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The Committee on Energy
and Commerce
For 210 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.
To manage the wide variety of issues it
encounters, the Committee relies on the
front-line work of six subcommittees: the
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer
Protection, the Subcommittee on Energy and
Air Quality, the Subcommittee on Environment
and Hazardous Materials, the Subcommittee
on Health, the Subcommittee on Oversight
and Investigations, and the Subcommittee
on Telecommunications and the Internet.
These 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.
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'
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 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 tariffs.
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.
From a broader perspective, the Committee's
place in Congress can be can observed in
how it has kept pace overseeing the changing
avenues of commerce in the nation -- and
the world -- over the past two centuries.
The Committee's role in assuring a vibrant
economy has evolved with changing times
-- underscored recently by its groundbreaking
work on legislation that provides for innovation
in and expanded access to high-speed Internet
services. From the chiefly maritime-oriented
nature of interstate and foreign trade of
the early years of the Republic, to the
railroads and then air of the 19th and 20th
Centuries, to the telecommunications and
digital avenues developing rapidly and essentially
for continued prosperity in the 21st Century,
the Committee continues to look forward,
determined to assure the prosperity of our
great nation.
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and
the Internet
Congressman Lee Terry also serves on the
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the
Internet. This subcommittee deals with issues
regarding:
- Interstate and foreign telecommunications
including, but not limited to, all telecommunication
and information transmission by broadcast,
radio, wire, microwave, satellite, or
other mode; and,
- Homeland security-related aspects of
the foregoing, including cybersecurity.
Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous
Materials
Congressman Lee Terry serves on the Subcommittee
on Environment and Hazardous Materials.
This subcommittee deals with issues regarding:
- Environmental protection in general,
including the Safe Drinking Water Act
and risk assessment matters;
- Solid waste, hazardous waste and toxic
substances, including Superfund and RCRA;
- Mining, oil, gas, and coal combustion
wastes;
- Noise pollution control; and,
- Homeland security-related aspects of
the foregoing.
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and
Consumer Protection
Congressman Lee Terry serves on the Subcommittee
on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
This subcommittee deals with issues regarding:
- Interstate and foreign commerce, including
all trade matters within the jurisdiction
of the full committee;
- Regulation of commercial practices (the
FTC), including sports-related matters;
- Consumer affairs and consumer protection,
including privacy matters generally; consumer
product safety (the CPSC); and product
liability; and motor vehicle safety;
- Regulation of travel, tourism, and time;
and,
- Homeland security-related aspects of
the foregoing, including cybersecurity.
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