ABSTRACT
The Republican Congress elected in 1994 brought to Washington more than its Contract with America. Speaker Newt Gingrich’s platform for his party’s ascendency included ten highly visible changes that he hoped to make in the American political landscape, including a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, a five-hundred-dollar-per-child tax credit, limitations on punitive damages, and term limits for members of Congress.1 Congress eventually passed into law a few of the Contract’s terms. Others died quietly. Meanwhile, many veteran Republican legislators who had served for a decade or more as members of a relatively powerless minority, particularly in the House, returned to Capitol Hill in January 1995 as chairs of the committees or subcommittees that in Democratic hands had repeatedly rejected their initiatives. Whatever might happen to the most visible issues highlighted by the Contract with America, they were suddenly in a position to enact into law a large number of other Republican proposals that previously never had a chance of passage.
