Word: rayburns
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...Some of Rayburn's predecessors as Speaker, notably Maine Republican Thomas Reed in the 1890s and Illinois Republican Joseph Cannon in the 1900s, were autocrats who ruled over the House like absolute monarchs. Sam Rayburn, though he exudes an authority that some times makes junior Congressmen quail when he speaks gruffly, has operated in the style of Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, trying to get his way through persuasion and leadership. He has been called "the greatest compromiser since the Great Compromiser." To all new Democratic Congressmen he recites two rules: 1) "To get along, go along...
...House passed the 21-day rule, a "liberal" reform which provided that a bill could be called up by the chairman of any committee after the Rules Committee had blocked it for 21 days. In the next Congress, the 21-day rule was politely killed with Speaker Sam Rayburn looking on approvingly. Reason: too many embarrassing bills were coming to the floor...
...rules," which permits only 40 minutes of debate and no amendments. But an important item of legislation has little prospect of getting by in this way, because suspension of the rules requires a two-thirds majority. Three times since Judge Smith became Rules Committee chairman in 1955, Sam Rayburn has tried to get a blocked bill past the Rules Committee through suspension of the rules, and all three times he failed...
...discharge petition. Still another route is the "Calendar Wednesday" procedure. On Wednesdays, a committee chairman can call a bill to the floor without the consent of the Rules Committee, but under conditions that make it possible for opponents to stall the bill to death. Last year Sam Rayburn used the Calendar Wednesday method to rescue a depressed-areas bill from Judge Smith's clutches, but that was the first time the device had been used since...
...Rules Committee, including Howard Smith, rebelled against the New Deal because of Franklin Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court and his proposal to set a 40?-an-hour minimum wage (strenuously opposed by owners of Southern textile and lumber mills). From 1937 on, all during Sam Rayburn's years as Speaker, the coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats successfully dominated the Rules Committee...