The Committee System of Congress Flashcards
What are the three important committees that you need to know?
1) House rules
2) standing
3) Conference
Why are standing committees called standing committees?
Because they’re permanent
What are the four Ps of the standing committee?
Power
Policy Specialist
Permanent
Prestigious
How many standing committees in the Senate?
16
How many standing committees in the House?
17 plus the House Rules Committee
What do most standing committees have?
their own sub committees
How many senators on each senatorial standing committee?
18
How many house members on each HoR committee?
45-50
What is the party balance on each committee?
About the same as it is in the chamber as a whole
Where do the chairpeople of the committees come from?
The chamber’s majority party
How are most chairmen chose for standing committees and for which house is this especially true?
Seniority rule Senate
what is the seniority rule?
States that the chairman of a standing committee will be the member with the longest continuous service on that committee
What are the two functions that standing committees in both houses have?
1) conduct the committee stage of the legislative process
2) To conduct investigations within the committee’s respective policy area
What is the one exclusive function that standing committees in the Senate have?
To being the confirmation process of numerous presidential executive and judicial appointments
The functions of conducting investigations within the committee’s respective policy area fulfils which of congress’s functions?
oversight
What kind of power is oversight?
Implied
how does the Senate standing committees use its power of the appointments process?
Hearings are held and at the end of these hearings comes a vote on whether to recommend action to the full chamber
When oversight occurs, where does questioning happen?
committee rooms rather than the chamber floor
What do some say about oversight?
It is perhaps more effective when there is divided government
How does the House Rules Committee relate to the standing committees?
it is officially one of the standing committees in the house but it performs a different function to them
In the Senate timetabling is achieved through unanimous consent agreements, what is the equivalent in the House?
The house rules committee
What two stages does the House rules committee transition between?
The committee stage and the first reading
What does the House rules committee prioritise?
The most impotent bills and gives them quick passage to the House floor
What does the House rules committee give each bill?
A ‘rule’ to each bill passing onto the floor for its second reading.
What does the ‘rule’ that the House rules committee gives each bill passing onto the floor for its second reading do?
Sets out the rules for debate, for example, what, if nay amendments can be made to the bill at this stage
If the differences between the two versions of the concurrent bills cannot be sorted out informally or amicably between the two houses, what must be set up?
Conference committee
How are the Conference committees ad hoc?
They are temporary for a particular bill and then disbanded
What does the conference committee contain?
Members from both of the houses
What is the single function of the conference committees?
Reconcile the difference between the two versions of the same bill
When the conference committee comes up with an agreed version of the bill, what then happens to it?
It must be agreed in by the floor of each house
How has the use of the conference committees declined?
The system has become more similar to the of the UK. One chamber is simply asked to endorse the legislation by the other, a more leadership driven approach.
As the use of the conference committee has declined, one chamber is simply asked to endorse the legislation by the other, a more leadership driven approach. What shows this?
Obama ACA 2010
Why are committees in the USA more important than they are in the UK?
They come before the whole chamber debates the bill
