Congressional Committees
Sirus
Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8466Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8466Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
Ok, so if you're familiar with committees then you know that they hold an amazing amount of power in Congress. They can strike down any bill during it's creation, and in case of the House of Reps, one out of 435 reps can completely block a bill from reaching the floors of Congress, assuming they're a committee chairman.
The other thing is that committee members have no minimum requirement, they need only the approval of a party leader in Congress. They can literally pigeon-hole any legislation.
Now, my question is this, do Congressional committees (Sub-committees) have too much power ? No requirements and they can control any bills in their committee area (For example, agriculture) assuming they are favorable to their party leader in Congress and possibly have seniority.
On the other hand, most Congressmen want to get on a committee that represents their constituents so they would be inclined to be specialized in a certain area, but not necessarily. Also, they want to get reelected so they would want to pass favorable bills to Congress.
Any opinions ?
Does anyone even know what I'm talking about ?
The other thing is that committee members have no minimum requirement, they need only the approval of a party leader in Congress. They can literally pigeon-hole any legislation.
Now, my question is this, do Congressional committees (Sub-committees) have too much power ? No requirements and they can control any bills in their committee area (For example, agriculture) assuming they are favorable to their party leader in Congress and possibly have seniority.
On the other hand, most Congressmen want to get on a committee that represents their constituents so they would be inclined to be specialized in a certain area, but not necessarily. Also, they want to get reelected so they would want to pass favorable bills to Congress.
Any opinions ?
Does anyone even know what I'm talking about ?
Comments
If what you say is true, then I'd have to agree. However, I havent heard the other side of the story. The other side of the story is usually heard when a poster disagrees with you and presents "their" side of the story.
I think you've found one of those rare topics where no one really has any knowledge or even cares enough to have an opinion about.
Committees are simply a group of senators/Reps that deal with specific legislation in Congress. We'll use an Education bill in the House of Reps. Some Rep proposes a bill about the "Leave No Child Behind Act", that bill gets sent to the "Education Committee" to evaluate and research it's feasibility. Now, a subcommittee is a smaller group within that committee that may say...be strictly about grades K-12, and then the "Leave No Child Behind Act" is sent to that subcommittee.
Now, they can literally kill the bill in committee if they want to. They call it pigeonholing. The committee can simply never send it back to the House of Reps to vote on. Even more powerful than the committee itself, is the committee chairman, he plans out the agenda for the committee, say they hand him the bill to review, he can choose to never even talk about it and therefore kill it that way.
The same goes for the Senate, and even when things get past the committee they can later be killed by Conference Committees that iron out the details between the Senate and House bills (Since a bill has to be passed in both).
Now, I'm pretty sure that the Senate Majority leader and the House Majority leader get to have the lion's share of committee seats. So when a party is in majority, they can control all bills to strangle them to death if they don't like them.
Alot of the time though, it seems that committees are usually fair, especially with all the pork barreling and consituent pleasing behavior. It's just kind of weird that they have so much power. (By the way, a congressman can be on a committee that he's completely not qualified for, so if he's on an Education committee and knows nothing about education, it's more difficult to get a good revision)
Please tell me you understand and that my explanation didn't suck too badly ;p
The whole committee system is really odd, which is why people never get told what it is.
"The 'checks and balances' system of your governent is humanity's acknowledgement that it is unfit to govern itself." - Helios (pretty much what he said - I'm not playing through Deus Ex again to get the exact wording).
You say that and I'll say Special Interests = Democrats
Uh...