1. Chapters 10-12 – “The United States Congress”

2. THREE Types of Congressional Committees 1. * Standing Committees 2. Select / Special Committees 3. Joint Committees * “Conference Committee” Sub-committees, too!

3. What do Committees Do? Colbert Testifies in Committee... Debate, Discuss, “mark-up,” investigate and conduct research… 1. Monitor current governmental operations (“oversight”) 2. Identify issues suitable for legislative review 3. Gather and evaluate information 4. Recommend courses of action to their parent body.

4. Congressional Committees by the numbers: The House of Representatives currently has 21 committees… 20 “standing” 1 “select” The Senate currently has 20 committees… 16 “standing” 4 “select”

6. Key House Committees Appropriations* (money, money, money) “pork-barrel” spending Budget (the budget, duh…) Judiciary (impeachment) Rules * (the start of a bill’s life) Ways and Means* (the taxmen)

8. Key Senate Committees Finance * (taxes…) Foreign Relations * (treaties) Judiciary * (impeachment and amendments) Homeland Security and Government Affairs

9. Committees have a counterpart in the other House Senate & House Armed Services Senate & House Budget Committees Senate & House Appropriations Senate & House Judiciary Every Bill must have somewhere to go in each house of Congress…

10. Similar, but different name… “House Ways and Means Committee” “Senate Finance Committee” “House Foreign Affairs” “Senate Foreign Relations”

11. Congressional Leadership 1. “Vice-President” and “Speaker of the House” 2. “President Pro Tempore” (Senate) 3. “Majority Leader” / “Majority Whip” 4."Minority Leader” / “Majority Whip” Chairmen Ranking Member

12. Congressional Committees Majority Party controls the “Chair” Chair controls the bills AND the committee… Senior Minority member is the “Ranking member” Seniority dictates leadership “Seniority Rule”