Congress: Committees Lecture Review

Vocabulary terms and definitions related to the internal organization, theories, and processes of Congressional committees based on the 119th Congress lecture notes.

Standing Committees

Permanent collections of individuals charged with conducting Congress’s business on particular policy issues; there are currently 20 in the House and 16 in the Senate.

Select Committees

Temporary committees initially designed to formulate a specific bill and then disband; in modern times, they are often information-gathering or advisory panels like the January 6th Committee.

House Rules Committee

A committee whose primary responsibility is to issue special rules determining how bills will be debated on the floor; the Senate has no equivalent.

Negative Lawmaking Power

The ability of a committee to stop bills from becoming law, which is very great in the House but less absolute in the Senate due to ways of sidestepping committees.

Positive Lawmaking Power

The ability of committees to shape the content of laws, though this is often limited because they appear early in the legislative process.

Distributive/Committee-Autonomy Theory

A model suggesting members self-select onto committees of interest to constituents to help get reelected, leading to logrolling where the floor passes committee bills.

Property Rights Norm

A congressional norm where a member cannot be removed from a committee involuntarily unless they are defeated in an election.

Informational/Chamber-Dominated Theory

A model where committees are labor-saving devices that incentivize expertise and act as microcosms of the chamber for the full body's benefit.

Partisan/Party-Dominated Theory

A model suggesting committees exist merely to "rubber-stamp" the majority party’s agenda and ready it for the floor.

Richard Fenno’s Motivations

Three reasons members seek specific committee assignments: Reelection, Making Good Public Policy, and Influence in Congress.

Exclusive Committees (House)

A category of House committees (Rules, Appropriations, Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce) where a member typically only receives one assignment.

The Johnson Rule

A Senate convention, named after Lyndon Johnson, that ensures every Senator gets an opportunity to be on at least one top 'A' committee.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (2021)

An example of a member being removed from committees by a full House vote (including 11 Republicans) due to remarks about violence.

Seniority

The historical practice of appointing the most senior committee member as chair, which became less inviolable starting in the 1970s.

Watergate Babies (1974)

Junior, liberal members elected in 1974 who helped reform the seniority system and challenge the power of conservative "Old Southern Bulls" who chaired committees.

Subcommittee Bill of Rights

Mid-1970s reforms that gave subcommittees their own staff, fixed jurisdictions, and immediate referral of bills, wresting power away from full committee chairs.

Committee Chair Term Limits

A rule established by Republicans in 1995 (later adopted by Democrats in 2007) limiting House chairs to 3 terms or 6 years.

Mark-up

The process where a committee conducts debate and amendment of a bill.

Joint Committees

Permanent committees containing members from both the House and Senate that provide data and research but do not have legislative authority.

Conference Committees

Temporary committees with legislative authority formed to reconcile differences between separate House and Senate versions of a specific bill.

Ranking Member of the Minority (RMM)

The leader of the minority party members on a committee who serves as the counterpart to the committee chair.