The Congressional Committee Structure

Summary

This script discusses the pivotal role of congressional committees in the U.S. legislative process. It explains the evolution from temporary select committees to permanent standing committees, emphasizing the House Ways and Means Committee's significance. The script highlights how committee chairs wield substantial power over legislation, including agenda-setting and witness selection during hearings. It also touches on how committees serve as oversight bodies, influencing bureaucracy and the executive branch. The narrative illustrates the committee's ability to stall or advance bills and the strategic maneuvering by legislators to align bills with friendly committee jurisdictions.

Takeaways

• 🏛️ Congressional committees were initially formed as select committees to process bills temporarily.
• 🌐 Standing Committees are permanent and serve specific roles, such as the House Ways and Means Committee.
• 🔍 Committees provide key information on public policy and act as a check against the executive branch.
• 📝 Committees have jurisdiction over legislation in certain areas, which can determine a bill's fate.
• 🗣️ Committee chairs have significant agenda-setting power, including scheduling hearings and controlling witness lists.
• 🚫 Committees can act as 'bill graveyards', preventing unwanted legislation from advancing.
• 👥 Hearings are crucial for oversight and can influence the behavior of bureaucrats and the executive branch.
• 🛠️ The process of a bill in committee involves lobbying, hearings, markups, and amendments.
• 📉 The role of committees has declined for important legislation, with parties playing a more significant role.
• 🤝 Party leaders often lead the heavy legislative lifting, with committee involvement becoming more ceremonial.

Q & A

What were the initial types of congressional committees?

The initial types of congressional committees were select committees, which were set up to process a bill and then disbanded.

What is the defining characteristic of a Standing Committee?

A Standing Committee is a permanent committee created to serve a particular role and deal with specific issues, existing for a long period of time.

When was the first Standing Committee in the House of Representatives formed, and why?

The first Standing Committee in the House of Representatives was the House Ways and Means Committee, formed at the end of the 18th century due to the need to manage information about federal finances under the influence of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.

Why are congressional committees considered essential?

Congressional committees are essential because they provide key information about public policy and can serve as a check against the executive branch.

What power does the committee chair have over legislation?

The committee chair has agenda-setting power, deciding whether to schedule hearings, send bills to subcommittees, or let bills die without action.

How do committee hearings serve as an oversight mechanism?

Committee hearings serve as an oversight mechanism by providing opportunities to question bureaucrats and officials, which can influence how they perform their duties.

What is the role of the committee chair in the selection of witnesses for hearings?

The committee chair controls the witness list for hearings, determining who will testify and the order of their appearance.

Can you provide an example of how a committee chair can control a hearing?

An example is when Jesse Helms, as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, scheduled a short hearing for William Weld's nomination as ambassador to Mexico, limiting the time for discussion and effectively controlling the outcome.

What is the importance of garnering support for a bill when it reaches a committee?

Garnering support for a bill is crucial as it can influence whether the bill moves forward, receives a hearing, or is amended during the markup process.

How does the markup phase influence a bill's progression?

The markup phase allows for amendments to a bill through dialogue and negotiation between majority and minority party members, which can significantly alter the bill's content and increase its chances of moving forward.

What has been the impact of increased partisanship on the role of committees in legislation?

Increased partisanship has led to a decline in the role of committees for important legislation, with party leaders taking the lead in drafting and negotiating bills, often bypassing formal committee processes.

Outlines

00:00

🏛️ Congressional Committees and Their Power

The paragraph discusses the evolution of congressional committees from select committees to standing committees, which address specific issues over a long period. It highlights the importance of standing committees in providing information on public policy and acting as a check against the executive branch. The paragraph also explains the role of committee chairs in controlling the legislative process, including scheduling hearings, selecting witnesses, and determining the fate of bills. The influence of committee chairs is underscored by their ability to act as gatekeepers for legislation, with the power to effectively kill bills by not scheduling hearings or markups. Additionally, the paragraph touches on the strategic drafting of bills to avoid unfriendly committees and the use of hearings for oversight and information gathering.

05:01

🗣️ Committee Dynamics and the Lawmaking Process

This paragraph delves into the dynamics of committees and their impact on the lawmaking process. It describes how a bill's sponsor must lobby for support within the committee to move the bill forward. The paragraph also outlines the stages a bill goes through once it reaches a committee, including lobbying, hearings, and the markup process where amendments are discussed and voted on. The narrative includes a specific example of how the chair's control can influence a hearing, as illustrated by the nomination of William Weld as ambassador to Mexico and the tactics used by then-chair Jesse Helms to limit the hearing's effectiveness. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the decline in the committee's role in favor of party leadership in shaping important legislation.

10:03

🤝 Party Leadership in Legislation

The final paragraph shifts focus to the role of party leadership in the legislative process, particularly for significant bills. It contrasts the traditional committee-driven approach with the current trend where party leaders, often in collaboration with the White House, spearhead the development of legislation. The paragraph suggests that while committees still play a role, especially in hearings, the substantive work on major bills is increasingly conducted by party leaders, leading to a more partisan legislative environment. This shift has implications for the transparency and bipartisanship of the lawmaking process, as noted by the paragraph's discussion of the changing nature of congressional work.

Keywords

💡Select Committees

Select Committees are temporary groups formed in Congress to address specific issues or bills and then disband after completing their task. They differ from Standing Committees, which are permanent. In the script, it's mentioned that these were the initial types of committees formed in the first Congress, highlighting their historical role in the legislative process.

💡Standing Committees

Standing Committees are permanent panels in the House and Senate that deal with specific policy areas. They are crucial for the legislative process as they provide information and oversight. The script explains that the first Standing Committee was the House Ways and Means Committee, emphasizing the long-standing nature and importance of these committees.

💡Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction refers to the authority granted to a committee to oversee specific areas of legislation. The script mentions that if a bill relates to transportation, it will go to the Transportation Committee, showing how jurisdiction defines the scope of a committee's responsibilities.

💡Agenda-setting power

This term describes the ability of a committee chair to control the flow of legislation by deciding what gets discussed and when. The script uses the example of a committee chair not scheduling hearings to illustrate how this power can effectively 'kill' a bill by preventing it from moving forward.

💡Bill graveyards

Bill graveyards are committees that are known for not advancing certain types of legislation. The script explains that savvy members of Congress may draft bills to avoid the jurisdiction of committees that are likely to be unfriendly to the legislation, thus avoiding becoming a 'bill graveyard'.

💡Hearings

Hearings are formal meetings where witnesses provide information or testimony on specific issues. The script notes that hearings are important for oversight and can be used to question bureaucrats or gain information, such as through the congressional subpoena power.

💡Subcommittee

A Subcommittee is a smaller group within a larger committee that focuses on a specific aspect of the committee's jurisdiction. The script mentions that if a bill gets a hearing, it may then go to a Subcommittee for further discussion and potential amendments, known as a markup.

💡Markup

Markup is the process where a bill is reviewed, discussed, and amended by a committee or subcommittee. The script describes it as a phase where dialogue and negotiation occur between members of both parties over the content of the bill.

💡Patron or Sponsor

A patron or sponsor is a member of Congress who introduces a bill. The script explains that gaining support for a bill is a crucial step for its sponsor, who may lobby for the bill to move forward within the committee system.

💡Partisanship

Partisanship refers to strong political loyalty to a particular party. The script discusses how the role of committees has declined in favor of party leadership in shaping important legislation, reflecting the increased importance of partisanship in the legislative process.

💡Informal legislative process

This refers to the behind-the-scenes negotiations and discussions that occur outside of formal committee meetings. The script mentions that for significant legislation like Obamacare, much of the work was done informally by party leaders, highlighting a shift away from traditional committee-centric processes.

Highlights

Congressional committees originated as select committees in the first Congress.

The Standing Committee is a permanent committee serving a particular role and dealing with specific issues.

The House Ways and Means Committee was the first Standing Committee, formed in the late 18th century.

Committees provide key information on public policy and serve as a check against the executive branch.

Committees have jurisdiction over legislation in certain areas.

The committee chair has significant agenda-setting power.

Bills often die in committee if the chair does not schedule hearings or send them to subcommittees.

Savvy members of Congress draft bills to avoid unfriendly committee jurisdictions.

Committees hold hearings, which are important for oversight over bureaucracy and the executive branch.

The Appropriations Subcommittee's jurisdiction can influence bureaucratic behavior.

Committee chairs are the most influential in determining whether legislation reaches the floor.

