Interim committees are a critical tool for legislatures when they are out of session. They may take the form of standing committees empowered to meet during breaks between sessions; or committees, task forces or commissions created specifically for the interim.
Legislatures create interim committees by constitutional provision, by chamber rule or by statute.
Using one of these three methods, legislatures establish committees to meet during the interim to research pressing issues, hold hearings with constituents, prepare for the coming session or wrap up unfinished business from the previous session, among other duties.
Constitutional Provision
Constitutional provisions that allow for the establishment of interim committees often include details on how the committee’s purview is decided and whether legislators will receive compensation for their time. For example, Article II, Section 11 of the Alaska Constitution states:
“There shall be a legislative council, and the legislature may establish other interim committees. The council and other interim committees may meet between legislative sessions. They may perform duties and employ personnel as provided by the legislature. Their members may receive an allowance for expenses while performing their duties.”
Several other states that provide for interim legislative committees in their constitutions contain similar provisions that both empower the legislature and specify any limitations on its interim powers.
Chamber Rule
Almost every state constitution gives the legislature the right to decide its own rules and procedures. Some states have included establishing interim committees in their rules, though there are differences in how states—and even chambers within a legislature—might apply those rules. House rules might explicitly allow the creation of interim committees, while the Senate’s do not. Other state legislatures allow for the creation of interim committees via joint rule.
The Hawai Senate, for example, creates and operates interim committees without a specific rule empowering it to do so; the House, on the other hand, has rules stating that “interim committees may be established between regular sessions to accomplish specified objectives and work.” Some states, such as Oklahoma, establish interim committees in both chambers’ rules.
The power to set up interim committees can also originate in joint legislative rule. The Maine Legislature has two joint rules that allow for committees to meet in the interim. One rule allows committees to meet out of session with the approval of the Senate president and the House speaker. The second rule dictates the creation and authority of legislative study committees, whose duties often are similar to those of interim committees.
Statute
Legislatures also create interim committees by statute. This occurs one of two ways. First, there are states with statutes empowering the legislature to carry over their standing committees into the interim. Arizona law, for example, states that “the president of the Senate or speaker of the House of Representatives may at any time when the legislature is not in session call a meeting of any standing legislative committee appointed according to law or rules of the house of which he is the presiding officer.” Other states create interim committees through bills or resolutions. Many states, including Nebraska and Arkansas, use this approach, usually with the mandate to study or investigate a specific policy issue.
Tobin Lindstrom was an intern in NCSL’s Center for Legislative Strengthening. For more information, please contact CLS.