Index page
../../
[Root community]
../
[Community:
Indygenat; Committees of the United States Congress; List of Committees of the United Kingdom Parliament]
Community members, in decreasing PageRank scores:
[Abstract not available for the category]
[Abstract not available for the category]
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, or (more commonly) the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement entities. The Judiciary Committee is also the committee responsible for impeachments of federal officials. Because of the legal nature of its oversight, committee members usually have a legal background, but it is not required.
In the 111th Congress, the current chairman of the committee is Democrat John Conyers of Michigan, and the ranking minority member is Republican Lamar Smith of Texas.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to: banks and banking, price controls, deposit insurance, export promotion and controls, federal monetary policy, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance of redemption of notes, currency and coinage, public and private housing, urban development and mass transit, and government contracts.
[Abstract not available for the category]
A congressional committee is a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress). Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. As "little legislatures," committees monitor on-going governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information, and recommend courses of action to their parent body. Woodrow Wilson once said "...it is not far from the truth to say that Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee rooms is Congress at work."Woodrow Wilson, ''Congressional Government'', 1885, quoted in the JCOC Final Report
Congress divides its legislative, oversight, and internal administrative tasks among approximately 200 committees and subcommittees. Within assigned areas, these functional subunits gather information; compare and evaluate legislative alternatives; identify policy problems and propose solutions; select, determine, and report measures for full chamber consideration; monitor executive branch performance (oversight); and investigate allegations of wrongdoing.<ref name="House_Rules">Committee Types and Roles, Congressional Research Service, April 1, 2003</ref>
Over the last two centuries and a half, the growing autonomy of committees has fragmented the power of each congressional chamber as a unit. This centrifugal dispersion of power has, without doubt, weakened the Legislative Branch relative to the other branches of the Federal government, i.e. the Executive Branch, the courts, and the bureaucracy. In his oft cited, History of the House of Representatives, written in 1961, the American scholar, George B. Galloway (1898-1967) said of the Congress: "In practice, Congress functions not as a unified institution, but as a collection of semi-autonomous committees that seldom act in unison." Galloway went on to cite committee autonomy as a factor interfering with the adoption of a coherent legislative program.George B. Galloway, History of the House of Representatives (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1961), pp. 99-100. That autonomy remains a characteristic feature of the committee system in Congress today.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The United States House of Representatives currently has twenty-three congressional committees, of which twenty are standing committees and three are special committees. All but three committees are subdivided into a total of 104 subcommittees, each with its own leadership.
The modern House committees were brought into existence through the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. This bill reduced the number of House committees from 48 to 19, as well as restructured the jurisdictions of the committees.<ref name="LRA"></ref> __TOC__<br clear="right">
The United States House Committee on Financial Services (or House Banking Committee) oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries. The Committee also oversees the work of the Federal Reserve, the United States Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and other financial services regulators. It is chaired by Barney Frank (D-MA) and the ranking Republican is Spencer Bachus (R-AL).
[Abstract not available for the category]
The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committee in the U.S. Senate, consisting of 29 members. Its role is defined by the U.S. Constitution, which requires "appropriations made by law" prior to the expenditure of any money from the Treasury, and is therefore one of the most powerful committees in the Senate. The committee was first organized on March 6, 1867, when power over appropriations was taken out of the hands of the Finance Committee.
The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has enormous power to bring home special projects (sometimes referred to as "pork barrel spending") for his or her state as well as having the final say on other Senator's appropriation requests. For example, in fiscal year 2005 per capita federal spending in Alaska, the home state of then-Chairman Ted Stevens, is $12,000, double the national average. Alaska has 11,772 special earmarked projects for a combined cost of $15,780,623,000. This represents about 4% of the overall spending in the $388 billion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 passed by Congress.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The Pecora Commission is the name commonly used to describe the commission established on March 4, 1932, by the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to investigate the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The name refers to the fourth and final Chief Counsel to the committee, Ferdinand Pecora.
Created by a majority-Republican Senate, its first Chairman was Republican Senator Peter Norbeck. Hearings began on April 11, 1932, but were criticized by Democratic Party members and their supporters as being little more than an attempt by the Republicans to appease the growing demands of an angry American public suffering through the Great Depression. Following the November 1932 election in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President and Democrats gained majority control of the U.S. Senate, Senator Duncan U. Fletcher chaired the Committee. According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the Commission's first two counsels were fired and a third resigned after the committee refused to give him broad subpoena powers. Ferdinand Pecora, an assistant district attorney for New York County, discovered, upon taking the committee counsel position, that the investigation was incomplete.
