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Chapter 7
Key Congressional Committees for Nurses and Healthcare Issues
Like most large organizations, Congress does much of its work by committee. Both the Senate and House have numerous standing committees; members receive committee assignments at the start of each "new Congress." Unless something unusual happens (such as the death or midterm retirement of a member), committee assignments for members last an entire Congress (two years). Committee assignments are made by the leadership of each respective party and the committee ratios (i.e., number of Majority Members to Minority Members) are determined by the overall make up of Majority to Minority Members in the chamber as a whole. Each committee has two key leaders: a "chairperson," who is a member of the Majority party, and a "ranking member," who is the most senior member of the Minority party on the committee.
| Key Committees for Nurses and Healthcare Issues | |
|---|---|
| House of Representatives | Senate |
| Appropriations Committee: the committee that controls the federal purse strings and determines federal funding for all government functions, from defense to biomedical researchh | Appropriations Committee: the committee that controls the federal purse strings and determines federal funding for all government functions, from defense to biomedical research |
| Labor, Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee (LHHS): the specialized subcommittee that determines federal funding for federal agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education and all of their subagencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which administers the Nursing Workforce Development Programs) | Labor, Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee (LHHS): the specialized subcommittee that determines federal funding for several federal agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education and all of their subagencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which administers the Nursing Workforce Development Programs) |
| Energy and Commerce Committee and its Health Subcommittee: the authorizing committee with policy jurisdiction over the Medicaid program, Part B (outpatient services) of the Medicare program, and all non-Medicare and non-Medicaid healthcare issues (e.g., establishing and providing oversight to the cancer screening programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, policy issues related to the National Institutes of Health) | Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: the authorizing committee with jurisdiction over all non-Medicare and non-Medicaid healthcare policy issues (e.g., establishing and providing oversight to the cancer screening programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, policy issues related to the National Institutes of Health) |
| Ways and Means Committee and its Health Subcommittee: the authorizing committee with policy jurisdiction over the Medicare program (shares jurisdiction over certain parts of Medicare with the House Energy and Commerce Committee) | Finance Committee and its Health Subcommittee: the authorizing committee and subcommittee with policy jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs |
If your representative or either of your senators sits on one of these key committees, your participation in advocacy is even more important because these members play a key role in crafting, advancing, or defeating legislative proposals of concern to ONS. To learn on which committees your Members of Congress serve, visit the ONS Legislative Action Center at www.onslac.org or the Congress website (thomas.loc.gov), www.senate.gov, or www.house.gov.
The Health Policy Tool Kit is a project of the Oncology Nursing Society.
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