WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.580 Welcome back. We are really glad you're spending 00:00:01.580 --> 00:00:03.660 some time with us today. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:05.639 for being here. If you're tuning in, we know 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:08.019 exactly who you are. You're the learner. You're 00:00:08.019 --> 00:00:10.759 the kind of person who wants to, well, you want 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.539 to cut through the daily noise, bypass all those 00:00:13.539 --> 00:00:15.660 talking heads on cable news and figure out how 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:18.449 things actually work behind the scenes. Getting 00:00:18.449 --> 00:00:21.910 to the actual mechanics of it all. Exactly. And 00:00:21.910 --> 00:00:24.829 today we're going to look at the ultimate behind 00:00:24.829 --> 00:00:27.910 the scenes machinery of the United States government. 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:30.030 We are talking about congressional committees. 00:00:30.370 --> 00:00:32.950 Which I know I know it sounds incredibly dry 00:00:32.950 --> 00:00:35.009 at first glance. Oh, totally. I mean, congressional 00:00:35.009 --> 00:00:37.130 procedure sounds like the title of a textbook 00:00:37.130 --> 00:00:39.649 you'd use to prop up a wobbly table. It really 00:00:39.649 --> 00:00:42.170 does. But this deep dive is going to reveal it 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:45.409 as the secret hidden engine of the entire country. 00:00:45.869 --> 00:00:48.460 Our mission today is. to figure out how these 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:52.060 groups act as literal little legislatures, you 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:54.600 know, how they evolve from these tiny temporary 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.840 working groups into massive impenetrable power 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.100 centers. And why understanding them is honestly 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:03.859 the ultimate shortcut to being a well -informed 00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:07.239 citizen. Yeah. To set the stage, I found this 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:10.500 quote in our sources from Woodrow Wilson. And 00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:12.840 it just it perfectly captures the reality of 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.480 Washington. He wrote, it is not far from the 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:17.959 truth to say that Congress in session is Congress 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:20.780 on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:23.879 committee rooms is Congress at work. What's fascinating 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.920 here is that the entire system is built on a 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:30.659 very practical, if unspoken, admission. Which 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:33.019 is what? That no single member of Congress can 00:01:33.019 --> 00:01:35.420 possibly be an expert on everything. Right. Yeah. 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:38.400 I mean, you can't have a deep, nuanced understanding 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.280 of, say, nuclear submarine procurement in the 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.420 morning and then expertly rewrite agricultural 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.900 subsidies in the afternoon. It's just not possible 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.980 given the sheer scope of modern government. No 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:51.219 one has that kind of bandwidth. Exactly. And 00:01:51.219 --> 00:01:53.000 that's why these committees exist. They provide 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.599 absolutely vital, specialized informational services 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:57.799 to the rest of the parent body. They're essentially 00:01:57.799 --> 00:01:59.799 functional subunits. Breaking down the workload. 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.840 Right. They gather information, they compare 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:04.920 different legislative alternatives, and they 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:07.079 monitor the performance of the executive branch, 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:10.300 which we usually refer to as oversight. Plus, 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:13.419 they investigate allegations of wrongdoing. Think 00:02:13.419 --> 00:02:16.539 of them as the eyes. the ears and the highly 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:18.960 specialized brains of the legislative branch. 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:21.520 OK, let's unpack this, because the sheer amount 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:24.280 of power these committees have over the legislative 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.139 process is just staggering. Oh, it really is. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.860 They're essentially the bouncers of Congress. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:32.539 The bouncers. I like that. Well, it's true. If 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:34.759 a piece of legislation wants to get onto the 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:37.580 floor for a vote, it almost always has to get 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.560 past them first. They absolutely dominate the 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:43.199 drafting and the honing of all the fine details 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.620 of the bills. before they're ever laid before 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:47.319 the rest of the members. They hold all the cards 00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:49.280 early on. Which made me wonder, while reading 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.080 our sources, what happens if a committee just 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.500 decides they don't like a bill? Can they just 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:57.500 sit on it forever? In most cases, yeah. Yes, 00:02:57.539 --> 00:02:59.659 they can. They can just quietly let it die in 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:03.659 a desk drawer. But there is a workaround in the 00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:05.199 House of Representatives, though it's incredibly 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.400 difficult to pull off. It's called the discharge 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:09.860 petition. The discharge petition. Right. It's 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:12.560 a highly technical, really laborious procedure. 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:16.979 And it's designed to force a bill out of a committee 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:19.199 and bring it directly onto the floor for a vote. 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:21.419 Even if the committee doesn't want it to. Even 00:03:21.419 --> 00:03:23.599 if that committee hasn't issued a report or if 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.099 the congressional leadership explicitly hasn't 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:28.560 given their consent. It's essentially a fail 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.159 safe mechanism for the broader membership to 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:33.599 bypass those committee gatekeepers if they feel 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:36.060 a popular bill is being unfairly held hostage. 00:03:36.590 --> 00:03:38.810 But the reality of actually using that failsafe 00:03:38.810 --> 00:03:41.990 is pretty grim. The sources have this aha statistic 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:44.669 that completely shifts how you view the balance 00:03:44.669 --> 00:03:46.889 of power. Let's hear it. So between the years 00:03:46.889 --> 00:03:50.849 1995 and 2007, there were 73 of these discharge 00:03:50.849 --> 00:03:53.770 petitions submitted to the full House. OK, 73 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:56.490 attempts to bypass the committees. Right. Care 00:03:56.490 --> 00:03:58.669 to guess how many were actually successful in 00:03:58.669 --> 00:04:01.530 securing a definitive yay or nay vote for a bill? 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:04.409 Out of 73. I mean, I know the data, but it's. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:09.300 Shockingly low. Yeah. Just one out of 73 made 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:11.360 it through. Which completely shatters the illusion 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:14.360 that a regular member of Congress can just show 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:17.550 up. Rally a few friends and pass a bill, doesn't 00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:19.490 it? It totally does. If you aren't on the relevant 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:21.410 committee, you're mostly locked out of the process. 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:24.449 And if we look at the historical analysis, this 00:04:24.449 --> 00:04:26.649 fragmentation has been recognized for a really 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:30.009 long time. Back in 1961, the American scholar 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:32.730 George B. Galloway wrote a famous piece called 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:34.850 History of the House of Representatives. Oh, 00:04:34.850 --> 00:04:37.970 right. He observed that, in practice, Congress 00:04:37.970 --> 00:04:41.740 rarely functions as a unified institution. Instead, 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:43.920 it functions as a collection of semi -autonomous 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.779 committees that seldom act in unison. I try to 00:04:46.779 --> 00:04:49.199 picture that. It's not one big, cohesive body 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:51.060 making decisions for the country, but rather 00:04:51.060 --> 00:04:54.319 this collection of tiny, independent fiefdoms 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:57.379 fiercely guarding their own turf. Precisely. 00:04:57.459 --> 00:05:00.139 And the growth in their autonomy, along with 00:05:00.139 --> 00:05:01.939 the way their jurisdictions constantly overlap 00:05:01.939 --> 00:05:04.220 and bump into each other, it actually fragments 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.160 the overall power of the Senate and the House. 00:05:06.339 --> 00:05:09.360 Meaning Congress weakens itself. Yes, exactly. 00:05:10.389 --> 00:05:12.269 This is a crucial point for anyone trying to 00:05:12.269 --> 00:05:15.629 understand American politics. This internal dispersion 00:05:15.629 --> 00:05:18.529 of power can seriously weaken the legislative 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:21.329 branch relative to the other two branches of 00:05:21.329 --> 00:05:23.550 the federal government. So relative to the president 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.430 and the Supreme Court. Right. When Congress can't 00:05:26.430 --> 00:05:28.730 get out of its own way because the committees 00:05:28.730 --> 00:05:31.649 are fighting over jurisdiction or just flat out 00:05:31.649 --> 00:05:34.290 refusing to release bills, it interferes with 00:05:34.290 --> 00:05:36.930 the adoption of any coherent, unified legislative 00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:40.250 program. It leaves a vacuum. And nature pours 00:05:40.250 --> 00:05:42.550 a vacuum. Exactly. And the executive branch or 00:05:42.550 --> 00:05:44.990 the judiciary often ends up filling it. It's 00:05:44.990 --> 00:05:47.009 wild to think about the government operating 00:05:47.009 --> 