Evening star., 1949-01-04
Changing the Rules

Administration forces are entitled to
crow over their victory in the House yes
terday. They not only paved the way for
floor consideration of the Presidents full
legislative program but, in curbing the
powers of the Rules Committee, they eff
fected a reform which no other Congress
has tackled with any degree of success
since 1885. Even the La Toilette -Monroney
Committee on Organization of Congress
wreStled in vain with the rules problem
and was forced to admit its inability to
agree on any workable changes in exist
ing practices"
One of the proposals made to the
La Follette-Monroney group in 1945 was
similar to the one which won overwhelm-
ing approval of the House in the opening
session of the 81st Congress. 1t was made
at that time by Representative Herter of
Massachusetts,, a Republican. He recon-
mended that limit, to be determined by
the House, be placed on the length of
time that the Rules Committee could keep
bill bottled up. The new rule fixes this
time limit at tWenty-one days. Then the
bill may be called up by the chairman
OF the committee which originally reported
1t, provided, of course, he is recognized for
that purpose by the Speaker This ar
rangement, in effect, restores the Speaker
to position of dominance in controlling
legislative right-ofWay. He has not had
such powers since Speaker Uncle Joe"
Cannon was deprived of arbitrary control
over the Rules Committee in 1910
In Uncle Joe's" heyday the Speaker
Job hn hnrr - p,,1o
mittee and he also served as one of the
members. This domination of the House
traffic directing" group by the Speaker
led to what has been called an era of
'CannoniSm," in which the Rules Com
mittee directed traffic to suit the Speaker.
That era ended when the second session
of the 61St Congress, at the instance of
then Representative George Norris of
Nebraska, increased the size of the COM
mittee, excluded the Speaker from men,
bership and transferred the appointing
power from the Speaker to the House at
large. Since that parliamentary revou-
tion' the only successful attacks on Rules
Committee "autocracy" have involved
changes in discharge petition procedure.
In 1924 the House voted to discharge
committees, including Rules, on petition
of $50 members. A year later the number
of signatures was increased to 2l8 In
1881 it was reduced to 145, but in 1885
it was restored to 2lS, where it has
remained.
Now the petition method has been done
away with altogether, as far as the Rules
Committee is concerned Thus coalition
unfriendly to the administration may sit
on a controversial measure for no longer
than three weeks, unless the chairman
democratic at PRESENT. of the other
committee involved concurS in further
delay. The Democrats consequently hold
the whip hand on such debated and
debatable bills as public housing, military
training and the various civil rights pro-
posals of Mr.. Truman. But the ease with
which the change in rules was accom-
pliShed does not mean that all of the
measures on the Presidents program will
have smooth sailing They still will have
the usual Legislative Committee hurdles
to take and once they reach the floor they
will be subject to the usual debate-in both
Houses. And in the Senate turks the
threat of the filibuster, which has survived
past efforts to outlaw it. So trouble still
is in store for administration stalwarts
In their efforts to fulfill the pledges of the
President and his party's platform.