United States House of Representatives committees

The United States House of Representatives is organized into numerous committees and subcommittees. The Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, consisting of the entire membership, is discussed on the main page.

When a bill is introduced, the Speaker refers the bill to one (or more) of the standing committees. In order for the bill to ever be considered on the House floor, in other words for the bill to have any chance of passage, one of two things must happem: The bill must be reported favorably out of the committee, in other words it has a majority of the votes on that committee; or a Discharge Petition[?] must be signed by a majority (218) of House members.

Memberships on committees are allocated so that the party with the majority of House seats gets substantially more committee seats than does the minority party. The senior committee member of the majority party is the chairman and the senior member of the other party is called the "ranking minority member."

Committees are divided into subcommittees, again apportioned in favor of the majority party. The chairman and ranking minority member of the full committee are automatically members of all subcommittees.

A committee can be a "standing committee," such as the Committee on Appropriations, or a "select committee," such as the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Links:

House Committee General (http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.html)

House Committees

 Committee on Agriculture (http://agriculture.house.gov/)
 Committee on Appropriations (http://www.house.gov/appropriations/)
 Committee on Armed Services (http://www.house.gov/hasc/)
 Committee on the Budget (http://www.house.gov/budget/)
 Committee on Education and the Workforce (http://edworkforce.house.gov)
 Committee on Energy and Commerce (http://www.house.gov/commerce/)
 Committee on Financial Services (http://www.house.gov/financialservices/)
 Committee on Government Reform (http://www.house.gov/reform/)
 Committee on House Administration (http://www.house.gov/cha/)
 Committee on International Relations (http://www.house.gov/international_relations/)
 Committee on the Judiciary (http://www.house.gov/judiciary/)
 Committee on Resources (http://resourcescommittee.house.gov)
 Committee on Rules (http://www.house.gov/rules/)
 Committee on Science (http://www.house.gov/science/)
 Committee on Small Business (http://www.house.gov/smbiz/)
 Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (http://www.house.gov/ethics/)
 Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (http://www.house.gov/transportation/)
 Committee on Veterans Affairs (http://veterans.house.gov)
 Committee on Ways and Means  (http://waysandmeans.house.gov)

Joint House and Senate Committees

 Joint Economic Committee (http://www.house.gov/jec/)
 Joint Committee on Printing (http://www.house.gov/jcp/)
 Joint Committee on Taxation (http://www.house.gov/jct/)

Special Committees

 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (http://intelligence.house.gov)
 Select Committee on Homeland Security (http://hsc.house.gov/)