57th Congress (1901 - 1903)

House of Representatives

House Majority: Republican

House Majority Seats: 200 out of 357

House Speaker: Rep. David B. Henderson (R-IA)

Senate

Senate Majority: Republican

Senate Majority Seats: 56 out of 90

Senate Majority Leader: (None)

Executive

President: Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY)

Vice President: (None)

portrait

Member Spotlight

Featured: Rep. Francis Newlands (D-NV), author of the Newlands Reclamation Act, was a leading advocate for western development and water management in the early twentieth century. Born in 1848, he represented Nevada in both the House and Senate, where he championed large-scale irrigation projects to promote settlement and agriculture across the arid West. A member of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Newlands sought to balance federal power with regional growth and modernization. However, his legacy is complicated by his later support for segregationist and exclusionary policies that reflected the racial attitudes of his time.

Enactments