Introduction In the United States government there are three branches of government, there is the legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch. When looking at how the branches were created and made for the United States, there was one key form of action that was strictly important for the United States to keep their democracy from turning into any authoritarian government: it would be considered checks and balances. Checks and balances “provides each branch of government with individual powers to check the other branches and prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful” (Legal Information Institution, n.d.). In this essay there will …show more content…
Literature Review. Congressional committees “consider bills and issues and oversee agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions” (Committees, n.d.). Not only do they consider bills and issues, but they also “insure the likelihood of certain policy outcomes and empower a subset of members” (Maltzman, 1998). Such great empowerment and capacity to shape beneficial policy outcomes unmistakably mirrors the dedication of committee members and their representation of the people they serve. Every congressional member plays a vital role within various congressional committees and to be exact there are twenty permanent committees. It is important to know that Congressional committees and their members truly lend themselves to “overseeing a different function of the federal government” (Aota.org, n.d.). To clarify congressional committees' methods, it is important to grasp the significance of oversight within them and how they operate. To be exact, Congressional oversight is the act of supervising and monitoring the activities of the executive branch, including their government agencies, departments, and programs (Congressional Research Service, n.d.). Such ways that Congress can conduct oversight are through