THE STRUCTURE OF CONGRESS| 277THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM
The committee system in the House and Senate is another crucial part of the
legislative structure. There are four types of committees: standing, select,
joint, and conference. Standing committees, which have ongoing member-
ship and jurisdictions, are where most of the work of Congress gets done. These
committees draft legislation and oversee the implementation of the laws they
pass. For example, the Agriculture Committees in the House and Senate have
jurisdiction over farm programs such as commodity price supports, crop insur-
ance, and soil conservation. But they also create and oversee policy for rural
electrification and development, the food stamp and nutrition programs, and
the inspection of livestock, poultry, seafood, and meat products. Many com-
mittees share jurisdiction on policy: for example, the House Natural Resources
Committee oversees the National Forest Service and forests on federally owned
lands, and the Agriculture Committee oversees policy for forests on privately
owned lands.
Select committees typically address a specifi c topic for one or two terms, such
as the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that operated
from 2007 to 2010. These committees do not have the same legislative authority as
standing committees; they mostly collect information, provide policy options, and
draw attention to a given issue. Joint committees comprise members of the House
and Senate, and they rarely have legislative authority. The Joint Committee on Taxa-
tion, for example, does not have authority to send legislation concerning tax policy
to the fl oor of the House or Senate. Instead, it gathers information and provides esti-
mates of the consequences of proposed tax legislation. Joint committees may also be
temporary, such as the “Supercommittee” (offi cially, the Joint Select Committee on
Defi cit Reduction) discussed in the chapter opener. Conference committees are
formed to resolve diff erences between the House and Senate versions of legislation
that passes each chamber. These committees mostly comprise standing committee
members from each chamber who worked on the bill. Table 9.2 shows the policy areas
covered by each type of committee.
The committee system creates a division of labor that helps re-election by sup-
porting members’ specialization and credit claiming. For example, a chair of the
Agriculture Committee or of a key agricultural subcommittee may reasonably
take credit for passing an important bill for the farmers back home, such as the
Cottonseed Payment Program that provides assistance to cottonseed farmers
who have lost crops due to hurricanes. The number of members who could make
these credible claims expanded dramatically in the 1970s with the proliferation
of subcommittees (there are 108 in the House and 73 in the Senate). One observer
of Congress suggested, with some exaggeration, that if you ever forget a member’s
name, you can simply refer to him or her as “Mr. or Ms. Chairman” and you will be
right about half the time.
This view of congressional committees is based on the distributive theory,
which is rooted in the norm of reciprocity and the incentive to provide benefits
for the district. The theory holds that members will seek committee assign-
ments to best serve their district’s interests, the leadership will accommodate
those requests, and the f loor will respect the views of the committees (that is,
committee members will support one another’s legislation). This means that
members tend to have an interest in and support the policies produced by the
committees they serve on. For example, members from farm states will want to
serve on the Agriculture Committee, and members with a lot of military bases
select committees Committees
in the House or Senate created to
address a specifi c issue for one or
two terms.
joint committees Committees
that contain members of both the
House and Senate but have limited
authority.standing committees
Committees that are a permanent
part of the House or Senate struc-
ture, holding more importance and
authority than other committees.conference committees Tem-
porary committees created to nego-
tiate differences between the House
and Senate versions of a piece of
legislation that has passed through
both chambers.