History of the Republican Policy Committee
The Founding
The first of eight major recommendations of the 1946 Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress was the consolidation of 81 legislative committees into 34. The second major recommendation was the creation of the Policy Committee.
The Joint Committee, which included among its 12 Members Sen. Robert La Follette, Jr., Sen. Claude Pepper, Sen. Richard Russell, and Everett Dirksen, envisioned the Policy Committee as the principal forum for the consideration of forward-looking legislative initiatives, the enunciation of official party policies, and the resolution of inter-jurisdictional policy disputes.
The Joint Committee recommended that the Policy Committee “serve as a formal council to meet regularly with the Executive, to facilitate the formulation and carrying out of national policy, and to improve relationships between the executive and legislative branches of the Government.” The Policy Committee serves all of those missions.
In addition, the Policy Committee is an important means for every member of the Conference to develop sound legislative ideas into sound bills. These bills can then be introduced and considered in the appropriate committee of jurisdiction. The Policy Committee offers a unique opportunity for participation by members whose legislative ideas do not in every case coincide with their committee assignments, as well as an especially useful mechanism for addressing important issues that cut across committee jurisdictions.
Many issues that call for a clear statement of majority policy are not properly addressed (or cannot be timely addressed) by legislation. The Policy Committee--with a combined membership of 20 percent of the Conference, including leadership, key committee chairmen, and both class and regional representatives--is uniquely well suited to issue such statements after careful deliberation and opportunity for all Members to be heard.
Through its Policy Advisory Boards, the Policy Committee conducts a regular liaison with the nation’s leading think tanks, scholars, and private-sector experts on the issues before the Congress. Meetings of the Policy Advisory Boards and the House Leadership provide an important forum for the advancement of our knowledge of the issues and a key opportunity for the development of sound policy and legislative initiatives.
People
Republicans established the Policy Committee by Conference Resolution on January 26, 1949. For its first 10 years, Republican Leader Joe Martin, Jr. (MA) served as chairman. In 1959, the Conference unanimously elected Rep. John Byrnes (WI), the ranking Republican on the Ways & Means Committee, as chairman after junior Members sought to strengthen the Committee to modernize GOP policy.
In 1963, under then Conference Chairman Gerald R. Ford, the Conference amended its rules to increase the number of newer Members on the Committee so that it more broadly represented “forward-looking Republican thinking.” With the support of Rep. Don Rumsfeld (IL), future House Republican Leader Rep. John Rhodes (AZ) succeeded Rep. Byrnes in 1965, and served until 1973.
Subsequent chairmen were future World Bank President Barber Conable, Jr. (NY, 1973-77); Rep. Del Clawson (CA, 1977-79); Rep. E.G. "Bud" Shuster (PA, 1979-81); the current Vice President, Dick Cheney (WY, 1981-87); future Conference Chairman Jerry Lewis (CA, 1987-89); Rep. Mickey Edwards (OK, 1989-93); and Former International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde (IL, 1993-95). Rep. Christopher Cox (CA) was elected Policy Chairman when Republicans won the House Majority in 1994. Following Representative Cox, Congressmen John Shadegg (AZ, 2005-2006) and Adam Putnam (2006-2007) chaired the committee respectively.
The current chairman is the Honorable Thaddeus G. McCotter (MI, 2007-) of Michigan’s 11th District.
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