THE CONGRESS: Return of King Caucus

Liberal rank-and-file Democrats in the House of Representatives had long been seething at the independence and aloofness of some of the chamber’s committee chairmen. So too had House Speaker Carl Albert and Majority Leader Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill. With the election of 75 new Democratic Congressmen in November, the pressures for change mounted. But when they finally burst the restraints of tradition last week, the results were astonishing. For the House, that glacially sluggish institution, it amounted to a revolution.

The forum for revolt was the House Democratic Caucus, which consists of all 291 Democrats who will begin new terms in January. Long an ineffectual debating society for the party’s many factions, it emerged dramatically as an instrument of power. The moderate leadership and ambitious rebels combined to move first against the House Ways and Means Committee and its once indomitable chairman, Wilbur Mills. Earlier this year the House had voted to force Mills to subdivide his committee into four subcommittees with separate chairmen and thus dilute his authority. Angered at his unwillingness to act on such legislation as national health insurance and tax reform, the liberals now aimed to relieve Mills of all but his chairman’s gavel.

Almost suicidally, Mills forfeited any real fight. Instead of staying in Washington to rally the support of other influential chairmen and senior Ways and Means members, he went to Boston for a highly public weekend visit with his celebrated Tidal Basin cohort,

Stripper Fanne Foxe (see following stones). Mills returned to Washington to attend the caucus on Monday, surprisingly unaware of impending personal disaster.

Grinning and handshaking, he proclaimed: “Everything is fine. I’m all right.” But when Florida’s Sam Gibbons observed that Ways and Means members were “sensitive about stripping,” snickers followed. Offended, Mills stalked out of the caucus.

This saved him from more direct humiliation. In four days of meetings, the caucus voted to take the power to assign all House committee members—a vital source of Mills’ influence—away from Ways and Means and give it to the Democratic Steering Committee, which consists of the House leaders and other influential party members. This in effect gives Speaker Albert an appointive power not held by a House leader since it was carved away from the autocratic Speaker “Uncle Joe” Cannon in 1910. The caucus voted to increase Mills’ committee to 37 members, including 25 Democrats, and thus permit an influx of younger, more liberal Representatives. As Mills went into a hospital, Albert made it clear that the Steering Committee will not even permit Mills to retain his chairmanship.

Key Group. Aiming more broadly than at just Ways and Means, the caucus voted to give Albert authority to name members of the House Rules Committee, a key group in getting legislation moving. The caucus also decided that Democrats should hold two-thirds plus one of the seats on each committee, and in a further warning to entrenched chairmen, the caucus made heads of House Appropriations subcommittees subject to its approval.

The caucus elected an outspoken and highly ambitious liberal, California’s Phillip Burton, as its chairman.

Symbolic of the shifting tides, the caucus even dismissed the House’s familiar, deep-voiced doorkeeper, William M.

(“Fishbait”) Miller, who has been announcing the arrival of the President to address joint sessions of Congress throughout most of the past 24 years. Members felt that he had been neglecting them, giving too many gallery passes to his friends instead of theirs, and replaced him with James T. Molloy, the chamber’s popular disbursing clerk.

The changes do not necessarily portend a runaway gush of liberal legislation. Speaker Albert has so far not shown any dynamic leadership for pushing such bills or for taking full advantage of his potential power. Senior and more conservative Democrats still have practical influence as chairmen of many committees. Yet the changes, coupled with an increasingly liberal Senate, suggest that Congress will sharply challenge President Ford’s view of desirable legislation. Even without the caucus reforms, Congress has already overridden four Ford vetoes—only one less than throughout the 5% Nixon years.