Congress, already divided between the House and Senate, becomes further departmentalized at the committee level. Standing committees are simply those that are permanent. The party with the majority in the chamber of Congress earns the chairmanship and majorities on the chamber’s committees. The top spot for the committee member of the minority party is called the Ranking Member.
Committees are divided to utilize specializations and knowledge of its members as it pertains to a certain area of focus, as well as view legislation to debate, amend, or table it before the legislation can advance to the floor of the chamber for a vote from all representatives.
While standing committees are permanent, there are several other types of committees and caucuses that serve numerous purposes in Washington. Each committee also has certain subcommittees that are composed of members of the committee at large. In four separate columns, we looked at eighteen standing committees of the U.S. House. This week, we’ll explore the final two standing committees, as well as the two select committees afforded to the U.S. House.
Select committees are those that are created with a specified timeline and set with certain goals, tasks, and areas of focus or investigation.
Veterans’ Affairs
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee was established in 1946. The committee has oversight over the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) and is responsible for recommending legislation that relate to Veterans’ benefits. The committee at-large has jurisdiction over general measures on Veterans’ benefits; pensions of all U.S. wars, general and special; life insurance issued by the federal government on account of service in the Armed Forces; compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of Veterans; Veterans’ hospitals, medical care, and treatment; soldiers’ and sailors’ civil relief; readjustment of servicemen to civilian life; and national cemeteries.
The Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee has oversight of compensation, war pensions, life insurance issued by the federal government, and Veterans’ cemeteries, except those maintained by the Interior Department, as well as burial benefits, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims.
The Economic Opportunity Subcommittee has jurisdiction over Veterans’ education, employment and training, vocational rehabilitation, Veterans’ housing programs, the transition of servicemembers to civilian life, Veteran-owned business concerns, and servicemembers civil relief.
The Health Subcommittee has oversight of Veterans’ medical services, medical support and compliance, medical facilities, medical and prosthetic research, and major and minor construction.
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee has oversight of general Veterans’ matters, Information Technology (IT), and general procurements. The subcommittee also has legislative jurisdiction over resolutions referred to the chair of the full committee.
The Technology Modernization Subcommittee handles matters of the VA Department’s enterprise technology modernization programs and projects, including the Health Record Modernization (EHRM) Program, enterprise IT governance, cybersecurity, and data management.
The committee is composed of twenty-six members: fifteen Republicans and eleven Democrats. Mike Bost (R, IL-12) serves as Chair and Mark Takano (D, CA-39) serves as Ranking Member.
Ways and Means
The Ways and Means Committee is the oldest congressional committee, having been established in 1789 as a select committee and being discharged two months later. It was reappointed in 1795 and designated as a standing committee in 1802.
The committee at-large has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as Social Security, unemployment benefits, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, foster care, adoption, and child support programs and laws.
The Constitution requires that all bills concerning taxation must originate in the U.S. House, and House rules stipulate that all legislation on taxation must be passed through the Ways and Means Committee.
The Tax Subcommittee has the sole jurisdiction to originate federal tax legislation, including taxation of individuals, families, small businesses, corporations, and nonprofits.
The Oversight Subcommittee has oversight of all matters within the scope of the full committee’s jurisdiction, limited to existing law.
The Trade Subcommittee has jurisdiction relating to customs; customs administration; tariff and import fee structure; classification, valuation, and special rules applying to imports; special tariff provisions and procedures relating to customs operation affecting imports and exports; industry relief from injurious imports; adjustment assistance and program to encourage competition; unfair import practices; commodity agreements; reciprocal trade agreements; budget authorizations for customs revenue functions of the Department of Homeland Security; the U.S. International Trade Commission; and trade-related problems, such as supply-demand shortages, market access, policies, and trade relations with other countries.
The Social Security Subcommittee handles matters relating to the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) System, the Railroad Retirement System, and employment taxes and trust fund operations relating to those systems.
The Work and Welfare Subcommittee handles matters relating to public assistance provisions of the Social Security Act, temporary assistance for needy families, child care, child and family services, child support, foster care, adoption, supplemental security income, social services, eligibility of welfare recipients for food stamps, and low-income energy assistance.
The Health Subcommittee has oversight of programs providing payments for health care, health delivery systems, or health research.
The committee is composed of forty-three members: twenty-five Republicans and eighteen Democrats. Jason Smith (R, MO-08) serves as Chair and Richard Neal (D, MA-01) serves as Ranking Member.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
This select committee was established in 1977 and has oversight of the U.S. Intelligence Community, including activities of eighteen elements of the U.S. Government and the Military Intelligence Program: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Army, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marine Corps, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Department of the Navy, the U.S. Space Force.
The CIA Subcommittee has responsibility over programs, policies, budgets, and operations of the CIA, as well as the collection, exploitation, and dissemination of human intelligence (HUMINT).
The National Intelligence Enterprise Subcommittee has oversight of the Director of National Intelligence and intelligence components of the departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Coast Guard, Justice, DEA, FBI, State, Treasury, and matters regarding U.S. persons’ privacy and civil liberties, counter-intelligence, and domestic activities of the Intelligence Community.
The Defense Intelligence and Overhead Subcommittee has oversight of the Departments of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and intelligence components of the Armed Forces.
The National Security Agency and Cyber Subcommittee handles matters of the NSA and Central Security Service, intelligence and activities of the U.S. Cyber Command, Electronic Intelligence (ELINT), Communications Intelligence (FISINT), Foreign Instrumentation Signals Intelligence, and all cyber-intelligence activities of the Intelligence Community.
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee has oversight of all responsibilities within the scope of the full committee’s jurisdiction.
The committee is composed of twenty-five members: fourteen Republicans and eleven Democrats. Mike Turner (R, OH-10) serves as Chair and Jim Himes (D, CT-04) serves as Ranking Member.
Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
This committee was formed in January 2023 to focus on economic and security competition between the U.S. and the CCP, which has ruling governance over the People’s Republic of China. Congressional Republicans sought such a committee in late 2020, but negotiations ran aground between them and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-11). Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-20) wrote in an op-ed that the U.S. is now locked in a new “cold war” with China. In December 2023, the committee released a set of 150 legislative recommendations to “reset” U.S. economic relations with China.
The committee is largely concerned with Chinese firms making large purchases of U.S. agricultural land, as well as China’s human rights violations, and ideological warfare.
The committee is composed of twenty-three members: twelve Republicans and eleven Democrats. John Moolenaar (R, MI-02) serves as Chair and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D, IL-08) serves as Ranking Member.
