Committees in Congress

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Committees in Congress

• GOV E-1351

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Delegation in Congress

• Again, Congress is self-organized
• Collective action problems
• Legislative Activity and Oversight are costly
• Policymaking requires expertise
• Different constituencies seek representation on
  different issues
• Gatekeeping Why spend time on bad ideas?

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What is a Committee?

• Subset of one or both chambers with a specified
  task
• Legislative tasks
• Drafting
• Coordination
• Procedural Tasks (House Rules)
• Oversight tasks
• Logistical Tasks

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Morphology of Committees
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Committee of the Whole

• Fictional committee to which every member of
  the House belongs (there is no analogue in the
  Senate)
• Quorum in the CoW is 100 members (following
  Reeds Rules of 1888)
• Rules are less formal than those for the House
  (and not subject to Constitutional restrictions)

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The CoW is not the HoR

• All business conducted in the CoW must be
  ratified by the full House
• All amendments approved by the CoW must be
  revoted upon in the full House
• This implies that amendments that are successful
  in the CoW might fail in the full House
• The Speaker generally does not preside over the
  CoW

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Standing Committees

• Committees that persist from Congress to Congress
• Typically legislative in nature (govern
  substantive business in a jurisdiction)
• Jurisdictions established by precedent, Speaker
  ( Parliamentarians) judgments, (Note Standing
  committees in Senate do not work so much from
  referrals, except Judiciary and Foreign
  Relations)
• Memberships relatively stable over time

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The Costs and Benefits of Standing

• Oversight responsibilities
• Budgetary role (historically)
• Authorization role (in House)
• Establishment of Seniority
• Regularity of Jurisdiction promotes campaign
  contributions from organized interests,
  development of expertise
• Majority Party overrepresented (except on Ethics
  Committees)

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Select (or Special) Committees

• More Narrowly Focused
• Fewer membership restrictions
• Generally fewer legislative prerogatives
• Often investigative/topical in nature
• Intelligence
• Indian Affairs
• Ervin Committee (Watergate)
• Kefauver Committee (Organized Crime)

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Joint Committees

• Inter-Chamber committees
• Economic - informational
• Taxation - informational
• Library coordination (runs Library of Congress)
• Printing (runs GPO)
• Atomic Energy (1947-1979) -- legislative

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Conference Committees

• Joint Ad Hoc committees appointed to negotiate
  compromise between chambers after each passed a
  different version of the same bill
• House members are appointed by the Speaker
• In many ways, this is where the real decisions
  are made on controversial legislation

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Conference Committees

• House Passes a bill and Senate passes a similar
  bill (regardless of order)
• One chamber requests a conference, other chamber
  agrees (or not)
• Committee approves a report by majority of each
  delegation rule
• Report sent back to chamber that requested
  conference
• If approved, committee is dissolved
• If second chamber also approves, then bill is
  sent to President

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Power of the Conference

• Conference reports are essentially unamendable
  (why?)
• This give conference committee great power
• Conference committee generally consists of
  members in favor of appropriate chambers version
  of the bill (but not always)
• Technically, conference must stay within scope of
  original bills

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Tangent Resolving Disagreement

• Conference committees are not Constitutionally
  prescribed
• Without conference, chambers can send a bill
  back and forth, usually no more than 2 times
  (but this is simply a norm)
• Usually done when disagreement is technical in
  nature

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The History of Committees

• Initially, Cabinet served as committee chairs
  (1st-3rd Congresses)
• Ways and Means established in House in 4th
  Congress
• Ways and Means now considers revenue measures,
  then considered all financial legislation (incl.
  banking)
• Select Committees initially important, decline
  from 150 in 1813 to lt25 in 1850s
• Standing Committees increase to 50 in 1920s
• Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946
• Established Modern System

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The Early Senate

• Prior to 1816, Senate had no standing committees,
  then suddenly formed 12
• Early Senates essentially waited on the House
  to initiate legislation
• Partly due to British System (House of Commons
  initiates legislation)
• But, also remember that Confederation Congress
  was unicameral

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The LRA of 1946

• Reduced standing committees (from 33-gt15 for
  House) and 48-gt19 for Senate)
• Codified jurisdictions, expended committee and
  congressional support systems
• Former committees mostly became subcommittees
  within new committees, establishing more
  hierarchy within system

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The LRA of 1970

• Established formal requirements for committees
• Required formal rules for each committee
• Opened hearings to public
• Seniority starts to play smaller role in chair
  determination

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The Republican Revolution of 1995 (In Committee
Structure)

• Subcommittee Government made legislative activity
  more fractured
• Targetable by specialized interests
• The GOP consolidated subcommittees (115-gt84),
  reorganized jurisdictions
• Cut staff by 1/3rd
• Banned proxy voting in committees
• Term limits on committee chairs (later partially
  removed)
• 3/5ths majority vote required for tax increases

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Subcommittee Bill of Rights

• The Democratic Caucus passed several reforms in
  the early 1970s that increased the power of
  subcommittees
• Restriction on of subcommittees that a member
  could chair
• Subcommittees granted power over staffs
• Subcommittee chairs selected by Democratic
  committee members
• Referrals to subcommittee based on rules
• Required most committees to have subcommittees
• Era of subcommittee government (1970s-90s)

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Subcommittees, Policy and Access

• Subcommittees first appeared in the mid-1880s
• Origin appropriations decentralization
• First occurred in House, then followed soon
  thereafter in Senate (1890s)
• Prior to 1880s, committees delegated
  investigative tasks to members

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Membership on Committees

• Formally membership is determined by the chamber
  as a whole
• From 1789 until 1910, Speaker appointed
  committees in the House
• 1910 Revolt Against Speaker Cannon
• Republicans Committee on Committees (originally
  favoring members from Republican states)
• Democrats Ways Means Committee made
  appointments until 1970s, now have a Committee On
  Committees

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• Senate Committees elected by ballot until 1845
• Party caucuses nominate lists for membership now
• Johnson Rule Good assignments could had to be
  spread around (no member could have a second
  good assignment until each member of his or her
  party had one as well)

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Membership and Reelection

• House committees typically control purse strings
  to varying degrees (not as much now as in the
  past)
• Control of regulatory authority resides largely
  in appropriate standing committees
• Oversight, annual reports, subpoena powers
• Groups seek visibility in hearings
• Appropriations and Ways Means especially
  important for earmarks, tax provisions, etc.
• Narrow Committees imply targeted donations for
  members (e.g., D.C., Post Office, Merchant Marine
  Fisheries)

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Hierarchy of Committees (81st-102nd C.)
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Seniority

• In the 1910s, control of committee chairs slipped
  out of party hands (revolt against Cannon) and
  became based on seniority terms served on
  committee
• Relaxed somewhat in 1974 (secret ballot in Caucus
  confirming chairs) starting in 1950s, southern
  Democrats had concentrated power due to
  incumbency advantage and 1-party status in South

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Assignment in Reality

• The process of assignment members in each party
  request assignments at the beginning of each
  Congress
• Property rights once on, you can stay
• Strategic calculation seniority prestige
• Restrictions on positions held play a large role
  in the calculation ( chairs, etc)
• Note that the Senate has more chairs per member,
  assignment is less contested

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The GOP and the 107th Congress

• In the 104th 106th Congresses, Republicans
  changed House rules to mandate a 3-term limit for
  committee chairs
• In 107th Congress, Speaker Hastert ruled that the
  rule applied to particular positions, meaning
  that chairs could be rotated (also, the Rules
  committee was granted an exception!)

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Raw Committee Politics, Part I

• Revolt against Speaker Cannon largely
  precipitated by abuse of Speakers power to
  appoint chairs.
• Appointed a new member of the Appropriations
  Committee as chair in 1905
• Cannon used the power to punish members.
• Denied the request of Rep. George W. Norris (R,
  NE), to be named to a delegation to attend the
  funeral of a Member who had beena personal friend
  of Norris
• Norris was a progressive Cannon wasnt.
• Revolt precipitated seniority system, decline of
  Speaker, rise of Rules Committee, dominance of
  Southern Democrats from 1930s-gt1960s

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Raw Committee Politics, Part II

• 106th Congress
• A member of a standing committee may not serve
  as chairman of the same standing committee, or of
  the same subcommittee of a standing committee,
  during more than three consecutive Congresses

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Raw Committee Politics, Part II

• 108th Congress
• Except in the case of the Committee on Rules, a
  member of a standing committee may not serve as
  chairman of the same standing committee, or of
  the same subcommittee of a standing committee,
  during more than three consecutive Congresses