Congressional Committees with Jurisdiction over R&D, Education

Members of Congress make numerous decisions impacting the funding and conduct of federal R&D. Yet many observe that they get little input from their constituents about science policy or budgets.

Those Members with probably the biggest impact on science programs are the appropriators -- the Members who hold the purse strings. There are 13 appropriations subcommittees in each chamber of Congress. Within those subcommittees, R&D agencies often have to compete for funding with other priorities, such as veterans’ medical care or the Army Corps of Engineers. The drafting of appropriations bills begins after the President has submitted his budget request. The bills must work their way through each chamber, from subcommittee to the full appropriations committee to the floor. The House and Senate then hold a conference to reconcile their versions of a bill, hold a final vote in each chamber, and then send it to the President for signing, ideally before the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

Authorizing committees hold oversight hearings to review, revise and extend existing programs and approve new ones. The bills that come out of an authorizing committee provide funding caps or guidelines for federal programs. While in theory, appropriators are supposed to be guided by authorizing legislation when determining federal funding, in reality they do not necessarily heed the authorizers, and many authorization bills never make it into law. However, authorization bills, if they are timely, can often influence funding for a project or agency.

There are several major appropriations and authorization (sub)committees in each chamber that have jurisdiction over most federal programs tracked by FYI. To know what Members sit on committees of interest to you, or to determine if your representative or senators are on a certain committee, please see the (sub)committee web sites below. You can also find information on the committee Chairs, Ranking Minority Members, addresses, phone, jurisdiction, news, hearing schedules and testimony on many of these web sites. Note that the appropriations subcommittees are identified as appropriations in the title; all others are authorizing (sub)committees.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3: