While the Congressional Leaders are Leading Everyone Else is in Committees

A) Purposes of Congressional Committees 1) Divide the thousands of bills ( potential laws) proposed each year into specific categories 2) lets representatives become knowledgeable in certain areas where laws could be passed 3) lets lawmakers separate the good bills from the garbage (most bills never get passed the committee stage)

4) lets the public have more of an impact a) by sitting in on meetings on bills b) by testifying at meetings on bills

Kinds of Committees 1) standing a) What are they? – committees that are present every year (to help you remember: they’re “standing” all of the time) b) How many are there? –19 in the House, 17 in the Senate

Who leads them? 1) heads or chairpersons are picked by the head of the majority party 2) chairpersons are usually the senior (meaning longest serving) member of the majority party already serving on the committee House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (MO) meets with the leader of the Afghan National Army while on a Congressional delegation visit to Afghanistan. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, the comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, on Thursday, February 7th George Miller Committee Chairman of Education and Labor

Each committee can have from 9 to 75 House members while each Senate committee has 12 to 28 members

F) The most popular committees are: In the House: 1)Rules committee – they set the rules of Congress and how and when a bill will be considered by Congress (they can speed up, delay, or stop a bill)

2) Ways and Means committee – they set the budget and how much we pay in taxes

3) The Appropriations committee – they determine how much money government programs should get

4) The Armed Services committee – they are in charge of supervising all military forces

5) Judiciary committee – they are in charge of supervising law enforcement personnel and courts

6) Internation al Relations committee – in charge of US relations with other countries

7) Agriculture committee – in charge of supervising farming and fisheries as well as government aid to farmers

b) in the Senate the most popular committees are: 1) Foreign relations committee (same as the International Relations committee in the House) 2) Appropriations committee (same as in the House) 3) Finance committee (same as the Ways and Means committee in the House) 4)Judiciary committee (same as in the House) 5)Armed Services (same as in the House)

6) Banking committee – they supervise all banks, savings and loans, and currency issues

7)Housing committee – supervises all building and maintaining of housing

8) Urban Affairs committee – supervises all city-planning

Think that there are a lot of committees? – there are 3- 4 times (70 in the Senate, 80 in the House) as many subcommittees (committees within a committee) who: 1)pick on a specific and ongoing topic of a committee 2) help young members of Congress get acquainted with the lawmaking procedure

2) Some Senate and House committees are only temporary - they are known as select (“special”) committees a) What are they? – temporary committees deal with one specific topic b) Members for these committees are chosen by the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate (after of course they consult the top members of their parties)

c) Why are they developed? 1) to deal with matters that the people recognize as important right now (for example: terrorism) 2) to deal with overlooked problems 3) to deal with specific interest groups and their problems c) once again they are designed to be temporary - meaning they only are to last 1 term (2 years) but their contract can be renewed

3) Sometimes the House and Senate meet together and form joint committees a) What are they? – committees made up of both Senate and House members b) They can be temporary or permanent c) Deal with large and small issues d) They cannot propose any laws

4) Conference a) What are they? – committees which meet to try to make sure both sides of the legislative branch pass laws b) Since they only meet when the House and Senate are passing laws about the same topic at the same time they are only temporary

Duties of the members: 1) make sure both houses agree on the law at hand 2) make sure both parties get along 3) try to make sure new laws will be approved by the president

How do you determine who goes where? 1) Depends on your party a) While the majority leaders gets to pick the leaders, how many of each party is determined by percentages b) Ex: about 60% of the House is Republican, so on a ten member committee 6 members would be Republican

Depends on the “assignment” committee a) Who are they? – a special committee who approves committee membership and all transfers b) Who chooses the members of the assignment committee? – all of the members of each party

3) Which committee you are on also depends on the committee chairperson a) they can assign or take you off of the committees b) their other duties include 1) deciding which bills will be discussed 2) breaking ties on votes 3) deciding how long a bill should be considered 4) deciding when a bill will be discussed 5) deciding who can or can’t testify in front of the committee 6) deciding if committee meetings will be open to the public Robert C. Byrd D-WV Chairman Appropriations Committee

C) Again, How are chairperson’s chosen? – it comes mostly down to seniority – the older and more times you’ve been elected can also play a factor, the more choice spots you can get D) once the committees are chosen by the parties and chairpeople they are approved formally by all of Congress