The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) was officially formed in 1999 by the U.S. Senate. It has a long history of service, under different names, which initially began after the end of the Civil War in 1869 and was focused solely on education. The committee was renamed the Committee on Education and Labor in 1884 and continued to be known by that name until the middle of the 1990s when it was assigned the additional oversight of health and pensions issues. A committee is defined by the Senate as a subsidiary organization of the Senate established for the purpose of considering legislation, conducting hearings and investigations, or carrying out other assignments as instructed by the parent chamber (U.S. Senate, 2011). The HELP committee is designated as a standing committee which means that it is a permanent entity as compared to a select, or special, committee which is organized for a temporary length of time. There are 16 standing committees currently empowered by the senate. The HELP committee is composed of 22 senators, currently 12 Democrats and 10 republicans, although the party ratio may change with mid-term elections and new nominees (U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, 2011). “Rule 25, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, States the Committee's Jurisdiction to be the following: Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, to which committee shall be referred all proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials, and other matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions” (U.S. Senate, 2011). It also has a reputation for being one of the most contentious standing committees (Enzi, 2011).
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