Time: Thu Jun 12 16:08:58 1997
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	Thu, 12 Jun 1997 12:54:23 -0700 (MST)
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 15:45:03 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: How Congress has changed (fwd)

<snip>
>
>The below article is published by the Lincoln Heritage Institute, Inc. a
>conservative not-for-profit corp.  If there are any questions, please
>contact us, or go to our home page at http://members.aol.com/lhiadmof.
>
>
>CONGRESS, THE END OF AN ERA
>
>BY C. Grady Drago
>
>	Retired Congressman Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, in an article written
>for the Lincoln Heritage Institute's ADDRESS,  says that the end to the
>camaraderie amongst the members of the House of Representatives, as well as
>the downfall of the Democratic majority is due, in large part, to reforms
>by the  Democratic majority that were  "...designed to lock in permanent
>majorities."
>	The House of Representatives has always been, and was designed to be, a
>body of hotly contested viewpoints.  The hotter the debate the better.  It
>not only brought out the best and worse in people, but brought facts,
>beliefs, and desires into the spotlight of public scrutiny and made for
>good compromise and better law.  Such debate was the acid cure of ideas.
>Unfortunately, the camaraderie and openness that was the U.S. Congress,
>seems to be going the way of the dinosaur and with it what many feel were
>the most effective days of our national legislature.
>	As Congressman Walker points out, the Democratic leadership of the 1970's
>"...created a system of independent power brokers by increasing the members
>of subcommittees and subcommittee chairmen...complete with increased
>liberal staffs who helped to create and control the legislative agenda...
>However, some of the changes undertaken by the Democratic majorities in the
>1970s began to sow the seeds of their own defeat nearly twenty years later.
> The introduction of electronic voting and C-Span coverage of Congressional
>sessions brought about dramatic results.
>	Electronic voting significantly altered the culture of the House of
>Representatives.  Before the introduction of voting cards, each Congressman
>had to come to the chamber and wait for his or her name to be called. That
>usually meant spending thirty to forty-five minutes hanging around the
>House floor.  Bipartisan state delegations hung out together.  Members got
>to know each other.  The House had more of a club-like atmosphere.
>	Voting cards meant that Representatives could come  to the chamber, vote
>quickly, and leave immediately.  The only place Members really got to know
>each other was in committees, the result being that committees became far
>more insular places.  C-span coverage of the House proceedings gave large
>numbers of people in the general public a better look at how Congress works
>and a more intimate knowledge of its rules and procedures.
>	The election of Ronald Reagan and the band of activist conservatives to
>the House in the early 1980s gave Republicans an opportunity to exploit the
>changing nature of the Congress.
>	Despite the election of Bill Clinton to the Presidency, the Democrats on
>Capitol Hill were increasingly on the defensive. Management issues became
>outright scandals in places like the House Bank and the House Post Office.
>Democrats tried to reorganize and reform, but the power structures they had
>created twenty years earlier were  resistant to change.  Instead they were
>forced to further restrict debate and deliberations causing more controversy.
>	Republicans won control of the Congress in 1994 using a positive program
>called the Contract with America.  Fundamental to the Contract's success
>was its emphasis on congressional reforms.  We called for reduced numbers
>of committees and subcommittees, smaller congressional committee staffs,
>more open debate, and an end to proxy voting and other reforms that largely
>reversed the changes that occurred as I arrived in Congress.  Of course,
>both electronic voting and C-Span remained -- a confirmation that they are
>the reality of the modern information age.
>	When I was sworn into the  95th Congress in 1977, Democrats and liberals
>were in ascendancy... Now the assumption is the Republicans will control
>the Congress  into the foreseeable future.  That's real change."
>	The Institute prefers the conservative ideology of the present leadership
>but is sad at the passing of  a period of camaraderie and comity that
>market this exclusive body.
>
>****
>
>
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>

========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.    : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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