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First and Second Sessions of the Sixty-Eighth Congress: December 3, 1923 to June 7, 1924; December 1, 1924 to March 4, 19251

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Lindsay Rogers
Lindsay Rogers
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

The Sixty-eighth Congress had only two sessions. Not since the Sixty-fourth Congress (1915–17) had members enjoyed such lengthy vacations, for, of the Congresses since 1900, seven have had special sessions. This now seems to be the rule rather than the exception, so numerous and technical are the problems that confront the national legislature.

The President and Congress. Four months before the Congress met, Mr. Harding died and Mr. Coolidge succeeded to the Presidency. The first session ran its course under the shadow of the approaching Presidential election.

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , November 1925 , pp. 761 - 772
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1925

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References

2 The nomination to the cabinet which was rejected was that of Charles B. Warren as Attorney General. It had been sent to the Senate by President Coolidge on January 10, 1925, but action was postponed because a contest was certain and because the time of the Senate would be fully taken up with legislation. The objections to Mr. Warren were that he had been too closely associated with the Sugar Trust. The name was resubmitted to the Senate at the special session on March 10 and a 40–40 tie vote (Vice-President Dawes enjoying a siesta and being absent inadvertently) prevented the confirmation. Two days later the name was resubmitted and after an acrimonious debate was rejected by a vote of 46–39. Although the President positively said that he would offer Mr. Warren a recess appointment, he gave way quickly and submitted the name of John G. Sargent as Attorney General. It was the most stinging rebuke that any President had received in many years. The six previous cases of Senate refusal to confirm nominations to the cabinet were following:

Roger B. Taney, subsequently Chief Justice of the United States, was rejected in 1834 as Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson; Caleb Cushing, nominated by President Tyler to be Secretary of the Treasury, was rejected in 1843, but twelve years later became Attorney General; James M. Porter of Pennsylvania, nominated by President Tyler to be Secretary of War, was rejected in 1843, and another Pennsylvanian, William Wilkins, was named; David Henshaw of Massachusetts, nominated by President Tyler to be Secretary of the Navy, also received an unfavorable vote; Henry Stanberry was rejected when named by President Johnson in 1866 to be Attorney General.

3 At the first session the President vetoed three bills; the Bonus Bill (repassed over his veto); the Bursum Pension Bill (veto sustained in the Senate); and the Edge Bill for the increase of the salaries of postal employees. This was disapproved because it did not raise the necessary revenue and consideration of the President's action was postponed until the short session when the measure, amended to include an increase in postal rates, became law. This amendment was inserted in the Senate, and the House on February 3, 1925 returned the bill on the ground that the Senate had violated the House prerogative of originating bills to raise revenue.

On January 29th the Senate (71–3) adopted as a rider to the postal pay increase bill an amendment offered by Senator Walsh of Massachusetts setting up a Federal Corrupt Practices Act. In the House the bill was passed under suspension of rules (see below).

There were no presidential vetoes during the short session of the Congress.

4 On February 27, 1925, Representative Nicholas Longworth of Ohio was nominated for Speaker by the Republican caucus of the House and will be elected by the Sixty-ninth Congress. In February and in March the regular Republican organization of the Senate and the House decided on committee assignments which would ignore the insurgents in both bodies and give them only minority places on the various committees. Senators Ladd and LaFollette were deprived of chairmanships and LaFollette was dropped to the bottom of the powerful Finance Committee. Senator George H. Moses for New Hampshire was elected President pro tempore vice Senator Cummins of Iowa who retired. The commit tee assignments were made after an increase by one in the membership of the more important standing committees in order to give each senator two major committee memberships.

5 For a detailed consideration of the reasons for and the effects of these changes in the rules see Political Science Quarterly, Supplement, Record of Political Events, March, 1925, pp. 66–70.

6 For the matters on which special orders were reported in the Sixty-seventh Congress and the first session of the Sixty-eighth Congress, see ibid., pp. 69–70.

7 See American Political Science Review, vol. 15, p. 80.

8 For further details on the first session of the Sixty-eighth Congress, see Political Science Quarterly, Supplement, Record of Political Events, March, 1925.

9 Congressional Record, March 16, 1925, p. 5720.

10 These figures are in part taken from the Congressional Digest, March, 1925, page 201.

11 For the dates in previous sessions see American Political Science Review, Volume 13, p. 260, etc.

12 Comparison of Budget Estimates and Appropriations, Sixty-eighth Congress, Second Session. Arranged by Appropriation Acts.

13 Congressional Record, March 16, 1925, p. 5722.

14 First year: Budget estimates consisting of estimates submitted in the first Budget, fiscal year 1923, and of supplemental and deficiency estimates submitted during the period from July 12, 1921, to June 30, 1922, for the fiscal year 1922 and prior fiscal years, were reduced by……………………………. $312,361,792.27

Second year: Budget estimates consisting of estimates submitted in the second Budget, fiscal year 1924, and supplemental and deficiency estimates sub-mitted during the period from July 9, 1922, to March 4, 1923, for the fiscal year 1923 and prior fiscal years, were reduced by……………………………. 10,741,504.15

Third year: Budget estimates consisting of estimates submitted in the third Budget, fiscal year 1925, and supplemental and deficiency estimates submitted during the period from December 3, 1923, to July 7, 1924, for the fiscal year 1924 and prior fiscal years, were reduced by……………………………. 12,111,246.92

Fourth year: Budget estimates consisting of estimates submitted in the fourth Budget, fiscal year 1926, and supplemental and deficiency estimates submitted during the period from December 1, 1924, to March 4, 1925, for the fiscal year 1925, and prior fiscal years, were reduced by…………………. 11,125,847.08

Total reduction effected by Congress in the estimates covering the four budget years………………. 346,340,390.42

15 The Muscle Shoals Bill failed. It was returned to ohe conference committee by the Senate because new matter had been inserted. For a full discussion of this important point in the Senate's rules, see Congressional Record, February 19, 1925, p. 4270 ff.

16 Between December 12 and March 18 the Senate ratified nineteen treaties. This, according to Senator Borah, constituted a record. Three treaties were to assist in the enforcement of the liquor laws, and the others related to trademarks, commerce, extradition, narcotics, etc. During the long session of Congress, six treaties were ratified between the United States and Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Italy to aid in the prevention of smuggling intoxicating liquors into the United States.

17 On February 3, 1925, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the Naval Appropriations Bill requesting the President to call another con ference for the limitation of armament. The same day the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported with a favorable recommendation a resolution endorsing the World Court and expressing the “earnest desire” of the House that the Govern ment give its “early adherence” to the protocol with the reservations recom mended by Presidents Harding and Coolidge. The right of the House to make such a pronouncement on foreign policy is upheld in an elaborate and able report prepared by Representative Burton, Sixty-eighth Congress, 2d Session, House Report No. 1569.

18 For a criticism of Mr. Coolidge's appointments to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Tariff Commission, see an article by Senator Norris, George W., “Boring from Within.” The Nation, September 16, 1925.Google ScholarPubMed

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