A Congressional committee is a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress.)

The House of Representatives relies more on its committees because of its larger size (there are 435 members of the House, as opposed to 100 members in the Senate).

There are two types of committees:

• standing — permanent group conducting business throughout the Congress which focuses on a certain, long-lasting issue
• select or special — intended for a specific short-term purpose (ad hoc)

Committees are formed in various configurations:

• subcomittees — a smaller sub-group used by most committees
• committee of the whole — used by the House of Representatives, but not the Senate
• joint committee — members from both chambers
  • conference committee — a joint ad hoc group to work out the differences between similar bills from both houses and then to make a single bill for final passage

Current Committees

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In the House of Representatives, there are 20 standing committees. In the smaller United States Senate, there are only 17 standing committees.

• Agriculture
• Appropriations
• Armed Services
• Budget
• Education and the Workforce
• Energy and Commerce
• Financial Services
• Government Reform
• Homeland Security
• House Administration
• Intelligence (Permanent Select)
• International Relations
• Judiciary
• Resources
• Rules
• Science
• Small Business
• Standards of Official Conduct
• Transportation and Infrastructure
• Veterans' Affairs
• Ways and Means
• (Whole)
  

(click here for complete list with subcommittees)

• Aging (Special)
• Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
• Appropriations
• Armed Services
• Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
• Budget
• Commerce, Science and Transportation
• Energy and Natural Resources
• Ethics (Select)
• Environment and Public Works
• Finance
• Foreign Relations
• Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
• Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
• Indian Affairs
• Intelligence (Select)
• Judiciary
• Rules and Administration
• Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Veterans' Affairs
  

(click here for complete list with subcommittees)

• (Conference)
• Economic
• Library (established 1806)
• Printing
• Taxation

House of Representatives	Senate	Joint

Defunct Committees

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The functions of some of these may have been merged into extant committees.

Defunct House Committees

• Accounts (1803-1947)
  • moved into House Administration
• Alcoholic Liquor Traffic (1893-1927; implementation of 18th Amendment)
• Assassinations (Select)
• Banking and Currency
• Census (1901-1946; moved into Post Office and Civil Service)
• Civil Service (1924-1946; moved into Post Office and Civil Service)
• Claims (1794-1946)
  • moved into Judiciary
• Coinage, Weights and Measures
• Commerce and Manufactures
• Commerce
• Disposition of Executive Papers (1889-1947)
  • moved into House Administration
• District of Columbia
  • moved (1999) into Government Reform
• Education and Labor
• Education
• Elections (April 13 1789-1947)
  • moved into House Administration
• Election of the President, Vice President and Representatives in Congress (1893-1947)
  • moved into House Administration
• Engraving (1844-1860)
  • moved into Printing
• Enrolled Bills (1789-1876 as Joint committee; 1876-1947 as House committee)
  • moved into House Administration
• The following were merged (1927) into Expenditures in the Executive Departments (1927-1952),

  then moved into Government Operations (1952-1999),

  now Government Reform (1999- ):

