Congressional Committee Notes Continued… Ch 12 Sec 2.
The committee system is the primary means by which both houses of Congress perform their
Legislative duty. After the War of 1812, the complexities of governing, an expanding land mass, and the emergence of 2 political parties required various areas of law be perfected before being brought to the
Floor for a vote. A committee system developed featuring the 4 types of committees.(Described above in the notes.) There are 16 standing committees in the Senate; 19 in the House.
Under each of those, sub-committees are formed to study a specific problem in more detail.
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Journal Entry #23: Congress In Action Notes 1-19-18 Friday
Quorum: In the U.S. Congress, a quorum is the minimum number of members that must be present on the floor of either house to “work on business”. The Constitution states that “ A majority ( half the total, plus one) of each shall constitute a Quorum to do business.” Because most Congressional business is conducted in committee rooms, quorums are often hard to obtain.
Rider: A provision added to a bill having nothing to do with the bill’s overall purpose. A “rider” attaches to a bill with wide, popular support and stands a good chance of being passed. More common in the Senate, riders are used to pass laws that could not pass on their own or are too controversial to make it to the floor of Congress. Riders make for strange combos of legislation. For example, a 1980 bill to establish higher nutritional standards for infant formula also increased the federal penalty on marijuana trafficking.
Filibuster: The filibuster has come to mean “talking a bill to death”, or delaying passage of a bill through marathon speeches. To control the most excessive stalling, the Senate adopted cloture rules in 1917 and 1975. Still, the filibuster, in a modified form, is still alive. The longest filibuster was Strom Thurmond’s 1957 speech against a civil rights bill which lasted 24 hours, 18 minutes.