The “big, beautiful bill” that the Trump 2.0 regime wants worked its way through the House committees last week. Its success has been quite mixed — with it passing three key committees and failing in a fourth (for now).
House Ways and Means Committee Advances Tax Portion of Trump Bill
The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a slew of President Trump’s top tax priorities Wednesday morning, setting the stage for a high-stakes sprint to get the provisions through the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
The panel advanced the legislation — part of the party’s package containing Trump’s legislative agenda — in a party-line 26-19 vote following an hours-long, overnight meeting that featured heated debate, scores of Democratic-led amendments, all of which were rejected, and ample estimates of the impact of the proposed policy.
The tax bill now heads to the House Budget Committee, which is tasked with combining all the portions of the Trump agenda bill into one package in advance of its consideration in the entire chamber.
The tax legislation, which spans 389 pages, makes the 2017 income tax rates permanent — a top priority for Trump and congressional Republicans — implements some of the president’s campaign promises including no tax on tips or overtime through 2028, and temporarily increases the child tax credit, among several other provisions.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Completes Marathon Session and Passes Trump Agenda
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced legislation Wednesday afternoon containing cuts to Medicaid and health care provisions — some of the most controversial and contentious provisions that will be included in the “big, beautiful bill” of President Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda.
The panel voted along party lines 30-24 after a marathon meeting that lasted more than 26 hours with just two breaks for House votes. The bill now heads to the House Budget Committee, which will meet Friday morning to combine it with legislation from other committees advancing Trump’s priorities — namely the extension of tax cuts and new tax breaks for tips and overtime pay
The Energy and Commerce Committee was tasked with finding $880 billion in savings over a decade, and much of that came from cuts to Medicaid spending.
House Agriculture Committee Advances Key Budget Bill
The House Agriculture Committee voted to advance legislation that would make significant changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of the effort to institute federal spending cuts to pay for President Trump’s legislative agenda.
The legislation directs states to cover a portion of SNAP benefit costs, narrows eligibility requirements for the program, and aims to prevent the federal government from being able to increase monthly benefits in the future.
It will head to the Budget Committee, which will combine it into legislation advanced by other panels to form the megabill of Trump’s priorities.
The bill directs states to be responsible for a portion of the program’s benefits costs, with how much a state pays in part determined by its payment error rate. States with the lowest payment error rates would be required to front 5 percent of SNAP benefits, while states with the highest payment error rates would front 25 percent of benefits.
Work requirements for “able-bodied” adults without dependents would also tighten under the plan, which calls for increasing the age threshold at which such adults must continue to work up from 54 to 64.
House Budget Committee Votes Down Trump Budget in Major Setback
The GOP-led House Budget Committee voted to reject a sweeping package for President Donald Trump's agenda on Friday, dealing an embarrassing setback for Republican leaders.
The vote in the Budget Committee was 16-21, with five conservative hard-liners joining all Democrats in voting against the multitrillion-dollar legislation. After the vote tally was read, Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the committee chair, adjourned the hearing and told members they would not be meeting again this weekend.
Negotiations with the GOP holdouts will continue in the coming days and Republicans on the panel will try to regroup as soon as Monday.
Republican leaders concede the massive bill isn't ready for prime time, and that critical changes will need to be made in the coming days to tax and Medicaid provisions to win over recalcitrant members.
I thought it would be the best possible chance to explore the backbone of Congress — the different committees and their roles in passing legislation. I’ll also explain the different functions of a committee from holding hearings to marking up legislation. Join me below the fold.
A Brief Overview of the Power of Committees
The House Ways and Means Committee meets after a marathon markup session on the Trump 2.0 budget.
Woodrow Wilson once wrote, "it is not far from the truth to say that Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee rooms is Congress at work."
Committees, broken down into Subcommittees, are where the legislative sausage is made. Every bill has to go through one or more committees before it reaches the full floor of each branch of Congress. That’s because it is impossible for any member of Congress to have the subject matter knowledge needed to know everything required to vote intelligently on every piece of legislation.
