Committee Funding Resolutions and Processes, 107th Congress

Publication Date: March 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

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Abstract:

All House and Senate standing and select committees (except the Appropriations Committees) receive their operating budgets through House and Senate approval of biennial funding resolutions. These resolutions provide the funds with which committees hire staff, employ temporary consultants, pay for office equipment and supplies, defray the costs of member and staff travel on committee business, and meet other miscellaneous costs.

Under Senate Rules, committee funding resolutions are to be approved by February 28 of the year in which a new Congress begins. However, pursuant to a unanimous consent request on February 28, 2001, committees were temporarily permitted to spend at their previously authorized rate, up through March 10, 2001. On March 8, 2001, by voice vote, the Senate agreed to S. Res. 54, submitted by Senators Trent Lott and Tom Daschle, to fund the operations of most Senate committees up through February 28, 2003. The amounts provided reflected the requests made by each Senate committee to implement the equal staffing provisions of the Senate powersharing agreement. This agreement, contained in S. Res. 8 of January 5, 2001, in part provides for equal Republican and Democratic membership on all Senate committees and an equal division of staff between the parties on all panels.

Under House Rules, funds for committees are to be approved by March 31, 2001. Earlier in March, budget requests from House committees were considered by the House Administration Committee. By unanimous voice vote on March 22, the House Administration Committee ordered reported H.Res. 84, to provide funds for the House committees for the 107th Congress. The funds recommended appeared to assure that, by 2002, the minority party would control one-third of the staff positions on nearly all the committees funded by the resolution. The resolution passed the House on March 27, by a vote of 357-61.

Long-standing disputes about the equitable apportionment of staff positions and operating funds between the parties have been a feature of House funding debates over the past quarter century. Conversely, because Senate rules (since 1981) have provided more explicit authority for the Senate minority party to control at least onethird of the committee staff positions and funding, action in that chamber to approve committee operating budgets is normally not as controversial.