Lawmakers April 21 1983
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Paul Duke introduces report on initiative to broadcast Senate Floor debates on television.
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill (D - Massachusetts) on platform of chamber, "Being elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is a high honor that carries with it solemn responsibilities because this is the greatest legislative body in the greatest democracy in the world."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Representative Robert H. Michel (R - Illinois) giving grandiose speech in favor of Reaganomics. "Let history record that today we set the pace, a new pace. We showed the way, a new way."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Representative Claude Pepper (D - Florida) for Social Security reform. "What parent in America wants to be a burden upon his or her children no matter how faithful and loving they are. And yet here we twiddle over giving them a few more dollars a month."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Control panels in House of Representatives television studio, banks of monitors, videotape machines.
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Representative Charlie Rose (D - North Carolina) in office, "Original objections were that some members would grandstand. Some would make too many speeches. That it would make the House process work a lot longer. That everybody would want to speak. That kind of thing."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator Dan Quayle (R - Indiana) in office, "It was viewed with skepticism. As a matter of fact, I can recall the debate in the House of Representatives. People got up there and said - This place will never be the same. How can you allow television cameras into the House of Representatives? People will get up and be speaking to the folks back home and won't be paying any attention to the business at hand."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Representative Silvio Conte (R - Massachusetts) in debate in House, getting all worked up. "Let me go on with this disaster - they would require the construction of the first phase under this Senate amendment of 3 of this environmentally unsound maze of canals, dams and reservoirs which have skyrocketed in cost from $207 million - oh listen to this - to $101 billion! One billion! One billion! I ll be glad to yield."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator Dan Quayle (R - Indiana) says "(My good friend Silvio, he hasn t really changed) some of those great one-liners that he has before TV or after TV. He was still capable of getting up there and giving a rousing emotional speech. He did that before television came into the House of Representatives."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
CU of the paper work for Senate Resolution to open Senate to television.
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator John Danforth (R - Missouri), says "TV would hurt the Senate-policymaking is not a matter of public relations, there needs to be deliberation. How do we make public policy? Is public policy making simply a matter of playing to the crowd? Is it simply a matter of grandstanding public relations or glib comments? Or is public policy making something that s more deliberative than that and does it require an element of thoughtfulness and care in debate which is probably different than the kind of debate that s normally found on TV. "
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator Dan Quayle (R - Indiana) "My argument, from experience in the House of Representatives, that these same horror stories, these same claims of things that are going to happen, really did not happen in the House of Representatives and I don't believe they'll happen in the United States Senate. And I believe as rational men and women that we can make these accommodations and we can have televised proceedings in the Senate as the House does."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator John Danforth (R - Missouri) "When the Founding Fathers created the House and Senate as different entities with different terms and different styles, they really had something special in mind. And before we depart too radically from what the Founding Fathers intended, we should think twice."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Exterior of Senate wing of US Capitol, Washington DC.
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Walter Cronkite in Senate Committee hearing, testifying: "In this era, when broadcast news has become such a major source of information for the American people, it seems to me ironic that the proceedings of the world s great deliberative body are not available through that medium."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senate Rules Committee Hearing: Senator Russell Long (D - Louisiana), arguing to committee against TV coverage in Senate "You have no right to expect much statesmanship out of the House. If you get any, you re lucky. They re elected on two year terms and those fellas are running for re-election all the time." Senator Dennis DeConcini (D - Arizona) says "I think that s very unfair to our colleagues in there. I think there are some outstanding members and I think the Senator can probably call to mind a few of his fine colleagues over there that demonstrate great statesmanship on or off television." Senator Russell Long (D - Louisiana) "Well that s a big misunderstanding. Let me say this, we get a lot more statesmanship over there than we have any right to expect."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senate Rules Committee Hearing: Senator Howard Baker (R - Tennessee) on committee panel. "My friends and they are my friends, and my colleagues have sometimes said on the Floor and occasional to me in private, that television may create a political advantage for some Senators. Some say - You look good on television or I don't or You sound good and I don't. It might create a class of Senators that have a particular advantage. I don't think that's true. I think that the Senate is a magnificent institution that is made up of its 100 parts and the country is entitled to see us - warts and all."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator Dan Quayle (R - Indiana) in office, "(So when the final vote is taken) people will say - Come on vote one time for Howard Baker He wants this. It's something that we ought to do anyway. And I can already hear the lines of rhetoric - let's win this one for Howard."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Senator John Danforth (R - Missouri), says "I think the world of Howard Baker. I supported him when he was a candidate for President. But I don't think that Howard Baker would expect us to just roll over and play dead as a personal favor. We have to do what we think is right for the country and right for the institution."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Paul Duke "Opposition to TV coverage in Senate is strong-full-scale TV coverage is not likely to come about anytime soon."
Lawmakers April 21 1983
Paul Duke and Linda Wertheimer discuss a defeat in Senate on tax withholding from dividend or interest income.