House Committee on Energy and Commerce -- http://energycommerce.house.gov

Welcome to PMC!

This background paper should serve as the starting point for your individual research of a specific policy topic. Here you will find information on your committee's jurisdiction, subcommittees, and current hot topics.  However, do not stop here - keep your eye on news events, check out government websites, search the internet for interesting topics that fall within this committee's scope, and above all -- think about important and relevant legislative issues that matter to you.   We look forward to reading your bill and to hearing a thoughtful debate on its merits at the conference.  Please remember to research the facts that drive your bill in order to solidify your arguments. Use the links on theDelegate Start Page to help you in this endeavor.  After your bill is submitted, review some of the other topics your committee is currently tackling in order to form opinions on issues engaged by the bills of your fellow delegates. 

We look forward to seeing you this year at the conference and good luck!

House Committee on Energy and Commerce

JURISDICTION:

For 206 years, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest legislative standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, has served as the principal guide for the House in matters relating to the promotion of commerce and to the public’s health and marketplace interests. 

In performing this historic function, the Committee has developed what is arguably the broadest (non-tax-oriented) jurisdiction of any Congressional committee. Today, it maintains principal responsibility for legislative oversight relating to telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, air quality and environmental health, the supply and delivery of energy, and interstate and foreign commerce in general. This jurisdiction extends over five Cabinet-level departments and seven independent agencies--from the Energy Department, Health and Human Services, the Transportation Department to the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and Federal Communications Commission—and sundry quasi-governmental organizations. 

The six subcommittees provide the full Committee with enormous flexibility to keep pace with American enterprise. Indeed, the history of the Committee on Energy and Commerce reflects the history of Congress as it has worked over the past 200 years to assure the prosperity of the nation’s dynamic economy and its citizens.

COMMITTEE BACKGROUND:

The Committee was originally formed as the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures on December 14, 1795.  Prior to this, legislation was drafted in the Committee of the Whole or in special ad hoc committees, appointed for specific limited purposes.  However the growing demands of the new nation required that Congress establish a permanent committee to manage its Constitutional authority to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States.” 

From this time forward, as the nation grew and Congress dealt with new public policy concerns and created new committees, the Energy and Commerce Committee has maintained its dominant and central position as Congress’s monitor of our nation’s commercial progress—a focus reflected in its changing jurisdiction, both in name and practice.

In 1819, the Committee’s name was changed to the Committee on Commerce, reflecting the creation of a separate Manufacturers Committee and also the increasing scope of and complexity of American commercial activity, which was expanding the Committee’s jurisdiction from navigational aids and the nascent Federal health service to foreign trade and tarrifs.  Thomas J. Bliley, who chaired the Committee from 1995 to 2000, chose to use this traditional name, which underscores the Committee’s role for Congress on this front.  

In 1891, in emphasis of the Committee’s evolving activities, the name was again changed to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce—a title it maintained until 1981, when, under incoming Chairman John D. Dingell, the Committee first assumed what is now its present name to emphasize its lead role in guiding our nation’s energy policy, which is essential for assuring commercial prosperity. 

In practice, the wide-ranging work of the Committee on Energy and Commerce today builds upon a long record of achievement, which has tracked the dynamic growth of the nation from the early days of the Republic. The Committee’s initial achievements overseeing the Federal health service for sick and disabled seaman developed, eventually, into its oversight now of the Public Health Service and National Institutes of Health.  Its historic jurisdiction over health, safety, and commerce generally also can be traced in the evolution of and continued oversight through such landmark legislation as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Clean Air Act, as well as the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the U.S. Code’s Motor Vehicle Safety provisions.  Today, when the public reads about the auto safety goals of the TREAD Act or about  national energy policy, it can trace these measures back to the seminal legislation produced by the Committee over the years.  

SUBCOMMITTEES:

Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection

Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality

Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials

Subcommittee on Health

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

CURRENT LEGISLATION TOPICS:

Financial accounting standards in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals

Impediments to digital drade

Charitable contributions for September 11 and proteting against fraud, waste, and abuse

Efforts to address cyber threats

Business usage of customer information and privacy issues

Effectiveness of leaking underground storage tank cleanup programs

Federal government's response to nuclear terrprosm at national ports and borders

Electronic communications networks in the wake of September 11

Bioterrorism and proposals to combat it

Modernization and development of the Medicare program

Providing prescription drug coverage for seniors through Medicare

Defining concerns over the possible dangers of imported pharmaceuticals

Campaign finance reform

Security of government computer systems

Email spam and its effects on advertising and commerce

MEMBERS:

W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Louisiana, Chairman

Michael Bilirakis, Florida

Joe Barton, Texas

Fred Upton, Michigan

Cliff Stearns, Florida

Paul E. Gillmor, Ohio

James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania

Christopher Cox, California

Nathan Deal, Georgia

Richard Burr, North Carolina, Vice Chairman

Ed Whitfield, Kentucky

Charlie Norwood, Georgia

Barbara Cubin, Wyoming

John Shimkus, Illinois

Heather Wilson, New Mexico

John B. Shadegg, Arizona

Charles "Chip" Pickering, Mississippi

Vito Fossella, New York

Roy Blunt, Missouri

Steve Buyer, Indiana

George Radanovich, California

Charles F. Bass, New Hampshire

Joseph R. Pitts, Pennsylvania

Mary Bono, California

Greg Walden, Oregon

Lee Terry, Nebraska

Ernie Fletcher, Kentucky

Mike Ferguson, New Jersey

Mike Rogers, Michigan

Darrell Issa, California

C.L. "Butch" Otter, Idaho

John D. Dingell, Michigan, Ranking Member

Henry A. Waxman, California

Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts

Ralph M. Hall, Texas

Rick Boucher, Virginia

Edolphus Towns, New York

Frank Pallone Jr., New Jersey

Sherrod Brown, Ohio

Bart Gordon, Tennessee

Peter Deutsch, Florida

Bobby L. Rush, Illinois

Anna G. Eshoo, California

Bart Stupak, Michigan

Eliot L. Engel, New York

Albert R. Wynn, Maryland

Gene Green, Texas

Karen McCarthy, Missouri

Ted Strickland, Ohio

Diana DeGette, Colorado

Lois Capps, California

Michael F. Doyle, Pennsylvania

Christopher John, Louisiana

Tom Allen, Maine

Jim Davis, Florida

Jan Schakowsky, Illinois