On January 13, 1965, Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY) introduced in the House of Representatives an administration-backed immigration bill, H.R. 2580. On March 3, the Subcommittee on Immigration and Nationality, chaired by Representative Michael…

Representative Feighan did not initially endorse H.R.2580 and was close to organizations such as the American Legion and the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies that resisted immigration reform. Feighan opposed several provisions of H.R. 2580…

Celler, the dean of the House in the 89th Congress, was the only member who was in Congress in 1924 when the Immigration Quota Act passed. He voted against it and had been an ardent foe of national immigration quotas for forty years. On April 28,…

The House Judiciary Committee and the Immigration and Naturalization Subcommittee received much correspondence from individuals and groups explaining how national immigration quotas adversely affected them. This letter from the General Counsel of…

The administration had to make concessions to Representative Feighan to get his support for the Celler bill. The House Judiciary Committee’s August 3, 1965 vote of 27 to 4 to report an amended H.R. 2580 to the House was the major milestone for…

On March 18, 1965, Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY), chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, introduced the administration bill, H.R. 6400. The 77-year-old chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary stated that people preventing…

For years, Wilbur Mills (D-AR), Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, had been an obstacle to health reform, but in the 89th Congress his leadership was crucial in passing legislation that gave the nation Medicare. A committee meeting on…

The Ways and Means Committee deliberations on health legislation culminated on March 24, 1965 when the committee voted on draft legislation that Mills had proposed at the March 2 meeting. This tally sheet from the March 24 executive session…

The Older Americans Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 14, 1965, originated in the House of Representatives on January 27, 1965, when John E. Fogarty (D-RI) introduced H.R. 3708. Fogarty’s bill was referred to the House…

On January 18, 1965, Representative Walter Rogers (D-TX) introduced H.R. 3014, a bill that was similar to S. 559. That bill was referred to the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and was reported to the House on June 28 by a committee…