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Contract with America

The Contract with America was a legislative agenda advocated for by the Republican Party during the
1994 congressional election campaign. Written by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, and in part using text
from former President Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address, the Contract detailed the
actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party in the United States House of
Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Many of the Contract's policy ideas originated at The
Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.[1][2]

The Contract with America was introduced six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, the first
midterm election of President Bill Clinton's Administration, and was signed by all but two of the
Republican members of the House and all of the Party's non-incumbent Republican Congressional
candidates.

Proponents say the Contract was revolutionary in its commitment to offering specific legislation for a
vote, describing in detail the precise plan of the Congressional Representatives, and broadly
nationalizing the Congressional election. Furthermore, its provisions represented the view of many
conservative Republicans on the issues of shrinking the size of government, promoting lower taxes and
greater entrepreneurial activity, and both tort reform and welfare reform.

The 1994 elections resulted in Republicans gaining 54 House and 9 U.S. Senate seats, flipping both
chambers. The Contract was seen as a triumph by party leaders such as Minority Whip Newt Gingrich,
Dick Armey, and the American conservative movement in general.

Contents
Content
Government and operational reforms
Major policy changes
Implementation
The Fiscal Responsibility Act
The Taking Back Our Streets Act
The Personal Responsibility Act
The American Dream Restoration Act
The National Security Restoration Act
The Common Sense Legal Reform Act
The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act
The Citizen Legislature Act
Other sections
Non-implementation
Effects
See also
Notes
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References
Sources

Content
The contract's text included a list of eight reforms the Republicans promised to enact, and ten bills they
promised to bring to floor debate and votes, if they were made the majority following the election.
During the crafting of the Contract, proposals were limited to "60% issues", i.e. legislation that polling
showed garnered 60% support of the American people, intending for the Contract to avoid promises on
controversial and divisive matters like abortion and school prayer.[1][3] Reagan biographer Lou Cannon
characterized the Contract as having taken more than half of its text from Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of
the Union Address.[4]

Government and operational reforms

On the first day of their majority in the House, the Republicans promised to bring up for vote, eight
major reforms:[5][6]

1. require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
2. select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste,
fraud or abuse;
3. cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
4. limit the terms of all committee chairs;
5. ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
6. require committee meetings to be open to the public;
7. require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
8. guarantee an honest accounting of the Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Major policy changes

During the first one hundred days of the 104th Congress, the Republicans pledged "to bring to the floor
the following [ten] bills, each to be given a full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote,
and each to be immediately available for public inspection". The text of the proposed bills was included
in the Contract, which was released prior to the election. These bills were not governmental operational
reforms, as the previous promises were; rather, they represented significant changes to policy. They
mainly included a balanced budget requirement, tax cuts for small businesses, families and seniors, term
limits for legislators, social security reform, tort reform, and welfare reform.

Implementation
The contract had promised to bring to floor debate and votes 10 bills that would implement major
reform of the federal government. When the 104th Congress assembled in January 1995, the Republican
majority sought to implement the Contract.

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In some cases (e.g. The National Security Restoration Act and The Personal Responsibility Act), the
proposed bills were accomplished by a single act analogous to that which had been proposed in the
Contract; in other cases (e.g. The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act), a proposed bill's
provisions were split up across multiple acts. Most of the bills died in the Senate, except as noted below.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act

An amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced budget unless sanctioned by a two-
thirds vote in both houses of Congress (H.J.Res.1, passed by the US House Roll Call: 300-132 (http://cle
rk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll051.xml), January 26, 1995, but rejected by the US Senate: Roll Call 65–35 (h
ttps://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=1
&vote=00098) (the amendment was defeated by a single vote, with one Republican opposed, Oregon
Republican Senator Mark Hatfield; Dole cast a procedural vote against the amendment to bring it up
again in the future), March 2, 1995, two-thirds required.[7] Legislation (not an amendment) provided the
president with a line-item veto (H.R.2, passed by the US House Roll Call: 294–134 (http://clerk.house.g
ov/evs/1995/roll095.xml), February 6, 1995; conferenced with S. 4 and enacted with substantial changes
April 9, 1996).[8] The statute was ruled unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (htt
ps://www.courtlistener.com/c/U.S./524/417/), 118 S.Ct. 2091 (https://www.courtlistener.com/c/S.Ct./1
18/2091/), 141 L.Ed.2d 393 (https://www.courtlistener.com/c/L.Ed.2d/141/393/) (1998).

