Dumb question, but why does the House have a judiciary committee?

[Ninja Jordan]

GOP has been pumping the fact that, if control of the House changes, John Conyers would be chair of the House Judiciary Committee. I was under the impression that judicial appointments were under control of the Senate, not the House. What role does the House actually play in jurciary issues?

[William769]

1. US House Judiciary Committee

Has jurisdiction over measures relating to law, courts and judges, Constitutional amendments, immigration, patents and trademarks, interstate compacts, ...

[napi21]

2. The majority also has subpoena power!

It would be the House judiciary committee that would initiate the investigation into IMPEACHMENT hearings!!!!!

[Ninja Jordan]

3. I see

thanks

[pat_k]

4. Like other committees. . .

. . .they review legislation that falls within their jurisdiction and vote for or against recommending and sending to the floor with committee report and markup. When a bill is introduced, it gets assigned to the committee with juridiction over the issues (and often multiple committees).

Committees also take up issues on their own. For example, the policy committee invited retired generals to testify. Sometimes they stretch the bounds of their jurisdiction to investigate and bring attention to something that is being neglected elsewhere.

I'd have to verify, but I think the committees in House and Senate cover pretty much the same areas.

[BattyDem]

5. They say "Conyers would be the chairman" like it's a bad thing

:evilgrin: