United States 112thCongress
United States House of Representatives
Standing Committees
Committee on Agriculture
Committee on Appropriations - The constitutional basis for the Appropriations Committee comes from Article one, Section nine, Clause seven of the U.S. Constitution, which states that: No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.
This clearly delegated the power of appropriating money to Congress, but was vague beyond that. Originally, the power of appropriating was taken by the Committee on Ways and Means, but the United States Civil War placed a large burden on the Congress, and at the end of that conflict, a reorganization occurred. The Committee was created on December 11, 1865, when the House separated the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means into three parts. The passage of legislation affecting taxes remained with Ways and Means. The power to regulate banking was transferred to the Committee on Banking and Commerce. The power to appropriate money--to control the federal pursestrings--was given to the newly-created Appropriations Committee.
The root of the Committee's power is its ability to disburse funds, and thus as the federal budget has risen, so has the power of the Appropriations Committee. In the early 1970s, the Appropriations committee faced a crisis. President Richard Nixon began "impounding" funds, not allowing them to be spent, even when Congress had specifically appropriated money for a cause. This was essentially a line-item veto. Numerous court cases were filed by outraged interest groups and members of Congress. Eventually, the sense that Congress needed to regain control of the budget process led to the adoption of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which finalized the budget process in its current form.
The Appropriations committee is widely recognized by political scientists as one of the "power committees," since it holds the power of the purse. Openings on the Appropriations committee are often hotly demanded, and are doled out as rewards. Much of the power of the committee comes from the inherent utility of controlling spending. Its subcommittee chairmen are often called "Cardinals" because of the power they wield over the budget.
Since Congress is elected from single-member districts, the status of a member's district is the best indicator as to whether or not he or she will be reelected. One way to achieve popularity in one's district is to it bring federal spending, thus creating jobs and raising economic performance. This type of spending is often derided by critics as pork barrel spending, while those who engage in it generally defend it as necessary and appropriate expenditure of government funds. The members of the Appropriations committee can do this better than most, and as such the appointment is regarded as a plus. This help can also be directed towards other members, increasing the stature of committee members in the House and helping them gain support for leadership positions or other honors.
The committee tends to be less partisan than other committees or the House overall. While the minority party will offer amendments during committee consideration, appropriations bills often get significant bipartisan support, both in committee and on the House floor. This atmosphere can be attributed to the fact that all committee members have a compelling interest in ensuring legislation will contain money for their own districts. Conversely, because members of this committee can easily steer money to their home districts, it is considered very difficult to unseat a member of this committee at an election--especially if he or she is a "Cardinal."
Committee on Armed Services
Committee on the Budget- Established during an era of unprecedented institutional reform in Congress, the Committee on the Budget’s function derives from the constitutional mandate that fixes control of the nation’s purse in the U.S. House of Representatives. Although Congress has always possessed the legal authority to exercise power over federal appropriations, a formal institutional mechanism to manage taxes and spending did not exist until 1974. Three developments precipitated the need for a formal mechanism: increasing conflicts between Congress and the President over the federal budget; the challenge of managing long-term programs such as Social Security and Medicare; and budget deficits in the latter 20th century.
The committee originated with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-344), which permitted Congress to develop an independent means to analyze the Presidential budget, reconcile it with congressional plans, and develop a fiscal policy of its own. The act established permanent standing budget committees in both houses of Congress, as well as a Congressional Budget Office to provide Congress with independent, nonpartisan analyses.
The committee handles broad questions about federal spending and taxation and ensures that the House follows the 1974 law. This committee also has a rotating membership. None of its members may serve more than six out of 10 years. And, in contrast to the Senate whose chair is permanent, the House elects a new chair at the beginning of each Congress. The House also requires that the committee’s membership be drawn from the Ways and Means Committee (5), the Appropriations Committee (5), one from each of the 11 authorizing committees, and one member from the leadership of the Democratic and Republican caucuses.
As the first panel to examine the President’s annual budget message, the Budget Committee’s chief responsibility is to draft a concurrent resolution that reconciles spending details with the overall comprehensive budget package. The committee is required to draft a budget resolution, agreed to by April 15 of each year, which establishes total targets in five budget areas: authority; outlays; revenues; surplus or deficit; and public debt. The resolution also sets budget authority and outlay targets for each of the 21 spending categories. Finally, the committee prepares guidelines in the annual budget resolution for cutting programs to meet spending targets.
For much of its history, the Budget Committee’s agenda has been directed by centrist House Members who advocated fiscal responsibility while crafting compromises between the President’s budget and Congress’s appropriations interests. Although much of the committee’s activity was directed toward reconciling executive and congressional budget goals, the legislative interests of individual committee chairmen also has played a role in steering the committee focus.
Although the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 outlined the purpose and jurisdiction of the committee, two subsequent acts further shaped the committee’s work. In 1985, Senators Phil Gramm of Texas, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina sponsored the Gramm– Rudman–Hollings Acts of 1985 and 1987, which required a gradual reduction of the federal deficit by setting target deficit rates within six years. If the projected deficit exceeded the deficit target, the act provided for automatic cuts (or “sequestration”) in other areas of the federal budget to meet the target.The second piece of legislation was the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. A compromise measure between congressional leaders and President George H. W. Bush, this act contained significant revisions from Gramm–Rudman–Hollings. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 “placed yearly caps on all discretionary spending, required that any reduction in revenues must be accompanied by an equal reduction in entitlement spending, nullified the Gramm– Rudman–Hollings legislation, and provided pay-as-you-go provisions for any new spending.”
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Committee on Energy and Commerce–The Committee was born on December 14, 1795 as the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures when the growing demands of the young nation required that Congress establish a permanent panel to exercise its constitutional authority to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States."The Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, remains today as the body's principal guide in the promotion of commerce, public health, energy and technology.
The Committee is vested with the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee. Today it has responsibility for the nation's telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health research, environmental quality, the availability of affordable energy, and the continuance of interstate and foreign commerce. It oversees multiple cabinet-level departments and independent agencies, including the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, and Transportation, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission. The Committee assumed its present name in 1981 to emphasize its leading role in the nation's energy policy.
Today, the wide-ranging work accomplished by the Committee on Energy and Commerce builds on a breathtaking record of achievement that began with building lighthouses and supervising the federal government's health service for sick and disabled seaman, a function that developed into the Public Health Service and National Institutes of Health. The Committee's overarching role in health, safety, and commerce can be traced to passage of the milestone legislation like the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
Committee on Ethics
Committee on Financial Services - The House Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over all issues pertaining to the economy, the banking system, housing, insurance, and securities and exchanges. Additionally, the Committee also has jurisdiction over monetary policy, international finance, international monetary organizations, and efforts to combat terrorist financing.
The Committee oversees the Nation’s economy through its oversight of the Federal Reserve Board and individual reserve banks, the Treasury, the production and distribution of currency, and the Nation’s capital markets.
Agencies under oversight by the Committee include: the Federal Reserve, Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Export-Import Bank.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Homeland Security
Committee on House Administration
Committee on the Judiciary
Committee on Natural Resources
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - This committee is the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has legislative jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, the government procurement process, federal personnel systems, the Postal Service and other matters. Its primary responsibility, however, is oversight of virtually everything government does – from national security to homeland security grants, from federal workforce policies to regulatory reform and reorganization authority, from information technology procurements at individual agencies to government-wide data security standards. The chairman of the committee is the only committee chairman in the House with the authority to issue subpoenas without a committee vote.
Committee on Rules - The Committee on Rules is among the oldest standing committees in the House, having been first formally constituted on April 2, 1789. The Committee is commonly known as “The Speaker’s Committee” because it is the mechanism that the Speaker uses to maintain control of the House Floor, and was chaired by the Speaker until 1910. Because of the vast power wielded by the Rules Committee, its ratio has traditionally been weighted in favor of the majority party, and has been in its “2 to 1 1” (9 majority and 4 minority members) configuration since the late 1970s.