Following the Wall Street Crash, the U.S. economy had gone into a depression, and a large number of banks failed. The Pecora Commission initiated major reform of the American financial system. As Chief Counsel, Ferdinand Pecora personally examined many high-profile witnesses that included some of the nation's most influential bankers and stockbrokers. As the Commission's first witness, Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, declared that "The Exchange's refusal to pay heed to popular demand for reform was simply a manifestation of courage to do those things which are right, regardless of how unpopular they may be for the time being." Other important members of the Wall Street financial community to give testimony before the Commission included investment bankers Otto H. Kahn, Charles E. Mitchell, Thomas W. Lamont, and Albert H. Wiggin, plus celebrated commodity market speculators such as Arthur W. Cutten. Given wide media coverage, the testimony of the powerful banker J.P. Morgan, Jr. caused a public outcry after he admitted under examination that he and many of his partners had not paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932.
As reiterated by SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt during his 1995 testimony before the United States House of Representatives, the Pecora Commission uncovered a wide range of abusive practices on the part of banks and bank affiliates. These included a variety of conflicts of interest such as the underwriting of unsound securities in order to pay off bad bank loans as well as "pool operations" to support the price of bank stocks. The hearings galvanized broad public support for new securities laws. As a result of the Pecora Commission's findings, the United States Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, instituting disclosure laws for corporations seeking public financing, and in 1935 formed the SEC as a means to enforce the new Acts.
In 1939 Ferdinand Pecora published his memoirs that recounted details of the investigations. Titled "Wall Street Under Oath", Pecora wrote: "Bitterly hostile was Wall Street to the enactment of the regulatory legislation." As to disclosure rules, he stated that "Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker's stoutest allies."
The Pecora Commission hearings ended on May 4, 1934, and the Commission itself completed its work in 1936.
The Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL) is one of five subcommittees of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.
This is a complete list of U.S. Congressional committees (standing committees and select or special committees) that are currently operating in the United States Senate.
The Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies is a subcommittee within the House Appropriations Committee.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security is a subcommittee within the House Judiciary Committee.
The Administrative Law, Process and Procedure Project (the Project) is a bipartisan undertaking of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress. It consists of a comprehensive study of the state of administrative law, process and procedure in the United States. A description of the Project was included in the Judiciary Committee's Oversight Plan for the 109th Congress, as approved by the Committee on January 26, 2005."Oversight Plan for the 109th Congress, Committee on the Judiciary" at 5, (January 26, 2005). The Project will culminate with the preparation of a detailed report with recommendations for legislative proposals and suggested areas for further research and analysis to be considered by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) requested the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to assist Representative Chris Cannon (R-UT), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL), in conducting the Project, which is anticipated to be completed by September 2006.
The Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is in charge of setting the specific expenditures of money by the government of the United States. As such, it is one of the most powerful of the committees, and its members are seen as influential.
United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, The Internet, and Intellectual Property is a subcommittee within the House committee on the Judiciary.
In the United States Congress, standing committees are permanent legislative panels established by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate rules. (House Rule X, Senate Rule XXV). Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by their respective chambers. They also have oversight responsibility to monitor agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions, and in some cases in areas that cut across committee jurisdictions. Due to their permanent nature, these committees exist beyond the adjournment of each two year meeting of Congress.
Most standing committees recommend funding levels—authorizations—for government operations and for new and existing programs. A few have other functions. For example, the Appropriations Committees recommend legislation to provide budget authority for federal agencies and programs. The Budget Committees establish aggregate levels for total spending and revenue that serve as guidelines for the work of the authorizing and appropriating panels. Committees also provide oversight of federal agencies and programs.
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 greatly reduced the number of committees. The membership of each committee is adopted at the beginning of each Congress, usually by adoption of a formal resolution. Each committee is assigned its own staff to assist with its legislative, investigative, and research functions. Several committees divide their work into sub units called subcommittees.
The Senate currently has 17 standing committees, and 3 permanent select or special committees. The House has 20 standing committees and one permanent select committee.
Committee sizes range from 6 to 50 members per committee. In the House, one person may not serve on more than two standing committees and four subcommittees at one time, though waivers can be granted to serve on additional committees. Also in the House, the Committee on Committees assigns Republican representatives to their committee(s), while the Steering and Policy Committee is in charge of assigning Democratic representatives to committees. The Senate follows similar procedures, with senators being limited to no more than three full committees and five subcommittees.
The United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies is one of twelve subcommittees of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.
See also :Category:American political terms.
The United States Congress has operated with more than 1500 standing, special, select, or joint committees over the years.<ref name=stubbs></ref><ref name=byrd></ref><ref name=chairs>, United States Senate Historical Office. November 2006.</ref>
Many committees of these committees are now defunct. In some cases, their responsibilities were merged with other committees. For others, the committee remained in existence, but its name was changed. However, the bulk of committees were eliminated because they served a single purpose or that subject matter no longer merited its own committee.
