...its committees from time to time recommend."* No wonder, as Mr. Woodrow Wilson humourously says, " As a rule a bill committed is a bill doomed. When...its death are unknown, but its friends never see it again."f But it might be supposed that when the committees do report to the House, full debate would...

...proper disposition of any bill which thus seems to lie within two distinct committee jurisdictions ? The fate of bills committed is generally not uncertain....death are unknown, but its friends never see it again. Of course no Standing Committee is privileged to take upon itself the full powers of the House it represents,...

...Woodrow Wilson, writing his doctoral dissertation in 1885, described this prerogative, "When [a bill] goes from the clerk's desk to a committee-room it...dungeons of silence whence it will never return." 4 By the turn of the century committees were fairly independent of chamber and party control and committee...

..."as a rule, a bill committed is a bill doomed. When it goes from a clerk's desk to a committee room it crosses a parliamentary bridge of sighs to dim...silence whence it will never return. The means and times of its deaths are unknown, but its friends never see it again." 54 Congress always has and always...

...1985, Niskanen 1971, Smith 1989). According to Wilson, a bill that is opposed by a committee inevitably crosses a "parliamentary bridge of sighs to dim dungeons of silence whence it will never return" ([1885] 1985, 69). Committee gatekeeping power, as well as other powers that enable committees to determine...

...little more than a decade earlier Wilson used this colorful language to describe legislative panels: [A] bill committed is a bill doomed. When it goes...its death are unknown, but its friends never see it again.14 For Wilson, as for Jefferson, powerful committees were worrisome. These dim dungeons prevented...

...Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. New York: WW Norton. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS When [a bill] goes from the clerk's desk to a committeeroom it crosses...dim dungeons of silence whence it will never return. (Wilson, 1885, p. 58) [Congressional government is] a government by the chairmen of the Standing Committees...

...proper disposition of any bill which thus seems to lie within two distinct committee jurisdictions? The fate of bills committed is generally not uncertain....death are unknown, but its friends never see it again. Of course no Standing Committee is privileged to take upon itself the full powers of the House it represents,...

...stop for innovative policy ideas that did not please committee chairs, who serve as the executioners: "The fate of bills committed is generally not uncertain....death are unknown, but its friends never see it again" (63). Reformers in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s used a similar critique of the committee system to bolster...

...committee, it is most unlikely that it will ever come before the consideration of the particular House. 'The fate of bills committed is generally not uncertain....death are unknown, but its friends never see it again. Of course no Standing Committee is privileged to take upon itself the full powers of the House it represents,...