Standing Committees Frequently Asked Questions About NCSL Standing Committees

The NCSL Standing Committees are composed of legislators and legislative staff. Legislators are appointed by the leadership of the legislatures and staff by agency directors. The committees are the main organizational mechanism for serving NCSL members. There are eight committees that deal with both state and state-federal issues:

Budgets and Revenue, Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Labor and Economic Development, Law, Criminal Justice and Public Safety and Natural Resources and Infrastructure.

The Standing Committees allow legislators and staff to benefit from the experiences of other states in shaping public policy, experimenting with new laws, and managing the legislative institutions. Committee members explore issues that states have to deal with, but committees do not recommend policy to the legislatures on issues that are internal to the states.

Committees do develop policy on state-federal issues to guide NCSL's lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. NCSL's Washington staff lobby the Congress, the White House and federal agencies for the benefit of state legislatures in accord with the policy directives and resolutions recommended by the Standing Committees and adopted at the NCSL Annual Business Meeting. 

The committees' jurisdictions are divided by subject, like the committee jurisdictions in every legislature.

The committees meet virtually throughout the year and in the summer at the NCSL Legislative Summit. These meetings provide members an opportunity to attend informative educational sessions with national experts, exchange information through dialog and network with colleagues from around the country. In addition to the meetings, committees disseminate information through special seminars, webinars, conference calls and a variety of written documents. As needed, committees also consider and adopt policy directives and resolutions for NCSL.

There are eight committees: Budgets and Revenue; Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce; Education; Health and Human Services; Labor and Economic Development; Law, Criminal Justice and Public Safety; Natural Resources and Infrastructure; and Redistricting and Elections.

The NCSL president and president-elect select the legislator officers and the NCSL staff chair selects the legislative staff officers of the NCSL Standing Committees. Legislator and legislative staff committee officers serve a term of two years.

Each biennium, presiding officers and staff directors in all the states are asked to appoint members for each of the committees. Terms for members of committees are two years.

Members are asked to bring the perspective of their chamber to the state issues the committee addresses and to the state-federal policy directives and resolutions the committee develops. Members identify topics for the committee to explore and may serve as speakers or moderators for committee programs. Members consider and vote on state-federal policy directives and  resolutions developed by the committee. Members are sometimes recruited to testify before congressional committees on committee policy directives and resolutions or to meet with federal agency officials. It's desirable for members to attend the committee meetings, but they also communicate their perspectives to committee officers and the NCSL committee staff. Only legislators present at committee meetings are allowed to vote on committee policy directives and resolutions.

Officers are expected to give leadership to the committees by helping to define the committee's agenda, plan activities at the forums, preside over committee sessions, and identify ways to disseminate information to committee members outside of the meetings. In addition, the officers of all committees work together to ensure that the committees are an effective outlet for the exchange of information among legislators and staff.

No. Committee meetings and the NCSL Legislative Summit are open to all legislators and legislative staff, regardless of committee membership. Participants at these meetings also typically include members of the private sector, public associations, state and local government, and others interested in state and federal policy. All those interested in the issues addressed by the Standing Committees are encouraged to attend meetings. Only legislators appointed to a specific committee can vote on policy directives and resolutions during that committee's business meeting.