Item 3 in The Republican Contract with America

Item 3 in The Republican Contract with America stated:

"Cut the number of House Committees and cut committee staff by one-third."

This is a simple one to grade, The Republicans did not do as they promised. They started out making an attempt to fulfill this promise with the use of internal rule change 416-12 (Passed on 1/4/95).

I went back and looked at the average number of staff members for a Congressman in 1984. In 1984 the average congressman had 15 staff members. Then I went and looked at the average Congressional staff in 2004. The number is still 15. In other word, nothing has changed as far as the size of the average Congressional staff.

Then I went back and looked at the total number of Congressional Committees from 1984 and compared it to the total number of Congressional Committees in 2004. The two numbers are almost identical. I will admit that in 1995 and 1996 they cut some committees; but, since that time they have added many new committees. They just cannot seem to help it.

Contract Score so far
Broken Promises 2
Kept Promises 1