Word: rayburns
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Thus, at their caucus on the Saturday before Congress convened, the Democrats made sure that henceforth things would be different. They did it by simply canceling a gentlemanly, if arbitrary, agreement made years ago between the late Speaker Sam Rayburn and G.O.P. Leader Joe Martin, to the effect that the ratio of party memberships on the two committees would be frozen, no matter what the makeup of the House. On Ways and Means, the majority party had 15, the minority 10, and on Appropriations the ratio was 30 to 20. The caucus voted to reject that standing ratio and make...
...mighty Rules Committee, which must pass on every bill before it goes to a floor vote. Until 1961 Virginia's conservative Democrat Howard ("Judge") Smith had almost dictatorial powers, because of a coalition with Republicans. Smith's strength was dissipated in 1961 when John Kennedy and Speaker Rayburn rammed through a change in committee membership. But Lyndon's lieutenants in Congress wanted to take no chances of any kind, and the caucus approved new rules that would give Speaker McCormack broad powers to release any bill bogged down in the Rules Committee for more than 21 days...
...Congressman from 1937 to 1948, Johnson learned his politics from a couple of masters, Roosevelt and fellow Texan Sam Rayburn. Once, he wanted F.D.R.'s approval for an electrification project in his Tenth District, but found that every time he got into the oval office, Roosevelt dominated the conversation and waved him out before he had a chance to make his pitch. It is a technique that Johnson has since emulated with great success. In any case, Lyndon learned that Roosevelt was a sucker for photos of dams, brought along a batch of big glossy prints the next time...
...Democratic landslide brought liberals back into power in 1958, and they made an attempt to revive the rule. They were bought off by Speaker Rayburn's promise that no important bills would be held up by Rules; Rayburn admitted his own failure when he packed the committee two years later...
...Spoke by White House telephone for commissioning ceremonies at Newport News, Va., for the Nuclear Submarine Sam Rayburn...