How Senate Committees Work

The Senate receives an enormous amount of volume of work each year.  For this reason, the Senate divides the task among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and four joint committees.  Each committee forms their own rules which creates a great amount of variation amongst them.

Standing committees, such as the HELP committee, have legislative jurisdiction, while subcommittees handle certain areas of a committees work, and select and joint committees handle housekeeping responsibilities (US Senate, About the Senate Committee, n.d.). 

There are several thousand resolutions and bills referred during each two year Congress to committees.  Only a small percentage of these bills are selected by committees for consideration.  These bills are then referred to the Senate.

There are four actions a committee takes when they are in favor a measure.  These actions are:

1.       Written comments on the agenda are requested from relative executive agencies

2.      Hearings are held to gather further information from individuals who are not committee experts

3.      The measure is perfected through amendments

4.      When agreed upon the measure is then sent back to the senate with written reports stating the purposes and provisions of the measure (US Senate, About the Senate Committee, n.d.)

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