Role of Committees and Their Members
Committees play an important role in the Legislative branch of the government. They allow for more detailed analysis of the bills that are proposed as well as create more positions of power. They allow every member to have some form of influence and input on legislation. Committee members are influenced by the environment and the members constituents and concerns. The members goals are “Re-election, good public policy, influence in the chamber, and career ambitions beyond the chamber. They perceive committees to be differentially useful in the pursuit of these goals (Fenno 139).”
Senator Givens was the chairman of the Agriculture committee and sat on the Transportation and Education committees. Senator Givens is a farmer who graduated from Western Kentucky University with a Agricultural Degree and is on the Agricultural Board for his home county as well as Producer and Board member of Green County Cattleman’s Association. Because of the Johnson Rule 1953 which “assures every freshman of a major assignment before other vacancies are filled (Fenno 151),” the leaders decided to place him as Chair of the Agricultural Committee because of his previous experience with agriculture.
As chairman of a committee you get to decide what bills will be heard in your committee, and if they will pass. A chairman can stop a bill before it even is heard. In example this year Chairman Givens decided to not hear all of the bills that were sent from the House Agriculture committee. He had a House member of his party get mad and even say a couple choice words to him. Senator Givens said that he was going to hear the Representative’s bill on a certain day but it was postponed. Senator Givens could have just retaliated and not have the committee hear it at all because he has that authority but instead he allowed it to be heard.
There are differences in the committees in the House and the Senate even when the majority party is the same for each of them. “Senators, in sum, want to, can, and do sustain a decision-making process that is more individualistic and gives greater influence to the individual legislator than is the case in the House. The important corollary of this institutional difference is that decision making inside the Senate is much less of a committee-dominated process than it is in the House (Fenno 146-147).” Senators are spread out over more committees than House members are so there specialization in the Senate is less. Since the Senators aren’t required to be experts on issues the committees they are assigned to focus on they can dabble in two or three areas that aren’t necessarily in there committee.
Subcommittees are an important part of the Legislative process. Many times an issue is so large for a particular committee that it has to have a subcommittee created for it For instance, Senator Givens is on the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee a subcommittee dealing with the agricultural issue of tobacco in the state. “On the Senate side, members can get, in time, any subcommittee assignment they want (Fenno 186).” The reason this is said is because since there is less of them they have more individualist say on where they would like to be placed and the more qualified are placed on these subcommittees so they can regulate what the House of Representatives proceed to do.
Committees are important in both houses of the Legislature no matter how differently they work. Without committees, the process of a bill become law would be more strenuous and at the same time not as effective. Even though the Legislatures may not know every fact about a piece of Legislation, committees allow them some insight into the details of the bill. Members of the Legislature would not be effective without them.
Fenno Jr., Richard F. Congressmen in Committees. The University of Rochester. Little, Brown and Company. Boston 1973
