Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Setting the Agenda
- 1 Introduction
- PART I WHY PARTY GOVERNMENT?
- PART II NEGATIVE AGENDA POWER
- 3 Modeling Agenda Power
- 4 The Primacy of Reed's Rules in House Organization
- 5 Final Passage Votes
- 6 The Costs of Agenda Control
- 7 The Textbook Congress and the Committee on Rules
- 8 The Bills Reported from Committee
- 9 Which Way Does Policy Move?
- PART III THE CONSEQUENCES OF POSITIVE AGENDA POWER AND CONDITIONAL PARTY GOVERNMENT
- Appendix
- Addendum
- Bibliography
- Index
- Author Index
8 - The Bills Reported from Committee
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Setting the Agenda
- 1 Introduction
- PART I WHY PARTY GOVERNMENT?
- PART II NEGATIVE AGENDA POWER
- 3 Modeling Agenda Power
- 4 The Primacy of Reed's Rules in House Organization
- 5 Final Passage Votes
- 6 The Costs of Agenda Control
- 7 The Textbook Congress and the Committee on Rules
- 8 The Bills Reported from Committee
- 9 Which Way Does Policy Move?
- PART III THE CONSEQUENCES OF POSITIVE AGENDA POWER AND CONDITIONAL PARTY GOVERNMENT
- Appendix
- Addendum
- Bibliography
- Index
- Author Index
Summary
[A] Republican Senate committee staff director put it this way: “Democratic bills are going nowhere when we have the gavel.” A personal staff member for a powerful Democratic Senator corroborated that comment by saying, “We introduce our bills, but they get entirely ignored.” Along similar lines, a House committee staffer said that: “Congressional committees can be a lonely place for minority members.”
– Krutz 2001One extremely important but subtle rule underpinning committee influence is its power to veto proposals within its jurisdiction: any proposal that fails to make a committee majority better off is simply kept from coming to the floor for a vote. [italics added]
– Shepsle and Weingast 1994cThe single most important feature of the legislative process in the House and Senate is that, to succeed, a bill must survive a gauntlet of veto gates in each chamber, each of which is supervised by members chosen by their peers to exercise gatekeeping authority. In each chamber of Congress, at least one subcommittee and one full committee have gatekeeping rights in that a bill normally will not be considered by the entire legislative body until it has been approved in committee. [italics added]
– McNollgast 1994Undoubtedly, the most important tool possessed by committees is their gatekeeping power. Since bills are routinely referred to standing committees, committee members can defeat legislation by refusing to report. [italics added]
– Maltzman 1997- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Setting the AgendaResponsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives, pp. 149 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005