The Taking Back Our Streets Act

An anti-crime package including stronger truth in sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions
(H.R.666 Exclusionary Rule Reform Act, passed US House Roll Call 289–142 (http://clerk.house.gov/ev
s/1995/roll103.xml) February 8, 1995), death penalty provisions (H.R.729 Effective Death Penalty Act,
passed US House Roll Call 297–132 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll109.xml) February 8, 1995;
similar provisions enacted under S. 735 [1] (https://web.archive.org/web/20140702115742/http://thom
as.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c104%3A4%3A.%2Ftemp%2F~c104ToSnGo%3A%3A), April 24, 1996),
funding prison construction (H.R.667 Violent Criminal Incarceration Act, passed US House Roll Call
265–156 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll117.xml) February 10, 1995, rc#117) and additional law
enforcement (H.R.728 Local Government Law Enforcement Block Grants Act, passed US House Roll Call
238–192 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll129.xml) February 14, 1995).

The Personal Responsibility Act

An act to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by reforming and cutting cash welfare and related
programs. This would be achieved by prohibiting welfare to mothers under 18 years of age, denying
increased Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) for additional children while on welfare, and
enacting a two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility.
H.R.4, the Family Self-Sufficiency Act, included provisions giving food vouchers to unwed mothers
under 18 in lieu of cash AFDC benefits, denying cash AFDC benefits for additional children to people on
AFDC, requiring recipients to participate in work programs after 2 years on AFDC, complete termination
of AFDC payments after five years, and suspending driver and professional licenses of people who fail to
pay child support. H.R.4, passed by the US House 234–199, March 23, 1995, and passed by the US
Senate 87–12, September 19, 1995. The Act was vetoed by President Clinton, but the alternative Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which offered many of the same policies was
enacted August 22, 1996.

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The American Dream Restoration Act

An act to create a $500-per-child tax credit, add a tax credit for couples who pay more taxes in aggregate
if they are married than if they were single (but keep in place the fiction of Earned Income Splitting), and
creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle-class tax relief. H.R.1215, passed 246–
188, April 5, 1995.

The National Security Restoration Act

An act to prevent U.S. troops from serving under United Nations command unless the president
determines it is necessary for the purposes of national security, to cut U.S. payments for UN
peacekeeping operations, and to help establish guidelines for the voluntary integration of former
Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. H.R.7, passed 241–181, February 16, 1995.

The Common Sense Legal Reform Act

An act to institute "loser pays" laws (H.R.988, passed 232–193, March 7, 1995), limits on punitive
damages and weakening of product-liability laws to prevent what the bill considered frivolous litigation
(H.R.956, passed 265–161, March 10, 1995; passed Senate 61–37, May 11, 1995, vetoed by President
Clinton "H.R.956 - Product Liability Fairness Act of 1995" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congre
ss/house-bill/00956). Another tort reform bill, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act was enacted
in 1995 when Congress overrode a veto by Clinton.

The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act

A package of measures to act as small-business incentives: capital-gains cuts and indexation, neutral cost
recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and
unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. Although this was listed as a single bill
in the Contract, its provisions ultimately made it to the House Floor as four bills:

H.R.5, requiring federal funding for state spending mandated by Congressional action and estimated
by the Congressional Budget Office to cost more than $50m per year (for the years of 1996–2002[9]),
was passed 360–74, February 1, 1995. This bill was conferenced with S. 1 and enacted, March 22,
1995 "S.1 - Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/
senate-bill/00001/all-actions-without-amendments).
H.R.450 required a moratorium on the implementation of federal regulations until June 30, 1995, and
was passed 276–146, February 24, 1995. Companion Senate bill S. 219 passed by voice vote, May
17, 1995, but the two bills never emerged from conference "S.219 - Regulatory Transition Act of
1995" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/00219/all-actions-without-amendme
nts).
H.R.925 required federal compensation to be paid to property owners when federal government
actions reduced the value of the property by 20% or more, and was passed 277–148, March 3, 1995.
H.R.926, passed 415–14 on March 1, 1995, required federal agencies to provide a cost-benefit
analysis on any regulation costing $50m or more annually, to be signed off on by the Office of
Management and Budget, and permitted small businesses to sue that agency if they believed the
aforementioned analysis was performed inadequately or incorrectly.

