Committees Hold the Real Power in Congress

The most powerful people in Congress aren't elected.

News programs report on groups of representatives and senators examining witnesses. Those sessions are usually comfortable and polite. Sometimes, they're not. Those are congressional committee hearings.

The U.S. Constitution doesn't mention committees per se, but they are constitutional.

Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 gives each chamber of Congress—the House and the Senate—the power to make its own rules of procedure. Congress did that by creating committees, each of which handles the issues that fall within its subject matter. Congressional committees do most of the work in Congress and are very powerful.

Members of Congress have arduous workloads and grueling schedules. So, they rely heavily on committee staff people. Staffers write most of the legislation in Congress. They read and summarize bills, meet with lobbyists and the public, arrange hearings, conduct research, and update committee members on issues and events.

Members don't have time to read every word of every bill, so they base their decisions on those summaries. Committee staffers are probably the most powerful group of people in the Capitol.

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http://voices.yahoo.com/committees-hold-real-power-congress-12017710.html?cat=17

The author is a Brentwood Borough resident.