Republican study committee
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The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is a group of over 100 House Republicans organized for the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives. It was founded in 1971 as a conservative counterweight to the Democratic Study Group that had successfully pulled the House Democratic Caucus to the left. It received funding as an LSO (Legislative Service Organization) until 1995, when funding for such organizations was cut by the newly Republican-controlled House. The RSC renamed itself the Conservative Action Team (CATs) at that time. Its original name was restored in 2000 by then-Chairman Rep. John Shadegg (R-Arizona).
In September of 2004, Representative Mike Pence, the Republican from the Seventh District of Indiana, was elected unanimously to chair the committee for the 109th Congress. Rep. Pence is continuing to push the committee as a Reagan Republican voice, being championed as "Rush Limbaugh on decaff" and "A New Face of Conservatism."
Its members are still colloquially referred to as "CATs" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Its membership, over 150 at one time during the 1980s, shrank to just 40 in 2000. It is now once again over 100.
Though the primary functions of the RSC vary from year to year, it has always pushed for significant cuts in non-defense spending, advocating socially conservative legislation, and protecting rights such as the right to keep and bear arms. It has proposed an alternative budget every year since 1995, with notable decreases in pork spending. It has unveiled its sensible plan to balance the budget without increasing taxes. Its alternative budget proposals, which can be downloaded on the committee site, are regularly praised by the editors of National Review, a leading conservative journal of opinion.
The committee has unveiled its priorites for the 2006 legislative session, which are as follows:
"In 2006, the House of Representatives must:
1. Pass a balanced budget amendment to put our fiscal house in order.
2. Pass a budget reconciliation package, to rein in auto-pilot spending which has risen from 25% of all federal spending in 1963 to 54% today, and is expected to reach nearly 60% in 2014.
3. Offset all emergency supplemental spending with spending reductions and offset all new programs with simultaneous, equivalent reductions in, or eliminations of, existing programs.
4. Make the tax cuts permanent, including the repeal of the marriage-tax penalty and the death tax and pass fundamental tax reform
5. Pass budget process reform, which includes budgeting for emergencies with a rainy day fund, instituting a sunset commission for federal programs, instituting a constitutional line-item veto, and making the budget resolution carry the force of law.
6. Pass legislation which stops the raid on the Social Security Trust Fund and allows Americans to own a personal Social Security account.
7. Pass ethics reform that requires transparency and earmark reform which permits Members of Congress to strike earmarks on the House floor.
8. Pass the Marriage Protection Amendment, to ensure that marriage, the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife, is not redefined by activist judges.
9. Defend the sanctity of human life, which includes banning all human cloning, passing the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, promoting ethical adult stem cell research, and preventing federal funding for destructive embryonic stem cell research.
10. Pass protections for religious freedom, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, and religious expression in the public square."
The group, despite its five-year history without the term "Republican" in its name, is generally referred to by political scientists as a "party caucus" that is, a legislative grouping that is composed of members of exclusively one party and serves some purpose within the framework of that party.
Its mission is ostensibly as a "research arm" for Republicans, though only a small cadre of its members engage in the research necessary to come up with alternative budget proposals, and the Republican members of neither the Budget or Appropriations Committees in the House refer officially to this group in its research of necessary spending allocations.
The RSC is often a stepping-stone to larger leadership positions, as demonstrated in current events in Rep. John Shadegg's quest for House Majority Leader. Having served as a previous leader of the CATs/RSC, Rep. Shadegg will likely command the loyalty of many members of the RSC, which include roughly 103 members of the 230 member House Republican Conference. The group regularly touts the fact that its members have gone on to larger leadership positions, such as Vice President Richard Cheney, former House Majority Leader (and former RSC chair) Tom DeLay.
[edit] External references
Republicans Urge Suspension of Davis-Bacon Wage Act for Katrina Recovery Jim Meyers, NewsMax.com Sept. 9, 2005
Susan Webb Hammond, "Congressional Caucuses and Party Leaders in the House of Representatives" Political Science Quarterly > Vol. 106, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 277-294
