United States congressional committee

As "little legislatures", the committees monitor ongoing governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information, and recommend courses of action to their parent body.

[2] Congressional committees provide valuable informational services to Congress by investigating and reporting about specialized subjects.

Within assigned areas, these functional subunits gather information; compare and evaluate legislative alternatives; identify policy problems and propose solutions; select, determine, and report measures for full chamber consideration; monitor executive branch performance (oversight); and investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

In the tabling and wording of new law, procedures such as the House discharge petition process (the process of bringing a bill onto the floor without a committee report or mandatory consent from its leadership) are so laborious and technical that committees, today, dominate the draftsmanship and honing of the detail of many bills laid before Congress.

Of the 73 discharge petitions submitted to the full House from 1995 through 2007, only one was successful in securing a definitive yea-or-nay vote for a bill.

In his often cited article History of the House of Representatives, written in 1961, American scholar George B. Galloway (1898–1967) wrote: "In practice, Congress functions not as a unified institution, but as a collection of semi-autonomous committees that seldom act in unison."

[6] Thus the era of the Great Depression marks the last across-the-board change, albeit a short-lived one, in the autonomy of House standing committees.

For example, the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 led to further reforms to open Congress to further public visibility, strengthen its decision-making capacities, and augment minority rights.

[9] Commentators from both major parties have expressed concern regarding the loss of committee capacity to research and develop legislative initiatives.

With the advent of this new system, committees are able to handle long-term studies and investigations, in addition to regular legislative duties.

In response to the House's need for more detailed advice on certain issues, more specific committees with broader authority were established.

One of the first—a three-member committee "to prepare and report an estimate of supplies ... and of nett [sic] produce of the impost"—was established on April 29, 1789.

[16] Members who request an assignment to the House Armed Services Committee tend to have a greater military presence in their district, while members requesting assignment to the House Interior Committee generally tend to come from sparsely populated areas with more land held in public trust.

Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by their respective chambers.

The Budget Committees establish aggregate levels for total spending and revenue that serve as guidelines for the work of the authorizing and appropriating panels.

Select or special committees are established generally by a separate resolution of the chamber, sometimes to conduct investigations and studies, and, on other occasions, also to consider measures.

Joint committees are permanent panels that include members from both chambers, which generally conduct studies or perform housekeeping tasks rather than consider measures.

Conference committees draft compromises between the positions of the two chambers, which are then submitted to the full House and Senate for approval.

Committees in the House of Representatives generally have more members, due to its larger size, as compared to the smaller 100-member Senate.