Skip to main content

Committees and Caucuses

Committees

In addition to their other responsibilities, Members of Congress are appointed by the Majority and Minority Leaders to serve on House committees. Committees are small groups of Members, both Democrats and Republicans, who hold committee hearings and debate legislation specific to the focus-area of that committee.

A committee is usually the first stop for a bill. So, for example, if a bill is focused on Wall Street regulation, it will usually first be debated by the Committee on Financial Services – because Wall Street regulation falls within that committee’s ‘jurisdiction.’ If a majority of Members of that Committee vote to support the bill, then it will go to the House floor where all Representatives vote on it.

Although Members can request which committee they serve on, they are not guaranteed a spot. House Leadership will sometimes appoint a Member to a committee because it aligns with their professional expertise or their district’s interest - for example, several Members of the House Armed Services Committee are veterans or represent districts with large military bases. Since committees can dictate which legislation makes it to the floor for a larger vote, there is sometimes intense competition for committee spots, and then seniority or more political considerations dictate who House Leadership chooses for those spots.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez serves on The Committee of Oversight and Reform, which is the main investigative committee in the House. In January 2023, she was selected as the Vice Ranking Member — the #2 spot for Democrats on the committee. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has used these committee hearings to pressure big pharma into bringing down the price of prescription drugs. Under the Trump administration, she also led President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to state on the record that President Trump was engaging in tax fraud and to name other potential witnesses. And more famously, it was through an Oversight and Reform Hearing, that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez pressured Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s failure to fact-check political advertising.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez also serves as a first-time member on The Committee on Natural Resources and as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. This committeeconsiders legislation about American energy production, mineral lands and mining, fisheries and wildlife, public lands, oceans, irrigation and more.Already, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has used her time on the Natural Resources Committee to propose an amendment requiring the collecting of public health data in response to new drilling on federal lands.

Caucuses

Unlike Committees, Members can usually join a Caucus without being appointed and there’s no limit on the number of members. Caucuses generally serve to build voting coalitions. For example, in 2019, the Congressional Progressive Caucus had enough of their Members willing to withhold their votes from a bill that gave big giveaways to major pharmaceutical companies– that House leadership was forced to alter the bill to protect employer-sponsored health plans from drug spikes, among other changes.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus, the Democratic Women’s Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the LGBT Equality Caucus, Congressional Bangladesh Caucus and the Quiet Skies Caucus - a caucus in support of reducing aircraft noise pollution. The Congresswoman represents the community surrounding LaGaurdia Airport.