The committee chair controls the witness list and the duration of hearings.

An example of a committee chair's control: Jesse Helms' handling of William Weld's nomination hearing.

Bills require support from subcommittee or committee chairs to move forward.

Most bills die in committee without a hearing.

Markup is the phase where bills are subjected to amendments and dialogue between majority and minority party members.

Conditional committee hearings are useful for uncovering information through congressional investigations.

The role of committees has declined in favor of party-led legislation for important bills.

Informal processes led by party leaders often determine the framing of important legislation.

Transcripts

you

congressional committees were formed

really in the first Congress but they

were what are called select committees

they was set up basically to process a

bill and then they went away okay one of

the key institutional features of the

House and the Senate what is the

Standing Committee this is a committee

that exists was created to serve a

particular role to deal with particular

issues it exists has existed for

typically a long period of time the

first Standing Committee in the House of

Representatives was the House Ways and

Means Committee and it was formed it was

formed at the end of the 18th century

was formed essentially because Congress

recognized that there was this really

powerful Treasury secretary Alexander

Hamilton who had a lot of information

and knowledge about the way in which the

federal government was raising and

spending its money so committees are

essential institutions for Congress

because they provide key information

about public policy and in many ways

they can serve as a check against the

executive branch so committees are

tremendously powerful in many cases so

for one thing that committees have

jurisdiction over legislation in certain

areas so if I want to introduce a piece

of legislation that deals with

transportation it's going to go to the

Transportation Committee and when it

gets there the committee chair has a

tremendous amount of agenda-setting

power if the committee chair doesn't

scheduled hearings on it or doesn't want

it to get sent to a subcommittee it's

going to scheduled hearings anything

like that nine times out of ten more

than nine times out of ten bills just

going to die one of the the things

committees can do is serve as bill

graveyards for bills they don't want to

get past and members you know especially

savvy members of Congress will think

about that when they're drafting a bill

they will draft a bill in such a way as

to try to avoid the jurisdiction of some

committee they think will be unfriendly

and steer it towards a committee they

think might be more friendly even if

that means perhaps leaving something out

of the bill that in another world they

would have put into the bill

committees also of course hold hold

hearings and those hearings are very

important sources of oversight over the

the bureaucracy and the executive branch

sometimes the judiciary as well you know

there an opportunity to threaten

bureaucrats right so if I'm if you're

facing especially skeptical question

about some program and and and you

people you're facing them from are the

Appropriations Subcommittee that has

jurisdiction over you maybe you back off

because you know they control the purse

strings and so there's a tremendous

amount of research about the fact that

the bureaucracy is very responsive to

who's on the appropriations committees

but even even short of threatening to

pull someone's funding just the the fact

of grilling the fact of sort of having

to face that kind of unfriendly

questioning can can have a significant

effect on how people do their jobs

committee chairs are probably the most

influential individuals in determining

whether or not a piece of legislation is

going to make it to the floor or not the

committee chair is selected by the

majority party that the two parties have

slightly different procedures for how

they choose their chairs but generally

speaking they're looking for people who

have long-standing service on that

committee for people who are loyal

partisans people who are willing to toe

the party line people who the leadership

of the chamber can work with and those

individuals then will receive pieces of

legislation that have been sent there by

the Speaker of the House to be processed

in that committee and it is entirely up

to the chair of that committee which

pieces of legislation he or she would

like to schedule it is entirely up to

the chair how long those hearings will

be scheduled if there is going to be a

hearing the chair controls the witness

list and the majority party will always

have significantly greater numbers of

witnesses than the minority party I've

been to hearings where there are six

people on the panel five of them are

majority witnesses and then there's the

one person at the end who's like well I

disagree and that's the minority parties

witness all of the scheduling all of the

selection of people to participate in

those hearings all of that is handled

through the committee chair

in the late 1990s President Clinton

nominated william weld who was the

former governor of massachusetts to

serve as ambassador to Mexico and at the

time the Foreign Relations Committee was

being chaired by jesse helms and Jesse

Helms was a Republican of course bill

weld was also a Republican but he was a

liberal Republican he was a

Massachusetts Republican Jesse Helms was

adamantly opposed to William welds

nomination to be ambassador to Mexico

