs a Committee majority which feels strongly about a matter, he is overruled, as with the civil rights bill in 1957...

...In the event the majority leadership should delay or deny calling up a bill, any member could offer a similar privileged motion...

...Usually the leadership wishes to limit debate and not to open complex tariff, tax, and other such money bills to amendment...

...the chairman was Howard W. Smith, a Virginia Democrat in the tradition of Senator Harry Byrd...

...Since Speaker Cannon was overthrown in 1910, the base of the Speakership's influence has been more informal and personal than formal or institutional...

...He is respected among Northern Democrats and is often mentioned as a possible future Speaker...

...they will need skill, for they will be up against one of the ablest parliamentarians ever to sit in the House of Representatives...

...One way to take the bill to conference is by unanimous consent...

...At that moment it will adopt its rules...

...Sentiment among liberal Democrats is said to hold that this procedure is not enough...

...Some could be effected among the Democrats themselves...

...Such a motion would not be dissimilar to the present procedure, and it could, as is now the case, be subject to an hour's debate, divided equally between the Majority and Minority Leaders, and a majority of those present and voting would be required for its adoption...

...In the Eighty-sixth Congress there were eight Democrats and four Republicans...

...The Speaker is in a sense a national official—after the Vice President he is first in succession to a vacant Presidency...

...It is not possible to say at this writing what proposed reforms, if any, are most likely to be adopted...

...decide whether to procede without a quorum...

...Thorn-berry succeeded Lyndon Johnson when Johnson moved over to the Senate, and, like Trimble, will ordinarily vote to support any measure requested by the party leadership unless it would adversely affect his chances of re-election...

...However, both Thornberry and Trimble have on occasion voted to report a civil rights bill while reserving the right to vote against it on the floor...

...Although it is a smaller body, the Senate formerly determined its agenda by majority vote, usually on motion of the Majority Leader...

...When committees approve public bills (private bills are handled somewhat differently), they are referred to one of two "calendars...

...Chairman Smith's closest committee ally is William Colmer, Democrat, of Mississippi...

...In the past there have been as many as fourteen, although twelve is the size established in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946...

...This kind of alignment has existed tor more than a decade, but it became particularly troublesome after the 1958 Congressional elections when the Democratic majority grew to New Deal proportions...

...Although the threat of the twenty-one day rule probably spurred the Rules Committee to report some bills it might otherwise have pigeonholed, the procedure was cumbersome and its use depended on the Speaker and the committee chairman...

...Fifth, appropriations and revenue bills are privileged and may be taken up on motion of the chairmen of the Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees, but only if no extraneous legislation is contained in the bill, and under these conditions each member could speak an hour and offer any amendments...

...He and the Majority Leader participate in legislative conferences at the White House...

...But ordinarily he has a great deal of freedom to use his chairmanship to assist or hinder legislation according to his preferences...

...In 1961 there is almost certain to be a renewed effort to effect some reforms...

...The Committee could continue to have authority to report rules placing in order those bills which have not yet been acted on in other committees — an authority it rarely uses—but it would no longer be a potential veto over bills already reported...

...It does not seem reasonable that unanimous consent be required to send to conference a bill that has already passed the House...

...That time occurs on the opening day of Congress, before the House constitutes its committees...

...The mechanisms of this alternative are virtually the same as going through the Rules Committee, but the difference is that agenda-making decisions are centralized in the majority party leadership...

...Colmer was appointed in 1939 after a post-election conference at Warm Springs, Georgia, between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Speaker William Bankhead...

...Now that Martin is no longer Republican leader, and especially if the Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the House, Speaker Rayburn might easily justify adding another Democrat, one who could be expected to follow the leadership's direction...

...To understand the role of this Committee it is necessary to understand the several ways of setting the House agenda...

...However, this device allows for virtually unlimited debate, requires that the bill be disposed of on the same day, and is therefore so awkward that it is rarely used...

...Only rarely, perhaps once a year, does the House refuse to consider a bill brought in by the Rules Committee...

...More frequently, however, the House is protesting that the Committee does not bring in bills approved by legislative committees...

...It was Speaker Joe Cannon's tool for regulating House business until a series of reforms in 1909-10, which were intended to make the Committee an instrument of the majority of the House, whether that majority was bipartisan or whether it corresponded to the majority party...

...If the Committee had approved, the House most probably would have passed the omnibus housing bill...

...This monopoly of information reinforces the chairman's traditional authority to set his own pace in calling meetings and taking votes...

...Nor does it seem necessary to involve the Rules Committee at all...

...In return for its approval, this Committee may require other committees to make commitments before it will expedite their business...

...the other is upon the adoption of a rule from the Rules Committee...

...Others have proposed enlarging the membership of the Rules Committee...

...Like all the other Democrats, except Smith and Colmer, he will regularly vote to report any bill requested by the leadership unless he thinks it is repugnant to his constituency...

...In short, their public is larger than a single Congressional district...

...But they will need more than an amendment...

...They are more regularly in sympathy with reporting most legislation which comes before the Committee, although they, too, will vote to deny rules to bills some of their constituents are known to oppose...

...These men have wider "reference groups" than the Rules Committee, and they must work with all elements of their party, indeed, with most elements of the House...

...The Committee would not like this alternative, nor will some of its members, perhaps a majority, favor any change...

...Presumably it might be accepted as a compromise if there are not enough votes for more substantial change...

...Why not the majority party leadership...

...To surmount these disadvantages, the House developed a sixth method for determining its agenda...

...However, there is nothing sacred about the number 219...

