§015a. (CB) Activities Reports

Cyclopedia

Activity Reports from Committees

Derived from CRS Report (R45104):

All House committees and most Senate committees are required to prepare reports each Congress detailing their activities.

These committee activity reports provide a historical record of a committee’s legislative and oversight actions. They may serve as an introduction to the work of the individual committees, and, in many cases, they also provide information that is otherwise either not aggregated in one place or not available elsewhere.

The committee activity reports are required by the rules of the House (House Rule XI, clause 1(d)) and Senate (Senate Rule XXVI, clause 8(b)). The reporting requirement dates to the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (2 U.S.C. §190d).

Each report covers the activities for one Congress. In odd-numbered years, House reports are to be filed by January 2, while Senate reports are to be filed by March 31.

This report includes a discussion of the types of information that may be included in the activity reports, variations across reports and time, and the filing process.

A table provides a comparison of the committee activity reports and other congressional publications, including the types of information found in each as well as their timeframe for coverage and publication. For example, the activity reports may be more likely to provide discussion, analysis, or statistics than committee calendars (if published). They also provide a retrospective accounting of the actions taken by a particular committee, while House authorization and oversight plans, for example, provide information on prospective or planned actions.

House Rules Committee and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

The Committee on Rules of the House is required to included in its Activities Reports the waivers it has dispensed relating to Federal mandates. Section 107 (UMRA) states the following:

(b) Committee on Rules Reports on Waived Points of Order.—The Committee on Rules shall include in the report required by clause 1(d) of rule XI (relating to its activities during the Congress) of the Rules of the House of Representatives a separate item identifying all waivers of points of order relating to Federal mandates, listed by bill or joint resolution number and the subject matter of that measure.

Clause 1(d) (House Rule XI requires committees to submit Activities Reports, but it makes no mention of this requirement that the Rules Committee identify waivers of the UMRA Federal Mandate point of order in its report. The House Rules and Manual (115th Congress States the following: