congressional committees

Question 1

congressional oversight

Answer 1

• review, monitoring & supervision of federal agenicies & their actions
• derived from implied powers in constituition
• key part of checks and balances
• purpose - to keep exec on its toes
• lack of oversight leads 2 complacency, arrogance & maladministration

Question 2

select committees

Answer 2

• adhoc & investigates anything that comes under their policy area
• if an issue doesn’t come under one direct area, crosses over multiple ones or is likely to be time consuming it goes to a select committee
• some may be permanent (eg: house & senate both have permanent select committes 4 intelligence)

Question 3

example of a select committee

Answer 3

• intelligence committees investigated trump & russia
• s.c (set up in 2014) that investigated events surrounding terrorist acts in benghazi in 2012, hilalry clinton was questioned for 11 hrs

Question 4

conference committees

Answer 4

• adhoc
• because bills go through both houses concurrently, you may end up with two versions of the same bill
• cc reconcile the differences between the 2 bills
• will have an equal no. members from both houses

Question 5

how are committee chairs elected

Answer 5

• seniority rule means that the person from the majority party & with longest service becomes the chair
• ranking minority leader is the person from the minority house with longest service
• 3 term limit (6 yrs) have been set for committee chairs
• steering committee can also decide who becomes chair

Question 6

what are the responsibilities of committee chairs

Answer 6

• control the agenda & budget, influence membership & focus of subcommittees & are spokensperson 4 committee on congress floor, white house & media (so important in a congressional career)
• can make requests 2 HR committee & influence when leg is put 2 the floor

Question 7

house rules (HR) committee

Answer 7

• standing committee that priotises which bills goes 2 house floor 4 debate & vote & what rules goes on them
• needed as there’s a traffic jam leg
• membership is skewed 2 majority party & currently has 14 members (10 dem, 4 reps)
• chair of HRC = very ifluential person in congress as can get bills priotised

Question 8

types of rules

Answer 8

open rule : as many relevant amendments as you want

closed rule : no amendments can be made other than those recommended by committee reporting the bill

Question 9

standing committee functions

Answer 9

• vote on bills to determine whether they’ll go to floor
• conduct investigations relevant to their policy area (eg: judiciary, intelligence & oversight committee investigated trump’s businesss dealings)
• senate SCs begin confirmation process of judicial appointments

Question 10

limitations of committees

Answer 10

can’t legislate or force exec to carry out their wishes