Committees in congress

Question 1

What are the functions of committees?

Answer 1

-Help congress with the advise and consent powers e.g. defence committee approve appointments
-First and most decisive stage in the legislative process
-Perform checks and balances
-Investigative functions
-Help reconcile differences between the HOR and the senate during the passige of bills
-Crucial to individual career aspirations and re election/ allow for effective scrutiny

Question 2

Impact of committees- Bills?

Answer 2

-11,000 bills are introduced during a 2 year session of congress, only 2% passes
90% of these are killed by committees

Question 3

Impacts of committees- how many committes in each house?

Answer 3

17 in senete, senetors serve on 2
19 in HOR and representatives serve on 1
Members serve for several years on same one

Question 4

Impacts of committees- helps for committees?

Answer 4

Helped by sub committees

Question 5

Impacts of committees- chairs of committees?

Answer 5

Isn’t decided by seniority rules but it still influences decisions

Question 6

Impacts of committees- voting?

Answer 6

Parties nominate and committees vote
Chairs go for the majority

Question 7

Impacts of committees- temporary select committees?

Answer 7

TSC can be established to investigate particular issues e.g. iran contra

Question 8

Most important- what is standing committees?

Answer 8

Permanent, policy specialist committees that amend legislation

Question 9

What do standing committees do?

Answer 9

-Handle the day to day running of congress
-Conduct investigations within their policy areas
-Have considerable power to help the parent chambers manage their huge workloads but there are limits (can’t legislate can’t force the executive, cannot implement policies)

Question 10

Example of standing committees?

Answer 10

Senate intelligence committee and House intelligence committee are investigating ties between the trump campaign and russian meddling in 2016

Question 11

Standing committees- what do congressmen do in these?

Answer 11

Seek assignments on committees closest to the interests if their district/state

Question 12

2 functions of the standing committees in the hor?

Answer 12

1-Conduct committee stage of bills in the legislative process
2- Conduct investigations within the committee policy area

Question 13

3 functions of the standing committees in senate?

Answer 13

1-Conduct committee stage of bills in the legislative process
2- Conduct investigations within the committee policy areas
3- Begin the confirmation process of numerous presidential appointments

Question 14

What is the house rules committee?

Answer 14

-They timetable bills on house floor, attach rules to bill outlining the time given for a debate and extent to which the bill can be amended
-Prioritising bills on the floor of the house for the second reading

Question 15

House ruling committee- membership?

Answer 15

-Smaller membership 13
-Chair considered one of the most influential post in the congress

Question 16

House ruling committee examples?

Answer 16

Democrats prioritised Iraq spending bill when they won the house back in 2006

Question 17

What is the conference committee?

Answer 17

Established to reconcile competing versions of bills passed in the house and the senate as they are likely to be difference
-They are ad-hoc
-Once they’ve agreed the bill goes back to floor of each house, if it’s not passed, it goes back and if this happens again it goes back to the standing committee who first considered it
-Important as they are likely to draw up the final version of the bill, however this power is checked because the senate and the house get to vote on the compromise version

Question 18

What are select committees?

Answer 18

Special investigative committees established to probe a specification issue
Normally ad-hoc and only deal with issues beyond the jurisdiction of standing committees (9/11 committee)

Question 19

Why can be committees be said to be powerful?

Answer 19

-Committe members more independent from their party
-Have prestige- seen as necessary to cope with 1000’s of laws passing through congress
-Mmebers of congress see it as an advantegous career move as it allows them staff, recourses and influene of legiislation (8 ps and vps have served on the ways and means comitte +25 speakers)
-Effective scruiny is accepted
-Scutinies legislation
-House rule committe decides when or if a bill was debated ant to the which it can be amendmed

Question 20

Committee power- scrutinise legislation?

Answer 20

-Hillary appeared before the house select committee on Benghazi to answer questions on how she used her personal email when secretary of state
-Affordable care act was stripped down (Obamacare)

Question 21

Reasons to say they are too powerful?

Answer 21

-Top house recopicants of money from military related industrys (Kay Granger, RTX) served on either the armed or service commite of a defence approprietations sub committe
-Commitees are unrepresentative of the chambers (agriculture committies staffed by flyover states)
-Chair men abusuing powers
-Some committees are more powerful than others

Question 22

Reasons sc are more powerful case study- Chairmen abusing power?

Answer 22

House intellegance chairman Devin Nunes appeared to undermine impartiallity of russia trump ties when he went to the white house to discuss it
Possibly for partisan advantages

Question 23

Reasons select committes are powerful- imbalence of powers between committes?

Answer 23

Most powerful- ways and means committee
Least- The presidential inauguration committee

Question 24

Reasons to say they are not too powerful?

Answer 24

-Influence of parties
-The issue if the legislation is considered important by party leadership, committees are often bypassed
-Presidential influence
-Senators can kill bills individually by filibuster

Question 25

Reasons to say they are not too powerful? influence of parties?

Answer 25

Republicans abolish the seniority rules which tied promotio to a length of service in congress (democrates restarained)

Question 26

Reasons to say they are not too powerful? the issue?

Answer 26

Had very little imput when trump was rushing to appeal obamacare in 2017

Question 27

Reasons to say they are not too powerful? Presidential influence?

Answer 27

Bush reps controlled congress for most of his first 6 years in office
9/11 allowed him to force though a raft of measures that critics say were not properly examined

Question 28

What are committe chairs?

Answer 28

-Drawn from majority party (All republican) and appointed by majority leader
-Secret ballots for committe chairs and ranking minority members to replace the seniirty rule
-Chair determines the agenda by choosing what issues to consider
-Manage the actual process of righting bills (mark up) and then vote one the bill in committees itself
-Power, they control agendas, decide when committee will meet, control the committe budget, influence membership, supersive staff