<P> The House also has one permanent committee that is not a standing committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and from time to time may establish committees that are temporary and advisory in nature, such as the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming . This latter committee, created in the 110th Congress and reauthorized for the 111th, has no jurisdiction over legislation and must be chartered anew at the start of every Congress . The House also appoints members to serve on joint committees, which include members of the Senate and House . Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress . Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation . Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees . Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees . </P> <P> Each House committee and subcommittee is led by a chairman (always a member of the majority party). From 1910 to the 1970s, committee chairs were powerful . Woodrow Wilson in his classic study, suggested: </P> <P> Power is nowhere concentrated; it is rather deliberately and of set policy scattered amongst many small chiefs . It is divided up, as it were, into forty - seven seigniories, in each of which a Standing Committee is the court - baron and its chairman lord - proprietor . These petty barons, some of them not a little powerful, but none of them within the reach of the full powers of rule, may at will exercise almost despotic sway within their own shires, and may sometimes threaten to convulse even the realm itself . </P> <P> From 1910 to 1975 committee and subcommittee chairmanship was determined purely by seniority; congressmembers sometimes had to wait 30 years to get one, but their chairship was independent of party leadership . The rules were changed in 1975 to permit party caucuses to elect chairmen, shifting power upward to the party leaders . In 1995, Republicans under Newt Gingrich set a limit of three two - year terms for committee chairs . The chairman's powers are extensive; he controls the committee / subcommittee agenda, and may prevent the committee from dealing with a bill . The senior member of the minority party is known as the Ranking Member . In some committees like Appropriations, partisan disputes are few . </P>

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