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Paul Milazzo, Department of History, Ohio University

Congress in the Twentieth Century. Paul Milazzo, Department of History, Ohio University. The Executive century?. WOODROW WILSON, CONGRESSIONAL GOVERNMENT (1884).

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Paul Milazzo, Department of History, Ohio University

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  1. Congress in the Twentieth Century Paul Milazzo, Department of History, Ohio University

  2. The Executive century?

  3. WOODROW WILSON, CONGRESSIONAL GOVERNMENT (1884) “We are ruled by a score and a half of ‘little legislatures….’ Some of the Committees are made up of strong men, the majority of them of weak men; and the weak are as influential as the strong. The country can get the counsel and guidance of its ablest representatives only upon one or two subjects; upon the rest it must be content with the impotent service of the feeble. Only a very small part of its most important business can be done well; the system provides for having the rest of it done miserably, and the whole of it taken together done at haphazard.” (pp. 113-14) The Disadvantages of Congressional Government

  4. More bounded • Growth of Internal Complexity • Decision Making: Discretionary Universalistic & Automatic • Locus of Power Parties/Party Leaders (Speaker of the House) Committees/Committee Chairmen (Seniority) Towards a “Modern” Congress: The Committee ERA

  5. Obstruction • Political Power Broker • Power of Pork • Power of the Purse • Power of Knowledge • Investigation/Media Committees and The Paths to Power in The Post World War II Congress

  6. HOWARD SMITH (D-VA), CHAIR, HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE; RICHARD RUSSELL (D-GA), CHAIR, SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE; SAM ERVIN (D-NC); STROM THURMOND (D-SC) JAMES EASTLAND (D-MI), CHAIR, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE Rules Committee Committee Chairmen Filibuster/Cloture Obstructing Civil Rights

  7. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1940) Democracy in Action: The Filibuster

  8. EVERETT DIRKSEN (R-IL) HUBERT HUMPHREY (D-MN) Seeking Cloture: 1964 Civil Rights Act

  9. “THE JOHNSON TREATMENT” THE MAJORITY LEADER, 1955-1960 • Mastery of Senate Rules • Unanimous consent, quorum calls, night sessions • Democratic Policy Committee • Agenda and scheduling • Democratic Steering Comm. • “The Johnson Rules” • Favors and Perquisites • Persuasion • “The Johnson Treatment” Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) works on Foreign Relations Chairman Thomas Green, 1957 Political Power Broker: Lyndon Johnson

  10. REVENUE AND TAXATION APPROPRIATIONS Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) Wilbur Mills (D-AK) House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense (dates) Anti-communist aid in third world (Afghanistan) Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee (dates) Taxation, Social Security, Medicare Charlie Wilson (D-TX) The Power of the Purse

  11. Q: What is the most famous rider amendment in American history? A: The Wilmot Proviso (1846) The Power of Amendments: The “Rider”

  12. Easy Riders?

  13. ON THE LEFT… …AND THE RIGHT • Cooper-Church Amendment (1969): Ground troops prohibited in Thailand/Laos • Cooper-Church Amendment (1970) cut off funds for Cambodian Incursion (failed); modified version passed in 1971 • Hatfield-McGovern Amendment (1970): cut off funds for Vietnam War (failed) • Case-Church Amendment (1973): cut off funds for Vietnam War, Laos, Cambodia (latter after August 15) • Clark Amendment (1975): cut off funds for anti-communist covert aid to Angola • Jackson-Vanik Amendment (1974): denied most favored nation to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted emigration rights. Senator Henry Jackson (D-WA), critic of Détente. Power of the Purse: Foreign Policy Rider Amendments

  14. The Military Industrial complex, Executive Style: The Manhattan Project

  15. The Johnson Space Flight Center, Houston, TX SENATOR ROBERT KERR (D-OK) AND WERNER VON BRAUN The Power of Pork: The Space Program

  16. Military Industrial Complex, Congressional Style: The Post-WWII Sunbelt

  17. Mendel Rivers (D-SC), House Armed Services Committee MILITARY INSTALLATIONS LOCATED IN RIVERS’S DISTRICT: Air Force Base Naval Base Polaris Missile Maintenance Center Naval Shipyard and Ballistic Submarine Training Station Naval Hospital Coast Guard Station Mine Warfare Center Sixth Naval District Headquarters The Power of Pork: Rivers Delivers

  18. Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) Chair, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, Senate Public Works Committee Sponsor: Water Quality Act (1965) Air Quality Act (1967) Clean Air Act (1970) Clean Water Act (1972) Troubled Waters, Senate Public Works Committee (1963) The Power of Knowledge: Congress, “Policy Entrepreneurs,” & The Environment

  19. District Mal-apportionment and Voter Dilution Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Advantage: sparsely populated rural districts and congressmen representing them, who wield disproportionate political power in Congress. Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population: 600,000 Representatives: 1

  20. Advantage shifts from rural to urban districts. Revitalizes two-party South. Baker v. Carr (1962): Tennessee Lower House; Federal Courts’ power to determine constitutionality of a State's voting districts Reynolds v. Sims (1964): Alabama State legislature (including Senate) Wesberry v. Sanders (1964): Georgia Congressional districts Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population: 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population 100,000 Representatives: 1 Population 500,000 Representatives: 5 One Person, One Vote

  21. SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ORGANIZED CRIME IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE (KEFAUVER COMMITTEE), 1950 JOHN LAWSON TESTIFIES BEFORE THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (1947) Mobster Frank Costello’s Hands The Power of Investigation: Congress and Television

  22. The Army-McCarthy Hearings, 1954 House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Government agencies and departments: State Department, U.S. Information Agency, Voice of America, Army Communist infiltration of Hollywood Film Industry, Espionage (Alger Hiss Case) Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senate Government Operations Committee Pat McCarran (D-NV) Senate Judiciary Committee, Internal Security Subcommittee Investigating Communism “subversive influence of radio, television, and entertainment industry”

  23. FULBRIGHT FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON VIETNAM, 1967 J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT (D-AK) AND STUART SYMINGTON (D-MO) Subcommittee Government /Shaping Public Discourse

  24. SAM ERVIN (D-NC), SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE CAMPAIGN PRACTICES (1973) FRANK CHURCH (D-ID), SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES (1975) Investigating the “Imperial Presidency”

  25. THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION • Lengthening and Speeding the News Cycle • Emphasis on Scandal / Conflict • Empowers both parties (centralizing) and mavericks (decentralizing) Brian Lamb, Mastermind of C-SPAN (March 19, 1979) Ted Turner’s CNN, First 24-Hour Cable News Station, debuted June 1, 1980 Television and Mass Media

  26. Robert Caro, Master of the Senate • Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture • Robert Davis Johnson, Congress and the Cold War • Walter McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Race • Paul Charles Milazzo, Unlikely Environmentalists: Congress and Clean Water, 1945-1972 • Bruce Schulman, From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South, 1938-1980 • Julian Zelizer, Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975 • Julian Zelizer, On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000 • Julian Zelizer, ed, The American Congress Selected Bibliography

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