Congressional Committees and Healthcare Policy (Chapter Review)

An important point made in Weissert and Weissert concerning Congress and its committee structure is that the majority of the work in Congress is done through committees. They perform the majority of research on issues and possible solutions, get legislation written, re-written and amended, and support it as it moves through Congress and finally gets passed. They are the “workhorses of the legislature” (Weissert and Weissert, 29).

The breadth of information on any given issue that has to be assimilated, analyzed and formed into a bill that can be passed by the two chambers of Congress is complex, and lawmakers cannot realistically apply significant time and attention to
More recent committee appointments are used as rewards to those who agree “to be loyal to party leadership goals” (Weissert and Weissert, 30). As partisanship increases, the role of committees to “resolve ideological conflict” and develop legislation based on “diverse committee members’ policy expertise and compromises” (Weissert and Weissert, 35) gives way to committees comprised of members whose primary goal is to demonstrate loyalty. Committees that want to stay powerful have to consider “prevailing political winds” and the “level of conflict of the issues” (Weissert and Weissert, 35) and this can curb the actions the committee is willing to take and weakens them.

These three points are important because they highlight the key functions, strengths and weaknesses of the “main paths along which Congress moves” (Weissert and Weissert, 29). Overall, while not perfect, the Congressional committee structure would seem to be a practical approach to the myriad of demands on the time and attention of legislators.

Committees provide a source of information on a given issue and the legislation being drafted to address that issue, though like many things, and especially in politics, committees can be biased and “subject to moral hazard” (Weissert and Weissert, 33). Committees are discouraged from “being too selfish…giving too many benefits to