On some congressional committees the majority has a huge advantage and on others there is a more equal division of seats. How are the numbers of Republicans and Democrats on each committee determined? London, England - 5/3/00

To the victor goes the spoils. The specific number of majority/minority seats on committees are decided by the majority party leaders in each chamber after "consultation" with the minority leaders. In actual practice, the degree of consultation is minimal in the House and maximum in the Senate. As a general rule, the guideline in both chambers is to approximate the ratio of seats on committees to that of majority to minority membership in the full chamber. While the Senate adheres to this principle, the House does so for only 5 of its 20 standing committees.

Senate committees all have a ratio which reflects the number of majority to minority members in the chamber overall. This gives the Republican majority a 2-seat advantage over the Democratic minority on each committee. This careful adherence to fairness is understandable in a chamber which operates so much by unanimous consent -- a practice requiring reciprocity, collegiality, and comity among Senators.

In contrast, the House tradition of firm majority control makes for wider discrepancies in the party ratios on House committees. For example, for many years the House Rules Committee has had 9 majority party members to 4 minority: a ratio of better than 2 to 1. The ratio is set to assure that the minority can never win. The Rules Committee acts almost as an extension of the Speaker's office, and there is no pretense at partisan balance on that committee. For other "power" committees, e.g. Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Budget, the majority receives slightly more seats than its ratio in the overall House. This assures the majority will stay in firm control of these important panels.

At the other end of the spectrum, the House Ethics Committee has long been equally divided between majority and minority seats to assure partisan balance. More recently, the newly created Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, was established with a ratio of 5 Republicans to 4 Democrats, a reflection of the need for an investigative committee to maintain credibility through partisan fairness.