² “Subcommittees of Congress,” this Review, Vol. 9 (Feb., 1915), pp. 68–92Google Scholar. Congressman French (R., Idaho) later served on the naval appropriations subcommittee, and after retirement from the House taught political science at Miami University (Ohio).

³ Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, The Organization of Congress, Hearings, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, 1945), p. 1039Google Scholar.

⁴ Congressional Record (daily ed.), July 18, 1961, p. 11908Google Scholar.

⁵ Congressional Record, 83d Cong., 2d sess. (1954), p. 1417Google Scholar.

⁶ Senate Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, Evaluation of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Hearings, 80th Cong., 2d sess. (Washington, 1948), p. 63Google Scholar.

⁷ Udall, Stewart L., “A Defense of the Seniority System,” New York Times Magazine, January 13, 1957. p. 64Google Scholar

⁸ In the 86th Congress, only a third of the House members had two standing committee assignments; the rest had one. Approximately half of the House committee members were assigned to only one subcommittee. In the Senate, however, one-third of the Senators had three committee assignments and the rest had two. Over half of the members of standing committees were assigned to three or more subcommittees.

⁹ The House Ways and Means Committee has made use of ad hoc subcommittees but has not given them power to recommend legislation to the full committee. In the old days of tariff legislation, the majority members of this committee regularly caucused as a sort of subcommittee to mark up the bill, in order to develop a united front when the bill was reported. See Schattschneider, E. E., Politics, Pressures and the Tariff (New York, 1935)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ This committee has not had subcommittees with clear jurisdiction since the Republican 80th Congress.

¹¹ One subcommittee on housing has considerable autonomy.

¹² Chairman McMillan did not abandon subcommittees with assigned jurisdiction until the 86th Congress.

¹³ It should also be noted that Senate Government Operations is one of the smallest committees in the Senate and all members have two other committee assignments, so there is relatively little membership pressure for the creation of subcommittees.

¹⁴ Charles O. Jones found that, with three exceptions, members of the House Agriculture Committee in the 85th Congress served on subcommittees which dealt with commodities produced in their districts. “Representation in Congress: The Case of the House Agriculture Committee,” this Review, Vol. 55 (June, 1961), p. 358Google Scholar.

¹⁵ The activity of these consultative subcommittees varies greatly with each chairman. Senator John F. Kennedy's African affairs subcommittee, for example, was largely inactive because its chairman found other demands on his time more pressing.

¹⁶ In the 86th Congress, the House Committee on Government Operations had these subcommittees: executive and legislative reorganization, military operations, government activities, intergovernmental relations, foreign operations, and monetary affairs; the Senate Committees had: investigations, reorganization and international organizations, and national policy machinery.

¹⁷ Committees concerned with appropriations, armed services, District of Columbia, foreign affairs, judiciary and labor.

¹⁸ See section 133 of the Legislative Reorganization Act, P.L. 601, 79th Cong., 2d sess.; House Rule XI; Senate Rule XXV.

¹⁹ Watkins, Charles L. and Riddick, Floyd M., Senate Procedure S. Doc. 93, 85th Cong., 1st sess. 1958), p. 156Google Scholar and Hinds, Asher, Precedents of the House (Washington, 1907), Vol. IIIGoogle Scholar, sec. 1754.

²⁰ Senate Procedure, p. 529 and Precedents of the House, Vol. IV, sec. 4551.

²¹ For a fascinating example see Schwartz, Bernard, The Professor and the Commissions (New York, 1959)Google Scholar.

²² Meyers v. United States, 171 F (2d) 800 (1948).

²³ One or more senior members did not hold a subcommittee chairmanship on the committees on Agriculture, Appropriations, District of Columbia, Education and Labor, Government Operations, Judiciary, Post Office and Civil Service, Science and Astronautics, and Ways and Means. Neither the Rules nor the Un-American Activities committees have subcommittees.

²⁴ One or more of the senior members did not have a subcommittee chairmanship on the committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking and Currency, Government Operations, Interior and Insular Affairs, Judiciary, and Rules and Administration. Neither Aeronautical and Space Sciences nor the Finance committee had subcommittees. District of Columbia and Foreign Relations each had one Republican subcommittee chairman.

²⁵ Prior to the 84th Congress, the Judiciary Committee had a reciprocity custom, after a change in party control, of giving the previous chairman of the full committee a subcommittee chairmanship. Senator Wiley was chairman of patents in the 81st and 82d Congresses. Senator McCarran was chairman of judicial machinery in the 83d Congress.

²⁶ House Committee on Armed Services, “The Organization of the House Committee on Armed Services,” Committee print, Feb. 16, 1961, p. 9Google Scholar.

²⁷ Congressional Record, 82d Cong. 1st sess. (1951), p. 1174Google Scholar.

²⁸ The Senate exceptions are Appropriations subcommittees for commerce, interior and treasury; Judiciary's subcommittees on patents, codification and constitutional rights.

²⁹ This information has been gathered from House and Senate telephone directories, legislative calendars of the various committees and interviews with staff members of the 36 committees.

³⁰ Op. cit., p. 102.

³¹ It has been claimed that the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation is a device for keeping staff services from the more liberal, less senior members of the two revenue committees. This seems most applicable to the newer members of the Senate Finance Committee. Junior members of House Ways and Means say that they can get all the assistance they need from the Ways and Means staff which is three times as large as that of Finance. It may well be true that liberal members would not receive congenial staff assistance from any of the staff members of the three committees involved.

³² Congressional Record, 83d Cong., 1st sess. (1953), pp. 9092–9097, 9103–9107, 9242–9254, 10352–10363Google Scholar.

³³ Reportedly, it took great pressure from President Eisenhower to get chairman Hoffman to refer to subcommittees the proposals to establish the Second Hoover Commission and the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

³⁴ Congressional Record, 83d Cong., 1st sess. (1953), p. 9094Google Scholar. In a brief interview granted the author on August 19, 1960, Congressman Hoffman would only comment that the whole affair was the work of national labor leaders.