Legislations. Regulations. Standards

Abstract

The 95th Congress which convened in January 1977 was a Congress radically different from its immediate predecessors. About 150 members are either in their first or second terms in the 95th Congress. For tytwo Senators, almost half the total membership are serving their first term. Less than 100 members of the new House and Senate were members on 20 January 1961 when John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as President. Most observers agree that the new members are younger, bet ter educated, more aggressive and certainly less influenced by tradit ion. Seniority is a bad word among the new membership. Many of the lions from yesterday are no longer around: Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D--Montana) retired at the end of the 94th Congress as did Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R--Pennsylvania). Speaker Carl Albert (D--Oklahoma) has s tepped down, along with Wilbur Mills (D-Arkansas), former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and Les Arens (R--Illinois), a long time Republican leadership figure. The 94th Congress, with its heavy influx of freshman Democrats, radically changed Congressional procedure. The freshmen began by toppling many old guard commit tee chairmen Bob Poage in Agriculture and F. Edward Herbert in Armed Services. Wayne Hays saw his f iefdom in House Rules and Administrat ion cut back and he resigned his seat after the sex scandal that rocked his Committee and the House. The new members care less about seniority and committee chairman now serve at the sufference of commit tee members. Patty discipline, in spite of the efforts of the Demoncratic caucus to enforce it, is considerably diminished. The new leadership is vastly different from the old. Robert Byrd (D-Wes t Virginia) succeeded Mike Mansfield as Majority Leader by virtue of his at tent ion to detail, mastery of Senate procedure and concern for the welfare of the members. He is a quiet, efficient technician and a far cry from the f lamboyant and dramatic Lyndon Johnson who dominated the Senate in the fifties. Howard Baker (R--Tennessee), Everett Dirksen's son-in-law, was a surprise winner as Minority Leader. He beat Bob Griffin (R-Michigan) by only one vote. On the House side, it is difficult to imagine a sharper contrast than the one between Carl Albert and his successor as Speaker, Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill. Albert was small, soft spoken, shy and passive. O'Neill is huge, l~oud, outgoing and assertive. Jim Wright (D-Texas) , a moderate, was a surprise victor to succeed O'Neill as Majority Leader, narrowly beating three rivals, including the liberal favorite Phil Burton (D--California), former leader of the Democratic Caucus. At the beginning of the 95th Congress, smart money said six issues would dominate: the economy and tax policy, health care, welfare reform, nuclear proliferation, the energy question, and finally international affairs. The smart money, as usual, was right. In all cases, the Congress will be looking to the new President for leadership, and, for the first time in eight years, he will be of the same party as the leadership in the Congress. We will be turning to two of the issues nuclear proliferation and the national energy policy later on in this article. The big question is how will the 95th Congress get along with President Carter. Even as we begin the second session, it probably is really too soon to say. There were