These lists contain both select committees and standing committees. When known, the committee's type, years, reason for elimination, and any successor committees are noted. Some committees, such as the myriad "Committee(s) to Investigate," are included in the list alphabetically by the primary subject matter being studied or investigated.
A select or special committee of the United States Congress is a congressional committee appointed to perform a special function that is beyond the authority or capacity of a standing committee. A select committee is usually created by a resolution that outlines its duties and powers and the procedures for appointing members. Select and special committees are often investigative in nature, rather than legislative, though some select and special committees have the authority to draft and report legislation.
A select committee generally expires on completion of its assigned duties, though they can be renewed. Several select committees are treated as standing committees by House and Senate rules, and are permanent fixtures in both bodies continuing from one congress to the next. Examples of this are the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the House and the Select Committee on Intelligence in the Senate. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is also a select committee, though the name select is no longer a part of its title.
Some 20th-century select committees are called special committees, such as the Senate Special Committee on Aging. However, they do not differ in any substantive way from the others.<ref name="nara22"></ref>
Prior to the advent of permanent standing committeese in the early 1800s, the House of Representatives relied almost exclusively on select committees to carry out much of its legislative work.<ref name="canon"></ref> The committee system has grown and evolved over the years. During the earliest Congresses, select committees, created to perform a specific function and terminated when the task was completed, performed the overwhelming majority of the committee work. The first commitee to be established by Congress was on April 2, 1789, during the First Congress. It was a select committee assigned to prepare and report standing rules and orders for House proceedings, and it lasted just five days, dissolving after submitting its report to the full House. Since that time, Congress has always relied on committees as the best means to accomplish its work in an orderly, efficient, and expeditious manner.<ref name="nara22"/>
Projects undertaken by United States Congressional committees.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The Committee on Rules, or (more commonly) Rules Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. Rather than being responsible for a specific area of policy, as most other committees are, it is in charge of determining under what rule other bills will come to the floor. As such, it is one of the most powerful committees, and often described as "an arm of the leadership" and as the "traffic cop" of Congress. A rule is a simple resolution of the House of Representatives, usually reported by the Committee on Rules, to permit the immediate consideration of a legislative measure, notwithstanding the usual order of business, and to prescribe conditions for its debate and amendment.
The Committee on Education and Labor is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Until recently, it was known as the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging was initially established in 1961 as a temporary committee; it became a permanent committee in 1977. As a special committee, it has no legislative authority, but it studies issues related to older Americans, particularly Medicare and Social Security.<ref name="charter"></ref>
Prior to the passage of Medicare, the committee was studying health care insurance coverage for elderly American citizens. The committee conducts oversight of the Medicare program, Social Security and the Older Americans Act. Some of the issues that have been examined by the committee include unacceptable conditions in nursing homes, protection from age discrimination, and pricing practices for prescription drugs.<ref name="activities">Ibid.</ref>
[Abstract not available for the category]
A congressional subcommittee in the United States Congress is a subdivision of a United States congressional committee that considers specified matters and reports back to the full committee.
Subcommittees are formed by most committees to share specific tasks within the jurisdiction of the full committee. Subcommittees are responsible to, and work within the guidelines established by, their parent committees. In particular, standing committees usually create subcommittees with legislative jurisdiction to consider and report bills. They may assign their subcommittees such specific tasks as the initial consideration of measures and oversight of laws and programs in the subcommittees’ areas.<ref name = CRS_Feb_14_2002>Committee Types and Roles, Congressional Research Service, February 14, 2002</ref> Service on subcommittees enables members to develop expertise in specialized fields. Subcommittees diffuse the legislative process. For the most part, they are independent, autonomous units with written jurisdictions, and, pursuant to longstanding practice, most bills are referred by a full committee to them.<ref name = CRS_Mar_9_2001>Subcommittees in the House of Representatives, Congressional Research Service, March 28, 2005</ref>
General requirements for establishing subcommittees are established in House or Senate rules, but specifics with respect to subcommittee assignments and their jurisdiction are left up to the parent committees.<ref name = CRS_Apr_20_2004>House Committee Organization and Process: A Brief Overview, Congressional Research Service, April 20, 2004</ref> Committees have wide latitude to increase or decrease the number of subcommittees from one congress to the next, including renaming or reassigning jurisdiction among previous subcommittees. Some committees, like the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, often retain a predictable subcommittee structure from year to year, due to the set duties of each subcommittee in drafting annual spending bills. However, even these committees are not immune to organizational changes. New subcommittees on Homeland Security were created in 2003 to handle funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and underwent a joint reorganization during the 110th Congress to better coordinate annual appropriations between the House and Senate.Senate and House Appropriations Set Subcommittee Plans for New Congress
The respective party conferences in both the House and Senate also provide their own rules, traditions, and precedents with respect to the subcommittee assignments, chairmanship of subcommittees, and even the number of subcommittees on which members can serve.