00:05:50.610 like 200 competing startups under one roof. That's 00:05:50.610 --> 00:05:52.050 a great way to look at it. And what makes it 00:05:52.050 --> 00:05:53.670 even more fascinating is that it wasn't always 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:55.949 like this. The history of how these committees 00:05:55.949 --> 00:05:58.930 evolved is just full of these bizarre, deeply 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.389 human quirks. Oh, the early days were completely 00:06:01.389 --> 00:06:03.670 different. Yeah. If we rewind all the way back 00:06:03.670 --> 00:06:07.490 to the very first Congress in 1789, the landscape 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:10.100 was totally unreal. Right. They didn't have permanent 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:12.360 standing committees doing everything. No. The 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.379 first Senate committee was established in April 00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:17.959 of 1789, and its only job was just to draw up 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:20.160 rules of procedure. Just setting the ground rules. 00:06:20.259 --> 00:06:22.920 Yeah. Back then, they operated almost entirely 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:26.000 with temporary select committees. They were small, 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:28.500 usually just three to five members, and they 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:30.759 were highly responsive to the entire Senate. 00:06:30.980 --> 00:06:33.199 Because they had to be. Right. And once they 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.779 finished their specific task, they just dissolved. 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:39.680 Get this. The absolute largest committee in that 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.240 entire first Congress had 11 members. And what 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:45.720 was their monumental task? Its sole purpose was 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.959 just to figure out what the salary should be 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:49.899 for the president and the vice president. That 00:06:49.899 --> 00:06:51.980 is amazing. Yeah. And the House of Representatives 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:54.839 had a very similar origin story, actually. Their 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.139 first committee was appointed that same month, 00:06:57.259 --> 00:07:00.779 April 1789, just to prepare standing rules and 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:03.300 outline the duties of a sergeant at arms. Very 00:07:03.300 --> 00:07:05.740 administrative stuff. Right. Because initially. 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:08.610 the House relied heavily on something called 00:07:08.610 --> 00:07:11.089 the Committee of the Whole to handle the bolt 00:07:11.089 --> 00:07:13.310 of their legislative issues. Wait, I saw that 00:07:13.310 --> 00:07:15.470 term in the sources. The Committee of the Whole. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:19.060 That's basically when the entire House of Representatives 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:22.959 drops its normal, rigid parliamentary rules and 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:26.560 meets as one giant committee just to debate and 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.420 tweak a bill more freely, right? Exactly. It's 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:31.379 a way to streamline debate without the strict 00:07:31.379 --> 00:07:33.959 procedural hurdles of a formal House session. 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:35.839 So everyone is just hashing it out together. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:38.759 Yes, but they quickly realized... that having 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.240 the entire membership debate, every single nuance 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:44.000 of every single bill, was incredibly inefficient. 00:07:44.339 --> 00:07:46.439 I can only imagine the arguments. They needed 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.199 smaller groups to provide detailed advice on 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:52.459 specific, thorny topics. A great example from 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:54.579 the source material is the origin of the famous 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:57.040 Committee on Ways and Means. The Tax Committee. 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:01.000 Right. In July 1789, there was a major heated 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.300 debate over the creation of the brand new Treasury 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.329 Department. They were nervous about it. Very. 00:08:05.430 --> 00:08:07.810 Members of the House were deeply paranoid about 00:08:07.810 --> 00:08:10.269 giving this new executive department too much 00:08:10.269 --> 00:08:13.490 unchecked authority over revenue proposals. So 00:08:13.490 --> 00:08:15.310 they established the Committee on Ways and Means 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:17.689 specifically to keep an eye on the money. Just 00:08:17.689 --> 00:08:21.089 to watch the Treasury. Yes. But initially, it 00:08:21.089 --> 00:08:23.689 only existed for two months before dissolving. 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:27.250 It wasn't until 1801 that it became a permanent... 00:08:27.420 --> 00:08:30.259 Standing Committee. Wow. And today, of course, 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.419 it's one of the most powerful panels in Congress 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:35.519 controlling taxation and tariffs. But as the 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.000 country grew, so did the committees. And the 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.860 reasons for that growth weren't always rooted 00:08:39.860 --> 00:08:42.460 in high minded Democratic ideals. No, definitely 00:08:42.460 --> 00:08:44.379 not. