Word: chairmens
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...rebellion in the House was directed at one of the most encrusted of all congressional institutions: the seniority system, under which committee chairmen have long been selected and automatically reaffirmed at each session, solely on the basis of their length of service in office. In a confused series of events, no fewer than four of the arbitrary elderly chairmen of House committees were at least temporarily deposed. Although two were fighting to regain their posts, and no successor was certain of approval in any of the four positions, the action jolted the leaders of all 21 House committees into...
...four years and thus was technically a freshly man again, they invited all the chair men to meet individually with them to answer questions about committee procedures and policy. "No one turned us down," reported Ottinger, who noted that he had never even met some of the formerly aloof chairmen in his previous six years in Congress. But now, figuratively hat in hand, the aging power brokers faced their upstart inquisitors...
...these four chairmen become the targets of the rebellion? Although all but Patman are conservatives, the four were shot down more because of the autocratic manner in which they have dominated their committees than because of ideology. Hebert, who has represented a New Orleans-area district for 34 years, is a witty but stubborn cold warrior who has rarely challenged Pentagon policy. Poage, a raspy-voiced Texan who was elected to Congress in 1936, has been an advocate of farm subsidies and opponent of liberalizing food-stamp programs. Ohio's Hays, serving his 14th term, highhandedly controlled many congressional...
...Senate Republicans, for example, elected Nebraska's four-term Carl Curtis, a conservative and last-ditch defender of Richard Nixon, as chairman of the Republican Conference, over New York's liberal Jacob Javits. Although the Senate Democratic Caucus continued its practice of naming committee chairmen on the basis of seniority for the current two-year Congress, it decided to follow the lead of the House for the session beginning in 1977; at that time the caucus will select chairmen by secret ballot. The Democrats also voted to open all committee meetings and joint House-Senate conference deliberations...
...Hill that newcomers never dared seek before. Since Albert and the leadership have made caucus king once again, the freshmen are aware of the weight their numbers carry. As long as they agree among themselves, what they say goes. They have even summoned the once imperious committee chairmen to appear before them one by one to state their position on the party program. If the chairmen try to behave with their traditional independence and ignore party instructions, they risk being removed. Such a strengthening of the opposition party means a rougher scrap for Ford on the Hill...