Senate vs. House: Republicans Battle over Congressional Committees

Republicans in the House and Senate are battling over a proposal to reorganize the committees that control spending, called appropriations committees.

In hopes of streamlining the appropriations process, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R- Calif.) has proposed the elimination of three subcommittees: the Veterans, Housing and Urban Development (VA-HUD) Subcommittee, The District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. The responsibilities of these subcommittees would be absorbed by others, making some committee chairmen and women more powerful and others less so.

What are appropriations committees?

Congressional appropriations committees and subcommittees decide how money will be spent and how much money will be spent on activities like education, defense, and health care.

The appropriations process really begins with the President, who submits a budget proposal in February that Congress then considers. Once Congress passes a final budget resolution and the president signs it, the committees in the House and Senate are granted the authority to distribute funds below or up to the spending limit determined by that year’s budget resolution.

What does the house want to do with these committees?

House Republicans want to limit the number of subcommittees in order to reduce the number of spending bills - they hope this will help them to avoid a catch-all or omnibus bill at the end of the fiscal year in September. But Senate Republicans don’t want House leaders telling them what to do. In particular, committee chairmen and women don’t want to see their powerful positions disappear before their eyes.

Republican infighting

Senate Republicans say that the House has no right to dictate the subcommittee structure for both houses of Congress. Kay Hutchison (R-Texas), chairwoman of the Military Construction Subcommittee, argues that the House can do what it wants, but that the Senate does not have to follow. It should be noted that the reorganization would cause Hutchison to lose her position to a more senior senator.

But Hutchison has nothing to fear since the Senate has wholeheartedly rejected Lewis’ plan, claiming that it does little to improve the appropriations process. But the efficacy of the plan is probably less of a concern than the way that it would disrupt the Senate power structure.

The result

If the House reorganizes its committees according to Lewis’ plan and the Senate does not, the result will be a cluster of mismatched appropriations subcommittees that may have trouble getting anything done at all.

For this reason, critics say that an omnibus bill is more likely if the reorganization goes through in the House only. Without a clear path for appropriations bills to travel through, they are likely to be delayed. When smaller appropriations bills are blocked, a large all-encompassing omnibus bill is needed to provide the necessary funding.

But omnibus bills are difficult for Congress to process and pass because they are so large and multi-faceted. Both the House and the Senate would prefer to pass a series of smaller appropriations bills that are easier to manage.

The House/Senate power struggle brings up the issues of efficiency and power in Congress. What does it mean if congressmen and women are unwilling to give up their committee chairs in order to streamline the appropriations process? Should another branch of government have jurisdiction over committee organization, instead of leaving it to the legislators themselves? Should the people decide?

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