House Committee Organization and Process: A Brief Overview

Congressional research reportApr 21, 2008

Ask Donna

What actually matters in this document.

Text

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱ

ȱȱ ȱ

¢ȱȱ

ȱȱȱȱ

ȱŘŗǰȱŘŖŖŞȱ

ȱȱȱ

ŝȬśŝŖŖȱ

ǯǯȱ

ŘŖŚŜśȱ

ȱȱȱ

Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

¢ȱ

Committees are integral to the work of Congress in determining the policy needs of the nation

and acting on them. This report provides a brief overview of six features of the committee system

in the House: organization, hearings, markup, reporting, oversight, and publications. Committees

in the House have four primary powers: to conduct hearings and investigations, to consider bills

and resolutions and amendments to them, to report legislation to the House for its possible

consideration, and to monitor executive branch performance, that is, to conduct oversight. The

report will be updated as events warrant.

ȱȱȱ

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

ȱ£ȱ

At the beginning of a Congress, or at the early organization meetings prior to the new Congress,

committees organize. Members are assigned to full committees, committee chairs and ranking

minority Members are determined, subcommittees are created and Members are assigned, and

committee rules are adopted. Once panels are organized they can begin the work of holding

hearings and considering legislative proposals.

ȱŗȱ

Committee assignments often determine the character of a Member’s career. They are also

important to the party leaders who organize the chamber and shape the composition of the

committees. House rules identify some procedures for making committee assignments;

Republican Conference and Democratic Caucus rules supplement these House rules and provide

more specific criteria for committee assignments.

In general, pursuant to House rules, Representatives cannot serve on more than two standing

committees. In addition, both parties identify exclusive committees and generally limit service on

them; other panels are identified as nonexclusive or exempt committees. House and party rules

also restrict Members’ service on the Budget, Select Intelligence, and Standards of Official

Conduct Committees to a limited number of terms.

ȱȱŘȱ

Committee jurisdiction is determined by a variety of factors. Paramount is House Rule X, which

designates the subject matter within the purview of each standing committee. The formal

provisions of the rule are supplemented by an intricate series of precedents and informal

agreements. The rule and precedents govern the referral of legislation. Bills can be referred to as

many committees as can exhibit responsibility for the subject matter of the legislation. However,

the Speaker, who makes referrals with the advice of the parliamentarian, generally designates a

“primary” committee, and other committees may then receive a referral in a sequential order. The

Speaker also has authority to impose time limitations on any committee receiving a referral.

řȱ

Subcommittees are entities created by full committees to assist them in managing their work.

Subcommittees are subject to the authority and direction of their parent committee. Subcommittee

jurisdictions are not enumerated in House rules, but instead are determined by each committee.

By practice, most legislation is referred to a subcommittee prior to its consideration by a full

committee.

For further information, see CRS Report 98-367, House Committees: Assignment Process; CRS Report 98-151,

House Committees: Categories and Rules for Committee Assignments; and CRS Report 98-610, House Subcommittees:

Assignment Process, all by (name redacted).

For further information, see CRS Report 98-175, House Committee Jurisdiction and Referral: Rules and Practice, by

(name redacted).

For further information, see CRS Report 98-544, Subcommittees in the House of Representatives, by (name redacted).

ȱȱȱ

Śȱ

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

Committees are generally prohibited from having more than five subcommittees, although there

are some exceptions, such as the Appropriations Committee, which has 12 subcommittees. Some

committees create no subcommittees.

Under House rules, Members are limited to service on four subcommittees, although there are

some exceptions. Subcommittee assignments are governed, in addition, by respective party rules

and practices.

ȱȱ

House Rule XI provides that the rules of the House “are the rules of its committees and

subcommittees so far as applicable.” The rule directs each standing committee to adopt written

rules governing its procedures that “may not be inconsistent with the Rules of the House or with

those provisions of law having the force and effect of Rules of the House.... ”

Adoption of committee rules is one of the first orders of business a committee undertakes after

committees are organized at the convening of a Congress. Committees, for example, must select a

regular meeting day, which may not be less frequently than monthly; determine appropriate

quorums for various activities within the limits of House rules; identify the role of the chair and

his or her relationship with the ranking minority member; and clarify the authority of the majority

of the committee, especially vis-á-vis, the committee chair. These committee rules generally

dictate the formal procedures a committee follows in conducting its business.

ȱ Śȱ

All hearings, whether legislative or oversight, have a similar, formal purpose and follow similar

procedures: to gather information for use by a committee in its activities. Further, each committee

has authority to hold hearings whether the House is in session, has recessed, or has adjourned.

Hearings can be held in Washington or elsewhere.

However, House rules require that all committee chairs, except the chair of the Rules Committee,

must give at least one week’s notice to the public of the date, place, and subject of hearings,

although a hearing may be held with less notice if either the chair, with the concurrence of the

ranking minority member, or the committee by majority vote, determines a need to hold the

hearing sooner. Hearings are open to the public unless the committee votes in open session to

close a hearing. Although the chair determines the agenda and selects witnesses, the minority is

entitled to one day of related hearings to call its own witnesses, if a majority of minority members

so notify the chair.

Witnesses before House committees generally must file with the committee an advance copy of

their written testimony, and then limit their oral testimony to a brief summary. A question-andanswer period, with rules generally allowing each committee member five minutes to question

each witness, usually follows a witness’s opening statement. Under House rules, a committee may

adopt a rule, or agree by motion, to allow an equal number of its majority and minority party

For further information, see CRS Report RL30539, Hearings in the House of Representatives: A Guide for

Preparation and Procedure, by (name redacted).

