Reform of the Rules Committee

Archive Report

Rules Committee and the Truman Program

Administration Concern Over Rules Committee

The make-up and future functioning of the Rules Committee of the House are matters of special concern to the Truman administration as it prepares its legislative program for the 81st Congress. The President's party will have absolute majorities of 90 in the House and 12 in the Senate of the new Congress,1 but the administration can have no assurance that controversial measures on its program will reach the statute books if it lacks the cooperation of the Rules Committee of the lower chamber.

The Rules Committee has been the most troublesome of all committees of Congress to President Truman, as it was to President Roosevelt before him. It controls the timetable of the House. As a ...

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