United States Senate

===Committees===
{{Main|United States congressional committee}}
[[File:Dirksen226.jpg|thumb|Committee Room 226 in the [[Dirksen Senate Office Building]], used for hearings by the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]]]]
The Senate uses committees (and their subcommittees) for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. Formally, the whole Senate appoints committee members. In practice, however, the choice of members is made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual senators, giving priority based on seniority. Each party is allocated seats on committees in proportion to its overall strength.

Most committee work is performed by 16 standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a field such as [[finance]] or [[International relations|foreign relations]]. Each standing committee may consider, amend, and report bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Furthermore, each standing committee considers presidential nominations to offices related to its jurisdiction. (For instance, the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Judiciary Committee]] considers nominees for judgeships, and the [[Foreign Relations Committee]] considers nominees for positions in the [[Department of State]].) Committees may block nominees and impede bills from reaching the floor of the Senate. Standing committees also oversee the departments and [[Government agency#United States|agencies]] of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to [[subpoena]] witnesses and evidence.

Each Senate committee and subcommittee is led by a chair (usually a member of the majority party). Formerly, committee chairs were determined purely by seniority; as a result, several elderly senators continued to serve as chair despite severe physical infirmity or even [[Dementia|senility]].<ref>See, for examples, ''American Dictionary of National Biography'' on [[John Sherman]] and [[Carter Glass]]; in general, Ritchie, ''Congress'', p. 209</ref> Committee chairs are elected, but, in practice, seniority is rarely bypassed. The chairs hold extensive powers: they control the committee's agenda, and so decide how much, if any, time to devote to the consideration of a bill; they act with the power of the committee in disapproving or delaying a bill or a nomination by the president; they manage on the floor of the full Senate the consideration of those bills the committee reports. This last role was particularly important in mid-century, when floor amendments were thought not to be collegial. They also have considerable influence: senators who cooperate with their committee chairs are likely to accomplish more good for their states than those who do not. The Senate rules and customs were reformed in the twentieth century, largely in the 1970s. Committee chairmen have less power and are generally more moderate and collegial in exercising it, than they were before reform.<ref>Ritchie, ''Congress'', p. 44. Zelizer, ''On Capitol Hill'' describes this process; one of the reforms is that seniority within the majority party ''can'' now be bypassed, so that chairs do run the risk of being deposed by their colleagues. See in particular p. 17, for the unreformed Congress, and pp.188–9, for the Stevenson reforms of 1977.</ref> The second-highest member, the spokesperson on the committee for the minority party, is known in most cases as the ranking member.<ref>Ritchie, ''Congress'', pp .44, 175, 209</ref>