Congress
Who helps get the job done?
Congress
The senators and representatives
can’t do it alone.
They work in committees to pass bills
more efficiently.
They have secretaries, support staff,
agencies of their own, and even an
entire library to help them out.
Committees
A committee is a “group within a
group.”
Purpose One: Since each
Congressperson can’t be an expert on
every issue, they each join
committees that match their
expertise. This divides the enormous
workload of Congress amongst
smaller groups.
Committees (continued)
Purpose Two: Committees “weed out”
the bills that deserve further
attention from thousands of bills that
are introduced.
Purpose Three: Committees hold
public hearings and investigations,
and educate the public
about problems and
issues facing the nation.
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees
Standing Committees
Subcommittees
Select Committees
Joint Committees
Conference Committees
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees
Standing committees: permanent, set up
to deal with very specific issues (see pg.
143 of textbook for list). Majority party
chooses the chairperson, membership
usually matches the proportion of
majority/minority in House or Senate
(i.e. 60% Democrat, 40% Republican)
Examples: Agriculture, Education,
National Security, Veteran’s Affairs
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees (continued)
Subcommittees: further subdivide the
work of the Standing Committees
Example--The Agriculture Committee has
the following subcommittees:
Conservation, Credit, Energy, and
Research; Horticulture and Organic
Agriculture; Livestock, Dairy and Poultry,
and three others.
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees
(continued)
Select Committees: a
temporary committee set
up to explore a particular
issue and report back to
the Congress as a whole.
Example: The Senate has
a Select Committee on
Ethics, set up to overhaul
the Senate’s Code of
Ethics. Once that’s done,
the committee will
dissolve (won’t exist
anymore.
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees (continued)
Joint Committees: made of members of
both the House and the Senate; joint
committees may be either temporary or
permanent, and generally study issues to
report back to both the House and
Senate.
Examples: Joint committees have been
set up to investigate atomic energy,
defense, taxation, and to deal with the
Library of Congress (both houses use it).
Committees (continued)
Types of Committees (continued)
Conference Committees: this is
composed of members of both the House
and Senate. After a bill has passed both
houses, it is sent to a Conference
Committee to make sure that both
versions of the bill match. They may
make further compromises before the bill
is sent to the President to be signed into
law.
Committees (continued)
Miscellaneous Committee information
Assigning members to committees is extremely
important.
Representatives and Senators want to be on
committees that work with bills that directly benefit
their state or district.
This is the best way for a lawmaker to directly
influence the national policies in many areas.
The leaders of the party in charge decides who gets
to the chairperson (leader) of each committee.
Chairpersons are among the more powerful members
of Congress because they decide which bills their
committee will hear and which will get weeded out.
Seniority usually decides the chairperson, but that
has changed since the 1970s.
Support Staff and Agencies
“The work of Congress is so massive
and complicated that lawmakers need
trained staffs to help them do their
work effectively.” (pg. 146)
For the first 100 years of U.S. history,
Congressmen had no staff to assist
them. Now, they couldn’t do their job
without them.
Support (continued)
Types of support:
Personal staff
Administrative assistants
Legislative assistants
Caseworkers
Committee staff
Support agencies
Library of Congress
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
General Accounting Office (GAO)
Government Printing Office (GPO)
Support (continued)
Administrative Assistants
Runs the lawmaker’s office, supervises
their schedule, gives political advice,
may deal with other powerful lawmakers
or influential people who want to meet
with the lawmaker.
Other administrators serve as
secretaries, receptionists, and file clerks
for the lawmakers.
Support (continued)
Legislative Assistant
Makes sure the lawmaker is well-
informed about certain bills they’re
working on or going to be voting on,
does research, drafts bills, studies bills in
Congress, writes speeches and articles
for the lawmaker
May attend committee/subcommittee
meetings for the lawmaker if their
schedules don’t allow it.
Support (continued)
Caseworker
Help to handle workload of constituents
in the home district or state who are
requesting help from the lawmaker.
Most lawmakers have two offices – one
in D.C. and one in their home district or
capital city of their state.
Support (Continued)
Committee Staff
Each committee has specific staff that just work
for that committee, no matter who the
chairperson is.
These may act as administrative
assistants/secretaries for the committee, and
may draft bills, study issues, collect information
for the members, plan hearings, write memos,
and prepare the committee reports. These
unelected support personnel may be vastly
knowledgeable about the work of each
committee.
Support (continued)
Library of Congress
Created in 1800 to “purchase such
books as may be necessary for the
use of Congress.”
Purchased Jefferson’s library of
6,000 books in 1815 (including a
copy of a Koran).
Today, one of the largest libraries
in the world.
More than 100 million items,
including books, journals,
music, films, photos, maps.
Hundreds of employees are
responsible for answering requests
from lawmakers for information
about bills. They can find out
almost any piece of information in
the world.
Support (continued)
Congressional Budget Office: coordinates
budget-making process of Congress with
work of executive branch, makes cost
predictions for future
General Accounting Office: Watchdog over
spending by Congressional programs
Government Printing Office: Prints
EVERYTHING for the federal government!
All bills, laws, committee speeches, etc.