[20010308]98-317GOV_委员会听证会的类型.pdf

Congressional Research Service The Library of CongressCRS Report for CongressReceived through the CRS WebOrder Code 98-317 GOVUpdated March 8, 2001Types of Committee HearingsRichard C. SachsSpecialist in American National GovernmentGovernment and Finance DivisionCongressional committee hearings may be broadly classified into four types:legislative, oversight, investigative, and confirmation. Hearings may be held on CapitolHill or elsewhere, perhaps a committee members district or state or a site related to thesubject of the hearing. (These latter ones are often referred to as field hearings.)All hearings have a similar formal purpose, to gather information for use by thecommittee in its activities. Often, this information is used to shape legislation, even whenthe hearing is not specifically a legislative hearing. For this reason, all four types ofhearings share common characteristics, and the differences among them may appearindistinct. For example, investigative hearings are sometimes seen as a variety of oversighthearings. Hearings on a bill might also include oversight.One reason for these common characteristics is that a single set of rules in eachchamber governs the different