{
  "id": "R40233",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R40233",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 347994,
      "date": "2009-04-13",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:35:46.290347",
      "title": "House Ad Hoc Select Committees with Legislative Authority: An Analysis",
      "summary": "The House can readily create an ad hoc (temporary) select committee by approving a simple resolution that contains language establishing the committee\u2014giving a purpose, defining membership, and detailing other aspects. The House may create a study committee, with directions to make recommendations for legislation, or it may grant legislative authority to the select committee\u2014authority to report legislation to the House. This report analyzes the use, results, components, and attributes of House ad hoc select committees with legislative authority.\nThere have been four ad hoc select committees with legislative authority created in the last 35 years, which are examined in this report\u2014\nAd Hoc Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (94th-95th Congresses),\nAd Hoc Select Committee on Energy (95th Congress),\nSelect Committee on Homeland Security (107th Congress), and\nSelect Committee on Homeland Security (108th Congress).\nThe principal explanation offered in creating each of the four select committees with legislative authority was that their creation solved jurisdictional problems. The proponents in each case indicated that multiple committees claimed jurisdiction over a subject and that the House would be unable to legislate, or at least to legislate efficiently, in the absence of a select committee. The creation of the Outer Continental Shelf select committee may have been a early test case of new House rules that recognized the potential need for such a committee. The Energy select committee and the Homeland Security select committee (107th Congress) centralized important aspects of committee decision making to develop comprehensive legislation on subject matter that was widely diffused in House committees. The reason advanced for creating the Select Committee on Homeland Security in the 108th Congress was slightly different: it provided a transition committee responsible for homeland security while the House decided whether and how to reorganize its committees to accommodate the new Department of Homeland Security.\nIn creating a select committee with legislative authority, considerations include what legislative authority to grant, jurisdiction and referral, the relationship between the select committee and the standing committees of jurisdiction, reporting deadline, membership and chairmanship, resources made available to the select committee, floor and post-passage consideration of the legislation reported by the select committee, and the select committee\u2019s life-span.\nIn developing legislation matched to a strategic policy goal, a number of advantages can accrue to the House by using an ad hoc select committee with legislative authority, including efficiency, transparency, a new forum, coherence, and cohesiveness. A select committee, however, cannot guarantee speed after the committee phase, majority support, compromise and comity, or bicameral agreement. Some factors that might better ensure the effectiveness of a select committee are its bipartisan creation, leadership support for its work, the support of standing committees, adequate time for deliberation, and a single purpose for the select committee\u2019s existence and work.\nThe Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is not analyzed in this report since it is a permanent, not an ad hoc, committee.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs"
  ]
}