61st United States Congress
The 61st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States [House of Representatives]. It met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1911, during the first two years of William H. Taft's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1900 [United States census]. Both chambers had a Republican majority.
Major events
- March 4, 1909: William Howard Taft became President of [the United States].
Major legislation
- August 5, 1909 – Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act, ch. 6,
- May 16, 1910: Federal Mines Safety Act of 1910, ch. 240,
- June 1, 1910: Height of Buildings Act of 1910, ch. 263,
- June 18, 1910: Mann–Elkins Act, ch. 309,
- June 25, 1910: Mann Act, ch. 395,
- March 3, 1911: Judicial Code of 1911, ch. 231,
Constitutional amendments
- July 12, 1909: Approved an amendment to the United States Constitution allowing the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on the United States Census, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification
- * Amendment was later ratified on February 3, 1913, becoming the Sixteenth Amendment to [the United States Constitution]
Leadership
Senate
- President: James S. Sherman
- President pro tempore: William P. Frye
- Republican Conference Chairman: Eugene Hale
- Republican Conference Secretary: Charles Curtis
- Democratic Caucus Chairman: Hernando Money
- Democratic Caucus Secretary: Robert Latham Owen
House of Representatives
Majority (Republican) leadership
- Majority Leader: Sereno E. Payne
- Majority Whip: John W. Dwight
- Republican Conference Chairman: Frank Dunklee Currier
Minority (Democratic) leadership
- Minority Leader: Champ Clark
- Minority Whip: vacant
- Democratic Caucus Chairman: Henry De Lamar Clayton Jr.
- Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: James Tilghman Lloyd
Members
Senate
At this time, most senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. A few senators were elected directly by the residents of the state. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election, In this Congress, Class 1 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1910; Class 2 meant their term began in the last Congress, requiring reelection in 1912; and Class 3 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1914.Georgia">List of United States senators from Georgia">Georgia
Maine">List of United States senators from Maine">Maine
Nebraska">List of United States senators from Nebraska">Nebraska
Oklahoma">List of United States senators from Oklahoma">Oklahoma
Utah">List of United States senators from Utah">Utah
House of Representatives
Georgia">List of United States representatives from Georgia">Georgia
Maine">List of United States representatives from Maine">Maine
Nebraska">List of United States representatives from Nebraska">Nebraska
Oklahoma">List of United States representatives from Oklahoma">Oklahoma
Utah">List of United States representatives from Utah">Utah
Changes in membership
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.Senate
- Replacements: 13
- * Democratic: 1 seat net gain
- * Republican: 1 seat net loss
- Deaths: 8
- Resignations: 2
- Vacancy: 1Total seats with changes: 14
House of Representatives
- Replacements: 12
- * Democratic: 3 seat gain
- * Republican: 3 seat loss
- Deaths: 12
- Resignations: 6
- Contested elections: 0Total seats with changes: 21
Committees
Senate
- Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress
- Agriculture and Forestry
- Appropriations
- Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
- Canadian Relations
- Census
- Civil Service and Retrenchment
- Claims
- Coast and Insular Survey
- Coast Defenses
- Commerce
- Conservation of National Resources
- Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia
- Cuban Relations
- Disposition of Useless Papers in the Executive Departments
- Distributing Public Revenue Among the States
- District of Columbia
- Education and Labor
- Engrossed Bills
- Enrolled Bills
- Establish a University in the United States
- Examination of Disposition of Documents
- Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service
- Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture
- Expenditures in the Interior Department
- Expenditures in the Department of Justice
- Expenditures in the Navy Department
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department
- Expenditures in the Department of State
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department
- Expenditures in the War Department
- Finance
- Fisheries
- Five Civilized Tribes of Indians
- Foreign Relations
- Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game
- Geological Survey
- Immigration
- Indian Affairs
- Indian Depredations
- Indian Contracts Investigation
- Industrial Expositions
- Interoceanic Canals
- Interstate Commerce
- Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands
- Judiciary
- Library
- Manufactures
- Military Affairs
- Mines and Mining
- Mississippi River and its Tributaries
- National Banks
- Naval Affairs
- Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico
- Pacific Railroads
- Patents
- Pensions
- Philippines
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Potomac River Front
- Printing
- Private Land Claims
- Privileges and Elections
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Expenditures
- Public Health and National Quarantine
- Public Lands
- Railroads
- Revision of the Laws
- Revolutionary Claims
- Rules
- Standards, Weights and Measures
- Tariff Regulation
- Territories
- Third Degree Ordeal
- Transportation and Sale of Meat Products
- Transportation Routes to the Seaboard
- Trespassers upon Indian Lands
- Wages and Prices of Commodities
- Whole
- Woman Suffrage
House of Representatives
- Accounts
- Agriculture
- Alcoholic Liquor Traffic
- Appropriations
- Banking and Currency
- Census
- Claims
- Coinage, Weights and Measures
- Disposition of Executive Papers
- District of Columbia
- Education
- Election of the President, Vice President and Representatives in Congress
- Elections No.#1
- Elections No.#2
- Elections No.#3
- Enrolled Bills
- Expenditures in the Agriculture Department
- Expenditures in the Commerce and Labor Departments
- Expenditures in the Interior Department
- Expenditures in the Justice Department
- Expenditures in the Navy Department
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department
- Expenditures in the State Department
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department
- Expenditures in the War Department
- Expenditures on Public Buildings
- Foreign Affairs
- Immigration and Naturalization
- Indian Affairs
- Industrial Arts and Expositions
- Insular Affairs
- Interstate and Foreign Commerce
- Invalid Pensions
- Irrigation of Arid Lands
- Judiciary
- Labor
- Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
- Library
- Manufactures
- Merchant Marine and Fisheries
- Mileage
- Military Affairs
- Militia
- Mines and Mining
- Naval Affairs
- Pacific Railroads
- Patents
- Pensions
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Printing
- Private Land Claims
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Lands
- Railways and Canals
- Reform in the Civil Service
- Revision of Laws
- Rivers and Harbors
- Rules
- Standards of Official Conduct
- Territories
- Ventilation and Acoustics
- War Claims
- Ways and Means
- Whole
Joint committees
- Conditions of Indian Tribes
- Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
- Investigate the Interior Department and Forestry Service
- The Library
- Printing
Caucuses
Employees
Legislative branch agency">List of federal agencies in the United States#United States Congress">Legislative branch agency directors
- Architect of the Capitol: Elliott Woods
- Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
- Public Printer of the United States: Samuel B. Donnelly
Senate
- Chaplain: Edward E. Hale until June 10, 1909
- * Ulysses G.B. Pierce elected June 18, 1909
- Librarian: Edward C. Goodwin
- Secretary: Charles G. Bennett
- Sergeant at Arms: Daniel M. Ransdell