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The New Democratic Majority
Budget Reconciliation, the Byrd Rule and How Majorities Pass Big Bills Reconciliation lets a Senate majority pass tax and spending bills without sixty votes, within strict limits. Here is how it works, why a $15 minimum wage failed the Byrd rule, and who enforces it. 1931: How Democrats Won the House Through Special Elections Before It Even Met Republicans won the House in 1930, but deaths and special elections handed it to Democrats before Congress met. How that happened, and what the new majority did with it. From the 2019 Letter to the 2022 Release: The Fight for Trump's Tax Returns A 1924 law says the IRS shall hand any tax return to Congress's tax writers. Here is how one request in 2019 took nearly four years to fulfil, and what that delay teaches a new majority. H.R. 1 in 2019 and What a New Majority's First Bill Is Meant to Say The For the People Act passed the House in March 2019 and never became law. Here is the case that a symbolic first bill still shapes what a majority becomes, and what 2027's should say. How Committee Gavels Are Assigned, From Steering Panels to Term Limits Committee chairs decide which bills live or die, and each party picks them differently. Here is how steering panels, seniority, caucus votes and the 1995 term-limit rule decide who holds a gavel. How Congress Writes Twelve Spending Bills, and Why It So Often Fails Since the 1974 Budget Act set the fiscal year to start October 1, Congress has finished all its spending bills on time only four times. Here is how the process is meant to work and where it breaks. How the Speaker Is Elected on the First Day of a New Congress The House cannot swear in members, adopt rules or do anything else until it picks a Speaker. Here is how the vote works, why it took fifteen ballots in 2023, and what can stall it. Pelosi's First Hundred Hours and the 2007 Minimum Wage Increase How a new Democratic House turned a campaign promise into the 2007 raise from $5.15 to $7.25, and why the law that passed in May looked nothing like the bill passed in January. Sam Rayburn's 1955 Return to the Speaker's Chair and the Art of Quiet Power How Sam Rayburn ran a new Democratic House under a popular Republican president, what his quiet methods won, and what they cost the people his caucus left waiting. The 100th Congress and the Veto Overrides of a New Senate Majority How a new Democratic Senate in 1987 joined the House to override Reagan on clean water, highways and civil rights, and why each override needed Republican votes. The 2007 Walter Reed Hearings and Oversight That Changed a Hospital A newspaper found wounded soldiers living with mold and mice; a new House majority held its hearing on the hospital grounds. Here is why that oversight worked, and how to repeat it. The Bork Hearings and a New Senate Majority's Power Over Nominations How a new Democratic Senate turned Robert Bork's 1987 Supreme Court nomination into a national debate about rights, and why that fight still shapes every confirmation.