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The Congressional Committee: A Case Study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Ralph K. Huitt
Ralph K. Huitt
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

“Congressional government is Committee government” said Woodrow Wilson in 1884, and political scientists since that day have seen no reason to disagree with him. It would be reasonable to suppose then that once committees ceased to meet secretly (as they did when Wilson wrote) and began to keep verbatim public records of their proceedings, the committee process would be subjected to relentless and systematic study. Such has not been the case. The frequency with which Wilson is quoted is as much a reflection of a lack of substantive research by later students as it is a tribute to his intuitive insights.

It would not be hard to make a case for close and continuous study of congressional committees. On every count, they would seem to hold as much interest for the student of politics as administrative bodies or the courts, upon which so much more attention has been lavished. They are decision-making agencies of crucial importance; it is a commonplace that they hold life-or-death power over legislation. Again, they provide a point of focus for the political process; they are “miniature legislatures,” “microcosms” of their parent bodies—not in the sense that they epitomize the larger houses, but rather that the committees are subject to the same influences and power drives, which are easier to intercept and analyze here than in the larger and more complex houses themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 1954 , pp. 340 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1954

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References

1 Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government, preface to 1884 edition.

2 Galloway, George B., Congress at the Crossroads (New York, 1946), p. 53Google Scholar.

3 See Truman, David B., The Governmental Process (New York, 1951), pp. 343–46Google Scholar.

4 See especially Homans, George C., The Human Group (New York, 1950)Google Scholar, in which five distinguished studies in social behavior are examined in detail to develop both an organic theory of the human group and a system of analysis for further study of the group.

5 Chamberlain, Joseph P., Legislative Processes: National and State (New York, 1936), p. 79Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 72–73. Emphasis added.

7 The Reorganization of Congress, A Report of the Committee on Congress of the American Political Science Association (Washington, D.C., 1945), p. 79Google Scholar; Galloway, , Congress at the Crossroads, pp. 158–61Google Scholar; Griffith, Ernest S., Congress: Its Contemporary Role (New York, 1951), pp. 70–75Google Scholar; Kefauver, Estes and Levin, Jack, A Twentieth Century Congress (New York, 1947), pp. 167–68Google Scholar; Organization of the Congress, Report of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, pursuant to H. Con. Res. 18, H. Rep. No. 1675, 79th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 9–11Google Scholar; and Report from the Special Committee on the Organization of Congress, Sen. Rep. No. 1400, 79th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 21–24. See also the frequent recommendations of this nature in Organization of Congress, Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, pursuant to H. Con. Res. 18, 79th Cong., 2d sess.; Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Hearings before the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, U.S. Senate, 80th Cong., 2d sess.; Organization and Operation of Congress, Hearings before the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, U.S. Senate, 82d Cong., 1st sess.

8 Chamberlain, p. 64.

9 See especially Bentley, Arthur F., The Process of Government (Bloomington, Ind., 1949)Google Scholar, first published in 1908; Truman, The Governmental Process (cited in note 3); and Gross, Bertram M., The Legislative Struggle (New York, 1953)Google Scholar. The latter devotes three chapters (14–16) to a realistic description of the operations of congressional committees.

10 The Governmental Process, pp. 372–77. Emphasis added.

11 1946 Extension of the Emergency Price Control and Stabilization Acts of 1942, As Amended, Hearings before the Committee on Banking and Currency, U.S. Senate, 79th Cong., 2d sess., on S. 2028. Cited hereafter as Hearings.

12 Linton, Ralph, The Cultural Background of Personality (New York, 1945), pp. 76–77Google Scholar.

13 The Democratic members of the Committee were Robert F. Wagner, New York, Chairman; Carter Glass, Virginia; Alben W. Barkley, Kentucky; John H. Bankhead 2d, Alabama; George L. Radcliffe, Maryland; Sheridan Downey, California; Abe Murdock, Utah; Ernest W. McFarland, Arizona; Glen H. Taylor, Idaho; J. William Fulbright, Arkansas; Hugh B. Mitchell, Washington; and E. P. Carville, Nevada. The Republican members were Charles W. Tobey, New Hampshire; Robert A. Taft, Ohio; Hugh A. Butler, Nebraska; Arthur Capper, Kansas; C. Douglass Buck, Delaware; Eugene D. Millikin, Colorado; Bourke B. Hickenlooper, Iowa; and Homer E. Capehart, Indiana.

14 Hearings, p. 43.

15 Hearings, pp. 965, 1265.

16 Hearings, p. 29.

17 Hearings, pp. 986–87, 1094, 1295–96, 1311.

18 Hearings, pp. 704–6, 1730–31.

19 Hearings, p. 325. There followed this colloquy: Senator Tobey:That is not Senator Claghorn speaking. That is Senator Bankhead.

Senator Bankhead: What was that?

Senator Tobey: That was a joke, Senator. I said it was not Senator Claghorn, it was my friend Senator Bankhead speaking about the South.

Senator Bankhead: I am always trying to get justice for them. That is a hard task very often, I will say to my New England Senator friend.

