In the news

lBush veto of “enhanced interrogation” (waterboarding) bill.

lDems win Dennis Hastert’s old seat in a special election on Saturday, 53-47% in a strong Repub. district.

lEthics bill bogs down – central point of contention is an independent, outside 6-member board that would recommend misconduct cases to the Ethics Committee.

lObama wins WY, 61-38%.  MS up next.  Samantha Power flap.  Clinton and Obama are about where they were before March 4th, but five more states have voted.  It looks like Obama won a majority of delegates from TX.

 

Committees

PS 426

March 11-13, 2008

(note: parts of this presentation are drawn from Charles Stewart’s lecture on committees)

 

Wilson’s Famous Quote

l“Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.”  (Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government (1885).  However, Wilson was critical of Congress; he preferred parliamentary government.

 

The basics:  What do Committees Do?

lStudy issues and provide expertise.

–Hold hearings

–Work out the details of legislation – write the actual language in “mark-up” sessions.

lChannel ambition.

lProvide for representation of groups.

lProvide the institutional basis for credit claiming.

 

House/Senate comparisons

lHouse more reliant on committees than the Senate.  Senate does more of its work on the floor than the House.

–House more specialized

–The House must originate all tax bills, so this gives Ways and Means greater power as the first-mover.  However, this isn’t always strictly followed.

lSenators hold more committee assignments (3-5) than House members (1 or 2 generally).

 

Types of committees

 

Committees in the 110th Congress

House

Standing

nAgriculture                  

nAppropriations                                   

nArmed Services                                  

nBudget                                               

nEducation and Labor

nEnergy and Commerce           

nFinancial Services

nForeign Affairs                       

nHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs

nHouse Administration

nJudiciary                     

nNatural Resources                              

nOversight and Governmental Reform

nRules                                      

nSmall Business                                    

nEntrepreneurship

nTransportation and Infrastructure

nVeterans Affairs                                  

nWays and Means                                

 

Select

nPermanent Intelligence

nSelect Committee on Energy Independence

and Global Warming    

 

Senate

Standing

nAgriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

nAppropriations

nArmed Services

nBudget

nHealth, Education, Labor, and Pensions

nCommerce, Science, and Transportation

nBanking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

nForeign Relations

nHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs

nRules and Administration

nIntelligence

nJudiciary

nEnergy and Natural Resources

nSmall Business and Entrepreneurship

nEnvironment and Public Works

nVeterans

nFinance                                                 

 

Select

nIndian Affairs

nEthics

nIntelligence

nAging

 

Membership

lParty ratios

–Renegotiated every Congress

–There is a bonus given to the majority party

–Special bonus for certain committees

lHouse 234 D-201 R after the 2006 elections (1.16:1).  Committee ratios range from 1.3:1 to 2:1 for “important” committees, closer to 1.1:1 or 1.2 for others

–Approp: 37/29 (1.3), Rules: 8/4 (2:1), W&M: 24/17 (1.4)

–House Ag:  24/20 (1.2), Fin.Serv., 36/33 (1.1); Judi: 21/16 (1.3), Ed: 27/22 (1.2),

–Senate:  ratios are similar, but somewhat closer given the 51-49 division (1.04:1).

 

How Committee members are chosen

lParty committees make choices

lFormal and informal constraints

–Property rights in committee assignments arose around the turn of the last century

–Allocation restrictions

lSenate:  “Johnson rule”: all junior senators get one “good” assignment before a senior senator gets a second.  “A” and “B” committees. Senate Repubs create “super A” committees [bold, limit 1]

–A:  Agriculture, Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Commerce, Energy, Environment, Finance, Foreign Relations, Governmental Affairs, Judiciary, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions [limit of 2]

–B:  Budget, Ethics, Indian Affairs, Rules and Administration, Select Aging, Select Intelligence, Small Business and Veterans´ Affairs [may serve on 1]

lHouse:  Exclusive, Semi-Exclusive, Non-exclusive (Rs call them “Red” “White” “Blue”)  Exclusive Appropriations, Rules, Ways and Means (plus Commerce for Rs).

