Committee's and their functions.
...ority has a disproportionate staffing advantage is because they are the ones setting the agenda. As the minority party in the House of Representatives (until 1995), Republicans complained bitterly about a growing gap between the committee powers of the two parties. Fourth, another aspect of administrative control involves the staffs of committees. Here again, power rests largely with the majority party. For instance, in the House even though the majority may have only slightly more than half the members of committees, it hires approximately two-thirds of the staff. So while minority members receive their fair share of seats on the committee, they do not receive their fair share of staff. A fifth element of the committee system is the route a bill takes before it reaches the floor of the full House or Senate. Bills sent to a committee are assigned to a subcommittee, whose chair determines whether to hold public hearings. Most receive none, and they quickly disappear. According to Kernell & Jacobson, “committees can also investigate members as well as issues. Committees can investigate almost anything, including the White House or Congress itself. Senate committees also hold hearings to evaluate judicial, diplomatic, and senior administration appointments.” (225) Hearings in a way allow Congress to monitor the administration of the laws and programs it enacts. According to the Rules Committee in the House and the Senate through a unanimous consent agreement can grant a closed rule to the committee's bill. This means that the bill cannot be amended on the floor. Accordingly, when the status quo is strongly disfavored on the floor, this allows the committee great power. They can write a bill that reflects their own desires, while ignoring the floor's. Since the floor cannot amend it, this allows the committee to get what it wants, possibly in spite of what the floor wants According to Lunch, the “old” Congress had a powerful connect between the local and state political party organizations and the congressional parties ob Capitol Hill. In the old system, the typical first-time congressional nominee was “slated.” A nomination was done by the local or state political party organization only after a long political apprenticeship in the party and local or state government. By the time a person run for Congress, they were at least middle aged and well educated. They took prid...