It’s been a decade since more than 300 Republican House members and candidates stood on the Capitol steps, vowed to end the long Democratic control of Congress and signed their “Contract With America.”

To the surprise of most pundits, they won the House for the first time in 40 years and, over the next several years, implemented many of the contract’s procedural reforms and substantive proposals.

But as its architects hailed its successes recently, they admitted some of its promise has faded.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich told an American Enterprise Institute forum the effort peaked with a 1997 balanced-budget pact between Congress and President Bill Clinton. Former Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, conceded some “dissipation” in efforts to curb spending.

Asked if an arrogant GOP majority has replaced an arrogant Democratic one, he said, “I don’t think you can make the case yet.”

House Republicans did pass most bills they promised, cutting personal, business and estate taxes, increasing defense spending and achieving welfare reform. And, politically, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, turning the initial House takeover into long-term domination.

But some measures died. The Senate killed a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. The House failed to produce the required two-thirds for an amendment to set congressional term limits. The courts threw out a bill allowing the president to veto individual appropriations items.

Here are ways in which GOP reality has differed from its promise:

• Balanced budget. The contract promised to restore “fiscal responsibility to an out-of-control Congress.” But the 1997 agreement on the first balanced budget in 30 years lasted only four years.

Amid an economic downturn, the Sept. 11 attacks, massive tax cuts and a slackening in fiscal discipline, deficits re-emerged in 2002, reaching a record level of more than $400 billion this year. Efforts to curb future spending hikes or tax cuts have failed, both presidential candidates are proposing substantial new spending, and a balanced budget once again seems distant.

Despite its control of both houses and the White House, the GOP has had trouble completing basic congressional business; like last year, the new fiscal year will begin without passage of most bills to fund the government.

• Unfunded mandates. One early bill sought to limit “unfunded mandates,” the practice of passing laws that require significant state and local spending but don’t provide additional resources.

That effort failed. Congress still does not fully fund the 1974 special education program, and the Bush years have seen new laws that require major state spending, such as the No Child Left Behind education law.

Though Congress increased education spending, many state officials say they didn’t get enough money to implement the new law. Allocation of homeland security funds has placed a burden on some states with large costs.

• Term limits. In 1995, Republicans voted to limit the terms of top House officials, including the speaker and committee chairs.

They’ve repealed the limit on the speaker’s tenure. They kept a three-term limit for committee chairs, but let term-limited chairs head a second committee for another three terms.

The proposed constitutional amendment has not been revived, and some members abandoned their own voluntary term limits.

• The House atmosphere. The GOP complained that Democrats ran the House as their private fiefdom, blocking votes on Republican amendments and limiting the GOP’s role in running the body.

Republicans vowed to change that and passed reforms including requirements for open committee meetings, the banning of proxies and limits on committee staffs.

But recent years have seen the Republican majority curb the Democratic minority, limiting floor amendments, extending key votes by up to three hours while leaders pressured wavering members, and giving Democrats even less say than the GOP had under the Democrats.

Still, the revolution unleashed by the contract continues, threatening to make House Democrats the same long-term minority that Republicans once were.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.

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