Don Fulsome: "In the Senate, the Tax Bill never got out of the Finance Committee; but Chairman Harry Byrd, hastened by a gentle nudge from President Johnson, forecast final action early in 1964.
"Neither House voted on the most controversial New Frontier proposal of the year: a comprehensive set of laws designed to deliver the Constitution to the American Negro. The package, which emerged from the House Judiciary Committee, was not as strong as one approved by its Civil Rights Subcommittee; but the Administration believed it had a better chance of passing.
"As expected, the most angry opposition to the bill came from Dixie lawmakers, like Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina."
Senator Strom Thurmond: "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals, which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress."
Don Fulsome: "At year's end, the rights measure was bottled up in the House Rules Committee. But Chairman Howard Smith of Virginia promised hearings in early 1964.
