Senate Finance Committee Jobs
If every proposed piece of legislation went before the entire United States Senate for deliberation, then the body would be hard-pressed to get through all but a fraction of the bills senators generate. For this reason bills first pass before senators who have jobs on the appropriate committee for the bill, such as the Senate Finance Committee, for deliberation and edits before passing on to the full senate floor.
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Senate Finance Committee
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The Senate Finance Committee is the first stop for any bills dealing with financial matters. It is here that committee members will investigate the bill, hold hearings in which expert witnesses can give their input on the bill's merits or problems, and debate amendments to the legislation. In order for a bill to pass out of the Senate Finance Committee, and before the entire senate for further debate, the bill must meet the approval of a majority of committee members. It is through this process of amending the bill that legislation usually comes to satisfy a plurality of members and move on in the legislative process.
Assignment
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The Senate Finance Committee consists of senators whose party has given them an assignment to that committee. The seats are divided between the political parties according to the proportion of seats on the floor they control. The party leadership then decides which senators of their party will fill those seats. Giving out or withholding these seats is one way in which party leadership can enforce a degree of discipline among the ranks of its membership, as crossing party leaders could mean not getting a desired committee assignment.
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Chairman and Ranking Member
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The two top spots in the Senate Finance Committee are the chairman and the ranking member. The chairman is a powerful position, able to set the agenda of what the Finance Committee will discuss and deal with. This position is assigned by the leadership of the party that holds the majority of the seats in the Senate chamber. Consequently, these positions are usually given to members of the majority party but can be given to members of the minority party for political reasons. The ranking member is the senior most member of the minority party who sits on the committee.
Subcommittees
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Committees will further establish subcommittees to devote time to giving a specific topic within its jurisdiction special examination. As of 2011, Senate rules allowed the Senate Finance Committee to establish six subcommittees, whose topics are determined at the beginning of each congressional term. The individual senators who sit on these finance subcommittees are selected by the chairman of the Finance Committee and the ranking member, then approved by the full Finance Committee. Both the chairman and ranking member are officially members of each subcommittee, but in practice do not usually sit in on their functions.
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References
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