This is a list of active joint United States Congressional committees.
A Joint Committee is a term used in politics to refer to a committee made up of members of both chambers of a bicameral parliament.
In the United States House of Representatives, the Committee of the Whole, short for Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, is a parliamentary device in which the House of Representatives is considered one large Congressional committee. The presiding officer is chosen by the Speaker of the House and is normally a member of the majority party who does not hold the chair of a standing committee.
Procedurally, the Committee of the Whole differs from the House of Representatives even though they have identical membership. The Committee of the Whole only requires 100 members for a quorum, while only 25 members are required to force a recorded rather than voice vote. In the version of the Committee of the Whole that existed in the British House of Commons, the original use of this committee was to debate bills privately and prevent a recorded vote from being taken. It is normally invoked to give initial consideration of important legislation, including bills for raising revenue, and serves to expedite the process since debate over amendment occurs under a special five-minute rule. The House and the Committee of the Whole do not operate at the same time; rather, to consider bills, the House must resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole. To dissolve itself, the Committee of the Whole must "rise and report with a recommendation". The Committee of the Whole can recommend amendments to any bill. The House must then approve these amendments before the amendments are added to the final bill.
It allows bills and resolutions to be considered without adhering to all the formal rules of a House session, such as needing a quorum of 218. All measures on the Union Calendar must be considered first by the Committee of the Whole http://www.votesmart.org/resource_govt101_02.php.
In 1993, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), along with the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico and the delegates from Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, received a limited vote in the Committee of the Whole, based on their right to vote in legislative committees. However, this limited vote stipulated if any of the delegates provided the deciding vote on an issue considered by the Committee of the Whole, a new vote would be conducted and the delegates would not be allowed to vote. The right of delegates to vote in Committee of the Whole was removed by the Republican majority in 1995 after that party gained control of Congress in the 1994 congressional elections.Eleanor Holmes Norton: Biography and Much More from Answers.com In January 2007, it was proposed by Democrats in the House that the 1993-1994 procedure be revived.Kansas City infoZine News - Delegates Want an Official Chance to Make Their Voices Heard - USA<!-- Bot generated title --> The House approved the proposal with the adoption of H.Res. 78 by a vote of 226-191.
The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is a committee of the United States House of Representatives, currently chaired by Silvestre Reyes. It is the primary committee in the U.S. House of Representatives charged with the oversight of the United States Intelligence Community, though it does share some jurisdiction with other committees in the House, including the Armed Services Committee for some matters dealing with the Department of Defense and the various branches of the U.S. military.
The committee was preceded by the Select Committee on Intelligence between 1975 and 1977. established the permanent select committee, which gave it status equal to a standing committee on July 14, 1977.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House is a subcommittee within the House Rules Committee
Under the Committee rules, as amended for the 110th Congress, the Rules and the Organization of the House subcommittee will have general responsibility for measures or matters related to relations between the two Houses of Congress, relations between the Congress and the Judiciary, and internal operations of the House.
This subcommittee has the primary responsibility for the continued examination of the committee structure and jurisdictional issues of all House Committees.
In the past, the subcommittee has considered measures dealing with "fast track" procedures for consideration of trade legislation, prohibitions on unfunded mandates, the recodification of the rules of the House, issues relating to a 21st century Congress and the impact of technology on the process and procedures of the House.
The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.
[Abstract not available for the category]
The United States House Committee on the Election of the President, Vice President, and Representatives in Congress is a former standing committee of the United States House of Representatives.
The committee was established in 1893 with jurisdiction over legislation concerning the election of the officials enumerated in its title, including proposed changes to the Constitution that affected the terms of office of the named officials, the succession to the offices of the President and Vice President, the direct election of Senators, and the meeting times of Congress. The committee considered national election laws and their enforcement, including such topics as the disqualification of polygamists from election to Congress, the use of electric voting machines in congressional elections, the necessary and proper expenses related to nominations and elections, and the publication of campaign expenses. It was responsible for changes in the law regarding the electoral count and resolutions regulating the actual electoral vote count by the Senate and House of Representatives.
The United States Senate Committee on Cuban Relations was formed following the Spanish-American War, in 1899. The Committee was terminated, along with many others, in 1921.
[Abstract not available for the category]
[Abstract not available for the category]
[Abstract not available for the category]
In the United States House of Representatives, the House Democratic Caucus includes a Steering and Policy Committee. Its primary purpose is to assign fellow party members to other House committees, and it also advises party leaders on policy. The House Republican Conference divides the duties of this committee between two groups: a Policy Committee and a Steering Committee.