20 Hearings, pp. 931–1041.

21 Hearings, pp. 637–777, 1043–88.

22 Hearings, pp. 176, 687–88, 1046–49, 1721–23.

23 Hearings, pp. 74–75, 436–95, 1733, 1791–93.

24 See the statements in Galloway, , Congress at the Crossroads, pp. 57–63Google Scholar.

25 Hearings, pp. 1725–26. Tobey suggested that a review board be established to handle congressional cases faster.

26 Hearings, pp. 175–76, 181, 182, 130–32, 110.

27 Hearings, p. 1743.

28 Hearings, pp. 1667, 1693.

29 Hearings, pp. 132, 111.

30 Hearings, pp. 229–73.

31 Hearings, pp. 845–46, 1725.

32 Hearings, pp. 853–58, 1087, 1724.

33 Hearings, pp. 1516–38.

34 Hearings, pp. 6–75.

35 Hearings, pp. 25–26.

36 Hearings, pp. 77–208.

37 Hearings, p. 956.

38 Hearings, pp. 1551–78.

39 In the 68th to 75th Congresses, except for the 71st.

40 Hearings, pp. 392–428.

41 Hearings, pp. 573–603.

42 Consider this fine exchange:

Mr. Carey: There are no such things as “natural economic laws.”

Senator Millikin: Who repealed those?

Mr. Carey: They never existed.

Senator Millikin: My God! That is astounding information.

Mr. Carey: In the first place, economic laws are a prostitution of the aims of nature, whose first purpose is to fill the needs of man … (Hearings, p. 576. Emphasis added).

43 Hearings, p. 800.

44 Hearings, pp. 668–69.

45 Hearings, pp. 691–99.

46 Congress: Its Contemporary Role (cited in note 7), p. 63.

47 Hearings, pp. 1205, 1718. Millikin is an example of the lawyer in Congress: his biography in the Congressional Directory includes law, the army, and politics, but not the oil business.

48 Hearings, p. 1316.

49 See Bendiner, Robert in “The Apostasy of Homer Capehart,” The Reporter, May 12, 1953, pp. 30–32Google Scholar, for an interesting description of the Senator's discomfiting experience.

50 Hearings, p. 1673.

51 See Latham, Earl, The Group Basis of Politics (Ithaca, N. Y., 1952)Google Scholar.

52 See Jacobson, Eugene, Charters, W. W. Jr., and Lieberman, Seymour, “The Use of the Role Concept in the Study of Complex Organizations,” The Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 7, pp. 18–27 (No. 3, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the publications of the Survey Research Center, University of Michigan, which are listed there.

53 The statements used in this section were all selected because they were made many times. Therefore, no attempt will be made to document them except where a particular quotation is used by way of illustration. For a representative Administration statement of the World War I experience, see the testimony of John D. Small, head of the Civilian Production Administration, at pp. 1449–50.

54 Hearings, pp. 206–7.

55 Hearings, pp. 1585–86.

56 Hearings, p. 198.

57 Hearings, p. 608.

58 Hearings, p. 39.

59 Hearings, p. 1450.

60 Hearings, p. 866.

61 Hearings, p. 1243.

62 Hearings, p. 674.

63 Hearings, pp. 301–4.

64 Hearings. See, for example, pp. 82, 155–56, 159–62, 783–84, 1580, 1727.

65 Hearings, pp. 138–45.

66 See the list of OPA personnel connected with pricing of textile industries, Hearings, pp. 118–25.

67 Hearings, pp. 1272, 1760, 1874–76.

68 Hearings, p. 1713.

69 Hearings, pp. 1185–86, 1356, 971, 1356. See p. 971 particularly for the contrast in the images of OPA held by the president of the National Apartment Owners' Association and by Senator Glen Taylor.

70 Hearings, pp. 1311, 1319.

71 Hearings, p. 1492.

72 Hearings, p. 1718.

73 Hearings, p. 1691. This remarkable cross-examination is worth a complete reading. See pp. 1663–1705.

74 Hearings, p. 971.

75 See the colloquy of Taft, and Bowles, , Hearings, p. 58Google Scholar.

76 Hearings, pp. 654–65. Significantly, the only group chosen for comparative purposes is labor.

77 Hearings, p. 667. Emphasis added. Contrast the attack on NAM by James Patton, president of the Farmers Union, pp. 694–98.

78 Hearings, pp. 787–93. Emphasis added.

79 Hearings, pp. 870–71, 1449–51, 1461–62, 1708–9.

80 Hearings, p. 867.

81 Hearings, p. 42. Perhaps the most remarkable piece of statistical gymnastics was performed by James Carey, CIO, who put corporate profits during the war years at 52 billion dollars (before or after taxes?). Although he stated that 25.9 billions had been paid to stockholders, he then said: “For every dollar of these unused reserves [sic] it means one hour of unemployment for some American worker. In other words, $52,000,000,000 means 52,000,000,000 man-hours of unemployment” (p. 585).

82 For representative examples of these exchanges, see Hearings, pp. 47–48, 286, 807, 987, 1589–90, 1623–25.

83 Resolution of United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO, Hearings, pp. 641–44Google Scholar; testimony of James Patton, pp. 698–99.

84 Hearings, pp. 1209–10.

85 Hearings, pp. 395–402.

86 Hearings, pp. 604–9.

87 Public Opinion (New York, 1922), p. 125Google Scholar.

88 This was the central idea of Lippmann's Public Opinion. See especially Mannheim, Karl, Ideology and Utopia (New York, 1951)Google Scholar, and Merton's, Ralph K. essay, “The Sociology of Knowledge,” in Twentieth Century Sociology, eds. Gurvitch, G. and Moore, W. E. (New York, 1945)Google Scholar.

89 See the distinction between process and behavior made by Easton, David in The Political System (New York, 1953), pp. 203–6Google Scholar.

90 A Twentieth Century Congress (cited in note 7), p. 156.

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