Senate Committees
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This community contains a list of active Senate committees within the U.S. Congress. Names of committees that have changed over time will have previous names listed in the individual descriptions.
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Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Alternative names: Senate Committee on Education, Senate Education and Labor Committee, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Senate Committee on Human Resources, Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Established on January 28, 1869, this committee began in 1869 as the Committee on Education, and in 1884 through the mid-1900s it was known as the Education and Labor Committee. Then, in 1946, it became the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, it became the Committee on Human Resources and then the Committee on Labor and Human Resources. The current Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions became known as such in 1999, with jurisdiction over all proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials, and other matters relating to measures relating to education, labor, health, and public welfare; aging; agricultural colleges; arts and humanities; biomedical research and development; child labor; convict labor and the entry of goods made by convicts into interstate commerce; domestic activities of the American National Red Cross; equal employment opportunity; and more. For a more exact definition of this committee's authority, see Rule XXV, Clause 1(l)(1) of the Senate Manual.Senate Oversight Committee Historical and alternative names: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Senate Committee on Post Office and Postal Roads, Senate Committee on Post Office and Postal Roads/Post Office and Civil Service, Senate Committee on Retrenchment, Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, Senate Committee on Government Operations, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Established on October 9, 2004, this committee succeeded the Senate Committees on the District of Columbia (1816); Post Office and Civil Service (1816); Retrenchment (1842); Expenditures in the Executive Departments (1921); Government Operations (1952); and Governmental Affairs (1978). The current Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and accounting measures other than appropriations, the Census, the federal civil service, the affairs of the District of Columbia and the United States Postal Service. For a more exact definition of this committee's authority, see Rule XXV, Clause 1(k)(1) of the Senate Manual.