Word: colmer
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Five Democrats will probably support the measure in the committee; five Republicans, along with chairman Howard Smith (D.Va.) and Rep. William Colmer (D-Miss.) are certain to oppose...
...House members, had been used by congressional leaders to lure reluctant Congressmen into supporting what they didn't want (national aid to education) in order to get what they did want (federal school aid for their home districts). For example, Mississippi's Democratic Representative William Colmer, who helped block the national bills in the House Rules Committee, turned around and voted for the impacted-areas bill, under which he will get $1,245,000 for school construction, maintenance and operation in his district. The two-year bill will diminish incentive for any general aid bill proposed next year...
During the 86th Congress, in 1959-60, Virginia's wily old Howard Worth Smith, chairman of the Rules Committee, had made up an unsplittable conservative bloc with the committee's four Republican members plus Mississippi's William Colmer. Because most major bills require positive action by the Rules Committee, the six conservatives were able to use a 6-to-6 deadlock to stall any legislation they disliked. By adding two new Democrats and only one Republican, Sam Rayburn expected to tilt the 6-to-6 standoff to an 8-to-7 majority. So much was at issue...
...Kennedy rebels wanted to purge Mississippi's William Colmer from the committee and replace him with a Rayburn man. Colmer seemed fair game since he had supported the independent presidential-elector slate in Mississippi rather than Kennedy-Johnson". Rayburn vacillated between the purge and his three-new-member plan, a less drastic break with House traditions and Southern feelings. His mind once made up on committee packing, he announced a "binding" Democratic caucus, a rare device by which a two-thirds vote can bind all members of the party to vote for a particular proposal. Again Mister Sam wavered...
...Democrats were men who would go along at Rayburn's bidding-and Mister Sam would see to that-the change would drastically curb Smith's power. In the past, Smith formed a bloc with the committee's four Republicans, plus Mississippi's conservative William M. Colmer. Since nearly all major bills require a positive O.K. from the Rules Committee before they can come to the House floor, these six conservatives were able to stall liberal legislation with a 6-6 tie vote. Under the Rayburn plan, Mister Sam would have an 8-to-7 committee majority...