Word: congressed
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...assign much of the blame to the White House, however, is to pass the buck. Congress has traditionally acted on the principle that slack is beautiful. And the fact is that during nearly 40 years dominated for the most part by activist, innovative Presidents, Congress grew accustomed to reacting to executive initiatives rather than originating major legislation. During the relatively quiescent Eisenhower years, Sam Rayburn in the House and Lyndon Johnson in the Senate provided strong party leadership, giving the opposition Democrats a measure of cohesion and guidance. Speaker John McCormack and Senate Leader Mike Mansfield offer no comparable direction...
Historic Obligation. More aggressive members of Congress, many of them youngish liberals, want Capitol Hill to act more vigorously on urban ills, poverty, pollution of the environment, education and health services, and many other problems. For activist Democrats, particularly, a cautious Republican Administration seemed to offer an opportunity to make both an independent record and political points. When he ousted Louisiana's Russell Long as Senate Majority Whip in January, Ted Kennedy talked of the Democrats' "obligation to the country to present the best possible programs in keeping with our historic role as the party of progress...
Dirksen observes that Congress lacks not only White House guidance but a sense of popular direction. "A lot of people," says he, "don't seem to know whether they want anything from Congress right now or not." Until they find out, Republicans are generally content to wait on the President, while many Democrats are satisfied to defend existing domestic programs...
...Tranquilizers. Even when Nixon has made specific recommendations, Congress has been slow to move. He has proposed a social security benefit increase and a fiscal package that includes retention of the income tax surcharge. He has sent up measures on law enforcement, pornography control, Selective Service reform, foreign aid, Post Office reorganization and Electoral College revision. Some of these and other proposals came relatively late, after Congress' Easter recess in April, and are just getting into the committee machinery. But on the social security issue, House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills has already let it be known that...
...White House into formulating a much broader food-distribution program for the poor than had previously been envisioned. Vigorous Senate opposition to the anti-ballistic missile system forced the Administration to overhaul the plan and is now delaying approval of the new proposal. Torpid and disorganized as it seems, Congress nonetheless retains considerable power-far more, in fact, than some of its own senior members are willing to exercise...