The Fifty-ninth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1905 to March 4, 1907, during the fifth and sixth years of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Twelfth Census of the United States in 1900. Both chambers had a Republican majority.
June 8, 1906: Antiquities Act
June 29, 1906: Hepburn Act
June 30, 1906: Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (Wiley Act), ch. 3915, 34 Stat. 768
June 30, 1906: Meat Inspection Act (Beveridge Act)
1906: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching chartered.
March 2, 1907: Expatriation Act of 1907, 34 Stat. 1228
Republican (R): 251 (majority)
Democratic (D): 135
TOTAL: 386
President: Charles W. Fairbanks (R)
President pro tempore: William P. Frye (R)
Republican Conference Chairman: William B. Allison
Democratic Caucus Chair: Arthur Pue Gorman, until June 4, 1906
Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, afterwards
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Edward W. Carmack
Speaker: Joseph G. Cannon (R)
Majority Leader: Sereno E. Payne
Majority Whip: James E. Watson
Republican Conference Chair: William Peters Hepburn
Minority Leader: John Sharp Williams
Minority Whip: James T. Lloyd
Democratic Caucus Chairman: Robert Lee Henry
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: James M. Griggs
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed by class, and Representatives are listed by district.
Skip to House of Representatives, below
At this time, Senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election.
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
replacements: 8
Democratic: no net change
Republican: no net change
deaths: 5
resignations: 1
vacancy: 2
Total seats with changes: 9
replacements: 17
Democratic: no net change
Republican: no net change
deaths: 12
resignations: 11
contested elections: 1
new seats: 1
Total seats with changes: 26
Lists of committees and their party leaders.
Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress (Select)
Agriculture and Forestry
Appropriations
Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
Canadian Relations
Census
Civil Service and Retrenchment
Claims
Coast and Insular Survey
Coast Defenses
Commerce
Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia
Cuban Relations
Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
District of Columbia
Education and Labor
Engrossed Bills
Enrolled Bills
Establish a University in the United States (Select)
Examination of Disposition of Documents (Select)
Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service
Expenditures in Executive Departments
Finance
Fisheries
Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (Select)
Foreign Relations
Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game
Geological Survey
Immigration
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Industrial Expositions
Indian Territory (Select)
Interoceanic Canals
Interstate Commerce
Irrigation and Reclamation
Judiciary
Library
Manufactures
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Select)
National Banks (Select)
Naval Affairs
Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico
Pacific Railroads
Patents
Pensions
Philippines
Post Office and Post Roads
Potomac River Front (Select)
Printing
Private Land Claims
Privileges and Elections
Public Buildings and Grounds
Public Health and National Quarantine
Public Lands
Railroads
Revision of the Laws
Revolutionary Claims
Rules
Standards, Weights and Measures (Select)
Tariff Regulation (Select)
Territories
Transportation and Sale of Meat Products (Select)
Transportation Routes to the Seaboard
Trespassers upon Indian Lands (Select)
Ventilation and Acoustics (Select)
Whole
Woman Suffrage (Select)
Accounts
Agriculture
Alcoholic Liquor Traffic
Appropriations
Banking and Currency
Census
Claims
Coinage, Weights and Measures
Disposition of Executive Papers
District of Columbia
Education
Election of the President, Vice President and Representatives in Congress
Elections
Enrolled Bills
Expenditures in the Agriculture Department
Expenditures in the Commerce and Labor Departments
Expenditures in the Interior Department
Expenditures in the Justice Department
Expenditures in the Navy Department
Expenditures in the Post Office Department
Expenditures in the State Department
Expenditures in the Treasury Department
Expenditures in the War Department
Expenditures on Public Buildings
Foreign Affairs
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Industrial Arts and Expositions
Insular Affairs
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Invalid Pensions
Irrigation of Arid Lands
Labor
Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
Manufactures
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Mileage
Military Affairs
Militia
Mines and Mining
Naval Affairs
Pacific Railroads
Patents
Pensions
Post Office and Post Roads
Public Buildings and Grounds
Public Lands
Railways and Canals
Reform in the Civil Service
Revision of Laws
Rivers and Harbors
Rules
Standards of Official Conduct
Territories
Ventilation and Acoustics
War Claims
Ways and Means
Whole
Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
Revision of the Laws
Second Class Mail Matter
Architect of the Capitol: Elliott Woods
Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
Public Printer of the United States: Frank W. Palmer (until 1905), Charles A. Stillings (starting 1905)
Secretary of the Senate: Charles G. Bennett of New York, elected February 1, 1900.
Sergeant at Arms of the Senate: Daniel M. Ransdell of Indiana, elected February 1, 1900.
Chaplain of the Senate
The Rev. Edward E. Hale, Unitarian, elected December 14, 1903.
Clerk of the House: Alexander McDowell of Pennsylvania, elected December 4, 1905.
Sergeant at Arms of the House: Henry Casson of Wisconsin, elected December 4, 1905.
Doorkeeper of the House: Frank B. Lyon of New York, elected December 4, 1905.
Postmaster of the House: Joseph C. McElroy of Ohio, elected December 4, 1905.
Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: Asher C. Hinds
Chaplain: The Rev. Henry N. Couden, Universalist, elected December 4, 1905.