The Rules Committee has two broad categories of jurisdiction: special orders for the consideration of legislation (known as “special rules” or “rules”) and original jurisdiction matters. A special rule provides the terms and conditions of debate on a measure or matter, consideration of which constitutes the bulk of the work of the Rules Committee. The Committee also considers original jurisdiction measures, which commonly represent changes to the standing rules of the House, or measures that contain special rules, such as the expedited procedures in trade legislation.
The Committee has the authority to do virtually anything during the course of consideration of a measure, including deeming it passed. The Committee can also include a self-executed amendment which could rewrite just parts of a bill, or the entire measure. In essence, so long as a majority of the House is willing to vote for a special rule, there is little that the Rules Committee cannot do.
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Committee on Small Business
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Committee on Ways and Means - The Committee on Ways and Means is the oldest committee of the United States Congress, and is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. The Committee derives a large share of its jurisdiction from Article I, Section VII of the U.S. Constitution which declares, "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives."
First established as a select committee on July 24, 1789, it was discharged less than two months later.The committee was reappointed from the first session of the Fourth Congress in 1795, and was formally listed as a standing committee in the House Rules on January 7, 1802.
Until 1865, the jurisdiction of the committee (referred to as the CommitteeofWays and Means before 1880) included the critically important areas of revenue, appropriations, and banking.Since 1865, the committee has continued to exercise jurisdiction over revenue and related issues such as tariffs, reciprocal trade agreements, and the bonded debt of the United States.Revenue-related aspects of the Social Security system, Medicare, and social services programs have come within Ways and Means’ purview in the 20thcentury.
Joint Committees
Joint Economic Committee
Joint Committee on Taxation
Select Committee
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
United States 112th Congress
United States Senate
Standing Committees
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Appropriations - The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committee in the U.S. Senate, consisting of 30 members in the 111th Congress. Its role is defined by the U.S. Constitution, which requires "appropriations made by law" prior to the expenditure of any money from the Federal treasury. The Committee writes the legislation that allocates federal funds to the numerous government agencies, departments, and organizations on an annual basis. Appropriations are limited to the levels set by a Budget Resolution, drafted by the Senate Budget Committee.
12 subcommittees are tasked with drafting legislation to allocate funds to government agencies within their jurisdictions. These subcommittees are responsible for reviewing the President's budget request, hearing testimony from government officials, and drafting the spending plans for the coming fiscal year. Their work is passed on to the full Senate Appropriations Committee, which may review and modify the bills and forward them to the full Senate for consideration.Each appropriations bill must be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president prior to the start of the federal fiscal year, October 1. If that target is not met, has been common in recent years, the committee drafts a continuing resolution, which is then approved by Congress and signed by the President to keep the federal government operating until the individual bills are approved.
Armed Services -Aeronautical and space activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations; the common defense; the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force, generally; maintenance and operation of the Panama Canal, including administration, sanitation, and government of the Canal Zone; military research and development; national security aspects of nuclear energy; naval petroleum reserves, except those in Alaska; pay, promotion, retirement, and other benefits and privileges of members of the Armed Forces, including overseas education of civilian and military dependents; selective service system; and strategic and critical materials necessary for the common defense. The committee conducts comprehensive study and review of matters relating to the common defense policy of the United States.
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Budget - The Senate Committee on the Budget was established in 1974 by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. Along with the House Budget Committee, it is responsible for drafting Congress' annual budget plan and monitoring action on the budget for the Federal Government. In addition, the Budget Committee has jurisdiction over the operation of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The Budget Committee is often confused with the Finance Committee and the Appropriations Committee, both of which have different jurisdictions. The Finance Committee (like the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives) has legislative jurisdiction in the areas of taxes, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and some other entitlements. The Appropriations Committee has legislative jurisdiction over appropriations bills, which provide funding for government programs. While the budget resolution prepared by the Budget Committee sets out a broad blueprint for the Congress with respect to the total levels of revenues and spending for the government as a whole, these other Committees prepare the legislation that actually enacts specific tax and spending policies.