Chairmanships in Congress

Archive Report

Committee Chairmen in Congressional Government

The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, which came into effect at the opening of the present Congress, failed to deal with two problems of prime importance in the conduct of legislative business. It made no provision for control of Senate filibusters or for change in the seniority system of awarding committee chairmanships. The problem of dealing with Senate filibusters presents no technical difficulties; many remedies are at hand whenever there is a will to apply them.1 Reform of the seniority system, on the other hand, raises complicated questions to which no easy answers can be given.

The report of the LaFollette-Monroney Committee on the Organization of Congress, which formed the basis of the Reorganization Act, was devoted in the main to ...

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