While most people would think the daily House and Senate floor sessions are where everything in the Legislature happens, the simple truth is they are only the culmination of an extensive, laborious and time-consuming process known as the committee system. If it weren’t for committees, little work would be accomplished because the time needed to knowledgeably analyze and comprehend the sheer amount of bills that come before the Legislature would be staggering and nearly impossible to achieve.
So what is a committee? Last week Wrap-Up focused on how bill drafting is the foundation of the bill process. Committees continue this process by building the rest of the house, right down to the shutters and the white-picket fence. They can also be where construction is halted and the house is demolished. This is why the committee system is so vital to the legislative process: it is where a bill either comes to life or remains dormant.
Committee meetings occur outside of the floor session and, while they are generally open to the public, the majority of people have rarely seen one in action making the true purpose of a committee appear to be a mysterious, behind-the-scenes mechanism for change. In reality, it is a simplistic approach to the complex needs of the Legislature.
Committees are divided by subjects such as agriculture or transportation, most of which are usually mirrored in both the Senate and the House. There are also specific committees to each body as well as a number of subcommittees that even further dissect proposed bills. The main purpose of a committee is to break down each individual bill that passes through its door, determine if changes should be made and whether it should be advanced to be voted on in the floor sessions. Bills are debated and amended during committee meetings. Often, representatives from all possible sides of an issue will attend these meetings and present their case, either for or against the proposed bill. This can influence how the committee will vote on a bill making it one of the most powerful opportunities for citizens to directly affect the outcome of a bill.
There are several benefits to this system. Because of committees, the massive amount of bills is broken down into manageable, easy-to-digest portions on which individual committees can place their full attention. If this weren’t the case, the House and the Senate would have to cover an enormous number of bills during each daily session. Committees distribute the work evenly, making the Legislature more efficient and more effective.
Another benefit of committees is that lawmakers develop a specialized expertise on issues surrounding their committee’s particular topics. By design, similar subjects arise every session before each committee allowing adept and familiar eyes to study each bill. For example, long-time members of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee would be more knowledgeable on solutions to energy problems because they have dealt with comparable legislation in the past. Because this work can be delegated to experienced committees, the process is further streamlined.
The four main committees in both the House and the Senate are Finance, Judiciary, Education and Government Organization. These and the rest of the committees meet several times during the week in the 60-day session. During the remainder of the year, interim committees meet approximately once a month for a three-day period with the purpose of studying important issues while the Legislature is not in session. These interim committees are called joint committees – joint, meaning members from both the Senate and the House – that help the Legislature come together in preparation for the forthcoming session by reviewing, researching and discussing possible legislation. This process provides a framework of potential bills to be introduced for each regular session.
Committees are intrinsically vital in ensuring a well-organized and effective legislature. The potential impact of a single piece of legislation to West Virginia’s citizens can be substantial. To safeguard the public trust, every detail of each proposed bill is researched and heavily scrutinized in committee – an oversight that allows only the most prudent legislation to make it into state law.
