Its issues and jurisdictions have variably flowed through several iterations and currently rest within the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
"[1] In practice, the committee's responsibilities encompassed regulation of both interstate and foreign commerce generally.
[2] With technological advances and over time, federal policy issues and regulation regarding commercial aspects under their jurisdiction also would change; these would be accompanied with many additions and some subtractions.
Starting in 1824,[3] it added the dangerous obstructions of riverine navigation, such as removing sandbars and snags, dredging, lighthouses and other navigation aids; regulations and appropriations regarding navigable rivers and works affecting them, such as cribs, canals and locks, and later bridges, dams, tunnels, pipes, as well as later inter-oceanic canals and ocean cables as they arose.
Commercial aspects regarding public health and the prevention of infectious diseases, the purity of food and drugs, regulations regarding the exportation of livestock and foodstuffs, and transportation of livestock also came under the committee's purview.