  • Expenditures in the Agriculture Department (1889-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Commerce and Labor Departments (1905-1913)
  • Expenditures in the Commerce Department (1913-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Interior Department (1860-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Justice Department (1874-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Labor Department (1913-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Navy Department (1816-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Post Office Department (1816-1927)
  • Expenditures in the State Department (1816-1927)
  • Expenditures in the Treasury Department (1816-1927)
  • Expenditures in the War Department (1816-1927)
  • Expenditures on Public Buildings (1816-1927)
• Flood Control
• Freedmen's Affairs (1866-1875; implentation of 14th and 15th Amendments)
• Government Operations (created in 1952)
  • moved (1999) into Government Reform
• Immigration and Naturalization (1893-1946)
  • moved into Judiciary
• Indian Affairs (1821-1946)
  • moved into Public Lands
• Industrial Arts and Expositions
• Insular Affairs (1899-1946)
  • Cuban affairs moved to Foreign Affairs in 1906
  • moved to Public Lands
• Interior and Insular Affairs (1951-1993)
  • now Resources
• Internal Security (1969-1975)
  • functions transferred to the Judiciary.
• Interstate and Foreign Commerce
• Invalid Pensions (1831-1946; terminated)
• Irrigation and Reclamation (1924-1946)
  • moved to Public Lands
• Irrigation of Arid Lands (1893-1924; renamed Irrigation and Reclamation)
• Labor
• Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
• Library (created in 1806 as a Joint Committee)
  • now Joint Committee on the Library
  • some functions moved into House Administration
• Manufactures
• Memorials (1929-1947)
  • moved into House Administration
• Merchant Marine and Fisheries (1887-1932, 1935-1994)
• Merchant Marine, Radio and Fisheries (1932-1935; temporary renaming of Merchant Marine and Fisheries)
• Mileage (1837-1927)
  • duties returned to Accounts
• Military Affairs (1822-1946)
  • moved into Armed Services
• Military Pensions (1825-1831; renamed Invalid Pensions)
• Militia (1835-1911)
  • moved into Military Affairs
• Mines and Mining (1865-1946)
  • moved to Public Lands
• Mississippi Levees
• Naval Affairs (1822-1946)
  • moved into Armed Services
• Pacific Railroads (1865-1911; terminated)
• Patents (1837-1946)
  • moved into Judiciary
• Pensions and Revolutionary War Claims (1813-1825; renamed Revolutionary Pensions)
• Pensions (1880-1946; terminated)
• Post Office and Civil Service (1946-1999)
  • moved into Government Reform
• Post Office and Post Roads (1808-1946; moved into Post Office and Civil Service)
• Printing (created in 1846)
  • moved into House Administration
• Private Land Claims
• Public Buildings and Grounds
• Public Expenditures (1814-1880)
• Public Lands (1805-1951; renamed Interior and Insular Affairs)
• Public Works
• Railways and Canals
• Reconstruction (Select)
• Records of Committees Relating to Banking and Currency
• Reform in the Civil Service (1893-1924; renamed Civil Service)
• Revisal and Unfinished Business (1795-1868; unifinished business duties obsolete; remainder renamed Revision of Laws)
• Revision of Laws (1868-1946)
  • moved into Judiciary
• Revolutionary Claims (1825-1873; moved to War Claims)
• Revolutionary Pensions (1825; split between Military Pensions and Revolutionary Claims)
• Rivers and Harbors
• Roads
• Roads and Canals
• Science and Astronautics
• Science and Technology
• Science, Space and Technology
• Territories (1825-1946)
  • moved to Public Lands
• Un-American Activities, also called HUAC (or HCUA) (1945-1969)
  • became (1969) Internal Security
  • functions transferred (1975) to the Judiciary.
• Uniform System of Coinage, Weights and Measures
• Ventilation and Acoustics (1893-1911)
• War Claims (1873-1946)
  • moved into Judiciary
• Woman Suffrage (1917-1927; implementation of the 19th Amendment)
• World War Veterans' Legislation

Defunct Senate Committees

• Whole
• Aeronautical and Space Sciences (established 1958)

• replaced (1977) by Commerce, Science and Transportation

  • Agriculture and Forestry (established 1884)

• replaced (1977) by Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry

  • Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate (established 1807)

• replaced (1947) by Rules and Administration

  • Banking and Currency (established 1913)

• replaced (1970) by Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

  • Canadian Relations

• Census
• Civil Service and Retrenchment

• replaced by Civil Service

  • Civil Service

• replaced by Post Office and Civil Service

  • Claims

• Coast and Insular Survey
• Coast Defenses
• Commerce (established 1825)

• replaced (1947) by Interstate and Foreign Commerce

• restored (1961)
• replaced (1977) by Commerce, Science and Transportation
  • Commerce and Manufactures (established 1816)

• split (1825) into Commerce and Manufactures

  • Conservation of National Resources

• Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia
• Cuban Relations
• Disarmament (Select)
• District of Columbia

• replaced (1977) by Governmental Affairs

  • Education (established 1869)

• replaced (1870) by Education and Labor

  • Education and Labor

• replaced (1947) by Rules and Administration

• • Education and Labor Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and the Rights of Labor, also known as the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee or LaFollette Committee
• Enrolled Bills
• Engrossed Bills (established 1810)
• Epidemic Diseases
• Establish a University of the United States
• Expenditures in Executive Departments

