House of Representatives. When a bill is introduced on the House floor, it is assigned a bill number and sent to a standing committee by the Speaker of the House. There are currently 20 standing committees, each covering a different area of public policy. A complete list of committees is available on the Office of the Clerk website. While in committee, a bill is reviewed, researched, and revised. Committee members may hold a committee hearing to receive testimony and view evidence to gather as much information as possible about the bill.
Once the committee members are satisfied with the bill, they vote on whether or not to report it to the House floor for consideration by the full U. House of Representatives serves on two standing committees. Committee assignments are given at the start of each new Congress. Members can request to serve on specific committees. Returning Members usually keep their committee assignments from the previous Congress because they have expertise and seniority.
These assignments are approved by the majority and minority parties before being brought before the full Chamber for approval. Many committees, usually standing committees, have smaller subcommittees within them. Like standing committees, subcommittees hold hearings, conduct research, and revise bills. Subcommittees report bills back to the full committee rather than the House floor.
Select committees are temporary committees created with a timeline to complete a specific task, like investigating government activity. When the report is concurred in by the House of Commons and Senate, this proposed mandate then becomes an order of reference to the Committee for the remainder of the session.
Legislative committees are created on an ad hoc basis by the House solely to draft or review proposed legislation. They are established as needed when the House adopts a motion creating an order of reference 94 and cease to exist upon presentation of their report on the legislation to the House. They consist of a maximum of 15 Members drawn from all recognized political parties in the House, plus the Chair.
Their mandate is restricted to examining and inquiring into the bill referred to them by the House, and presenting a report on it with or without amendments. As in the case of legislative committees, special committees are ad hoc bodies created as needed by the House. Unlike legislative committees, however, they are not usually charged with the study of a bill, but rather with inquiring into a matter to which the House attaches particular importance.
Special committees cease to exist upon presentation of their final report. Special joint committees are created for the same purposes as special committees: to study matters of great importance.
However, they are composed of Members of the House of Commons and Senators. They are established by order of reference from the House and another from the Senate. It may also designate the members of the committee to represent the House, or specify how they are to be selected. Decisions of one House concerning the membership, mandate and powers of a proposed joint committee are communicated to the other House by message.
Both Houses must be in agreement about the mandate and powers of the committee in order for it to be able to undertake its work. Once a request to participate in a joint committee is received, the other House, if it so desires, adopts a motion to establish such a committee and includes a provision to inform the originating House that it agrees to the request.
A special joint committee ceases to exist when it has presented its final report to both Houses. The mandate of a special joint committee is set out in the order of reference by which it is established. In the past, special joint committees have been set up to inquire into such matters as child custody, defence, foreign policy, a code of conduct for Members and Senators, Senate reform, and physician-assisted dying.
Subcommittees are working groups that report to existing committees. They are normally created by an order of reference adopted by the committee in question. The establishment of subcommittees is usually designed to relieve parliamentary committees of planning and administrative tasks, or to address important issues relating to their mandate.
Subcommittees generally have a lower level of activity than the committees they report to, but in some cases they may be just as busy. Apart from the cases in which they are created by the House or required pursuant to the Standing Orders , a parliamentary committee is under no obligation to strike subcommittees; the decision rests entirely with its members. Unless provision has already been made in the Standing Orders , it is up to the committee or the House, as the case may be, that creates a subcommittee to establish its mandate in an order of reference, specifying its membership the number of members varies , powers and any other conditions that are to govern its deliberations.
Not every type of committee can create subcommittees. Under the Standing Orders , standing committees including, where the House is concerned, standing joint committees may do so. Once established, subcommittees carry out their own work within the mandate entrusted to them. They are free to adopt rules to govern their activities, provided these are consistent with the framework established by the main committee.
Parliamentary Business Parliamentary Business - Home. The House. Procedural Reference Material Library of Parliament. Joint committees are made up of Members of both the House and Senate. Today's permanent joint committees conduct studies or perform housekeeping tasks rather than consider measures. The chairmanship of joint committees usually alternates between the House and Senate. A conference committee is a temporary joint committee formed to resolve differences between competing House and Senate versions of a measure.
Conference committees draft compromises between the positions of the two chambers, which are then submitted to the full House and Senate for approval.
Most committees form subcommittees to share specific tasks within the jurisdiction of the full committee. Subcommittees are responsible to, and work within the guidelines established by, their parent committees. In particular, standing committees usually create subcommittees with legislative jurisdiction to consider and report bills.
They may assign their subcommittees such specific tasks as the initial consideration of measures and oversight of laws and programs in the subcommittees' areas. Subcommittees may play an important role in the legislative process. Because few chamber and party rules apply to subcommittees, the number, prerogatives, and autonomy of subcommittees vary among committees. Senate rules do not directly limit the number of subcommittees each committee may create.
House rules impose a maximum of five subcommittees for most committees Rule X, clause 5 d , but a sixth oversight subcommittee is permitted; several committees, such as the Appropriations Committee, have been allowed—via House rules or a separate order in the opening-day rules resolution—a larger number of subcommittees.
Some committees create independent subcommittees with sizeable staff and budgets; routinely refer measures to subcommittees for initial consideration; and allow subcommittees to take the lead in framing issues, drafting measures and reports, and holding hearings and markups.
On other committees, most work is undertaken by the full committee. Some full committees repeat all actions taken by their subcommittees, while others review only major subcommittee work or even forward subcommittee-reported measures to the floor with little change.
This report was originally written by [author name scrubbed], formerly an analyst in American National Government at CRS.
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