Working with Congressional Committees

"Law, logic, and Switzers may be hired to fight for anybody." Nashe 1640

Congressional committee work is one area in which the help of advocacy organizations is invaluable. But if you want to try it on your own, here are some tools to take up:
Contents

Committee Assignments and Jurisdictions
Committee Actions and Schedules

Jump to the bottom of this page.

Committee Assignments and Jurisdictions

Committee Assignments: The 1995-96 Congressional list, from the University of Michigan.
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/11/socsci/poliscilaw/uslegi/congcomms

Senate Standing Committees: Description of jurisdiction, from the Senate web server.
http://www.senate.gov/committee/committee.html

Select, Special, Other, and Joint Committees: Description of their jurisdiction and membership, from the Senate web server.
http://www.senate.gov/committee/other.html

House Committee Jurisdictions: The House provides a full list of jurisdictional areas for certain committees.
http://www.house.gov/Juris-Com_list.html

House Committee Jurisdictions: The House provides a full list of jurisdictional areas for certain committees.
http://www.house.gov/Juris-Com_list.html

Senate Committees, via CAPWEB: The CapWeb Committee Roster lists under each committee a description of its jurisdiction, its phone number and address, its members, and its subcommittees (which are similarly treated)
http://policy.net/capweb/Senate/SenateCom/SenateComm.html

Senate Committee Directory (CQ Washington Alert Gopher): Includes Senate Committee name, room, phone, fax, chair, and ranking member.
gopher://gopher.cqalert.com:70/0F-1%3a40464%3a15SENCOM%20

House Committee Directory

The name, address and phone number of each full committee and subcommittee. For example:

      COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE                                                   
      (202) 225-2171                                                             
      1301 Longworth                                                             
                                                                           
      COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS                                                
      (202) 225-2771                                                             
      H218 Capitol

http://www.house.gov/Committees.txt

House Member Directory: This directory, like many others, lists the committee memberships and (as less commonly) party ranking of individual legislators.
http://www.house.gov/mbr_dir/membr_dir.html

Committee Actions and Schedules

Inoperative Databases: The House offers an ambitious array of databases containing transcripts of committee hearings, schedules, reports, and so on. Unfortunately, most of the proposed House committee databases are stil listed as "under construction," but it might be worth checking back at this legislative process summary page to see if this is still true.
http://www.house.gov/Legproc.html

House Committee Information (gopher): Individual committees have placed information as they have seen fit on this gopher server. The information is organized by type or purpose of document, but not all committees provide the same information.
gopher://gopher.house.gov:70/1D-1%3A768%3AHouse%20Committee%20Information

House Committee Information (WWW)

So far limited to the following committees:

Committee on Banking and Financial Services
Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy
Committee on Commerce
Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities
Committee on Government Reform & Oversight
Committee on House Oversight
Committee on the Judiciary
Committee on Resources
Committee on Science
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Joint Economic Committee (House Majority)

The information presented differs by committee, typically including Briefing/Summary Papers, Committee Membership, Committee Rules, Hearing Schedule, prepared hearing testimony, Member Biographies, press releases and speeches, Publications, Major legislation pending.
http://www.house.gov/CommitteeWWW.html

Schedule of today's committee meetings.

The Committee Schedule file is updated every half hour and contains the latest information regarding today's Committee hearings, both open and closed. Most, but not all, House Committees provide notice of their hearings for posting in this area. The public can attend any open committee meeting listed. Hearings on significant legislation are televised by C-SPAN. Entries look like this:

      APR 15, 1996 (MONDAY)
      10:00 AM  COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES,
                LOCATION: 2128 RHOB
                Full Committee,
                OPEN.  HEARING.  On Personal Banking Fraud.

gopher://gopher.house.gov:70/0f-1%3A942%3ACommittee%20Schedules

House Committee Actions.

Both this database and that of Joint Committee Actions contains a summary of actions taken by committees during the last three legislative days. A typical entry looks like this:

     PERSIAN GULF WAR SYNDROME
 
     Committee on Government Reform and Oversight: Subcommittee on 
     Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations continued hearings on
     the Status of Efforts to Identify Persian Gulf War Syndrome, Part
     11. Testimony was heard from Thomas Garthwaite, M.D., Deputy
     Under Secretary, Health, Department of Veterans Affairs.
                     Hearings continue May 2.

gopher://gopher.house.gov:70/0F-1%3A947%3AHouse%20Committee%20Actions
gopher://gopher.house.gov:70/0F-1%3A947%3AJoint%20Committee%20Actions

Senate Committee Actions.

The House reports on Senate committees' last three days. E.g.:

  Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee ordered
  favorably reported the following bills:
 
      H.R. 255, to designate the Federal Justice Building in Miami,
    Florida, as the `James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building`;
      H.R. 869, to designate the Federal building and U.S.
    Courthouse located at 125 Market Street in Youngstown, Ohio, as
    the `Thomas D. Lambros Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse`;
      H.R. 1804, to designate the United States Post
    Office-Courthouse located at South 6th and Rogers Avenue, Fort
    Smith, Arkansas, as the `Judge Isaac C. Parker Federal
    Building.

gopher://gopher.house.gov:70/0F-1%3A947%3ASenate%20Committee%20Actions