132 Congressional politics
the wishes of the leadership, if those members are determined to oppose
them. Indeed, the opinion of the individual whip may deviate considerably
from the position of the floor leaders.
The congressional committee system
The most effective work in Congress is done away from the floor of the House
or Senate in the standing committees. It is difficult to exaggerate the impor-
tance of these committees, for they are the sieve through which legislation
is poured, and what comes through, and how it comes through, is largely in
their hands. The importance of standing committees in the legislative proc-
ess is well illustrated by the significant difference in the positioning of the
committee stage in Congress compared with the committee stage in the Brit-
ish House of Commons. In the latter body the formal first reading of a Bill
is followed by a full-scale second-reading debate. The vote at the end of the
second-reading debate signifies that the House has accepted the principles
of the Bill, and the function of the committee to which the Bill is then sent
is to make an effective and unambiguous piece of legislation within those
principles. Standing committees of the House of Commons have no power to
question the principles of the legislation or to propose major amendments
to it. In the United States Congress, however, the committee stage follows
immediately after the formal introduction of the Bill, before the chamber
as a whole has an opportunity of considering it. Thus the committee is not
in any way inhibited in its approach to the Bill. It can propose amendments
that alter the whole character of the proposal, or it can even strike out eve-
rything after the enacting clause and substitute a completely new Bill. It can
report a measure to the House or Senate with or without amendments or
simply pigeonhole it by failing to take any action on it. The latter fate is that
of most Bills, for Senators and Congressmen introduce far more legislation
than could possibly be enacted. Indeed, some legislation is undoubtedly intro-
duced by Congressmen as a gesture of good will to interested groups, safe in
the knowledge that the committee will never let it go any further. But similar
treatment can also be accorded to important legislative proposals originating
in the administration if the committee does not wish to report them out. A
committee can be discharged from further consideration of a Bill if it refuses
to act on it, but the discharge procedure is a difficult one to operate.
The standing committees of Congress are specialist committees to which
legislation concerning their particular field must be sent. The number of
these committees varies from time to time; in 2006 there were twenty in
the House and sixteen in the Senate. Some of the most important Senate
committees are: Budget; Foreign Relations; Appropriations; Armed Services;
Judiciary; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Agriculture, Nutri-
tion, and Forestry; and Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The most
important of the House committees include the Rules Committee; Budget;
Appropriations; Ways and Means; Judiciary; Homeland Security; Banking