Bills that are sent to legislative committees are also sent by the committee to any federal agency that has jurisdiction over such proposals, and the Congressional oversight agency, the along with a request for the agency’s views on the bill. Before any executive agency responds to the Congressional committee, the evaluation is first sent to the within the White House to see if the recommendations or evaluations agree with the President’s program. Committees are not bound to follow or accept such agency evaluations. A bill may be send to a subcommittee or kept by the full committee.
Committee Meetings
Standing committees have regular meeting days. In the House, at least three Members of a legislative committee may formally request the chairman to call a meeting to consider a particular bill. If the chairman does not call the requested meeting within three calendar days after the request is filed, a majority of the committee members may call a committee meeting to consider the matter. This is a rare step however. In the Senate, the practice is for the Chairman to have virtually complete control over the committee agenda even if the committee members call a meeting without his consent, because, like the Speaker of the House, the Chairman may refuse to recognize a particular member to make a motion to consider a particular bill.
Public Hearings
Bills thought to be important by a majority of committee members often are scheduled for public hearings. All committees (except Rules) must publish the time, place and subject matter of any public hearing at least one week before that hearing except if the Chairman and the ranking minority member, or if a majority of the committee by a vote decide to start earlier. Decisions for public committee meetings are printed in the Daily Digest section of the Congressional Record as soon as practical after the vote for a meeting.
All such committee and subcommittee hearings (except the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct) must be public unless where a majority of the committee decide by a public roll call vote to hold a closed hearing. (Some committees may close up to five subsequent meetings by a roll call vote.) Hearings may be broadcast on radio or television. An official record is kept of public meetings. These may be published by the Government Printing Office. Witnesses are usually requested to make advance copies of their testimony available to the committee. Private citizens are asked to submit a curriculum vitae and identify the amount of federal money, if any, and from what agency they are currently receiving or have received in the prior two years. Congressmen in the minority party may call witnesses on at least one day of the hearings.
Bill “Markups”
Once hearings are over and if there appears to be a majority in favor of the bill, the committee or subcommittee usually will have a “markup” meeting on the bill. Here members vote on amendments and final passage of the bill. In the House, every Member may only vote in committee if he is present at the meeting. Previously, “proxy” votes were allowed. Every member has one vote. Such “markup” meetings must be open to the public, except if a majority by a roll call vote decide otherwise.
If a significant number of amendments are added to a bill, the committee may decide to report a “clean” bill with a new bill number, or it may report the original bill favorably with one single “amendment in the nature of a substitute.” It can happen that a committee may report a bill “unfavorably” to the House. This means that a majority of the committee are opposed to the bill, but for some reason, they want their colleagues to have the opportunity to vote the measure up or down.