Newt Gingrich - Speaker of The House

Speaker of The House

The House fulfilled Gingrich's promise to bring all ten of the Contract's issues to a vote within the first 100 days of the session, even though most of the legislation was initially held up in the Senate by the objection of liberal/progressive interest groups and President Clinton, who called it the "Contract on America".

Legislation proposed by the 104th United States Congress included term limits for Congressional Representatives, tax cuts, welfare reform, and a balanced budget amendment, as well as independent auditing of the finances of the House of Representatives and elimination of non-essential services such as the House barbershop and shoe-shine concessions. Following Gingrich's first two years as House Speaker, the Republican majority was re-elected in the 1996 election, the first time Republicans had done so in 68 years, and the first time simultaneously with a Democratic president winning re-election.