and he absolutely was refusing to hold a

hearing the time the ranking member on

the committee was Jill Biden Biden and

the other members of the committee used

a procedure to in essence forced the

committee chair to hold a hearing on

governor welds nomination so Jesse Helms

recognizes that he's lost basically

because parliamentary procedure required

him to do this he agrees to hold the

hearing it's scheduled for you know noon

on Tuesday the hearing opens he gavels

it open he says we're having this

hearing on governor william weld to be

ambassador to Mexico the hearing will

conclude at twelve-thirty he then

proceeded to make opening remarks of

approximately 27 minutes at which time

he turned to ranking member Biden and

said would you like to add anything

myton started to speak helm said oh look

at the time and he gabbled it closed and

that was the hearing on bill weld and

it's an example of the extent to which

the chair of the committee has absolute

control over whether a hearing is

scheduled and then even if he's forced

to hold a hearing on what the timing and

the pacing and ultimately the outcome of

that hearing is going to be let's talk

about what could happen to a bill when

it gets to a committee because this is

pretty essential to understanding the

lawmaking process each bill has a patron

or a sponsor and one of the important

tactical steps that an advocate or a

sponsor for a bill must do is to garner

support for that bill all right so when

a bill goes to committee it's not

uncommon for the sponsor of that bill

to begin to lobby for the bill to move

forward assuming that they really

genuinely are interested in moving the

bill in some cases members of Congress

will sponsor bills as a favor

essentially as an acknowledgement to a

constituent or to a contributor or to a

party and they really are not all that

interested in necessarily moving the

bill in which case they basically let

the bill sit they take credit for the

fact that they've introduced a bill but

they're not going to work all that hard

to get it passed through the committee

most bills in committee die right there

in committee they don't get very far

it's absolutely crucial if a bill is

going to move forward to gain the

support of either the subcommittee chair

which has control over the bill or the

committee chair that's absolutely

crucial because they're going to decide

first of all whether there should be any

hearings on the bill where you bring

people in experts from executive

agencies or lobbying groups or citizens

or industry officials to come in and

discuss the content of the bill this is

a fundamental step and deliberating most

bills never get a hearing okay they just

sit there but if a bill gets a hearing

or a series of hearings that's a way in

which the committee can become informed

about the potential effects of the bill

assuming the bill gets a vote in a

subcommittee it goes to what's called a

markup and so the bill at that point is

subjected to amendments in here

interestingly enough the minority

minority party members of bill and

majority party members of the bill

actually engage in quite a bit of

dialogue and quite a bit of give and

take over whether or not to add

something or take something out of a

bill in the form of an amendment we call

that a markup and so if the bill gets

through the markup phase from the

subcommittee into the committee it has a

much greater chance of moving forward

and getting to the full house but then

there's also just the actual information

forcing function right there have been

plenty of really important issues in

American history where a lot of

information has come out about them that

would not otherwise have come out as a

result of congressional investigations

as a result of the use of the

congressional subpoena power the ability

to call witnesses the

it sort of staff that's dedicated to

ferreting out this this information so

so conditional committee hearings have

been tremendously useful in that regard

so they I think they can be used in a

lot of different ways as a partisan

cudgel as a sort of bipartisan or non

partisan attempt to actually learn more

about an issue or more frequently both

of the above right so you know often

people whose ox is getting gored will

say that a committee is is just a bunch

of partisan hacks and the people who are

who are conducting the hearings will say

no no we're impartial fact finders and

they're probably somewhere right in the

middle increasingly the role of the

committee has declined for important

legislation in the role of party has

risen and so if we look at important

legislation over the last decade like

the Obamacare bill you know really the

the committee's were involved in we're

involved in and hearings and the chairs

of the committee's and the maybe the

chairs of the subcommittee's were part

of the partisan teams that would work

with the White House and the speaker and

the majority leader to negotiate the

framing of the bill but most of the

heavy legislative lifting was done

informally through a process that was

led by the the party leaders in both

chambers and so and you know members of

Congress complain about this especially

the junior members who are who are cut

out of this process but nonetheless I

think because of the heightened partisan

world in which we're living right now

important legislation whether it be you

know health care or foreign policy or or

whatever gets really worked on by by

party committees led by the party

leaders and then bills brought to the

floor may be formally having gone to

committees but the important work having

been done by the parties

you