Congress after 1994: Political Tides and Institutional Change

However one interprets the 1994 elections, they are already altering how Congress operates, what policy items are pushed to the top of its agenda, and how such policies are likely to be processed. Despite the evenness of the Republicans' return to power in Congress (roughly 53% of the seats in each chamber), the elections by no means had the same effect on the Senate and the House of Representatives. As a majoritarian institution, the House has changed dramatically. The rules of the 104th Congress, with changes crafted in the Republican Conference and adopted on the floor by a series of lopsided votes, embrace may elements drawn from past minority-party complaints. The changes rival in magnitude the great landmarks of the past - the Reed Rules of the 1880s, the anti-Cannon revolt of 1909-1910, the Reorganization Act of 1946, and the reform era of the 1960s and 1970s. The Senate, an individualistic institution, is less prone to sweeping change, but its leaders will nonetheless be forced to seek cross-party alliances.