Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword: Legislatures in the Constitutional State by Amy Gutmann
- Contributors
- New Ways of Looking at Old Institutions
- PART ONE LEGISLATURES AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY
- PART TWO LEGISLATING AND DELIBERATING IN THE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE
- PART THREE CONSTITUTION MAKING BY LEGISLATURES: THE EXPLICIT VERSION
- PART FOUR CONSTITUTION MAKING BY LEGISLATURES: THE IMPLICIT VERSION
- PART FIVE CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION BY THE LEGISLATURE
- 16 Interpretation in Legislatures and Courts: Incentives and Institutional Design
- 17 Constitutional Engagement “Outside the Courts” (and “Inside the Legislature”): Reflections on Professional Expertise and the Ability to Engage in Constitutional Interpretation
- 18 Legislatures as Constitutional Interpretation: Another Dialogue
- 19 The Constitution and Congressional Committees: 1971–2000
- PART SIX IS LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUTIONALISM POSSIBLE?
- PART SEVEN THE LEGISLATURE IN DIALOGUE: DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS
- Index
19 - The Constitution and Congressional Committees: 1971–2000
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword: Legislatures in the Constitutional State by Amy Gutmann
- Contributors
- New Ways of Looking at Old Institutions
- PART ONE LEGISLATURES AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY
- PART TWO LEGISLATING AND DELIBERATING IN THE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE
- PART THREE CONSTITUTION MAKING BY LEGISLATURES: THE EXPLICIT VERSION
- PART FOUR CONSTITUTION MAKING BY LEGISLATURES: THE IMPLICIT VERSION
- PART FIVE CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION BY THE LEGISLATURE
- 16 Interpretation in Legislatures and Courts: Incentives and Institutional Design
- 17 Constitutional Engagement “Outside the Courts” (and “Inside the Legislature”): Reflections on Professional Expertise and the Ability to Engage in Constitutional Interpretation
- 18 Legislatures as Constitutional Interpretation: Another Dialogue
- 19 The Constitution and Congressional Committees: 1971–2000
- PART SIX IS LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUTIONALISM POSSIBLE?
- PART SEVEN THE LEGISLATURE IN DIALOGUE: DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS
- Index
Summary
The United States Congress delegates a significant portion of its legislative work to its committees. Even though the power and independence of committees has varied over time, the observation of a young Woodrow Wilson in the late nineteenth century remains largely true today: “The House sits, not for serious discussion, but to sanction the conclusions of its Committees as rapidly as possible. It legislates in its committee-rooms; … so that it is not far from the truth to say that Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.” Congress both “deliberates and legislates” in committee.
Congressional committees are nonetheless largely uncharted territory for constitutional scholars. The new scholarly interest in extrajudicial constitutional interpretation largely ignores the congressional committee system generally and its routine work. When it focuses on the legislature at all, this scholarship limits its sights to floor debates or committee activities of extraordinary interest, such as the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. But, if committees are the primary sites in which Congress both deliberates and legislates, an adequate picture of congressional efforts to interpret and implement the Constitution will have to take into account the normal work of the committees.
Committee hearings provide a useful window into congressional deliberation. Hearings do not provide direct access to the investigation and negotiation that ultimately produces legislative action. But as staged events for public consumption, hearings do provide useful information.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Least Examined BranchThe Role of Legislatures in the Constitutional State, pp. 396 - 410Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006