Congressional Committees
Congress is far too large to get anything done in a full group setting, so Congressional Committees are formed. These Committees do much of the actual work. There are five types of Committees:
- Standing Committees - These are permanent within the House and Senate and there are 16 in the Senate and 22 in the House.
- Subcommittees - These break down the Standing Committees into more specific Committees. One example is the Standing Committee that is Agriculture, would have a Subcommittee of Dairy Farming.
- Select Committees - These are temporary Committees that are created to deal with a specific issue.
- Joint Committees - These Committees have members of the House and the Senate in them.
- Conference Committees - These are Joint Committees created to reach a compromise when the House and Senate pass similar versions of the same bill. These often abuse their power by tacking on expensive amendments to bills.
