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Chapters 10-12 – “ The United States Congress ”. Committees in Congress. THREE Types of Congressional Committees. * Standing Committees Select / Special Committees Joint Committees * “ Conference Committee ” Sub-committees, too! . What do Committees Do? .
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Chapters 10-12 – “The United States Congress” Committees in Congress
THREE Types of Congressional Committees • * StandingCommittees • Select / Special Committees • Joint Committees • * “Conference Committee” • Sub-committees, too!
What do Committees Do? • Colbert Testifies in Committee... • Debate, Discuss, “mark-up,” investigate and conduct research… • Monitor current governmental operations (“oversight”) • Identify issues suitable for legislative review • Gather and evaluate information • Recommend courses of action to their parent body.
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”
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)
Key Senate Committees • Finance * (taxes…) • Foreign Relations * (treaties) • Judiciary * (impeachment and amendments) • Homeland Security and Government Affairs
Committees have a counterpart in the other House Every Bill must have somewhere to go in each house of Congress… • Senate & House Armed Services • Senate & House Budget Committees • Senate & House Appropriations • Senate & House Judiciary
Similar, but different name… • “House Ways and Means Committee” • “Senate Finance Committee” • “House Foreign Affairs” • “Senate Foreign Relations”
Chairmen Ranking Member
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”