The Citizen Legislature Act

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An amendment to the Constitution that would have imposed 12-year term limits on members of the US
Congress (i.e. six terms for Representatives, two terms for Senators). H.J.Res. 73 (https://www.congres
s.gov/bill/104th-congress/house-joint-resolution/73) rejected by the U.S. House 227–204 (a
constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority, not a simple majority), March 29, 1995; RC
#277 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1995/roll277.xml).

Other sections

Other sections of the contract include a proposed Family Reinforcement Act (tax incentives for adoption,
strengthening the powers of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and
elderly dependent care tax credit) and the Senior Citizens Fairness Act (raise the Social Security earnings
limit, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-
term care insurance).

Non-implementation
A November 13, 2000, article by Edward H. Crane, president of the libertarian Cato Institute, stated,
"the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate
have increased by 13%."[10]

Effects
Some observers cite the Contract with America as having helped secure a decisive victory for the
Republicans in the 1994 elections; others dispute this role, noting its late introduction into the
campaign. Whatever the role of the Contract, Republicans were elected to a majority of both houses of
Congress for the first time since 1953, and some parts of the Contract were enacted. Most elements did
not pass in Congress, while others were vetoed by, or substantially altered in negotiations with President
Bill Clinton, who would sarcastically refer to it as the "Contract on America".[11][12]

As a blueprint for the policy of the new Congressional majority, Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue in
The Right Nation that the Contract placed the Congress firmly back in the driver's seat of domestic
government policy for most of the 104th Congress, and placed the Clinton White House firmly on the
defensive.[3]

George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein has argued that the Contract "show[ed] ...
that [Congress took] federalism and limited national government seriously", and "undoubtedly made
[the Supreme Court decision in] United States v. Lopez more viable".[13]

Journalist and senior congressional reporter Major Garrett equated the Contract with a game of
miniature golf, "fun, popular, and largely diversionary exercise meant to satisfy middle-class
sensibilities", contrasted with the golf of governing America and leadership. Republicans interviewed by
Garrett when the Contract was being compiled said it was meant to be a political document of easy goals,
not a governing document, with one senior aide explaining, "We don't care if the Senate passes any of the
items in the contract. It would be preferable, but it's not necessary. If the freshmen do everything the
contract says, they'll be in excellent shape for 1996".[14]

In 2014, business and finance writer John Steele Gordon, writing in The American, an online magazine
published by the American Enterprise Institute, said that "(t)he main reason (for the Republican victory
in 1994) was surely the Contract with America", in part because it "nationalized the election, making it

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one of reform versus business as usual. The people voted for reform." Gordon wrote that the Contract
"turned out to be a brilliant political ploy. The contract tuned in to the American electorate’s deep
yearning for reform in Washington, a yearning that had expressed itself in the elections of both (U.S.
Presidents) Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan."[15] He described the election of 1994 as an "epic
slaughter of the majority party in Congress" that "changed American politics for the foreseeable future",
and that "[a]fter 60 years of Democratic dominance in American politics, the two parties were on a par."
He concludes that "[t]he main reason was surely the Contract with America".[15]

See also
Republican Revolution
List of 1994 Contract with America signers
Contract with the Italians

