1. Legislative Branch – Congressional Committee System
Unit II – Part 6

2. Nonexistent from 1789 to 1810
Entire House and Senate making all decisions in open session
Assignment of congressional decisions to select committees
Creation of legal details of final decisions

3. Reasons for permanent standing committees (1810)
Necessity of specialization
Increase in the congressional workload
Proposing and drafting legislation
Hearings
Markup of legislation
Point by point review of proposed bills
Jurisdiction over policy
Handling of matters for a specific area of specialization
Reviewing and screening of policy proposals
Majority vote to advance bill to floor

4. Decrease in the number of standing committees with the Legislative Reorganization Act (1946)
Senate Committees (sixteen) – 107th Congress
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Appropriations
Armed Services
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Budget
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Energy and Natural Resources
Environment and Public Works

5. Finance
Foreign Relations
Governmental Affairs
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Judiciary
Labor and Human Resources
Rules and Administration
Small Business
Veteran’s Affairs

6. House Committees (nineteen) -107th Congress
Agriculture
Appropriations
Armed Services
Budget
Education and the Workforce
Energy and Commerce
Financial Services
Government Reform
House Administration
International Relations
Judiciary

7. Resources
Rules
Science
Small Business
Standards of Official Conduct
Transportation and Infrastructure
Veteran’s Affairs
Ways and Means

8. Joint Senate and House standing committees (four)
Economic
Taxation
Library
Printing

9. Establishment of select committees to study special issues
Committee on Intelligence
Committee on Ethics
Committee on Indian Affairs
Committee on Aging
Increase in the number of subcommittees
Assistance to the standing committees
Often more powerful than the standing committees

10. Committee Membership
Division of committee majority and minority parties roughly in proportion to percentage of representation in Congress
Distribution of committee assignments by Committee on Committees

11. Committee membership
Specialization in legislative interests by membership
More important in House than Senate
Deference to committees
Limitations on floor attacks on committee proposals
General acceptance of committee judgments

12. Committee Staffs Duties
Assignment of clerical and record-keeping roles with the Legislative Reorganization Act (1946)
Researching policy positions
Organization of hearings
Arrangements for witnesses
Preparation of questions
Drafting of committee reports to accompany bills
Clarification of intent of proposed laws

13. Conference Committees
Purpose
Development of compromise between House and Senate versions of bills
Membership
Temporary assignment of representatives and senators
Specialists on topic of the bill and/or members of relevant standing committee

14. Reforms Abolition of committee seniority system
Strengthening of subcommittee system with Subcommittee Bill of Rights (1973)
Creation of seniority system for appointment of House subcommittee chairs
Reduction in subcommittee chair’s powers of control over committee budget, staff resources, and referral of bills

15. Reforms Results of reforms Decentralization of power
Increase in independence and power of committee members