The History of the Speaker of the House
We the People
00:00
The Reform Era of Speakership
The reform era of the modern speakership includes Carl Albert who takes office in 1971 and goes through the speakership of Thomas Foley, which ends in 1995. Chaffetz: Starting in the 1950s there's a group of Democrats trying to chip away at the power of Southern Democrats. He says they were keeping legislation that they cared about off the floor; this period is when some of this begins to come to fruition. Josh Chaffetz: It's an attempt to sort of swing the pendulum back towards something more of a balance between chamber leadership on the one hand and committee leadership on the other.
Transcript
Play full episode
