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