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Earlier this
year, Senator
Joe Lieberman
(I-CT) made some
news when he
convened a
hearing of the
Senate Homeland
Security and
Governmental
Affairs
Committee.
The news didn’t
have to do with
any bill or
issue the
Committee was
considering.
Rather, it had
to do with where
the members of
the Committee
were sitting.
Tossing
tradition aside,
Lieberman – the
Committee’s
Chairman –
decided to seat
the Committee
members together
in alternating
fashion,
according to
their party
affiliation.
As a result,
instead of
having
Republicans
seated on one
side of the dais
and Democrats on
the other, the
Committee
members were now
seated side by
side. In
putting forward
this unorthodox
seating
arrangement,
Lieberman
released a joint
statement with
the Committee’s
Ranking
Republican,
Susan Collins
(R-ME), which
said:
“In the last
election, the
voters said they
were sick of the
partisanship
that produces
gridlock. They
want us to work
together and get
things done.
So, as a start,
instead of
sitting on
opposite sides
of the room like
a house divided,
we want the
American people
to see us
sitting side by
side as our
Committee
members work
together to make
our nation more
secure and our
government more
efficient.”
The reaction to
the plan ranged
from the
expected to the
predictable.
Good government
types loved it,
while cynics
simply sneered.
In searching for
some sort of
deeper meaning
behind the plan,
the
Washington Post
quoted an
unnamed Hill
staffer as
saying, in
reference to the
Connecticut
Senator’s 2006
decision to
leave the
Democratic Party
and become an
Independent,
"It's because
Lieberman can't
decide what side
he's on
anymore."
This was a good
soundbite, for
sure. But in
putting forward
a plan designed
to bring
Republicans and
Democrats closer
together,
Lieberman was
not looking for
soundbites.
Rather, he was
trying to
encourage the
members of the
Committee to
look beyond the
cameras and
focus instead on
the work that
was at hand.
Put another way,
he was asking
them to forget
they were
divided along a
dais and imagine
instead they
were seated
together at a
table.
In fact, this is
the way
committees used
to meet. It was
only in the
mid-20th
Century that
Congress moved
away from this
tradition.
According to Dr.
Betty Koed with
the United
States Senate
Historical
Office, the
change occurred
with the
construction of
the Dirksen
Senate Office
Building in the
1950s. The
committee rooms
in Dirksen were
built to
accommodate
television
cameras. One of
the
accommodations
was to do away
with the tables
committee
members used and
have them sit on
an elevated dais
instead. No
doubt, this new
method of
seating helped
to bring members
closer to the
viewers at
home. But it
also served to
create a certain
separation among
Committee
members that
didn’t exist
before.
In
some respects, a
similar thing
had happened
earlier in the
century with the
construction of
new House and
Senate Office
Buildings.
Whereas before
Members would
spend more time
in the House and
Senate chambers,
they now had
their own
personal office
to retreat to
across the
street. No
longer would a
Senator draft a
bill at his desk
on the Senate
floor surrounded
by his
colleagues, only
to have it
debated and
discussed in
Committee by
Committee
members who were
seated at a
table. Now,
members were
free to come and
go as they
pleased, writing
pieces of
legislation in
private, then
having their
proposals
debated by
members of a
Committee who
were perched on
a dais and had a
bank of
television
cameras staring
them in the
face.
One
of the maxims of
architectural
design is that
form follows
function. If
that is true,
then perhaps the
design of the
House and Senate
Committee rooms
and office
buildings on
Capitol Hill has
contributed to
the partisan
warfare that
seems to have
gotten worse
over the last
generation. The
buildings are
splendid –
Cannon,
Longworth and
Rayburn on the
House side;
Russell, Dirksen
and Hart on the
Senate side.
But in their own
way, they have
forced members
of Congress
apart, instead
of bringing them
together.
That’s why Joe
Lieberman may be
onto something.
It’s also why
his proposal to
seat Republicans
and Democrats
side by side on
his committee
might produce
chuckles in the
short term but
dividends down
the road.
--###--
Billy Pitts is a
former longtime
staff member in
the U.S. House
of
Representatives
and current
member of the
Editorial Board
of the Ripon
Forum. Lou
Zickar is the
Forum’s Editor. |
