Hill Reform

Opened doors, closed mouths

Time-honored procedures change slowly in the U.S. Congress, but last week there were notable, if unrevolutionary, reforms in each chamber:

TV in the House. The business under discussion was about as trivial as it could be. Congressmen were passing a resolution urging the Merchant Marine to select an official march for the first time. Nevertheless, the 23-minute session was historic. It was taped by an elaborate $1.2 million complex of television equipment from a control room in a subbasement of the Capitol.

The experiment was designed to see if televising sessions of the House was feasible. Since the program has the backing of Speaker Tip O'Neill, the cameras are expected to become a fixture when the House decides the issue in a few weeks. Last week's picture, which was clear and sharp, went only to monitors in the offices of House members. Under carefully prepared rules, the six remote-controlled cameras focused on the Speaker's rostrum and on the majority and minority tables. They did not roam the aisles or catch members catnapping in their seats.

So far, neither the commercial networks nor public broadcasters have agreed to pick up the programs once they start. Some 200 cable-TV stations, however, have signed up to make gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House available to their subscribers. Given the chamber's arcane procedures and routine business, not even Tip O'Neill expects to rival Mork as a TV personality, and the ratings of the soaps will not be threatened by the daily travails and dramas in the Big House on the Hill.

Silencing the Senate. In 1977, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd struggled valiantly against a prolonged filibuster by opponents of the Administration's natural gas bill. He finally mustered more than the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture, which should have ended the debate. But opponents craftily offered countless amendments and delaying motions, requiring 116 time-consuming roll calls before the bill finally was put to a vote. The tactic, found permissible under the rules, has been used by both liberals and conservatives to frustrate efforts to end a filibuster.

Last week Byrd won a change in the rules that should end such stalling. To be sure, he had to accept a number of weakening amendments sponsored by Republicans. Nevertheless, the new rule gives the Senate an effective tool for eventually silencing itself. Once cloture is invoked, the total time spent on more motions and amendments on the same bill cannot exceed 100 hours.

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