ȱȱȱ

śȱ

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

members to question a witness for up to 30 minutes, and may also adopt a rule or motion

allowing its staff to question a witness, with time divided equally between majority and minority

staff.

ȱśȱ

The essential purpose of a committee markup is to determine whether a measure pending before a

committee should be amended in any substantive way. Of course, committees do not actually

amend measures; instead, a committee votes on which amendments, if any, it wishes to

recommend to the House.

How a panel conducts a markup for the most part reflects procedures used in the House’s

Committee of the Whole (parliamentary device to consider amendments), as possibly modified by

an individual committee’s rules. There is also a widespread feeling that the level of formality in

markup often reflects the level of contention over the measure being marked up.

A markup begins with a chair calling up a particular measure for consideration by the committee.

The next action depends on the nature of the “markup vehicle” (i.e., the text that a chair intends

for the committee to amend and report), which may be different from the measure laid before the

panel for consideration. A vehicle can come before a committee in several different forms, each of

which has its own procedural and political consequences.

A chair may lay before a committee either a bill that has been previously introduced and referred,

or the text of a draft measure that has not been formally introduced, such as a subcommitteereported version or a chairman’s mark. In each case, the text laid before the committee is itself

the markup vehicle, but, in the second case, at the end of the markup process, the text must be

incorporated or converted into a measure for reporting to the House. Alternatively, the markup

vehicle may be placed before the committee as an amendment in the nature of a substitute for the

bill or text initially called up.

ȱŜȱ

At the end of a markup, a chair normally entertains a motion to report a measure favorably to the

House. By House rule, a majority of the committee must be physically present. The committee

can report the measure as introduced, with a series of amendments, with a single amendment in

the nature of a substitute, or as a so-called clean bill. A clean bill would be introduced in the

House and referred back to the committee. Such a measure would also have a number different

from that of the measure as introduced.

For further information, see CRS Report RL30244, The Committee Markup Process in the House of Representatives;

CRS Report 98-335, House Committee Markup: Amendment Procedure; CRS Report 98-168, House Committee

Markup: Preparation; and CRS Report 98-188, House Committee Markup: Vehicle for Consideration and Amendment,

all by (name redacted).

For further information, see CRS Report 98-267, House Committee Markup: Reporting; and CRS Report 98-169,

House Committee Reports: Required Contents, both by (name redacted).

ȱȱȱ

Ŝȱ

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

Once agreed to, a measure is “ordered reported;” it is actually “reported” when the committee

report is filed in the House. A committee report is the committee’s work product that accompanies

a measure that is reported. When a committee orders a bill reported, it is incumbent upon the

chair, pursuant to House rule, to report it “promptly” and take all other steps necessary to secure

its consideration by the full House.

House rules and statutes detail several substantive requirements of items to be included in reports

accompanying measures reported from committees. For example, most reports explain a

measure’s purpose and the need for the legislation, its cost, committee votes on amendments and

the measure itself, the position of the executive branch, and the specific changes the bill would

make in existing law. As well, all committee members may file, within two calendar days,

supplemental, minority, or additional views, which are then included in the committee report.

ȱȱ ȱ

Committees periodically conduct reviews of agency performance in the implementation of

legislation, called oversight, or conduct investigations into perceived wrongdoing, referred to as

investigations. Conducting oversight or an investigation is traditionally done initially by staff,

followed by committee hearings. Legislation may result from a committee’s work.

ȱŝȱ

House committees publish a variety of documents dealing with legislative issues, investigations,

and internal committee matters. Usually these publications are available on-line or from the

issuing committee. Printed hearings contain the edited transcripts of testimony. They often are not

published for months after the hearing, but are usually available for inspection in committee

offices; witness testimony is often available on-line. Committee reports accompany legislation

provide an explanation of a measure, the committee’s action in considering it, and certain cost

and other findings.

Activity reports published at the end of a Congress provide a description of a committee’s actions

over the course of that Congress. Committee calendars are a comprehensive record of a

committee’s actions, including committee rules, membership, a brief legislative history of each

measure referred to it, a list of hearings and markups held, and often a list of other committee

publications. Finally, committees also publish other information as “committee prints.” A

committee print might include committee rules or a report on a policy issue that the panel wants

to distribute widely.

For further information, see CRS Report 98-673, Publications of Congressional Committees: A Summary, by

Matthew Eric Glassman.

ȱȱȱ

ŝȱ

ȱȱ£ȱȱǱȱȱȱ ȱ

ȱȱ ȱ

(name redacted)

Specialist on the Congress

-redacted-@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

ȱȱȱ

Şȱ

EveryCRSReport.com

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a federal legislative branch agency, housed inside the

Library of Congress, charged with providing the United States Congress non-partisan advice on

issues that may come before Congress.

EveryCRSReport.com republishes CRS reports that are available to all Congressional staff. The

reports are not classified, and Members of Congress routinely make individual reports available to

the public.

Prior to our republication, we redacted names, phone numbers and email addresses of analysts

who produced the reports. We also added this page to the report. We have not intentionally made

any other changes to any report published on EveryCRSReport.com.

CRS reports, as a work of the United States government, are not subject to copyright protection in

the United States. Any CRS report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without

permission from CRS. However, as a CRS report may include copyrighted images or material from a

third party, you may need to obtain permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or

otherwise use copyrighted material.

Information in a CRS report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public

understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to members of Congress in

connection with CRS' institutional role.

EveryCRSReport.com is not a government website and is not affiliated with CRS. We do not claim

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.