The Sixty-third 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, 1913 to March 4, 1915, during the first two years of Woodrow Wilson's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Thirteenth Census of the United States in 1910. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.
March 4, 1913: Woodrow Wilson became President of the United States.
March 9, 1914: The Senate adopted a rule forbidding smoking on the floor of the Senate because Senator Ben Tillman, recovering from a stroke, found the smoke irritating.
July 28, 1914: World War I began in Europe
August 15, 1914: The Panama Canal was inaugurated
August 19, 1914: President Woodrow Wilson declared strict U.S. neutrality
November 1914: United States House of Representatives elections, 1914 and United States Senate elections, 1914
November 16, 1914: Federal Reserve Bank opened
May 27, 1913: Kern Resolution
July 9, 1913: Saboth Act
July 15, 1913: Newlands Labor Act
October 3, 1913: Revenue Act of 1913 (Federal Income Tax), including Underwood Tariff
October 22, 1913: Urgent Deficiencies Act
December 19, 1913: Raker Act
December 23, 1913: Federal Reserve Act, ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251, 12 U.S.C. § 221, et seq.
May 8, 1914: Smith-Lever Act, ch. 79, 38 Stat. 372, 7 U.S.C. § 341
June 24, 1914: Cutter Service Act
June 30, 1914: Cooperative Funds Act
July 17, 1914: Agricultural Entry Act
July 18, 1914: Aviation Service Act
July 21, 1914: Borland Amendment
August 13, 1914: Smith-Hayden Act
August 15, 1914: Sponge Act
August 18, 1914: Cotton Futures Act of 1914
August 18, 1914: Foreign Ship Registry Act
August 22, 1914: Glacier National Park Act of 1914
September 2, 1914: War Risk Insurance Act (Rayburn Act)
September 26, 1914: Federal Trade Commission Act, ch. 311, 38 Stat. 717, 15 U.S.C. § 41
October 2, 1914: River and Harbors Act of 1914
October 15, 1914: Clayton Antitrust Act, ch. 323, 38 Stat. 730, 15 U.S.C. § 12, et seq.
October 22, 1914: Emergency Internal Revenue Tax Act
December 17, 1914: Harrison Narcotics Tax Act
January 28, 1915: Coast Guard Act
March 4, 1915: Merchant Marine Act of 1915
March 4, 1915: River and Harbors Act of 1915
March 4, 1915: Standard Barrel Act For Fruits, Vegetables, and Dry Commodities
March 4, 1915: Federal Boiler Inspection Act
March 4, 1915: Uniform Bill of Lading Act
March 4, 1915: Occupancy Permits Act
April 8, 1913: 17th Amendment was ratified, creating a popularly elected U.S. Senate instead of the original process of appointment by state legislatures.
Democratic (D): 291 (majority)
Republican (R): 134
Progressive (P): 9
Independent (I): 1
TOTAL members: 435
President of the Senate: Thomas R. Marshall
President pro tempore: James P. Clarke
Majority Whip: J. Hamilton Lewis (D)
Minority Whip: James Wadsworth, Jr. (R) until March 4; Charles Curtis (R) starting March 4
Democratic Caucus Chair : John W. Kern
Republican Conference Chairman: Jacob Harold Gallinger
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Willard Saulsbury Jr.
Republican Conference Secretary: William Squire Kenyon
Speaker: Champ Clark (D)
Majority Leader: Oscar Underwood
Majority Whip: Thomas M. Bell
Democratic Caucus Chairman: A. Mitchell Palmer
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Frank Ellsworth Doremus
Minority Leader: James R. Mann
Minority Whip: Charles H. Burke
Republican Conference Chair: William S. Greene
Skip to House of Representatives, below
Most Senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. A few senators were elected directly by the residents of the state. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election. Senior senators are listed first.
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
replacements: 3
Democratic: 2 seat net gain
Republican: 2 seat net loss
deaths: 3
resignations: 3
vacancy: 3
Total seats with changes: 9
replacements: 20
Democratic: 1 seat gain
Republican: 2 seat loss
Progressive: 1 seat gain
deaths: 11
resignations: 19
contested elections: 2
Total seats with changes: 15
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
Banking and Currency
Canadian Relations
Census
Civil Service and Retrenchment
Claims
Coast and Insular Survey
Coast Defenses
Commerce
Conservation of National Resources
Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia
Cuban Relations
Disposition of Useless Papers in the Executive Departments
District of Columbia
Education and Labor
Engrossed Bills
Enrolled Bills
Establish a University in the United States (Select)
Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service
Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture
Expenditures in the Department of Commerce
Expenditures in the Interior Department
Expenditures in the Department of Justice
Expenditures in the Department of Labor
Expenditures in the Navy Department
Expenditures in the Post Office Department
Expenditures in the Department of State
Expenditures in the Treasury Department
Expenditures in the War Department
Finance
Fisheries
Five Civilized Tribes of Indians
Foreign Relations
Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game
Geological Survey
Immigration
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Industrial Expositions
Interoceanic Canals
Interstate Commerce
Irrigation and Reclamation
Judiciary
Library
Manufactures
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Select)
National Banks
Naval Affairs
Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico
Pacific Railroads
Patents
Pensions
Philippines
Post Office and Post Roads
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
Tariff Regulation (Select)
Telepost (Select)
Territories
Transportation and Sale of Meat Products (Select)
Transportation Routes to the Seaboard
Trespassers upon Indian Lands (Select)
Whole
Woman Suffrage
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 Department
Expenditures in the Interior Department
Expenditures in the Justice Department
Expenditures in the Labor 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
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Mileage
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Naval Affairs
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
Roads
Rules
Standards of Official Conduct
Territories
War Claims
Ways and Means
Whole
Armor Plant Costs (Special)
Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Federal Aid in Construction of Post Roads
Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
Investigate the General Parcel Post
Postage on 2nd Class Mail Matter and Compensation for Transportation of Mail
Second Class Mail Matter and Compensation for Rail Mail Service
Architect of the Capitol: Elliott Woods
Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
Public Printer of the United States: Samuel B. Donnelly (until 1913), Cornelius Ford (starting 1913)
Secretary:
Charles G. Bennett of New York
James M. Baker of South Carolina, elected March 13, 1913.
Sergeant at Arms:
E. Livingston Cornelius of Maryland, elected December 10, 1912
Charles P. Higgins of Indiana, elected March 13, 1913
Chaplain: Edward Everett Hale, Unitarian, until March 13, 1913, F.J. Prettyman, Methodist, elected March 13, 1913.
Clerk: South Trimble of Kentucky, elected April 7, 1913.
Sergeant at Arms: Robert B. Gordon of Ohio, elected April 7, 1913.
Doorkeeper: Joseph J. Sinnott of Virginia, elected April 7, 1913.
Postmaster: William M. Dunbar of Georgia, elected April 7, 1913.
Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: Bennett C. Clark
Chaplain: Henry N. Couden, Universalist, elected April 7, 1913.