Committees have quite a few roles within their assigned jurisdictions:
- gather information for proposed bills
- compare and evaluate legislative alternatives for bills under consideration;
- identify policy problems and propose solutions
- select, determine, and report measures for full chamber consideration after a bill is “referred to committee”
- monitor executive branch performance (oversight)
- investigate allegations of wrongdoing
Ideally, no matter which party is in power the roles above would be fulfilled but the performance of committees often depends upon whether the party in power in the different branches matches or not. For instance, I doubt the GOP-led Congress will do meaningful oversight of the Trump 2.0 regime while if Democrats had the power I doubt they would be amenable to reporting Trump-backed bills back to the full Congress.
The committee system is a double-edged sword. It prevents one person in the legislative branch from amassing too much power (look up Speaker Joseph Cannon some time) but it also fragments the legislative agenda when unity is required to pass something.
The growth in autonomy and overlap of committees has fragmented the power of the Senate and of the House. This dispersion of power may, at times, weaken the legislative branch relative to the other two branches of the federal government, the executive and the judiciary. In his often cited article History of the House of Representatives, written in 1961, American scholar George B. Galloway (1898–1967) wrote: "In practice, Congress functions not as a unified institution, but as a collection of semi-autonomous committees that seldom act in unison." Galloway went on to cite committee autonomy as a factor interfering with the adoption of a coherent legislative program.
So What Are the Different Committees?
There’s something I can’t qwhite put my finger on for the GOP House Committee chairs...
There were 19 permanent House committees and 15 permanent Senate committees after the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. That reduced the number of committees in Congress and limited the number of subcommittees as well. A couple have been added since, giving us the number below.
Another type of committee is a joint committee which includes members of both the House and Senate. There are also select committees that are temporarily created for a pressing issue (the most famous recent one may be the January 6th Committee). Most but not all House committees have a Senate counterpart.
Without further ado, here are the different permanent committees and their roles in Congress!
- Agriculture — this isn’t a powerful committee but it is important for more rural districts. Agriculture generally has jurisdiction over issues regarding agriculture, forestry, nutrition, water conservation, and other agricultural-related agenda items. The Senate committee is called “Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”.
- Appropriations — this is one of the power committees because it controls the appropriations process which funds the federal government. It is often more bipartisan than other committees because every member of Congress wants funds to return to their state/district. The Senate committee also is named “Appropriations”.
- Armed Services — this powerful committee oversees the military and defense operations. The goal of this committee is overseeing the huge department and also producing the National Defense Authorization Act every year. The Senate committee is also named “Armed Services”.
- Budget — this committee oversees every step of the budget process. It gets the budget outlines from the President and then sets spending rules for the different committees. It also considers emergency budget requests. The Senate committee is also named “Budget”.
- Education and Labor — I’m using the Democratic name for the committee as it changes with each passing of the partisan baton. This rather weak committee oversees funds for educational issues and also writes labor/workforce bills. The Senate puts these functions under a larger umbrella known as the HELP Committee.
- Energy and Commerce — this committee is the jack of all trades in the House. If it has to do with commerce, it is covered by this committee. The Senate has more efficiently split this huge House committee into separate components so there really isn’t an analogue to it.
- Ethics — this committee is very weak by design as it reports on wrongdoing of members of the House itself. It is the only committee that has equal numbers on both sides of the aisle. In theory this prevents partisan abuse but in practice it prevents most investigations from having teeth. The Senate has a select committee on ethics instead of a permanent committee.
- Financial Services — this committee oversees the complex rules and requirements of the banking and money systems as well as urban development. It generally is a large committee because of how much it covers. The Senate has two similar committees — one titled “Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs” and the other is titled “Finance”.
- Foreign Affairs — this committee overlaps the most with other committees as it is concerned with war powers, treaties, executive agreements, and military deployments abroad; foreign assistance; arms control; international economic policy; and other matters. The Senate has a “Foreign Relations” committee that does much the same thing.
- Homeland Security — this committee handles recommendations and assesses threats to homeland security. It operates in a surprisingly bipartisan manner and it rarely derails legislation. The Senate also created a “Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs” committee along similar lines.
- House Administration — this rather obscure committee handles responsibilities and functions dedicated to the legislative branch such as elections and the Library of Congress. It is generally seen as weak and not prestigious. The Senate combines the functions of two committees in its “Rules and Administration” committee.
- Intelligence — Technically not a committee covered by the law mentioned above but it is permanent select so it is of equal standing. It conducts oversight and aids the intelligence community both at home and abroad. The Senate also has a select committee fulfilling the same role.
