Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, in the 103d Congress, as the chair of the Democratic caucus committee on oversight, study, and review, I…”

“Mr. Speaker, in the 103d Congress, as the chair of the Democratic caucus committee on oversight, study, and review, I was responsible for drafting the Democratic caucus rules that implemented most of the current limitations on the number of subcommittees that any committee may have. While working on this issue, I had the opportunity to review the history of the House on the issue of the number of committees and subcommittees. I found that in each major reorganization, the number of committees and subcommittees was reduced. However, in each case soon thereafter the number of each began to creep upward again. Therefore, it is of little surprise to me that the majority is beginning to retreat from its self-proclaimed reforms. What I do find surprising is that they are making this exception with so little thought and displaying a notable lack of planning and foresight. At last night's Committee on Rules meeting, only the chair of the subcommittee that currently has oversight over the census testified. He was unable to tell us how much the additional subcommittee would cost. He was unable to tell us where the extra funds would come from. He was unable to tell us why the committee chose not to reorganize their seven subcommittees so that the subcommittee with the census would have fewer other areas of jurisdiction.”