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Floyd M. Riddick
Senate Parliamentarian

While researching his doctoral dissertation on congressional procedure in 1935, Floyd Riddick spent a year observing the workings of the House of Representatives. Most of the rest of his career he spent on the Senate side of the Capitol, as the first editor of the "Daily Digest" in the Congressional Record and as Parliamentarian of the Senate. As Parliamentarian, he sat immediately below the presiding officer in the Senate chamber, providing information on precedents and advising other senators on parliamentary procedure. In his interviews he talks about Senate filibusters and the efforts to change the rules of cloture. He also discusses the censures of Joseph McCarthy and Thomas Dodd , the contested election between John Durkin and Louis Wyman , and the preparations for a planned impeachment trial of Richard Nixon .

Table of Contents:
Preface
1) Early Years,1-29
2) The Daily Digest,30-60
3) The Office of Parliamentarian,61-121
4) Filibuster and Cloture,122-221
5) Senate Leaders and Followers,222-283
6) The Impeachment Process,284-343
7) Censure: The McCarthy and Dodd Cases,344-390
8) Committee Reform,391-424
9) Senate Procedure,425-454
10) Senate Ceremonies,456-487
11) Contested Elections: The Durkin-Wyman Case,488-531
12) The Senate in Retrospect,535-546
Index
Full Transcript
Floyd M. Riddick
Citation:  Scholarly citation: "Floyd M. Riddick, Senate Parliamentarian," Oral History Interviews, Senate Historical Office, Washington, D.C.
 
Deed of Gift:  I, Floyd M. Riddick, do hereby give to the Senate Historical Office the tape recording and transcripts of my interviews on June 26, July 12, July 27, August 1, August 24, September 28, October 18, November 21, December 4, 1978, and February 15, 1979. I authorize the Senate Historical Office to use the tapes and transcripts in such a manner as may best serve the educational and historical objectives of their oral history program. I also approve the deposit of the transcripts at the Library of Congress, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and any other institution which the Senate Historical Office may deem appropriate. In making this gift, I voluntarily convey ownership of the tapes and transcripts to the public domain. Floyd M. Riddick September 20, 1979 Accepted on behalf of the Senate Historical Office by Richard A. Baker, Historian, September 20, 1979
 
  


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