Congressional Committees Quotes
Monroe was then Secretary of State.
A theater arts program that operated nationally under the WPA.
Commenting on student demonstrations protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee:
Both the House and the Senate, as they got larger, developed an Appropriations Committee. When the committee assessed a departmental appropriation, they had also the responsibility for all the other departmental budgets. However, many of the members of the Appropriations Committee tended to favor the interests of their particular constituency or the special interests to which they were beholden. Other members had little or no influence. So there was immense pressure during Reconstruction to ‘share’ the appropriations ‘plum’ by creating appropriations subcommittees. However, each particular subcommittee loses the perspective of and interest in the budget as a whole. The process has led to budget imbalance pressure ever since. But Randall, the Speaker of the House warned about exactly what would happen. He had earlier served as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and he was exactly right.
It is surprising that this long after the Civil War had ended, there was a select Congressional Committee for dealing with matters involving the Confederate States. Note the quaint language that was used.
In one of the most blatant statements of the arbitrary power of congressional committee chairmen, the chairman of the House Rules Committee blocked an investigation of military procurement even though every other member of the committee wanted to pursue the investigation. The prerogative of the chairman was upheld by the Speaker, and on appeal, by the House as a whole, but by 1924 House rules were amended to diminish the arbitrary power of chairmen.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Open drinking was then common in Congressional Committees. A “demijohn” was a narrow-neck large bottle which held between 3 and 10 GALLONS of whisky. This was a favorite size of the Congressmen as they paid low prices by buying in volume. Even today many members of Congress drink in their offices and some have bars there.