United States Congressional committee

The congressional committee is a legislative secondary-organization in the congress of the United States which handles a specific duty. Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. As "little legislatures," committees monitor on-going governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information; and recommend courses of action to their parent body. The congress divides its legislature, inadvertency, and administrative intern charges among roughly 200 committees and sub-committees. In assigned sectors, these functional sub-units collect information; compare and evaluate the legislative solutions of replacement; identify the problems of policy and propose the solutions; choose, determine, and report measures for full chamber consideration; monitor executive branch performance (oversight); and investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

More than last century and a half, the increasing autonomy of the committees reduced the power of each congressional room like unit. This centrifugal dispersion of power, undoubtedly, was weakened the Legislative Branch relative to the other branches of the Federal government, i.e. the Executive Branch, the courts, and the system of government. In his oft cited, History of the House of Representatives, written in 1961, the American scholar, George B. Galloway (1898-1967) said of the Congress: "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. De facto autonomy remains a characteristic feature of the committee system in Congress today.