The Ninety-seventh Congress.

The Republicans' margin in the Senate was unchanged after the 1982 congressional elections, with the GOP holding onto its majority, owing in large part to a nationally financed campaign that tipped the balance in favor of the Republicans in every close contest. Only five new senators were sworn in at the opening of the Ninety-eighth Congress. Big changes took place in the House of Representatives, where redistricting and fallout from the recession of the early 1980s resulted in the election of 81 new congressmen, 57 of them Democrats, increasing their edge in the House to 103 seats. The majority of the new Democrats campaigned on promises to defend the social programs the Reagan administration was trying to cut back, while promising to hold down the creation of new ones. Most of them also called themselves fiscal conservatives and blamed the recession on Reagan's supply-side...