Committees are essential to the effective operation of legislative bodies. Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. As "little legislatures," committees monitor on-going governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information; and recommend courses of action to their parent body.
The Senate currently operates 24 of these fact-finding, consensus-building, policy-recommending panels. Although many are almost as old as the Senate itself, senators periodically update their jurisdictions and resources to meet the evolving demands of modern American life.
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The Appropriations committee is the largest Senate committee and is responsible for discretionary spending. This committee also contains subcommittees, who concentrate on government agencies such as Homeland Security and Defense. Two major responsibilities of this committee are to create spending bills and to make funding recommendations for the federal budget.
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