In the fall of 1994, 367 Republican candidates from all around the country gathered on the West Front steps of the U.S. Capitol and signed the Contract with America.
That November, the Republicans regained control of both branches of Congress for the first time in forty years. House Republicans won control of the House (235 to 197), including twenty-two seats formerly held by Democrats. Senate Republicans gained a 54 to 47 majority, picking up seven seats—including two incumbent Democratic senators who switched to the GOP.
Gingrich became Speaker of the House. As the Contract with America's signatories promised, the entire platform was acted upon within the first hundred days.
Nine out of the ten items passed the House. Only an attempt to draft a proposed constitutional amendment involving term limits was defeated.
In the end, the House set an example by cutting one-third of House committees, along with one-third of committee staffs. Only two of the ten items, however, were passed into law. First, Congress would no longer be exempt itself from the laws, mandates, and regulations it imposed on the rest of the nation. Moreover, the federal government was prohibited from imposing unfunded mandates on state and local governments.
