committees

• what do congressional committees play a vital role in?

  the legislative process and the checks and balances present in US politics
• what are permanent committees known as?

  standing committees
• what are functions of committees?

  • legislative - HoR and Senate
  • Investigations - Hor and Senate
  • confirmation hearings - Senate ONLY
• why are committees significantly more powerful in the US than in the UK?

  power of subpoena
• what are the four types of committees?

  • standing
  • select
  • House Rules
  • Conference
• overview of standing committees

  • permanent - focus on a specific area of policy
  • 20 HoR, 6 Senate
  • parties are represented proportionally to the chambers
  • responsible for holding hearings during the committee stage
  • carrying out investigations and oversight in the executive
  • senate only - consider nominees to executive appointments
• give an example of the work of a standing committee

  Merrick Garland - nominated by Obama for the Supreme court in 2016. Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee supported senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to hold hearings on the appointment
• Give the analysis of Merrick Garland - standing committee

  He was refused because of the 'Biden rule' which stated that you should avoid appointments in an election year but Trump was allowed it for Amy Barret in 2020 because he was republican -> these committees are not unbiased
• select committee overview

  • ad hoc committees - not permanent
  • deal with specific urgent issue
  • Focus on investigation on the issue
  • carry out high profile hearings
• examples of select committees

  • a committee spent 2 years (2014-16), $7 million and interviewed 100+ witnesses when looking into the killing of the US ambassador to Libya in 2012. Republicans interviewed Clinton for 11 hours to try and damage her campaign and found no new evidence
  • Intelligence committee investigated Russian interference into the 2016 elections. They had interfered and favoured Trump but nothing was found to suggest that there was direct contact between them
• give the analysis for the Benghazi and Intelligence committees - select committees

  • Benghazi - committee was ineffective and just wanted to take points away from Clinton's campaign. Political hypocrisy
  • intelligence committee - bi-partisan inquiry. played a crucial role effectively
• House Rules overview

  • a type of standing committee - permanent
  • determines what legislation is discussed, when and for how long
  • small membership of 13
  • weighted in favour of the majority party
  • Sets the rules for bills: open -> can amend, closed -> cannot amend
• example in House Rules committee

  • republican chair of the House Rules committee received millions of dollars to his campaign due to his influence
• analysis of House Rules committee

  • prevents legislation from being improved
  • minority parties have less ability to shape gov bills
  • heavily politicised and therefore biased
• overview of conference committees

  • party leaders prevent bills from going, ask members in one chamber to adopt the others' bill
  • temporary to consider a specific bill
  • occurs when the HoR and Senate have passed different versions
  • merge bills to make a combined bill
  • sent back to both houses for consideration and a vote
• examples of conference committees being used less

  used less frequently -> 104th congress = 75 reports, 115th congress = 7 reports