The Sixty-fourth 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, DC from March 4, 1915 to March 4, 1917, during the third and fourth 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.
June 9, 1915: (Prelude to World War I):U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned over a disagreement regarding the nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
July 24, 1915: The steamer SS Eastland capsized in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.
July 28, 1915: The United States occupation of Haiti began.
August 5–August 23, 1915: Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans left 275 dead.
March 8–March 9, 1916: Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa led about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.
March 15, 1916: President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
May 5, 1916: United States Marines invaded the Dominican Republic.
July 30, 1916: German agents caused the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least 7 people.
November 7, 1916: U.S. presidential election, 1916: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeated Republican Charles E. Hughes.
January 11, 1917: (Prelude to World War I): German saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland, NJ (now Lyndhurst, NJ), one of the events leading to U.S. involvement in World War I.
February 3, 1917: (Prelude to World War I):The United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany
May 15, 1916: Kern Amendment
May 29, 1916: Fraudulent Advertising Act of 1916
May 31, 1916: Tillman Act
June 3, 1916: National Defense Act of 1916
June 9, 1916: Chamberlain-Ferris Act
July 11, 1916: Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 (Bankhead-Shackleford Act, also known as Federal "Good Roads" Act)
July 11, 1916: Terminal Inspection Act of 1916
July 17, 1916: Federal Farm Loan Act (Hollis-Lever Act)
July 27, 1916: River and Harbors Act of 1916
July 28, 1916: Space Basis Act
July 28, 1916: Railway Mail Service Pay Act
August 9, 1916: Uniform Bill of Lading Act of 1916
August 11, 1916: Irrigation District Act of 1916 (Smith Act)
August 11, 1916: Wildlife Game Refuges Act of 1916
August 11, 1916: Grain Standards Act of 1916
August 11, 1916: Cotton Futures Act of 1916
August 11, 1916: Brush Disposal Act of 1916
August 11, 1916: Warehouse Act of 1916
August 25, 1916: National Park Service Act (Kent-Smoot Act)
August 29, 1916: 2nd Uniform Bill of Lading Act of 1916
August 29, 1916: Jones Act (Philippines)
August 29, 1916: Federal Possession and Control Act of 1916
August 29, 1916: Army Appropriations Act of 1916
August 29, 1916: Naval Act of 1916
August 29, 1916: Naval Reserve Force Act
August 31, 1916: Federal Standard Container Act
August 31, 1916: Standard Fruits and Vegetable Baskets and Containers Act of 1916
September 1, 1916: Keating-Owen Act
September 3, 1916: Adamson Act
September 7, 1916: Merchant Marine Act of 1916 (Alexander Act)
September 7, 1916: Workingmen's Compensation Act (Kern-McGillicuddy Act)
September 8, 1916: Anti-Dumping Act of 1916
September 8, 1916: Emergency Revenue Act of 1916
October 20, 1916: Special Air Preparedness Act
December 29, 1916: Stock-Raising Homestead Act
February 5, 1917: Immigration Act of 1917
February 22, 1917: Federal Interpleader Act of 1917
February 23, 1917: Smith-Hughes Act
February 26, 1917: Mount McKinley National Park Act of 1917
March 1, 1917: Flood Control Act of 1917 (Ransdell-Humphreys Act)
March 2, 1917: Jones-Shafroth Act
March 3, 1917: Reed Amendment
March 3, 1917: Sheppard Bone-Dry Act
March 3, 1917: Special Preparedness Fund Act of 1917
March 4, 1917: Timber Export Act
January 17, 1917: Treaty of the Danish West Indies signed by President Wilson, ceding the Danish West Indies to the United States after their purchase from Denmark, and renaming them the US Virgin Islands.
Democratic (D): 230 (majority)
Republican (R): 196
Progressive (Prog): 6
Prohibition (Proh): 1
Socialist (S): 1
Independent (I): 1
TOTAL members: 435
President: Thomas R. Marshall
Presidents pro tempore: James P. Clarke and Willard Saulsbury, Jr.
Majority Whip: J. Hamilton Lewis (D)
Minority Whip: Charles Curtis (R)
Republican Conference Chairman: Jacob Harold Gallinger
Democratic Caucus Chair : John W. Kern
Republican Conference Secretary: James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Willard Saulsbury Jr., until December 14, 1916
Key Pittman, acting
Speaker: Champ Clark (D)
Majority Leader: Claude Kitchin
Majority Whip: vacant
Democratic Caucus Chairman: Edward W. Saunders
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Frank Ellsworth Doremus
Minority Leader: James R. Mann
Minority Whip: Charles M. Hamilton
Republican Conference Chair: William S. Greene
Skip to House of Representatives, below
At this time, most sitting Senators had been elected by the state legislatures, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. Due to the 17th Amendment, the incoming class of senators from the 1914 election were all elected directly by the residents of their state.
The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
replacements: 3
Democratic: 1 seat net loss
Republican: 1 seat net gain
deaths: 3
resignations: 0
vacancy: 0
Total seats with changes: 4
replacements: 9
Democratic: 2 seat loss
Republican: 3 seat gain
Progressive: 1 seat loss
deaths: 8
resignations: 12
contested elections: 4
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
Clerical Assistance to Senators (Select)
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
District of Columbia Excise Board (Select)
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
Ship Purchase Lobby (Special)
Standards, Weights and Measures
Tariff Regulation (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
Flood Control
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
Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Fiscal Relations between the District of Columbia and the United States
Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
Interstate Commerce
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Rural Credits
Architect of the Capitol: Elliott Woods
Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
Public Printer of the United States: Cornelius Ford
Chaplain: F.J. Prettyman (Methodist)
Secretary: James M. Baker
Sergeant at Arms: Charles P. Higgins
Chaplain: Henry N. Couden
Clerk: South Trimble
Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: Bennett C. Clark
Doorkeeper: Joseph J. Sinnott
Postmaster: William M. Dunbar
Sergeant at Arms: Robert B. Gordon
