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![About the SRC - History of the SRC About the SRC - History of the SRC](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090111211233im_/http://src.senate.gov/public/_images/headers/aboutsrc.historyofsrc.jpg)
The Republican Conference of the United States Senate is a descendant
of the early American party caucuses that decided party policies,
approved appointees, and selected candidates. The meetings were
private, and early records of the deliberations do not exist. Senate
Republicans began taking formal minutes only in 1911, and they began
referring to their organization as the "conference" in 1913. An early
outgrowth of the effort to enhance party unity was the creation in 1874
of a Steering Committee to prepare a legislative schedule for
consideration by the Conference. The Committee became a permanent part
of the Republican organization.<>
The Steering Committee, formalized Republican "leadership" in the 19th
century was minimal; most legislative guidance came from powerful
committee chairmen managing particular bills. The Conference began to
acquire significance, however, with the election of Senator William B.
Allison of Iowa as Chairman in 1897, and during the terms of successors
such as Senator Orville H. Platt of Connecticut and Senator Nelson W.
Aldrich of Rhode Island. The Chairman in 1915, Senator Jacob H.
Gallinger of New Hampshire, who two years earlier had elected a Whip to
maintain a quorum to conduct Senate business. Senator James W.
Wadsworth, Jr. of New York was elected both Conference Secretary and
Whip; a week later the responsibilities were divided between Senator
Wadsworth as Secretary and Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas, who was
elected Whip.
The Conference continued to meet in private to assure confidentiality
and candor. This practice was suspended only once, on May 27, 1919,
when the Conference reaffirmed its commitment to the seniority system
for choosing committee chairmen by electing Senator Boies Penrose of
Pennsylvania as Chairman of the Finance Committee over objections from
Progressive Republican insurgents. (This was apparently the first and
only open party conference in the history of the Senate.)
During this period, the Chairman also served as informal floor leader.
One reason for the lack of a formal post was the fact that committee
chairmen usually took responsibility to move to proceed to the
consideration of measures reported by their respective committees and
managed the legislation on the floor. The first recorded Conference
election of a formal Floor Leader was held March 5, 1925, when the
Conference Chairman, Senator Curtis of Kansas, was unanimously chosen
to serve in both posts.
Throughout the 1920s, when Republicans held the Senate majority, the
Conference met chiefly at the beginning of each session to make
committee assignments; for the remainder of the session, Members were
notified of the order of business by mail. This slow pace continued
through the 1930s, when Republican Senators were so few that they
dispensed with a permanent Whip, and the Conference Chairman and Floor
Leader, Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon, appointed Senators to
serve as Whip on particular pieces of legislation.
Senator McNary died in 1944, and the posts of Conference Chairman and
Floor Leader were separated in 1945. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of
Michigan became Chairman and Senator Wallace H. White, Jr., of Maine
became Floor Leader. This separation has continued to be one of the
chief differences between the Republican and Democratic Conferences,
since the Floor Leader of the Democrats has continued to serve as their
Conference Chairman.
In 1944, Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, still in his first term,
persuaded Republicans to revive their Steering Committee, and he became
its Chairman. In 1946, it became the Republican Policy Committee under
legislation appropriating equal funds for majority and minority
parties. Until the mid-1970s the staffs of the Conference and Policy
Committee were housed together under a single staff director who
administered their budgets jointly. Staff separation was begun during
1979-1980, while Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon was Chairman of the
Conference, and completed under Senator James McClure of Idaho. Under
Senator McClure's leadership in the 1980's, the Conference began
providing television, radio and graphics services for Republican
Senators. Senator Connie Mack, as Conference Chairman, in 1997 created
the first digital Information Technology department to communicate the
Republican agenda over the web.
The form and frequency of Conference meetings has depended
upon leadership personalities and legislative circumstances. Since the
late 1950s, the Conference has met at the beginning of each Congress to
elect the leadership, approve committee assignments, and attend to
other organizational matters. Although other meetings are called from
time to time to discuss pending issues, the weekly Policy Committee
luncheons afford a regular forum for discussion among Senators. As a
former Republican Leader, Senator Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, said
in 1959:
"When the Republican Policy Committee meets weekly, it is actually
a meeting of the Republican Conference over the luncheon table, at
which time we discuss all matters of pending business. Thus, so far as
possible, all the information which is within the possession and the
command of the leadership is freely diffused to every member."
At the time Senator Dirksen spoke, the elected party leadership
included: Chairman of the Conference, Secretary of the Conference,
Floor Leader, Whip (now Assistant Floor Leader), and Chairman of the
Policy Committee. On July 31, 1980, Conference rules were amended to
make the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee an
elected position, a change which brought the rules into conformity with
what had become custom.
The Republican Conference has never been a caucus in the dictionary
sense, that is, a "partisan legislative group that uses caucus
procedures to make decisions binding on its members." Even during the
tense years of Reconstruction, Republican Senators were not bound to
vote according to Conference decisions. In 1867, for example, when
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts refused to follow Conference
policy on an issue, and Senator William P. Fessenden of Maine charged,
"you should not have voted on the subject [in Conference] if you did
not mean to be bound by the decision of the majority," Sumner retorted,
"I am a Senator of the United States," and no attempt was made to
discipline him. Such independence was reiterated on March 12, 1925,
when a resolution introduced by Senator Wesley L. Jones of Washington
passed in the Conference without objection:
"To make clear and beyond question the long-settled policy of
Republicans that our Conferences are not caucuses or of binding effect
upon those participating therein but are meetings solely for the
purpose of exchanging views to promote harmony and united action so far
as possible,
"Be It Resolved: That no Senator attending this Conference or
any Conference held hereafter shall be deemed to be bound in any way by
any action taken by such Conference, but he shall be entirely free to
act upon any matter considered by the Conference as his judgment may
dictate, and it shall not be necessary for any Senator to give notice
of his intention to take action different from any recommended by the
Conference."
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