 

Chairs

lSeniority system:  the practice of reserving the chairs of committees for the most senior member (on that committee)

–Result of revolt against Joe Cannon

–Senate:  pretty inviolate, with bidding

–House

lDemocrats in 1970s put chairs up to confirmatory vote by the caucus

lRepublicans

–1970s put ranking members up to confirmatory vote

–1994:  term limits (6 years) plus vote of caucus

l2000:  Affected virtually every chair

lWould have come up again in 2006, but Rs lost control; Dems have not maintained the same rule.

 

Subcommittees and Their Role

lSubcommittees sometimes just smaller versions of committees.  More specialized topics.

lThe congressional receptor for the “Iron Triangle”

lIncreasing importance of subcommittees

l“Subcommittee bill of rights” in 1973 (House Dems)

–Written jurisdictions

–Members given rights to pick memberships and bid for chairmanships

–More autonomy from the chair of the committee (could call meetings without approval of chair)

–Minority party guaranteed some staff (reversed in 1995)

–Hearing would be open, unless closed by a majority vote.

 

Committee Transfers

lIf members get stuck on a committee they don’t want, they can request a transfer at the beginning of new sessions.  Classes of committees:  prestige,  policy, constituency, undesired.

lIf there are property rights in committee seats, then a transfer reveals a preference for the new committee over the old committee.

lThis gives rise to independent measures of committee value developed by Charles Stewart and Tim Groseclose (Grosewart scores).

 

Grosewart Scores for the House

 

Hearings

lCivics book perspective on hearings is incomplete

–Information-gathering (substantive and political)

–Build the public record

–Symbolism

–Establish jurisdiction

lPut together by staff

lHearings rarely change the minds of members of Congress.  My experience with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Voting Rights Act hearing in the summer, 2006.

 

Changes Made by House Republicans after 1994 (most of these upheld by Dems in 2007)

lCommittees eliminated

–District of Columbia

–Merchant Marine & Fisheries

–Post Office & Civil Service

lCommittee staff cut by 1/3 (but personal staff untouched)

l28 subcommittees eliminated and generally limited to 5 per commtt.

lSubcommittee staff controlled by committee chair

lAssignment limits

lProxy voting and rolling quorums banned

lCommittees must publish roll call votes on all bills and amendments

lMeetings may be closed to the public only when absolutely necessary

lAll committees open to broadcast coverage & still photography

lMultiple referrals eliminated

–Speaker may still serially refer bills

 

Theoretical perspectives on committees

l“Distributive” theories

–Agenda setting

–Gate-keeping:  the right of a committee to decide to keep an item off the floor if it doesn’t want action.  Protected by germaneness rule and closed rules (therefore, less applicable in Senate).

–Structure-induced equilibrium view

–Committees provided the basis for making credible claims of credit (Mayhew).

 

Distributive theory, cont.

lEasy to think of committees as providing “take it or leave it” propositions and being composed of “high demand outliers”

–“gains from trade” – logrolling.

–“deference” to committees

–Supposed “self-selection” on committees

lProblems with this view

–“high demand committees” hard to sustain in a majoritarian institution. The Senate, especially, has ways around committees. Other ways around gatekeeping:  discharge petitions.

lEmpirical evidence mixed

lAmendment opportunities galore

 

Informational View

lFundamentally different from other views

lWhile “rational choice,” more in consonance with more traditional views.

lUncertainty over policy outcomes.  Committees provide info to the floor.  Committees will mostly be made up of people who have interests in those topics, but chamber will also want to have more representative committees.

lHow to test this theory vs. distributive theory?

 

Partisan perspective

lConditional party government – MCs will not delegate broad power to leaders if they are heterogeneous, only if they are homogenous. 

lSubcommittee bill of rights.  Prevent committee chairs from blocking bills.  Make committees more responsive to the party caucus (rather than the floor median).

lRules committee as the arm of the leadership. 

lBypass committees – leadership task forces, bring right to the floor w/o committee consideration, post-committee adjustments, control of the appropriations committee. 

lThe “Hastert Rule” – would not bring a bill to the floor for a vote unless it was supported by a majority in his party (even if a large majority of the House supported it).

lNone of these things are consistent with distributive or informational theories.