The Role of Parliamentary Committees

In theory the House of Commons is the dominant chamber as it is elected while the House of Lords plays more of a revising role, issues to be considered include the powers of each chambers, the fact the House of Lords is more independently minded and the impact of the whips. It will ultimately be argued that the House of Commons remains far more effective due to having greater powers in checking the government power.

The word effectiveness means that a product has the capability of producing the desired result. Effectiveness of Parliament is based around representation, scrutiny, its accountability, legislation and its quality and protection of rights. If they were able to do these to a high standard then they would be classed as being effective.

It would be as foolish to assume that a committee can know and understand a full piece of legislation as it would be to assume that individual members of Congress would. For this purpose, subcommittees are formed. Subcommittees are a further delegation of tasking within the review of legislation. Valerie Heitshusen, an analyst on Congress wrote, “Most committees form subcommittees to share specific tasks within the jurisdiction of the full Committee” (Committee Types and Roles 3). Subcommittees are expected to present their finding on their assigned area of a bill. They, along with experts (witnesses) testify before the full committee on their findings. After the full committee considers the subcommittees’ findings, a vote is taken as to whether or not the bill goes to the chamber.

“In theory Parliament has total power. It is sovereign” were the words of Dicey in his book Law of the Constitution. A.V. Dicey was a British jurist and constitutional theorist in the 20th century who was adamant and argued extensively about the absolute nature of sovereignty of the Parliament which he derived from Coke and Blackstone. He had said “"Parliament" has

Since Congressional committees are ultimate decision makers, perceive that their staff individuals can have the critical impact over the course and content of legislation. Constituents are asked to keep up continuous contacts with these people, particularly subcommittee staff and the lawmakers' about particular authoritative helpers. These congressional meetings are very powerful because they also carry out legislations processes such as authorizing legislation, appropriation of bills, and entitlement legislation. Authorizing legislation is a bill that makes another government program, expands the life of a current program, or nullifications existing law. Approving bills generally set a point of confinement on the measure of assets that can

The Committee chairpersons are the ones with the real power. There is an unwritten rule that the majority party member with the longest continuous service on a committee becomes chairperson when a vacancy occurs. The committee chairperson is the only one in the committee that actually has a real say in what is going on, and that opportunity is given to the one that has served his time the longest. However, that is no longer allowed. A historical event that has influenced Congress’s operations is the Legislation Reorganization act of 1970.This act ensures that there will be no more seniority because. Now a secret ballot elects them, however, the member with the most seniority usually wins anyway.

When getting the specifics of something, the committee will most likely assign a subcommittee to look at something very specific (5). All the subcommittee is, is a small group of people from the original committee that get very specific information (5). While the committee and subcommittee is getting an experts analysis on the proposed bill, they are also checking so make sure that the bill has a high priority in society (5). To do this the committee hands the bill off to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) (5). The people in the GAO check and make sure that the bill is worth the time of the committee by judging how much of an impact that it will have on the government or the lives of everyone in the United States of America (5). Once the GAO has reached their decision, the committee then decides whether they will hold a meeting or not hold a meeting (5).

The purpose of the legislative committee is to come up with a compromise when a bill is proposed to the Senate and House of Representatives. They decide if they go through with a bill or they don’t or if they need to make amendments to the bill and compromise with each other. There is a standing committee which is a permanent selection of people that has legislative jurisdiction they consider bills and issues then recommend any changes that they see need to be made. They have a responsibility to monitor agencies, programs and activities that are within their jurisdictions. The standing committees recommend funding levels, authorization for the government operations and for new and existing programs. The second committee is a select committee;

There are a total 740 members in the Lords currently and these are of three different types:

In the event a bill is strongly favored by the committee the Congress leaders have a floor debate. “Major bills must first go to the Rules Committee, which decides where bills will appear on the legislation calendar and the terms under which bills will be debated by the House” (Greenberg, 351). Specific rules include; the nature of the amendments, how much time can be spent debating, and a number if necessary. The committee has the power to have a “closed ruling” which allows for a yes or no vote. In a floor debate, the Senate determines the final form of the bill also, “The threat of a hold or a filibuster means that the minority in Senate plays an important role in determining the final step of legislation” (Greenberg, 352). After this step, the members of the chamber either vote once the bill has been reported or after the amendments have been added. Once

Arguably, the scrutiny of Public Bills has depended more on the House of Lords than it has on the House of Commons in recent years. The term “scrutiny” means the critical observation or examination regarding the Public Bills. The “effectiveness” of the scrutiny could be measured in a variety of ways, such as the period of time the bill stays in parliament for, and whether parliament can take on board evidence from committees and implement the bills into legislation. In order to determine if the House of Lords has been more effective than the House of Commons in scrutinising public bills, it is crucial to compare and contrast the effectiveness of the procedures used in both houses.

The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament and is independent to the Commons although it complements the work of the Commons. Members of the Lords play a vital role in scrutiny, there are two main reasons for this, the first being that they are independent to the Commons and in many ways have increased power which they often use to stand up to the Commons by blocking reforms. Lords also have a better balance of parties so no government has a majority. The Government however can override Lords by using Parliament Act; this was used when the fox hunting ban was being put through under Blair’s government as there were too many in opposition of the ban in the House of Lords. The Parliament Acts, although rarely used, provide a way of solving disagreement between the Commons and the Lords. The Parliament Act of 1949 also prevents Lords from delaying bills for more than one year.

Firstly, there are standing committees. They are a permanent committee in house or senate that considers bills within a specific area. Each different committee is given a specific area of legislative policy jurisdiction. Members tend to seek committee seats that deal with matters of special interest to their constituents. There are select committees. It is a temporary legislative committee created for a limited time for a specific reason. They normally form to investigate public issues like aging. Another is joint committees. It is comprised of both Chambers of Congress. They can be permanent or temporary. They work with economy, tax, or Library of Congress. Conference Committees are formed to reach an agreement between the House and

There is a House of Commons Select Committee for each department within Whitehall. These were set up to scrutinise government and hold them to account. The formation of these committees consist of a minimum of 11 members and look at three aspects of each department – Administration, Policies and Spending. With this established, we will be looking at the policy aspect of scrutiny and evaluate how much Select Committees influence the content of legislation. The paper will be structured by starting with the analysis of current literature on this topic and trying to pinpoint what has already been stated about the influence select committees have

There are committees for different topics of what a bill could be. The bills are sent to the committees by a speaker of the house. Once the bill reaches the Committee, the members decide what to do with it. Now days most bill dies at this stage, meaning that the bill does not pass and becomes a law. Although when it does passed, the committee makes a vote, and it is sent to the next part of the law-making process which is the Rules Committee, who also decide on it through debate, deciding what will good about making the laws, or what could be the negative outcome to it, in this stage the bill could die to. This committee not only can reject or pass the bills, but add amendments, then after their changes are done; they pass the bill to the Senate.