• now Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

  • Fisheries

• Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game
• Geological Survey
• Governmental Affairs

• replaced (2005) by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

  • Government Operations (established 1952)

• replaced (1977) by Governmental Affairs

  • Human Resources (established 1977)

• replaced (1979) by Labor and Human Resources

  • Indian Affairs (established 1820)

• terminated (1947)

• restored (1977) as Select Committee on Indian Affairs
• restablished {1993) as a standing committee: Indian Affairs.
  • Indian Depredations (established 1893)

• terminated (1921)

  • Industrial Expositions

• Interior and Insular Affairs
• Subcommittee on Internal Security, more commonly known as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), also called Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, or the McCarran Committee (1951–1977)
• Interoceanic Canals
• Interstate and Foreign Commerce

• now Commerce, Science and Transportation

  • Interstate Commerce

• now Commerce, Science and Transportation

  • Investigation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (1924-)

• Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands
• Irrigation and Reclamation

• now Energy and Natural Resources

  • Labor and Human Resources (established 1979)

• moved (1999) to Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

  • Labor and Public Welfare (established 1947)

• moved (1977) to Human Resources

  • Library

• now Joint Committee on the Library

  • Manufactures

• now Commerce, Science and Transportation

  • Military Affairs

• Militia
• Mines and Mining

• now Energy and Natural Resources

  • Mississippi River and Its Tributaries

• Naval Affairs
• Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico
• Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
• Pacific Railroads
• Patents
• Pensions
• Philippines
• Post Office and Civil Service
• Post Office and Post Roads
• Printing
• Private Land Claims
• Privileges and Elections
• Public Buildings and Grounds

• now Environment and Public Works

  • Public Health and National Quarantine

• Public Lands

• now Energy and Natural Resources

  • Public Lands and Surveys

• now Energy and Natural Resources

  • Public Works

• now Environment and Public Works

  • Railroads

• Revision of the Laws
• Revolutionary Claims
• Roads and Canals
• Rules
• Small Business (Select) (February 20, 1950 - March 25, 1981)

• March 25, 1981 became Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

  • Standards, Weights, and Measures

• Special Committee to Study and Survey Problems of Small Business Enterprises (October 8, 1940-February 20, 1950)

• February 20, 1950 became Senate Select Committee on Small Business

• March 25, 1981 became Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
  • Territorial and Insular Affairs

• now Energy and Natural Resources

  • Territories

• Territories and Insular Possessions
• Transportation Routes to the Seaboard

Defunct Joint Committees

• Atomic Energy (1946-1977)
• Aviation Policy Board (1947-1948)
• Conduct of the War (1861-1865)
• Defense Production (1950-1977)
• Disposition of Useless Papers (1889-1935)

• became Disposition of Executive Papers

  • Economic Report (1946-1956)

• Enrolled Bills (1789-1876 as Joint committee; 1876-1947 as House committee)
  • moved into House Administration
• Ford's Theater Disaster (1894-1897)
• Housing (1947-1948)
• Inquire into the Condition of the Late Insurrectionary States (1871-)
• Internal Revenue Taxation (1926-1975)

• renamed (1975) Taxation

  • Investigate Dirigible Disasters (1933)

• Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack (1945-1946)
• Labor Management Relations (1947-1949)
• Muscle Shoals (1926)
• Organization of Congress (1944-46, 1965-66)
• Reconstruction (1865-1867)
• Revision of the Laws (1907-1910)
• Tennessee Valley Authority (1938-39)
• Veterans Affairs (1932-33)
• Washington Metropolitan Problems (1957-60)

See also

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• List of Committees of the United Kingdom Parliament

External links

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• Committee Resource Guide: Committees of the U.S. Senate, via National Archives and Records Administration
• Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 (Record Group 233), via National Archives and Records Administration
• Guide to the Records of the U.S. Senate at the National Archives (Record Group 46), via National Archives and Records Administration
• Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 (Record Group 233) Chapter 23. Records of the Joint Committees of Congress 1789-1968 (Record Group 128), via National Archives and Records Administration

Committees of the United States Congress

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