| U.s. House Committee On Ways And Means |
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Constitutionally all bills regarding taxation must originate in the House of Representatives, and House procedure is that all bills regarding taxation must go through this committee. This makes this house committee particularly powerful, especially in comparison with its Senate counterpart, the U.S. Senate Committee On Finance . The Ways and Means Committee is chaired by Representative Bill Thomas , Republican of California . The ranking Democrat is Charles Rangel of New York . HISTORY OF THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE The idea of a " Committee Of Ways And Means " to handle the financial matters of a legislature is older than the Federal Congress, having been used in the English Parliament and the colonial and State legislatures in America. The Ways and Means Committee was first established during the first Congress, in 1789 . However, this initial version was disbanded after only 8 weeks; for the next several years, only ad hoc committees were formed, to write up laws on notions already debated in the whole House. A permanent committee for Ways and Means was not officially created until Thursday, January 7 , 1802 , consisting of seven members. Upon its original creation, it held power over both taxes and spending, until the spending power was given to the new Appropriations Committee in 1865 . Three future presidents - James K. Polk , Millard Fillmore , and William McKinley - served as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS In recent times, Ways and Means has been one of the most important committees in a policy sense, due to its wide jurisdiction. While it lacks the prospects for reelection help that come with the Appropriations Committee, it is seen as a valuable post for two reasons. First, since its range is so broad, members with a wide array of policy concerns often seek positions, simply to be able to influence policy decisions. Major issues that have gone through this committee read like a laundry list of important bills, including Welfare Reform , a Medicare Prescription Drug benefit, President George W. Bush 's tax cuts, and NAFTA and other free trade agreements. Second, given the wide array of interests that are affected by the committee, a seat makes it very easy to collect Campaign Contributions . CURRENT MEMBERS Republicans
Democrats
SUBCOMMITTEES There are six Ways and Means subcommittees:
CHAIRMEN OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, 1805-PRESENT
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