Key Congressional Committees

Key Congressional Committees

These House and Senate Appropriations committees allocate money to Federal agencies for their programs. There are 13 appropriations subcommittees. Those of interest to postal and federal employees are Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; Treasury and General Government; Appropriations for the Federal government are provided both in annual appropriations acts and in permanent provisions of law.

This committee is responsible for revenue measures generally; taxes; tariffs and import quotas; reciprocal trade agreements; customs; revenue sharing; federal debt limit; Social Security; health programs financed by taxes or trust funds.

House Ways & Means

This committee is responsible for revenue measures generally; reciprocal trade agreements; customs, collection, districts, and ports of entry and delivery; revenue measures relating to the insular possessions; bonded debt of the United States; deposit of public moneys; transportation of dutiable goods; tax-exempt foundations and charitable trusts; national Social Security, except (A) health care and facilities programs that are supported from general revenues as opposed to payroll deductions and (B) work incentive programs.

This committee is responsible for congressional budget process generally; concurrent budget resolutions; measures relating to special controls over the federal budget; Congressional Budget Office.

This committee is responsible for archives of the United States; budget and accounting measures; census and statistics; federal civil service; congressional organization; intergovernmental relations; government information; District of Columbia; organization and management of nuclear export policy; executive branch organization and reorganization; Postal Service; efficiency, economy and effectiveness of government.

House Government Reform

This committee is responsible for civil service, including intergovernmental personnel; the status of officers and employees of the United States, including their compensation, classification and retirement; measures relating to the municipal affairs of the District of Columbia in general, other than appropriations; federal paperwork reduction; budget and accounting measures, generally; holidays and celebrations; overall economy, efficiency and management of government operations and activities, including federal procurement; National Archives; population and demography generally, including the census; Postal Service generally, including the transportation of mail; public information and records; relationship of the federal government to the states and municipalities generally; reorganizations in the executive branch of the government.

This committee is responsible for education, labor, health and public welfare in general; arts and humanities; biomedical research and development; child labor; convict labor, domestic activities of the Red Cross; equal employment opportunity; handicapped people; labor standards and statistics; mediation and arbitration of labor disputes; occupational safety and health; private pensions; public health; railway labor and retirement; regulation of foreign laborers; student loans; wages and hours; agricultural colleges; Gallaudet University; Howard University; St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C.

This committee is responsible for measures relating to education or labor generally; child labor; Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind; Howard University; Freedmen’s Hospital; convict labor and the entry of goods made by convicts into interstate commerce; food programs for children in schools; labor standards and statistics; mediation and arbitration of labor disputes; regulation or prevention of importation of foreign laborers under contract; U.S. Employees’ Compensation Commission; vocational rehabilitation; wages and hours of labor; welfare of minors; work incentive programs.

Judiciary

This committee is responsible for civil and criminal judicial proceedings in general; national penitentiaries; bankruptcy, mutiny, espionage and counterfeiting; civil liberties; constitutional amendments; apportionment of representatives; government information; immigration and naturalization; interstate compacts in general; claims against the United States; patents, copyrights and trademarks; monopolies and unlawful restraints of trade; holidays and celebrations; revision and codification of the statutes of the United States; state and territorial boundary lines.

This committee is responsible for senate rules and regulations: Senate administration in general; congressional organization; corrupt practices; qualification of senators; contested elections; federal elections in general; Government Printing Office; Congressional Record; meetings of Congress and attendance of members; presidential succession; the Capitol, congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and the Botanic Garden; purchases of books and manuscripts and erection of monuments to the memory of individuals.

This committee is responsible for rules and joint rules (other than rules or joint rules relating to the Code of Official Conduct), and order of business of the House; recesses and final adjournments of Congress.