Scope and Content Note
The records of the Democratic Study Group (DSG) document activities of a legislative service organization in the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1995. The records are arranged in three parts. Part I contains material from 1940 to 1976 organized in six series: Fact Sheets, Reports, and Other Material; Campaign File; Chronological File; Subject File; Printed Matter; and Oversize. Part II contains records from 1912 to 1995 organized in six series: Administrative File, Chronological File, Research Publications, Services and Activities, Subject File, and Formerly Restricted. Part III contains records from 1967 to 1994, and is organized in six series: DSG Legislative Report , Campaign Memoranda, Daily Report , Fact Sheet , Research Publications, and Miscellany. There is considerable overlap in Parts I and II for documentation on major DSG activities. Similar arrangement of series in each part facilitates access by topic and document type.
Part I
In 1959, a group of liberal Democratic members of the House of Representatives organized the Democratic Study Group to counterbalance a conservative Republican-Dixiecrat coalition. The group's first need was for research and analysis of legislative proposals, policy options, and political issues in order to exchange information and identify common ground. The DSG provided a constant flow of information to its members in publications found primarily in the series Fact Sheets, Reports, and Other Material with additional items in the Chronological File and Subject File of Part I. DSG publications are also contained in the Research Publications series of Part II.
DSG circulars include the DSG Legislative Report, a weekly summary of bills and amendments scheduled for action that week. The DSG Legislative Report also provided background information on parliamentary situations and the positions of the current presidential administration and public and private interest groups. A Fact Sheet containing a more comprehensive analysis of major legislation was published as circumstances warranted. Issue Report, circulated during election years, briefed members on campaign issues and election strategy. Special Report was issued periodically as background and analysis of controversial issues while Record Votes provided a quarterly breakdown of all record votes taken in the House. Finally, the Staff Bulletin, a weekly publication, reported on committee actions, hearings and markups, members' projects, and notice of important federal agency rulings. Excerpts from constituent mail were also published in the bulletin.
The Campaign File documents DSG support for key House of Representatives election campaigns as well as information concerning Democratic Party candidates in presidential and Senate campaigns. The Chronological File records the flow of political and legislative events through summaries of activities and group publications. The Subject File, the largest series in Part I, also contains the greatest detail on policy issues, including civil rights and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge to seat delegates at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Other issues detailed in the Subject File include congressional reorganization and reform and tax policy. Administrative records of the DSG are also located in the Subject File. The Printed Matter series contains supplemental publications related to subjects studied by the DSG.
To achieve its goals, the DSG also organized its own whip system to assist the Democratic Party whip coordinate votes on key legislation. Whip files are located in the Subject File. Simultaneously, DSG leaders challenged congressional rules, working to bring greater transparency to Congress and revisions to the seniority and committee systems. Through these combined efforts, documented primarily in the Subject File, the DSG provided the sustained and coordinated machinery that helped to pass the major civil rights and social legislation of the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.
Part II
The Administrative File of Part II complements the Subject File of Part I in documenting the operation and funding of the DSG. The Administrative File includes election records for chair and executive committee members as well as task force organization and meeting records. Day-to-day operations were the purview of the executive director as reflected in the Chronological File. Included in this series is material of all variety documenting organizational activities and policy issues as they developed.
As the DSG evolved and the views of its members diverged, emphasis shifted to nonpartisan research services. In the 1970s and 1980s, under executive director Richard Conlon, DSG research publications became a primary function of the organization. Contained in the Research Publications series is the distillation of information provided by the DSG research arm for its members. The DSG Fact Sheet, Issue Report, DSG Legislative Report, and Staff Bulletin aimed for impartiality. The Special Report, issued ad hoc, remained partisan. The Daily Report lists the floor schedule of the House and summarizes anticipated amendments. Record Votes provides detailed analysis of votes taken during each session of Congress.
The Services and Activities series documents the administrative and campaign support provided to members, including freshman orientation seminars on setting up an office on Capitol Hill, handling constituent mail, and committee assignments. A DSG Campaign Fund was established as a political affiliate to raise funds and provide assistance in targeted election campaigns. Campaign files in the Services and Activities series treat the resulting support for Democratic Party candidates on presidential as well as congressional levels and the response of Democrats to Republican Party campaign arguments. DSG whip system records are located in the Services and Activities series.
The Subject File of Part II documents the issues tackled by the DSG. Files on civil rights include testimony from clergy and students on the moral conduct of participants in the 1965 Selma-Montgomery civil rights march in Alabama and records relating to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that complement the records in Part I of the Subject File.
Other files from the 1960s and 1970s feature DSG efforts to end American involvement in the Vietnam war, redress a perceived imbalance of power between Congress and the Executive, enact campaign finance reform and consumer protections, and defeat Republican opposition to federal programs on domestic poverty, the environment, health, education, and civil rights. Of note in the Subject File from the period is a survey conducted in 1979 by the DSG on White House staff performance during the Jimmy Carter administration.
Prominent as themes during the 1980s are budget, tax, and economic proposals by the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, along with arms control and war power issues.
The DSG also concentrated on reform of House rules and worked to revive the dormant Democratic Caucus as the basic arbiter of Democratic policy in that body. Group leaders headed committees to study and propose reforms that would adjust the seniority system, open committee meetings to the public, allow recorded votes on floor amendments, require secret ballot votes on committee chairs at the start of each Congress, and give junior members a voice in committees. Among the relevant files in the Subject File series are the records for the Committee on Organization, Study and Review, chaired by Julia Butler Hansen in 1971; records for the Select Committee on Committees, chaired by Richard Bolling in 1973; records of the Commission on Administrative Review, chaired by David R. Obey in 1976; and material pertaining to the Second Select Committee on Committees, chaired by Jerry Patterson in 1979.
The Formerly Restricted series in Part II includes correspondence and memoranda, meeting records, reports, and printed matter from the period 1986-1995.
Part III
Part III consists of files that are continuations of and fill gaps in Parts I and II publication runs. The DSG Legislative Report series comprises the bulk of Part III and supplements material from Part I. Issues of Fact Sheet and Daily Report and the Research Publications series supplement material in Parts I and II. Issues of Issue Reports from the Miscellany series supplement Issue Reports in Part I.