- Judiciary — this considers legislation and oversight of the judicial branch of the government. It is also heavily involved in the impeachment process. While relatively weak in the House, the Senate version is one of the most powerful thanks to its job of confirming judges.
- Natural Resources — this committee has a hodgepodge of functions including overseeing natural resources, colonies of the US, the Indian tribes, mining and marine interests, national parks and monuments, and much more. The Senate has an Energy and Natural Resources committee that covers most but not all of the above. The Indian Affairs committee covers the tribes and Environment and Public Works also has some subject matter here.
- Oversight and Government Reform — this is likely the most well-known committee because of the soundbites it creates. It isn’t responsible for legislation but instead it oversees the functions of the executive branch. The Senate has no close analogue to this committee.
- Rules — this is probably the most powerful committee in the House because it sets the terms for debate and whether or not amendments can be considered on every bill brought to the House floor. It is the “traffic cop of the House”. The Senate has a weak “Rules and Administration” committee that mimics the functions above.
- Science, Space, and Technology — this committee has a broad jurisdiction on non-defense scientific research and funding. Created in the wake of Sputnik, this committee generally isn’t regarded as a powerful one. The Senate has a similar “Commerce, Science, and Transportation” committee.
- Small Business — this committee covers the Small Business Administration and also listens to the concerns of small businesses vis a vis big businesses. It is generally seen as a helpful committee to have around even if it isn’t one of the power committees. The Senate also has a very similar committee.
- Transportation and Infrastructure — this committee handles legislation and oversight of means of transportation and the infrastructure needed to maintain it. This committee generally isn’t powerful but it oversees quite a bit overall. The Senate covers this jurisdiction in two separate committees: Commerce, Science and Transportation and Environment and Public Works.
- Veterans’ Affairs — this is the committee that oversees much (but not all) legislation that affects veterans across the country. That makes it popular in the House even though it isn’t one of the more powerful committees. The Senate also has a very similar committee covering the same jurisdiction.
- Ways and Means — this is the tax committee in the House which means all tax changes originate here. It also oversees the entitlement programs and some other functions. It is THE most prestigious and second most powerful committee (after Appropriations) in the House. The Senate doesn’t have a similar committee that I could divine.
Those are all of the major committees in Congress. There are a few joint committees and special committees I didn’t cover.
What do Committees Do From Day to Day?
Rep. Jasmine Crockett slaying as usual during an investigative committee hearing.
As a reminder from earlier…
Committees have quite a few roles within their assigned jurisdictions:
- gather information for proposed bills
- compare and evaluate legislative alternatives for bills under consideration;
- identify policy problems and propose solutions
- select, determine, and report measures for full chamber consideration after a bill is “referred to committee”
- monitor executive branch performance (oversight)
- investigate allegations of wrongdoing
The two functions that generate the most headlines are the “select, determine, and report measures” (marking up legislation and voting on it) and “monitor executive branch performance” (oversight).
Marking up is usually a noncontroversial process for most bills as it combines the expertise of all of them and amendments are considered and debated. This is after the cogs in the machine (staffers and interns) gather the information necessary for everyone in the committee/subcommittee to be informed. It is only the most partisan bills — like the Trump 2.0 regime budget — that take marathon marking up sessions in a highly charged atmosphere.
Here are some examples of recent markups. I wouldn’t watch the entire video as there are shorter clips and choice cuts HERE in the diary penned by Dfh1 about Democrats Fighting Back on the Committees.
The oversight function often involves hearings on various topics. With the GOP in charge right now a lot of oversight that is necessary is being disregarded while imaginary threats and meaningless topics are being explored. The best way to see choice clips of what a hearing is like is to search each of the diaries listed under the Democratic Party Spotlight group. Not only will you see Democrats fighting back but you will see what hearings are like through choice clips. You can also search “CHC” or “CBC” to see daily updates of members of Congress in action!
Here is an example of a recent hearing in the Homeland Security Committee. Remember that this committee is usually bipartisan so an incident like this is very rare!
Hopefully this sheds some light on what committees do for legislation and oversight. I could’ve droned on and on about this topic yet I felt like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I spent 5 hours compiling this dizzying array of information already and in retrospect this is a bit more than I could chew.
Just don’t watch the sausage get made too carefully or you might get disgusted, cynical, and jaded!
