1. CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEES
Ch. 5, sec. 4

2. Purpose of Committees
 House and Senate both
have committees
 Work is divided among
smaller groups
 Decide which bills
move on to the next
step-most don’t make it
past committees

3. Kind of Committees
 4 types
 Standing Committee
 Select Committee
 Joint Committee
 Conference Committee

4. Standing Committee
 Permanent groups that
specialize in a certain
topic
 House has 19 standing
committees
 Senate has 16 standing
committees
 Each committee has both
Democrats and
Republicans in it.
 Some standing
committees are divided
further into
subcommittees

5. Select Committees
 Temporary committees
 Formed to study one
specific issue
 Organized crime
 Hunger
 Complaintsof small
business owners

6. Joint Committee
 Members from both the
House and Senate
 Can be temporary or
permanent
 Do not deal directly with
bills
 Study groups
 Examples:
 Joint economic committee
 Joint committee on printing
 Joint committee on the
Library of Congress

7. Conference Committee
 Temporary committee
 Set up to resolve differences between two
versions of a bill
 Members from both house and senate

8. Prestigious Committees
 House
 RulesCommittee
 Ways and Means Committee
 Appropriations Committee
 Senate
 ForeignRelations Committee
 Finance Committee
 Appropriations Committee

9. Committee Assignments and
Leadership
 Each committee has a
chairperson
 Makes key decisions
within their committee
 Used to be decided by
seniority
 Now committee
chairpersons cannot
serve more than 3 terms
 Members of congress
may request to be
placed on certain
committees