Bolling, Richard

Richard Bolling (1916–1991), a Democrat from Missouri, became one of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives. Although he never became Speaker, as he had hoped to do, Bolling may have influenced the House more than any other member of his generation. He assembled coalitions to pass major domestic programs and was the guiding spirit behind the reform movement that changed the institution in the 1970s. (See Reform, Congressional.)

Bolling was a master parliamentarian and had a practical grasp of intricate House rules. He wrote several books on the workings of the House and led a bold but unsuccessful move in the early 1970s to restructure the jurisdictions of the House standing committees. He was a principal architect of the congressional budget process.

Bolling was first elected to the House in 1948. A protégé of Speaker Sam Rayburn, he joined the Rules Committee in 1955. There, as a loyal lieutenant to Rayburn, he plotted strategy against the Republicans and conservative Democrats who had effective control of the committee. In 1961 Bolling and fellow liberals talked Rayburn into enlarging the Rules Committee and adding more Democratic members to help outvote the old conservatives. Bolling became chair in 1979, by which time the committee stood firmly with the Democratic leadership. (See Rules Committee, House.)

Bolling failed to win leadership elections in 1962, when Carl Albert defeated him for majority leader, and in 1976, when he fell three votes short in a contest eventually won by Jim Wright. He was excluded from the Democratic center of power while John W. McCormack was Speaker (1962–1971), but returned to the inner circle when Albert became Speaker in 1971. Bolling was a close adviser to Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., who succeeded Albert in 1977. Bolling retired in 1983.