Types of Congressional committees

1. CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEES

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
 Complaints of 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
 Rules
Committee
 Ways and Means Committee
 Appropriations Committee
 Senate
 Foreign Relations 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