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:49.220 By the year 1906, the Senate maintained 66 standing 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:51.769 and select committees. That's a lot of committees 00:08:51.769 --> 00:08:54.090 for a much smaller Senate. Right. Just to put 00:08:54.090 --> 00:08:55.529 that into perspective, that was actually eight 00:08:55.529 --> 00:08:57.190 more committees than there were members of the 00:08:57.190 --> 00:08:59.840 majority party at the time. It's absurd. And 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.259 the reason for this massive sudden bloat wasn't 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:06.240 a sudden explosion in legislative workload. It 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.899 was a real estate hustle. A literal grab for 00:09:08.899 --> 00:09:11.299 office space. Yes. Before the Russell Senate 00:09:11.299 --> 00:09:13.740 office building was built, senators didn't actually 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:16.419 have their own private office spaces. So the 00:09:16.419 --> 00:09:18.899 system adapted. Many of these committees were 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:21.139 created solely to provide a senator with a dedicated 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:23.559 room they could use as an office. The system 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:26.320 was essentially generating phantom legislative 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.559 panels just to allocate. physical desks and chairs. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.399 It's hilarious. It really is a remarkable detail 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:36.879 that shows how mundane logistical needs can warp 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:39.500 a government structure. My favorite anecdote 00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:42.240 from the sources perfectly captures this absurdity. 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:45.029 The little fillet story. Yes. It involves a freshman 00:09:45.029 --> 00:09:47.889 senator named Robert La Follette from Wisconsin. 00:09:48.210 --> 00:09:51.110 Oh, guy. Right. He shows up in Washington around 00:09:51.110 --> 00:09:53.629 this time, bright eyed and ready to work. And 00:09:53.629 --> 00:09:56.049 the party leadership assigns him to chair the 00:09:56.049 --> 00:09:57.889 committee to investigate the condition of the 00:09:57.889 --> 00:10:00.809 Potomac Riverfront at Washington. Such a specific, 00:10:00.850 --> 00:10:03.470 long title. And he goes on record saying he had 00:10:03.470 --> 00:10:06.470 these grand sweeping visions of rolling up his 00:10:06.470 --> 00:10:09.330 sleeves, drafting legislation and cleaning up 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:11.250 the whole riverfront. Until he started asking 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:13.110 around about his new committee's history. Yeah. 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:15.500 He quickly discovered that in the entire existence 00:10:15.500 --> 00:10:18.259 of this committee, it had never received a single 00:10:18.259 --> 00:10:21.120 bill to consider. Not one. Furthermore, it had 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:23.820 never held a single meeting. The entire thing 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:26.059 was a fiction created so someone could have a 00:10:26.059 --> 00:10:28.659 room with a door that closed. I mean, imagine 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:30.580 getting elected to the United States Senate. 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:33.059 You pack up your family, move to Washington, 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:36.019 and your leadership puts you in charge of a fake 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:38.299 river committee. Just so you have a place to 00:10:38.299 --> 00:10:40.360 sit. And the bloat just continued to get worse 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:42.799 before it got better. By 1920, the congressional 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:45.200 directory listed nearly 80 committees in the 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:47.580 Senate. They literally had a committee on the 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:50.600 disposition of useless papers in the executive 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.139 departments. The useless papers committee. They 00:10:53.139 --> 00:10:56.259 had senators whose official jurisdiction was 00:10:56.259 --> 00:10:58.460 essentially throwing away old receipts. It's 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:01.679 incredible. But human pragmatism finally intervened. 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:06.000 On May 27, 1920, the Russell Senate office building 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.139 officially opened its doors. Suddenly, every 00:11:09.139 --> 00:11:11.799 member of the Senate was assigned their own actual 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:14.440 private office space. And wouldn't you know it, 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.049 once they all had their desks. The Senate very 00:11:17.049 --> 00:11:20.070 quietly went ahead and abolished 42 committees. 00:11:20.250 --> 00:11:23.029 Just wiped some out. Gone. The physical architecture 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:25.970 of Washington literally shaped the legislative 00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:28.370 structure of the government for decades. It's 00:11:28.370 --> 00:11:31.350 amusing, but it also highlights a serious structural 00:11:31.350 --> 00:11:33.889 flaw, right? They couldn't just keep operating 00:11:33.889 --> 00:11:36.950 based on who needed a desk or who wanted a fancy 00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:39.950 title. No, absolutely not. The system was an 00:11:39.950 --> 00:11:42.350 administrative disaster and desperately needed 00:11:42.350 --> 00:11:45.509 modernization. The modern structure, as we read. 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:48.970 recognize it today really stems from the Legislative 00:11:48.970 --> 00:11:52.549 Reorganization Act of 1946. 1946. Right. This 00:11:52.549 --> 00:11:54.889 was the most ambitious restructuring since the 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:56.750 system was first developed in the 18th century. 00:11:57.090 --> 00:12:00.070 It massively streamlined things. They slashed 00:12:00.070 --> 00:12:02.429 a number of House committees from 48 down to 00:12:02.429 --> 00:12:05.409 19. That's a huge cut. And the Senate committees 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:08.350 went from 33 down to 15. But more importantly, 00:12:08.490 --> 00:12:10.690 it codified the jurisdictions of all these committees 00:12:10.690 --> 00:12:13.110 by rule. Ah, so they wrote down exactly who does 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:15.710 what. Exactly. which was an attempt to minimize 00:12:15.710 --> 00:12:17.809 all those messy turf wars we talked about earlier. 00:12:17.970 --> 00:12:19.429 So that cleaned up the map, but there was another 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:22.690 major shift later on, right? The 1970 Act. Yes, 00:12:22.690 --> 00:12:25.730 the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. While 00:12:25.730 --> 00:12:28.889 the 1946 Act was about efficiency, the 1970 Act 00:12:28.889 --> 00:12:31.470 was aimed at transparency. It wanted to open 00:12:31.470 --> 00:12:33.649 Congress up to more public visibility. Making 00:12:33.649 --> 00:12:36.669 things more open. Right. For instance, it introduced 00:12:36.669 --> 00:12:38.990 recorded teller votes in that committee of the 00:12:38.990 --> 00:12:41.629 whole we discussed earlier. Meaning members actually 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:43.610 had to go on the record so the public could see 00:12:43.610 --> 00:12:46.190 exactly how they were voting rather than just 00:12:46.190 --> 00:12:49.149 shouting yay or nay in an anonymous crowd. Precisely. 00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:52.289 Accountability. It also allowed minority party 00:12:52.289 --> 00:12:54.710 members to call their own witnesses during committee 00:12:54.710 --> 00:12:57.450 hearings, ensuring that the majority party couldn't 00:12:57.450 --> 00:12:59.590 just create an echo chamber. That's a pretty 00:12:59.590 --> 00:13:03.370 big deal for fairness. It is. And as a structural 00:13:03.370 --> 00:13:05.429 addition, it established the Senate Committee 00:13:05.429 --> 00:13:08.330 on Veterans Affairs. Which brings us to the landscape 00:13:08.330 --> 00:13:11.009 today. If you look at Congress now, the ecosystem 00:13:11.009 --> 00:13:13.929 is divided into a few main types of panels. Let's 00:13:13.929 --> 00:13:16.139 run through them. First, you have standing committees. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.600 These are the permanent heavyweights, like appropriations, 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.379 agriculture, or ways and means. Because they 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:25.220 have actual legislative jurisdiction, they consider 00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:28.200 bills and monitor agencies. The core machinery. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.500 Right. Then you have select or special committees. 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:34.480 These are usually established to examine emerging 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.539 issues that don't neatly fit into existing boundaries 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:41.139 or to conduct very specific investigations. Like 00:13:41.139 --> 00:13:44.210 a temporary task force. Exactly. Then there are 00:13:44.210 --> 00:13:46.990 joint committees, which pull members from both 00:13:46.990 --> 00:13:49.909 chambers, the House and the Senate. Currently, 00:13:49.909 --> 00:13:51.950 there are only four joint committees. Right. 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:55.070 Economic, library, printing, and taxation. Yep. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:57.879 And finally, conference committees. These are 00:13:57.879 --> 00:14:01.059 ad hoc, temporary groups formed specifically 00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:03.620 to hash out a compromise when the House and the 00:14:03.620 --> 00:14:06.059 Senate pass competing slightly different versions 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:08.320 of the same bill. To merge them together. Right. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:11.600 So all told, today we're looking at 22 permanent 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:13.879 committees in the House, 20 in the Senate, and 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.320 those four joint committees. But even with all 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.919 that historical reorganization, Congress still 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:21.500 managed to leave some massive loopholes open. 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:23.360 Wait, really? What kind of loopholes? Well, in 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:26.100 1993, Congress... Congress established a temporary 00:14:26.100 --> 00:14:28.299 joint committee on the Organization of Congress 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:30.980 to review how well the system was functioning. 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.000 And they discovered a major flaw in that original 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.799 1946 reform. The one that streamlined everything. 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:39.600 Yes. While it limited the top level committees, 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:42.759 it completely failed to limit the number of subcommittees 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:45.100 allowed on any one committee. Hang on. So they 00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:47.299 just nested the bloat further down the chain. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:49.139 That's exactly what happened. They just hid the 00:14:49.139 --> 00:14:51.440 bloat one level deeper. Unbelievable. Today. 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:53.750 The House of Representatives has tried to address 00:14:53.750 --> 00:14:57.070 this by generally limiting each full committee 00:14:57.070 --> 00:14:59.889 to five subcommittees. There are a few major 00:14:59.889 --> 00:15:02.250 exceptions because of workload appropriations 00:15:02.250 --> 00:15:05.789 has 12 subcommittees, armed services has seven, 00:15:05.950 --> 00:15:08.850 foreign affairs has seven, and transportation 00:15:08.850 --> 00:15:12.169 and infrastructure has six. OK, so the House 00:15:12.169 --> 00:15:14.289 has some limits. What about the Senate? In the 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:16.850 Senate, there are absolutely no limits on the 00:15:16.850 --> 00:15:19.110 number of subcommittees they can create. Ah, 00:15:19.190 --> 00:15:22.690 zero. So the web of who is responsible for what 00:15:22.690 --> 00:15:26.330 just keeps subtly expanding. Right. Which naturally 00:15:26.330 --> 00:15:28.590 brings up a fundamental question for anyone listening. 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:30.769 How do you actually get on one of these? Ah, 00:15:30.929 --> 00:15:33.330 the assignment process. Yeah. If you somehow 00:15:33.330 --> 00:15:35.690 win an election and get to Congress, how do you 00:15:35.690 --> 00:15:37.509 make sure you get assigned to a committee that 00:15:37.509 --> 00:15:39.850 actually matters to you and your voters instead 00:15:39.850 --> 00:15:42.230 of getting stuck on the modern equivalent of 00:15:42.230 --> 00:15:44.590 the useless papers committee? Well, formally, 00:15:44.809 --> 00:15:47.289 the appointment procedure is made by a vote of 00:15:47.289 --> 00:15:49.769 the whole Senate or the whole House. Formally. 00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:53.620 But informally. In reality, the choices are entirely 00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:56.399 dictated by the political parties. Generally, 00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:58.860 the party leadership tries to honor the preferences 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:02.100 of the individual members, giving priority based 00:16:02.100 --> 00:16:04.899 heavily on seniority. So the longer you've been 00:16:04.899 --> 00:16:07.460 there, the better your pick. Exactly. And in 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:10.220 terms of numbers, each party is allocated seats 00:16:10.220 --> 00:16:13.179 on a committee in rough proportion to their overall 00:16:13.179 --> 00:16:16.139 strength in the chamber. So if a party holds 00:16:16.139 --> 00:16:18.679 60 percent of the Senate, they generally get 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:20.620 60 percent of the seats on the various committees. 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:23.740 Makes sense. But there are two major exceptions 00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:25.740 in the House, which we should remain totally 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:27.740 impartial about, just stating the facts of the 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:29.899 rules here. On the House Rules Committee, the 00:16:29.899 --> 00:16:32.639 majority party automatically fills nine of the 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:35.360 13 seats, regardless of their overall margin 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:38.330 in the chamber. Nine out of 13. That gives them 00:16:38.330 --> 00:16:41.009 massive outsized control over the floor schedule. 00:16:41.269 --> 00:16:44.149 It does. It's an incredibly powerful tool for 00:16:44.149 --> 00:16:46.360 the majority. And on the House Ethics Committee, 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.419 each party gets an exact equal number of seats 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:52.200 to ensure balance on disciplinary matters. That 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:55.240 makes total sense for ethics. Now, the part about 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:57.899 how members justify their requests to their party 00:16:57.899 --> 00:17:00.840 leadership is fascinating, and it has huge implications. 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:04.000 The request letters. Yeah. Our sources highlight 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:06.240 an analysis of U .S. House of Representative 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:09.019 Committee request letters from six different 00:17:09.019 --> 00:17:11.740 congresses, specifically spanning from the early 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:14.579 1970s to the late 1980s. What did they find? 00:17:14.779 --> 00:17:17.559 The researchers found that about 80 percent of 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:19.640 the justifications members gave for wanting a 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:22.039 specific assignment fell into just three buckets. 00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.779 OK. Prior professional experience, geography 00:17:24.779 --> 00:17:28.259 and electoral considerations. So basically what 00:17:28.259 --> 00:17:30.750 they know. where they're from and what will get 00:17:30.750 --> 00:17:33.150 them reelected. Exactly. For example, members 00:17:33.150 --> 00:17:35.150 who request an assignment to the House Armed 00:17:35.150 --> 00:17:37.569 Services Committee overwhelmingly have a significant 00:17:37.569 --> 00:17:41.029 military presence or active military bases right 00:17:41.029 --> 00:17:43.509 in their home district. Right. Meanwhile, members 00:17:43.509 --> 00:17:46.250 who request to be on the House Interior Committee 00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:49.549 almost always come from sparsely populated western 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:52.769 areas with a lot of land held in public trust. 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:55.759 It makes complete logical sense from a representative 00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:58.779 standpoint. I mean, members want to be on the 00:17:58.779 --> 00:18:02.119 panels that most directly impact the voters who 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:04.420 elected them. It's how they prove they're delivering 00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:06.640 value to their home district. Delivering the 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.819 goods back home. Exactly. Think about what that 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:12.400 practically means for the rest of the country. 00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:15.099 It means that the policies being drafted in these 00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:18.299 little legislatures are heavily skewed by the 00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:21.480 specific regional or professional biases of the 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.940 members who self -selected beyond them. Oh, wow. 00:18:24.099 --> 00:18:25.819 I see where you're going with this. You do not 00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:28.160 have a perfectly randomized cross -section of 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:31.400 America drafting national agricultural policy. 00:18:31.849 --> 00:18:34.509 You have representatives almost exclusively from 00:18:34.509 --> 00:18:36.950 agricultural districts drafting it. That's such 00:18:36.950 --> 00:18:39.369 a crucial dynamic. If you live in a major city, 00:18:39.509 --> 00:18:41.769 your grocery prices are heavily influenced by 00:18:41.769 --> 00:18:44.210 a farm bill written almost entirely by people 00:18:44.210 --> 00:18:46.410 representing rural farm states because they're 00:18:46.410 --> 00:18:48.109 the only ones who fought to get on the Agriculture 00:18:48.109 --> 00:18:50.569 Committee. Right. It creates a very specific 00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:53.470 tilt to the legislation. But. Beyond the geographic 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:56.410 bias, there's a darker structural trend happening 00:18:56.410 --> 00:18:58.250 with these committees that our sources point 00:18:58.250 --> 00:19:00.730 out, and it actively threatens their ability 00:19:00.730 --> 00:19:03.130 to do any of this work effectively. Yeah. And 00:19:03.130 --> 00:19:06.470 if we connect this to the bigger picture, we're 00:19:06.470 --> 00:19:08.950 seeing a massive decline in institutional capacity. 00:19:09.289 --> 00:19:11.309 Institutional capacity, meaning their ability 00:19:11.309 --> 00:19:14.589 to actually get the work done? Yes. Between 1994 00:19:14.589 --> 00:19:19.049 and 2014, overall committee staffing across Congress 00:19:19.049 --> 00:19:23.700 was slashed by 35 percent. 35? Let's really think 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:26.559 about what a 35 % cut looks like on a random 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.819 Tuesday afternoon for a representative. It's 00:19:28.819 --> 00:19:30.859 devastating. You've got phones ringing off the 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:33.700 hook from angry constituents. Dozen different 00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:36.700 crises happening globally and suddenly you literally 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:38.940 don't have the policy experts, the researchers 00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:41.039 or the investigators in your office to actually 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:44.660 read or write complex legislation. And the data 00:19:44.660 --> 00:19:47.059 totally reflects that paralysis. Yeah. In the 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:49.720 1970s, the House held around 6 ,000 hearings 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:53.079 a year. 6 ,000. By 1994, that number had dropped 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:56.839 to 4 ,000. Oh. And by 2014, it was down to just 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:00.039 over 2 ,000 hearings a year. Wow. That's a two 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:02.740 -thirds drop in the number of times these committees 00:20:02.740 --> 00:20:05.180 are formally gathering information, interviewing 00:20:05.180 --> 00:20:07.900 experts, and conducting oversight on the executive 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:10.460 branch. Which means they're flying blind compared 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:13.099 to a few decades ago. Completely flying blind. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:15.740 The implications are profound. And according 00:20:15.740 --> 00:20:18.220 to our sources, commentators from across the 00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:20.940 political spectrum have expressed deep concern 00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:24.519 about this. There is a genuine bipartisan worry 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:27.859 regarding the loss of committee capacity to independently 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:30.460 research and develop legislative initiatives. 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:32.859 Because if they aren't doing the research, who 00:20:32.859 --> 00:20:35.579 is? Exactly. When committees lose their staff 00:20:35.579 --> 00:20:37.680 and hold fewer hearings, the work doesn't just 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.380 disappear. The vacuum gets filled. There's that 00:20:40.380 --> 00:20:42.339 vacuum again. Right. They become increasingly 00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:45.079 reliant on outside lobbyists, special interest 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.180 groups, or the executive branch itself to provide 00:20:48.180 --> 00:20:50.339 them with information and sometimes even draft 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:52.230 the legislation for them. They just hand them 00:20:52.230 --> 00:20:54.789 the bill to pass. It fundamentally shifts the 00:20:54.789 --> 00:20:57.410 balance of power away from the elected representatives 00:20:57.410 --> 00:21:01.089 and toward unelected influence groups. Just presenting 00:21:01.089 --> 00:21:03.609 the facts of the structural shift here. But it's 00:21:03.609 --> 00:21:06.410 a massive change in how Washington works. So 00:21:06.410 --> 00:21:08.710 what does this all mean? Let's bring this all 00:21:08.710 --> 00:21:10.410 the way home for you, the listener. Yeah, let's 00:21:10.410 --> 00:21:12.019 tie it together. The next time you're watching 00:21:12.019 --> 00:21:14.519 the news and you hear some frustrated anchor 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:17.640 talking about a vital piece of legislation being 00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:20.579 stuck in Congress, I want you to look past the 00:21:20.579 --> 00:21:22.759 grandstanding on the Senate floor. The public 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:26.000 exhibition. as Wilson called it. Exactly. The 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.759 real story is almost certainly happening in one 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:32.519 of these 200 semi -autonomous committees or subcommittees. 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.099 They are the ultimate gatekeepers. They hold 00:21:35.099 --> 00:21:37.380 the keys. They are heavily influenced by the 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:39.940 specific local geographies of the members sitting 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:44.160 on them. And crucially, they are severely understaffed 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:47.079 compared to just a few decades ago, heavily reliant 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:49.440 on outside help and holding a fraction of the 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:51.779 hearings they used to. Understanding that hidden 00:21:51.779 --> 00:21:54.599 machinery completely changes how you view the 00:21:54.599 --> 00:21:57.160 successes, the failures and the gridlock of the 00:21:57.160 --> 00:21:59.180 federal government. It's the engine under the 00:21:59.180 --> 00:22:01.200 hood. It really does alter your perspective. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:03.619 And to leave you with a final thought to mull 00:22:03.619 --> 00:22:06.519 over, I want to revisit that discharge petition 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:09.319 we discussed earlier. Oh, right. That rare mechanism 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:12.019 to bypass the powerful committee gatekeepers. 00:22:12.279 --> 00:22:15.079 Yes. During the depths of the Great Depression 00:22:15.079 --> 00:22:18.240 in 1932, the situation in the country was so 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.859 desperate that a reform movement in the House 00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:23.799 actually succeeded in temporarily changing the 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:26.079 rules. What did they do? They dropped the number 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:28.420 of signatures required on a discharge petition 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:32.400 from a constitutional majority of 218 down to 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:36.059 just 145. Wow. That meant a mere one -third of 00:22:36.059 --> 00:22:38.400 the House membership could force a bill out of 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.519 a stalled committee and onto the floor for a 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:42.900 vote. That is a massive shift in power away from 00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:44.700 the leadership and toward the regular members. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:46.900 It was huge. But it was incredibly short -lived. 00:22:47.289 --> 00:22:51.289 By 1935, a counterattack led by what the sources 00:22:51.289 --> 00:22:53.829 explicitly called the intra -house oligarchy. 00:22:53.950 --> 00:22:56.470 Intra -house oligarchy? Essentially a small group 00:22:56.470 --> 00:22:58.390 of powerful insiders who controlled the flow 00:22:58.390 --> 00:23:01.210 of things. They abolished the reform. They successfully 00:23:01.210 --> 00:23:03.769 raised the threshold back up to 218. Put the 00:23:03.769 --> 00:23:06.230 genie back in the bottle. Exactly. It was the 00:23:06.230 --> 00:23:09.250 last across -the -board change in the autonomy 00:23:09.250 --> 00:23:14.279 of house standing committees. Fascinating. Consider 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:16.819 how different modern American history might look 00:23:16.819 --> 00:23:20.859 today if that 1932 rule had survived. If a mere 00:23:20.859 --> 00:23:23.240 one -third of the House could bypass the powerful 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:25.420 committee gatekeepers and force a floor vote 00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:28.240 at any time, would the legislative gridlock we 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.539 hear so much about even exist? Or would it just 00:23:30.539 --> 00:23:32.930 be a free -for -all? Right. Would it result in 00:23:32.930 --> 00:23:35.609 a completely different kind of chaos with hundreds 00:23:35.609 --> 00:23:38.329 of bills fled in the floor every week? What a 00:23:38.329 --> 00:23:40.130 question to end on. It just goes to show how 00:23:40.130 --> 00:23:43.390 obscure, seemingly boring procedural rules from 00:23:43.390 --> 00:23:45.769 a century ago shape the reality we live in every 00:23:45.769 --> 00:23:47.910 single day. They really do. Thank you so much 00:23:47.910 --> 00:23:49.769 for joining us on this deep dive. Keep digging, 00:23:49.930 --> 00:23:51.990 stay curious, and we'll see you next time as 00:23:51.990 --> 00:23:54.150 we continue to unpack the hidden machinery of 00:23:54.150 --> 00:23:55.289 our world. Take care.