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A Case Study The Effects Of A Powerful Committee Chair On The Passage Of The Wilderness Bill, Kenneth S. Livingston

Master's Theses

The case of the Wilderness Bill reveals several important insights into the process, policy and politics of wilderness legislation in the late 1950s and early 1960's. The process generally conformed well with the expectations of a strong committee chair model that characterized Congress during the late 1950s and early 1960s. To be sure, the politics involved accommodation of competing interests and was facilitated by a president eager to pass a pro-wilderness bill. Above all, the compromise which ultimately led to the passage of the Wilderness Bill was influenced by the powerful committee chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee …