Guide to Committee Activity Reports: Purpose, Rules, and Contents
Released: 2018-02-15T00:00:00

Overview and Introduction

Both the House and Senate have adopted rules requiring their committees to produce regular reports of their activities.

Pursuant to House Rule XI, clause 1(d)(1), each House standing committee is to submit a report to the House no later than January 2 of each odd-numbered year detailing its activities during the closing Congress.

Pursuant to Senate Rule XXVI, paragraph 8(b), each Senate standing committee—with the exception of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Budget Committee—is to submit its report to the Senate no later than March 31 of each odd-numbered year, covering activities for the previous Congress.

As a record of a committee's legislative and oversight actions, the reports may provide valuable information for Members of Congress and their staff interested in learning more about a Member's new committee assignments or committee activities in certain subject areas. The reports may also be a useful tool for new committee staff to learn about recent actions.

More broadly, the activity reports provide a public record of the actions of congressional committees as well as insight into the role of committees in congressional legislative oversight. In many cases, they also provide information that is otherwise either not aggregated in one place or not available elsewhere. The variations in the reports also illuminate some of the differences in committees, including their internal structure, norms, and operations.

This CRS report will address

the purpose and history of these reports, including their predecessors; required contents of the reports; House and Senate Rules regarding the filing of reports; a discussion of the types of information that may be included; variations in the organization of the reports among committees; provisions related to the inclusion of supplemental, minority, additional, or dissenting views; additional historical changes to House and Senate Rules regarding the reports, including recent changes to frequency of the reports in the House and the 1974 revisions to the list of committees required to prepare activity reports; and the differences between the committee activity reports and other congressional publications, including committee calendars, House and Senate calendars, the Résumé of Congressional Activity , and the House Document Repository at docs.house.gov. Table 1 provides examples of the types of information found in each publication as well as their timeframe for coverage and publication.

Finally, the Appendix lists activity reports issued by House and Senate committees covering activities of the 110 th , 111 th , 112 th , 113 th , and 114 th Congresses.

Purpose and History

The development of committee activity reports is closely tied to congressional reform and reorganization efforts more generally.

The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 reorganized the House and Senate committee system, including the number and jurisdiction of congressional committees and their authorities, roles, and responsibilities. Section 136 of the act provided for a predecessor to the current committee activity report requirement, stating that

each standing committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives shall exercise continuous watchfulness of the execution by the administrative agencies concerned of any laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdiction of such committee; and, for that purpose, shall study all pertinent reports and data submitted to the Congress by the agencies in the executive branch of the Government.

Following the enactment of this law, many committees regularly published reports outlining their activities, either as committee prints or committee reports.

In the late 1960s, Congress considered further revisions to the committee system. This internal congressional examination culminated in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. Pursuant to this act, the "continuous watchfulness" function of committees was transformed to one providing for "legislative review." The act called for each standing committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to

review and study, on a continuing basis, the application, administration, and execution of those laws, or parts of laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdiction of that committee.

The 1970 act also formalized the requirement for periodic activity reports. A report accompanying the legislation summarized the linkage between the new role for committees and the reporting requirement, stating that

the intent of this requirement of a report every two years is to provide the House with an additional means of appraising the results of the legislation which it has approved and to emphasize the importance of the legislative review function of the House standing committees.

The requirement for these reports, which appears at 2 U.S.C. §190d, was subsequently incorporated into the House and Senate Rules.

Required Contents of the Reports

House Rules for the 115 th Congress state that the committee activity reports are to include

separate sections summarizing the committee's legislative and oversight activities conducted pursuant to House Rule X and House Rule XI; a summary of the committee's oversight and authorization plans, which are required by House Rule X, clause 2(d); a summary of the actions taken and recommendations made with respect to these authorization and oversight plans; a summary of any additional oversight activities undertaken by a committee and any recommendations made or related actions; and a delineation of any hearings held on the topics of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement. Pursuant to clause 2 of House Rule XI, committees are required "to hold at least one hearing during each 120-day period" on these topics. The hearings are to focus in particular on reports from inspectors general or the Comptroller General of the United States and programs or operations that are considered "high-risk."

Senate Rules do not specifically address required contents, other than to say that the reports are to cover activities carried out under Senate Rule XXVI(8)(a). This paragraph states that,

(a) In order to assist the Senate in—

(1) its analysis, appraisal, and evaluation of the application, administration, and execution of the laws enacted by the Congress, and

(2) its formulation, consideration, and enactment of such modifications of or changes in those laws, and of such additional legislation, as may be necessary or appropriate, each standing committee (except the Committees on Appropriations and the Budget), shall review and study, on a continuing basis the application, administration, and execution of those laws, or parts of laws, the subject matter of which is within the legislative jurisdiction of that committee....

Filing the Reports

Both the House and Senate reports cover an entire Congress and are to be filed each odd-numbered year.

Pursuant to House Rule XI, clause 1(d)(1), reports are to be filed by January 2. A House chair may file the report after the sine die adjournment or after December 15 of an even-numbered year, whichever occurs first. The report is filed with the Clerk of the House. House Rules do not require committee approval of the report, although a copy of the report must be available to each committee member for at least seven calendar days. House committee activity reports generally include a letter of transmittal from the chair of the committee to the Clerk. One committee—the House Ethics Committee, which is comprised of an equal number of Members from the majority and minority party pursuant to House Rule X—generally has included a transmittal letter signed by both the chair and ranking minority member. A few committees have included in their transmittal letters a disclaimer indicating the "document is intended as a general reference tool, and not as a substitute for the hearing records, reports, and other committee files."

Pursuant to Senate Rule XXVI, paragraph 8(b), reports are to be filed by March 31. As stated above, the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Budget Committee are exempt from this requirement. In addition to the other standing committees, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also regularly files these reports. Committees sometimes have filed a report late or not at all, and it is not clear how the Senate Rule requiring activity reports could be enforced by the full Senate.

Additionally, House and Senate committees are required to adopt their own rules. While these rules cannot conflict with the chamber rules, the committee rules may further address the filing process for activity reports.

Additional Contents and Variations

The activity reports are as varied as the committees that produce them. Across committees, they may differ in organization, level of detail, and information covered. These variations also appear across time, as individual chairs may influence the priorities of their committees. Consequently, comparisons across committees or across time using information only found in these reports may be challenging.

Organization

Some reports are organized by topic, while others are organized by full committee and subcommittee activities. Additional organizational or administrative variations in activity reports include whether or not they contain

an overview or history of the committee, a foreword from the committee chair, a table of contents, information on subcommittee jurisdictions and memberships, and listings of names and titles of senior or other staff.

Inclusion of Supplemental, Minority, Additional, or Dissenting Views

Pursuant to House Rules, House committee activity reports are to include "any supplemental, minority, additional, or dissenting views submitted by a member of the committee." The frequency with which these additional views appear varies greatly across committees. For example, activity reports from the Committees on Homeland Security, on Rules, on Education and the Workforce, and on House Administration contained additional views in at least 9 of the possible 15 reports issued since the 104 th Congress. Conversely, a number of committees—for example, the Committees on Appropriations, Intelligence, Ethics, Armed Services, Natural Resources, and Small Business—rarely, if ever, contained these views during the same period. The length of additional views has also varied, from a few sentences to more than 50 pages.

Senate Rules do not address the inclusion of additional views in activity reports. Their inclusion appears to be infrequent.

Types of Information Included and Presentation

Aside from the required contents addressed in the House and Senate Rules, broad discretion is given to each committee in preparing its own report.

The committee activity reports vary in their level of detail in describing oversight activities and hearings. Some committees provide lists of these actions, while others provide lengthy descriptions, analysis, and appendices. Relatedly, while many provide lists of documents, correspondence, or publications, some contain full-text reproductions. These variations are evident in the varying lengths of these reports—for example, House activity reports for the 114 th Congress ranged in length from 22 pages to 485 pages; Senate activity reports that have been submitted as of the date of this report range from 20 pages to 130 pages.

The activity reports provide an overview of a variety of issues within the committee's jurisdiction. They may also address actions taken and work produced by the individual committees, including, for example,

committee publications , including information on published and unpublished hearings; public statements and press releases ; " Dear Colleague " letters issued by the committee chair; committee resolutions . The use of committee resolutions may vary by committee, but they may include internal committee agreements concerning the adoption of committee rules, authorization and oversight plans, or the committee organization. Committees may also consider resolutions that are specific to their jurisdictional responsibilities; correspondence to or from executive branch or other officials, including related presidential messages and proclamations; a copy or summary of the committee's " views and estimates ," which addresses budgetary matters within its jurisdiction. Some committees also include minority comments on the "views and estimates"; memoranda clarifying jurisdictional agreements between committees; information on Member or staff travel , including locations visited, issues investigated, or conferences or other events attended; conference committee appointments; approval by the committee of consultant contracts ; information on committee witnesses , arranged by hearing or by category (e.g., congressional, executive branch, nongovernmental, and foreign); activities specific to the Senate, for Senate committees (i.e., consideration of tr eat ies and nominations ); activities specific to roles and responsibilities of certain committees or pursuant to various laws (for example, advice and guidance from the House or Senate Committee on Ethics; information on waivers of House Rules, the Budget Act, or the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act by the House Committee on Rules; and participation in international conferences and "Committee-Hosted Dignitary Meetings" by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs); petitions and m emorials submitted to the committee; investigations conducted by the committee; support provided by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), including reports requested or issued and related high-risk areas identified; special studies or task forces ; information on examinations into " waste, fraud, abuse, and m ismanagement "; information on regulatory review efforts ; and publications prepared separately by the majority or minority members or staff of the committee.

Some reports also include tabular information and statistical summaries of committee meetings, including the number of days or pages of hearings, and the number of field hearings, joint hearings, closed hearings, business meetings, markup sessions, or witnesses.

Others include tables providing information on legislation considered by the committee, including the total number of bills and resolutions referred to the committee, reported, and passed by the chamber, or enacted into law.

Additional Rules Changes Affecting Activity Reports

Recent Changes to Frequency in the House of Representatives: 112th-114th Congresses

Generally, since 1970, one committee activity report has been required each Congress.

The House recently experimented with increasing the frequency of these reports, before reverting to the prior practice of one report, issued at the end of each Congress. More specifically, the House Rules have provided for

one report per Congress (92 nd –111 th Congresses); biannual reports, totaling four reports each Congress (112 th Congress); annual reports, totaling two reports each Congress (113 th Congress); and one report per Congress (114 th and 115 th Congresses).

1974 Revisions to Committees Required to Prepare Activity Reports

Pursuant to House Rule XI, the requirement for activity reports has applied to all House committees since the 94 th Congress (1975-1976). From the enactment of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 until the 94 th Congress, the House Committees on Appropriations, House Administration, Rules, Ethics (formerly Standards of Official Conduct), and Budget (upon its establishment in 1974) were exempt from the requirement that committees file activity reports. These committees had originally been exempted from the 1970 act, according to the accompanying House report, "because ... their respective areas of jurisdiction do not embrace legislative areas of the type contemplated by the legislative review provisions of the revised clause ... The inclusion of these committees within the purview of that clause would, therefore, be meaningless." The exception was removed with the adoption of H.Res. 988 (93 rd Congress), the Committee Reform Amendments of 1974, on October 8, 1974.

An exemption from the reporting requirement for the Senate Budget Committee was added to Senate Rule XXVI, paragraph 8(b), upon the creation of the committee in 1974.

Committee Activity Reports Compared to Other Congressional Publications

In addition to the committee activity reports, the House and Senate each produce a number of other publications that document their activities. These publications vary in their frequency, content, scope (e.g., coverage of the entire chamber or only certain committees), and how they are issued (e.g., as committee reports, committee documents, House or Senate documents, printing in the Congressional Record , or online-only availability). Table 1 provides a brief comparison of selected publications.

The committee activity reports, compared to the other publications, may be more likely to provide discussion, analysis, or statistics. They also aggregate selected types of information about a committee in one place. They also differ from some of the other publications since they provide a retrospective accounting of the actions taken by a particular committee, rather than information on prospective, planned, or ongoing actions.

Appendix. List of Activity Reports