Record of the 84th Congress (First Session)

Report Outline
Eisenhower Successes and Failures
Government Finances
Foreign Relations
National Defense, Civilian Protection, Internal Security
Business, Farm, and Labor Legislation
Public Power and Natural Gas Controversies
Social Welfare Legislation
Machinery of Government
Special Focus

Eisenhower Successes and Failures

Divided responsibility for government brought an unexpectedly harmonious session of Congress in 1955, with nothing resembling the “cold war of partisan politics” predicted by President Eisenhower if the Democratic party came into control of the Legislative Branch. Administration measures fared about as well during the first session of the 84th Congress as in the preceding Republican Congress.

Democrats supported presidential policies they held to be “for the good of the country”—many of them policies originated during the New Deal and the Fair Deal—but attempted in many cases to carry them farther than the President desired. At the same time, the President received stronger support from the right wing of his own party than during the first two years of his administration. This was due to the continuing personal popularity of the Chief Executive and to doubt that the G.O.P. could win with any other candidate in 1956. The Eisenhower wing, a relatively small minority in 1953–54, exercised dominant influence among Republican members of Congress in 1955.

While many of the measures sent to the White House contained compromises distasteful to the President, the only major bill he felt compelled to veto was one proposing a pay raise for postal workers which he considered excessive.