History of Congress and the Capitol

In 1948, Americans watched anxiously as a dramatic espionage tale unfolded in the House of Representatives. Whittaker Chambers, a Time editor, confessed to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that he’d been a spy for the Soviet Union. Chambers accused a former State Department official, Alger Hiss, of being among his Communist contacts.

Hiss fiercely denied the charge. Representative Richard Nixon of California, suspecting that Hiss was lying, convinced Chambers to produce microfilm documents from Hiss—documents that Chambers had hidden on his farm in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Hiss sued for libel, but was convicted of perjury in 1950 and sent to prison. The Hiss–Chambers confrontation riveted the nation, triggering widespread espionage fears and spurring further congressional investigations.

Many in Congress dealt with racial discrimination by ignoring it. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York insisted on breaking the silence.

In the 1930s and 1940s, a “Conservative Coalition” of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” saying that all this federal legislation weakened states’ rights. Many also fought federal attempts to end segregation, arguing that states should decide for themselves. During World War II, Representative Powell, a flamboyant Harlem minister and African-American leader, forced the House to address discrimination.

Powell challenged segregation in the Capitol itself, fought to repeal the poll tax that disenfranchised black voters, and pressed to integrate the military. His amendments banning federal funds for projects supporting segregation made him “Mr. Civil Rights,” forcing the House to confront the issue until Congress outlawed segregation in 1964.

“The issues before us are legal, but more than that, moral and ethical.”
—Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York, 1956

“A vote against Powell would seem to be a vote against the Constitution.”
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Congress often studies issues for months or years, waiting for the right moment to act. Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was a master of such timing.

President Lyndon Johnson had proposed mandatory hospital insurance for the elderly. Mills, convinced that the House was not ready to approve the measure, maintained his “one-man veto,” not letting it come to a vote. “It’s a waste of time to bring out a bill if you can’t pass it,” Mills declared. Then, in 1964, Johnson’s landslide election victory helped bring a flood of new Democrats to the House. Mills now felt that an even more ambitious bill could succeed. Additional programs were added, including doctor visits and medical care for the needy.

“Like everyone else in the room, I was stunned. It was the most brilliant legislative move I’d seen in thirty years.”
-Health, Education, and Welfare Undersecretary Wilbur Cohen, 1966

The shocks and turmoil of the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal brought major government reforms. These changes forged much of the character that defines the House today.

Demands for greater openness in government meant fewer closed committee meetings. The House installed electronic voting systems in 1973, and in 1979 began televising its debates. Committees continued to do important work behind the scenes, but the televised proceedings became increasingly important.

The House also began choosing committee chairs through party caucuses rather than by seniority. This too shifted more power to party leaders and individual members, and away from committee leaders. These and other changes have helped the House to enter the 21st century a more open and responsive instrument of representative democracy.

They wanted to change the Congress of the United States; which they did.”
— Speaker “Tip” O’Neill on the new representatives he called “Watergate Babies"