congressional committees
TRANSCRIPT
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
Ch. 5, sec. 4
Purpose of Committees
House and Senate both have committees
Work is divided among smaller groups
Decide which bills move on to the next step-most don’t make it past committees
Kind of Committees
4 types
Standing Committee
Select Committee
Joint Committee
Conference Committee
Standing Committee
Permanent groups that specialize in a certain topic
House has 19 standing committees
Senate has 16 standing committees
Each committee has both Democrats and Republicans in it.
Some standing committees are divided further into subcommittees
Select Committees
Temporary committees
Formed to study one specific issue Organized crime Hunger Complaints of small
business owners
Joint Committee
Members from both the House and Senate
Can be temporary or permanent
Do not deal directly with bills
Study groups Examples:
Joint economic committee Joint committee on printing Joint committee on the
Library of Congress
Conference Committee
Temporary committee Set up to resolve differences between
two versions of a bill Members from both house and senate
Prestigious Committees
House Rules Committee Ways and Means Committee Appropriations Committee
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Finance Committee Appropriations Committee
Committee Assignments and Leadership
Each committee has a chairperson Makes key decisions
within their committee Used to be decided by
seniority Now committee
chairpersons cannot serve more than 3 terms
Members of congress may request to be placed on certain committees