On the Issues

"A billion here, a billion there . . ."
Did Everett Dirksen ever say the phrase popularly attributed to him?

Legislative Record
Scanned images of a staff-prepared compilation of legislative measures.

Dirksen: Master Legislator
Analysis by Dirksen scholar Byron Hulsey who focuses on six aspects of Dirksen's personality and character that made it possible for him to shape some of the most important laws of his generation.

Dirksen on Civil Rights: June 10, 1964
Description of perhaps Dirksen's most famous speech delivered immediately before the successful cloture vote was taken in the Senate on what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dirksen on Education
"The Voices of Your Classroom are the Voices of Our Future," by Everett Dirksen [The Instructor, March 1967]

Dirksen on Politics as a Career
His recommendations for preparing for a career in administrative or elective politics.

Dirksen on Vietnam
Selections from Dirksen's public statements, 1954-69, on the war in Southeast Asia. Topics include the role of the commander-in-chief, the relationship between Congress and the President, the role of the minority party in a two-party system, among others.

Joint Senate-House Republican Leadership Press Statements
Scanned copies of Senate documents which contain the texts of the leaders' press statements following weekly Republican congressional leadership meetings, 1961-68. These statements were the basis for the "Ev and Charlie" and "Ev and Jerry" shows.

The 1960s:  A Multi-Media View from  Capitol Hill
The 1960s:  A Multi-Media View from Capitol Hill documents the public policy challenges resulting from those tumultuous times using a unique body of records housed in The Center's historical collections-the minutes and press conferences (both print and audio) of the Joint Senate-House Republican Leadership, 1961-69.

Newsletters: Congressional Front, 1933-46
From his first week in office in the House of Representatives through 1946, Congressman Everett Dirksen personally composed and typed weekly newsletters (while Congress was in session) to his constituents in central Illinois. Congressional Front, as it was called, covered the personalities, politics, and policies of Congress and the federal government.  By the end of the run, Dirksen had written 474 of these newsy reports.