...The Committee could change its rules to limit the chairman's discretion, but in the past members have been as reluctant to do that to Smith as other committees have been reluctant to change their rules...

...the discretion of the House members of the conference committee was limited because they JAMES A. ROBINSON, political scientist at Northwestern University, was formerly a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association, which gave him a year's internship in House and Senate offices...

...He is personally close to Sam Rayburn and was tapped by the Speaker for his inner circle many years ago...

...If it is not, it can easily defeat any such motion...

...His wry sense of humor occasionally adds color to his Committee's meetings, but ordinarily he gives the disarming appearence of a silent strong man, moving softly about the House floor, his mind seemingly on philosophic matters miles away...

...In the last session of Congress, this was illustrated by the fate of three important measures: f A bill to raise the minimum wage did not pass because House and Senate conferees could not agree on a compromise...

...The eighth Democrat, O'Neill, succeeded John F. Kennedy and is close to Majority Leader John McCormack of Massachusetts...

...It delayed approving a civil rights bill until nearly a majority had signed a discharge petition...

...Most Congressmen assume that if there were no Rules Committee one would have to be invented...

...If this Committee had imposed no unusual limits on the discretion of the House conferees, the probability of enacting the minimum wage bill would have increased...

...on Wednesday of each week the committees can be called in alphabetical order to bring up any bills which they have reported...

...After Smith and Colmer come two Northern Democrats, Ray Madden of Indiana and James Delaney of New York...

...About 1890 the Rules Committee began to report "special orders" or "special rules" recommending that the House consider particular measures and limit debate to a certain number of hours...

...Among the changes which would require action by the whole House, the most often mentioned proposal is to return to the "twenty-one day rule," which was adopted in 1949 but rejected in 1951...

...If this Committee objects, a conference committee cannot be appointed to resolve House-Senate differences on a subject on which both houses have already agreed some legislation should be enacted...

...The requisite number was altered to protect the majority party from embarrassment by the minority or by a hardy band of defectors from the majority party...

...serve as the center of communications to the Committee...

...The traditions of the House are hallowed with majority leaders' respect for minority leaders, and it is inconceivable that the majority party would discontinue the long-standing practice of consulting with the opposition party in scheduling items for debate and vote...

...It is too late to discharge the Committee, and suspension of the rules with its two-thirds requirement is risky...

...There is no virtue in any particular size...

...Such a prospect should appeal as much to conservatives who have found comfort in the vetoes of the Rules Committee as to the liberals who have been frustrated by its inordinate power...

...The mere fact of being chairman confers upon him the extraordinary opportunities which only a chairman enjoys for affecting legislation...

...someone or some group would need to be responsible for determining what bills should be considered, in what order, for how long, and whether they should be open for amendment...

...If the Committee had approved, an aid-to-education bill might have passed, although the President might have vetoed it...

...To add a thirteenth member now would help offset the Smith-Colmer axis, and it would also reduce the likelihood that a tie vote would prevent reporting a rule...

...Second, it may be passed by "unanimous consent" at some time other than during the call of the Consent Calendar...

...Why can the Committee on Rules intervene between the legislative committees and the full membership of the House...

...Since then there have been recurring controversies over whether the Committee is an instrument of or an obstacle to majority rule in the House...

...Smith, a former judge, is an able parliamentarian, respected by friend and foe, capable of great personal charm...

...Another possible change is in the procedure for handling House-Senate differences on the same bill...

...The Committee's refusal to grant a rule to the education bill in 1960 killed any further chance for the bill...

...There is no apparent reason why motions to request a conference with the Senate could not be privileged (conference reports after House-Senate agreements are privileged now) and subject to a majority vote...

...others would require changes in the rules of the House...

...call up the Committee's bills or resolutions on the floor...

...f An omnibus housing bill, passed by the Senate, which the House Committee on Banking and Currency favorably reported, but which the House could not consider because the Rules Committee would not approve it...

...In recent years it has gone even further in the direction of central leadership...

...If this Committee will not recommend it, a controversial bill can hardly pass the House...

...Why not, then, leave it to the Speaker to recognize the Majority Leader to offer a privileged motion that the House consider a bill reported by a legislative committee, under certain conditions governing time and amendments...

...At present, 219 members must sign a petition to force a bill from the Committee and bring it to the floor...

...It is possible that a centralized and coordinated leadership in the House could be an important step toward strengthening Congress and maintaining the checks and balance system envisioned in the Constitutional distribution of executive and legislative powers...

...No other member, not even the ranking minority member, ordinarily keeps a file of bills on which hearings and action have been requested, and the chairman usually does not pass such information to his colleagues or the leadership except when it is sought...

...This alternative also has the added virtue of not depriving any sitting member, either Democrat or Republican, of a place on the Committee...

...It also refused to approve the postal pay increase, which reached the floor only when a full majority of the House signed a "discharge petition...

...The present division of eight-to-four was worked out in a gentleman's agreement between Sam Rayburn and Joe Martin many years ago, when Martin was the Republican minority leader...

...They are partly right...

...One of Smith's roles as chairman is to receive requests for rules from other committees and from the majority party leadership...

...He is regarded as the captain of an informal coalition of conservative Democrats from the South...

...One of the major effects of such an extensive change would be to concentrate additional power in the majority party leadership...

...This is especially true late in a session when time is short and opportunities for forcing the chairman's hand are limited...

...Even before Congress adjourned in August, Democratic Congressmen were canvassing various alternatives for changing the House rules...

...f Fourth, bills could be considered on Calendar Wednesdays...

...Since this practice began the Rules Committee has been the major arbiter of what important bills the House shall or shall not consider and when it shall consider them...