Don Wolfensberger at The Ripon Forum:
In the mid-20th Century, a conservative coalition of southern Democrats and Republicans became a dominant ruling group in the House. On the Rules Committee, two southern Democrats, “Judge” Howard Smith of Virginia and Bill Colmer of Mississippi, would join with the four Republicans to sometimes block, by 6-6 tie votes, important legislation like civil rights bills.
With the sorting of the parties in the late 1960s and 70s, and the congressional reform revolution of the latter decade, the House and Rules Committee returned to a moderate ruling majority.
Even with the Republican House takeover in 1995, the parties’ roles were well defined. They simply exchanged playbooks whenever majority control flipped. But the Rules Committee remains at the center of the action. It has demonstrated over two centuries that it adapts to a changing House, just as the House has done to it. It still matters.