⇒ Standing committees are permanent, policy specialist committees that amend legislation

⇒ Handle the day-to-day running of Congress

⇒ Conduct investigations within their policy area (e.g. Senate intelligence committee and House intelligence committee are investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russian meddling in 2016)

⇒ Congressmen generally seek assignments on committees that are closest to the interests of their district/state

⇒ Have considerable power to help the parent chambers manage their huge workloads, but there are limits (e.g. can't legislate, can't force the executive, cannot implement policies)

⇒ They have 2 functions in both the House and Senate and a 3rd function in the Senate alone

• 1. Conduct the committee stage of bills in the legislative process
• 2. Conduct investigations within the committees policy area
• 3. Begin the confirmation process of numerous Presidential appointments

⇒ Timetables bills on the House floor and attaches a "rule" to each bill outlining, among other things, the time given for debate and the extent to which each bill can be amended

⇒ Also prioritises bills on the floor of the house for their second reading (e.g. the democrats prioritised Iraq spending bill when they won the house back in 2006)

⇒ Its membership is smaller than other committees (13) and more skewed to the majority party. The Chair is considered one of the most influential posts in Congress

⇒ Established to reconcile competing versions of bills passed in the House and Senate, as they're likely to be different (set up after 3rd reading is bills are too different)

⇒ They are ad-hoc

⇒ Once they've agreed the bill goes back to the floor of each house - if it is not passed it goes back and if that happens again it goes back to the standing committee who first considered it

⇒ Important as they're likely to draw up the final version of the bill - however this power is checked because the Senate and the House get to vote on the compromise version

⇒ Special investigative committees established to probe a specific issue. Normally ad-hoc and only deal with issues beyond the jurisdiction of standing committees (e.g. 9/11 committee)

⇒ Committee members tend to be more independent from their party

⇒ They have prestige - seen as necessary to cope with 1000's of laws passing through Congress

⇒ Viewed by members of Congress as an advantageous career move as it allows them staff, resources and influence over legislation (8 presidents and 8 vice presidents have served on the ways and means committee, as have 25 house speakers)

⇒ Executive scrutiny is accepted as main function (e.g. Hillary appeared before the house select committee on Benghazi to answer questions on how she used her personal email when Secretary of State)

⇒ Scrutinise legislation (filter legislation, bills are often thoroughly amended e.g. Affordable Care Act was stripped down)

⇒ House Rules Committee decides when or if a bill will be debated and the extent to which it can be amended

⇒ Scrutinise appointments

⇒ Always drawn from the majority party (all Republican currently)

⇒ Seniority rule - the chair of the standing committee will be the member of the majority party with the longest continuous service in that committee

• Has been modified recently and there are secret ballots for committee chairs and ranking minority members

⇒ The chair gets to determine the agenda by choosing what issues get considered

⇒ They manage the actual process of writing the bill (mark up) and then vote on the bill in the committee itself

⇒ Power - they control agendas, decide when committee will meet, control the committee budget, influence membership, supervise staff

⇒ Leader of the house, elected every 2 years by the entire house membership

⇒ Main roles:

• Plan and implement the agenda of the house
• Choose which members to recognise during debates
• Rule on points of order and maintaining decorum

⇒ Specific powers:

• Interpret and enforce rules of the house
• Act as presiding officer
• Refer bills to standing committees
• Appoint select committee and conference committee chairs (Paul Ryan appointed Devin Nunes as head of House intelligence committee- gives power over committee as a whole)
• Appoint the majority party member of the house rules committee
• Speaker serves as the gatekeeper for any legislation that wants to enter (not likely to introduce any legislation hated by the Republicans currently)
• Hastert Rule - the speaker cannot allow a floor to vote on a bill unless the majority of the majority party support it

⇒ Minority leaders: Nancy Pelosi (D)- House, Chuck Schumer (D)- Senate

⇒ Majority leaders: Kevin McCarthy- House, Mitch McConnell- Senate

⇒ Act as day to day directors of operations on the floor of their respective house (hold press conferences, act as liaisons between their house and the White House)

⇒ Senate majority leader plays a key role in taking bills to debate on the Senate floor

⇒ House majority leader is no.2 to the house speaker

⇒ Posts can be used as launching pad into Presidency (LBJ in the senate)

⇒ Also see our notes on:

• The Senate and House of Representatives
• Legislative Process
• Influence
• Representation
• Effectiveness