Following the 1930 midterm elections, the outlook for party divisions in the U.S. House of Representatives was 218 to 217. By the time the 72nd Congress opened in December 1931, a total of 14 Members-elect had died. The special elections to fill their vacancies before the new term opened would upend the House majority.
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On December 7, 1925, Opening Day of the 69th Congress (1925–1927), a triumphant Nicholas Longworth of Ohio stood atop the House rostrum to claim the gavel and take the oath of office as Speaker. Longworth, who first won election to the House in 1902, had celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday just a month earlier. He had long wanted to run the House and now found himself the thirty-eighth Speaker in large part because he had played the long game on Capitol Hill.
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On December 3, 1923, just hours into Opening Day of the 68th Congress (1923–1925), Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, the newly installed House Republican Leader, surveyed his fractious majority as it deadlocked over the election of the Speaker. Over the course of four votes that day, a small but determined cohort of progressive Republicans had stifled the party’s leadership, including Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts.
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On April 2, 1917, 428 Members-elect of the 65th Congress (1917–1919) gathered under unusual circumstances in the House Chamber to open the new legislative term. Because neither Republicans nor Democrats seemed set to capture an outright majority in the House, attention came to center on the handful of third-party lawmakers whose votes were pivotal to determining the Speaker election.
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Each Opening Day in the House of Representatives is an exciting, often historic, event. Recently elected Members, often accompanied by their families, swear their oaths of office and snap pictures with new colleagues and congressional leaders. Special furniture and House artifacts are brought out of storage for an event that happens only once every two years. This Edition for Educators throws the House Chamber doors wide open for Opening Day!
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The debate in Congress over the Apportionment Act of 1842 had been brutal, and foes of the bill remained steadfast in their opposition. For 18 months, from Tyler’s signing statement in the summer of 1842 to the opening of the 28th Congress (1843–1845) in December 1843, the question lingered: Was the Apportionment Act law or merely a suggestion?
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Art on September 2, 2020
The year 1913 dawned with a conundrum. There were 401 desks and chairs in the crowded House Chamber and 440 people who needed a seat when Congress convened in the spring. How could each Member of Congress claim a chair?
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Art on January 10, 2019
New Members-elect crowd into a committee room in the Rayburn House Office Building, plunging into the centuries-old struggle over real estate known as the office lottery.
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It was only natural that Jeannette Rankin of Montana repeatedly made history on April 2, 1917, the day she was sworn in as the first woman to serve in Congress.
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On March 6, 1941, Alabama Representative Luther Patrick gave advice to new Members from the House Floor. His 32-point list detailed the dos and don’ts of congressional behavior. If only he took his own advice.
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Art on January 3, 2017
Every two years, as mandated in Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution, the U.S. House of Representatives starts a new legislative session, known as a Congress. Using longstanding precedent and a few highly visible artifacts, the House embarks on the pomp and ritual of its biennial Opening Day.
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Do you remember having jitters on the first day at a new school? It could be a strange environment with unfamiliar classrooms, new teachers, and fidgety students who wanted to be somewhere else. New Members of Congress have had similar feelings.
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