Notes
1. Gayner, Jeffrey (October 12, 1995). "The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the
U.S." (http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-contract-with-america-implementing-new-ideas-in
-the-us) The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
2. "The Buzz" (http://www.ocregister.com/news/tea-87402-ocprint-party-armey.html). Orange County
Register. September 6, 2010.
3. Micklethwait, John & Wooldridge, Adrian (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.
New York: Penguin Press. pp. 115–122
(https://archive.org/details/rightnationconse00mick/page/115). ISBN 1-59420-020-3.
4. Cannon, Lou (2001). Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio (https://archive.org/details/ronaldrea
ganpres00cann). Public Affairs. p. 279 (https://archive.org/details/ronaldreaganpres00cann/page/27
9).
5. Galen, Rich (November 4, 2014). "The Revolution Last Time: What Gingrich's '94 takeover can teach
Boehner (and McConnell) about the next two years" (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/1
1/the-revolution-last-time-112499/). POLITICO MAGAZINE. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
6. "Republican House Representatives, "Republican Contract with America," 1994" (https://billofrightsin
stitute.org/activities/republican-house-representatives-republican-contract-with-america-1994). BILL
of RIGHTS INSTITUTE. 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
7. "Hatfield Remembered for Vote Against Balanced Budget Amendment" (http://www.rollcall.com/new
s/hatfield_remembered_for_vote_against_amendment-208068-1.html). Roll Call. August 8, 2011.
Retrieved September 8, 2013.
8. "All Actions Except Amendments S.4 — 104th Congress (1995-1996)" (https://www.congress.gov/bil
l/104th-congress/senate-bill/00004/all-actions-without-amendments). U.S. Congress.
9. "H.R.5 - Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/hous
e-bill/00005).
10. Crane, Edward H. (November 13, 2000). "On My Mind: GOP Pussycats" (http://www.cato.org/pub_di
splay.php?pub_id=4463). Forbes. Cato Institute.
11. Wines, Michael (October 25, 1994). "The 1994 Campaign: The President; Campaigning On
Economy, Clinton Plays The Teacher" (https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/25/us/the-1994-campaign-t
he-president-campaigning-on-economy-clinton-plays-the-teacher.html). The New York Times.
Retrieved March 25, 2008.

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12. "Luncheon address by President Bill Clinton" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110725022028/http://w

ww.asne.org/kiosk/archive/convention/2000/clinton.htm). The American Society of Newspaper
Editors. November 28, 2000. Archived from the original (http://www.asne.org/kiosk/archive/conventio
n/2000/clinton.htm) on July 25, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
13. Bernstein, David (December 16, 2010). "Constitutional Doctrine and the Constitutionality of Health
Care Reform" (http://volokh.com/2010/12/15/constitutional-doctrine-and-the-constitutionality-of-healt
h-care-reform/). The Volokh Conspiracy.
14. Garrett, Major (March–April 1995). "Beyond the Contract" (https://www.motherjones.com/news/featur
e/1995/03/garrett.html). Mother Jones.
15. Gordon, John Steele (May 16, 2014). "Time for a New Contract with America" (http://www.aei.org/pu
blication/time-for-a-new-contract-with-america/). The American. American Enterprise Institute.
Retrieved May 1, 2017.

References
Bader, John B. (1996). Taking the Initiative: Leadership Agendas in Congress and the "Contract with
America". Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 0-87840-628-X.
Barnett, Timothy J. (1999). Legislative Learning: The 104th Republican Freshmen in the House. New
York: Garland. ISBN 0-203-80037-0.
Killian, Linda (1998). The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution? (https://archive.
org/details/freshmenwhathapp00kill). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-9951-3.
Koopman, Douglas L. (1996). Hostile Takeover: The House Republican Party, 1980–1995. Lanham,
Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-8168-8.
Micklethwait, John & Wooldridge, Adrian (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.
New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-020-3.
Pitney, John J. Jr.; Hamby, Alonzo L.; Charen, Mona; Murdock, Deroy & Pipes, Sally C. (1995). "100
Days That Shook the World? The Historical Significance of the Contract with America" (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20080515213410/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3565422.html).
Policy Review. 73. Archived from the original (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/35654
22.html) on May 15, 2008. Conservative commentary.
Rae, Nicol C. (1998). Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the
104th Congress. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0128-1.

Sources
Text of the Contract (https://web.archive.org/web/19990427174200/http://www.house.gov/house/Con
tract/CONTRACT.html), from the U.S. House website
"Contract with America - 1994" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120617150518/http://www.nationalce
nter.org/ContractwithAmerica.html). Historical Documents. National Center for Public Policy
Research. May 1, 2010. Archived from the original (http://www.nationalcenter.org/ContractwithAmeric
a.html) on June 17, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the U.S. (https://web.archive.org/web/20061
028175328/http://www.heritage.org/Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/HL549.cfm), from The Heritage
Foundation
Beyond the Contract (https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1995/03/garrett.html), criticism of
the Contract from Mother Jones magazine

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