# Henry Hyde Illinois Republican congressman (1975–2007), 32-year House veteran, co-founder of the [[ALEC]], and author of the eponymous **Hyde Amendment** (1976) that prohibits the use of federal funds for most abortions. A foundational figure in both the institutional architecture of modern movement conservatism (via ALEC) and the legal architecture of the anti-abortion movement (via the Hyde Amendment and subsequent judiciary-committee work). ## Role in founding ALEC In September 1973, while serving as an Illinois state representative, Hyde joined [[Paul Weyrich]] and Lou Barnett in Chicago to found what would become the American Legislative Exchange Council. Originally named *The [[Conservative Caucus of State Legislators]]*, ALEC was conceived as a counterweight to the liberal policy networks active at the state level in the early 1970s. Hyde was elected to the U.S. Congress the following year (1974), leaving the state-legislature scaffolding to Weyrich and to Illinois GOP staffer Mark Rhoads, but his name remained on the founding register. ## Congressional career highlights - **Hyde Amendment (1976):** Attached as a rider to the annual Department of Labor–HHS appropriations bill; bans federal Medicaid funding for most abortions; has been renewed every year since. The Hyde Amendment is widely considered the most consequential piece of anti-abortion federal legislation of the post-Roe era. - **House Judiciary Chair (1995–2001):** Led the committee through the Clinton impeachment. Served as lead House manager at the 1999 Senate trial. - **International Relations Chair (2001–2007):** Post-9/11 oversight of foreign-policy legislation. Hyde retired in 2007 and died later that same year. ## Historical position Hyde's two lasting monuments — ALEC and the Hyde Amendment — illustrate the two tiers of conservative movement-building he participated in: the institutional infrastructure (ALEC) that would produce five decades of state legislation, and the single-issue legal victory (Hyde Amendment) that demonstrated how a carefully-framed policy rider could persist through both Republican and Democratic administrations. ## See Also - [[ALEC]] - [[Paul Weyrich]] - [[ALEC Ecosystem]]