United States House Committee on Rivers and Harbors

The House Committee on Rivers and Harbors was a U.S. House committee from 1883 until 1946. It was authorized early in the 48th Congress in December 1883, when the committee was given jurisdiction over subjects relating to the improvements of rivers and harbors; it also had the responsibility of reporting the river and harbor bills to the floor. These functions previously had been handled by the Committee on Commerce.^[1]

The committee's jurisdiction changed over time with many additional considerations and jurisdictions and some reductions. The Rivers and Harbors committee, as well as other committees related to public works were terminated by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, with their successor being House Committee on Public Works,^[2] and currently the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

History and jurisdiction

With the establishment of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors on December 19, 1883, the Committee on Commerce relinquished its previous jurisdiction over appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors.^[3] Federal internal improvements for harbors date from 1792 with the Cape Henry Light,^[4] and for rivers from 1824. The latter beginning for rivers followed the landmark decision of the US Supreme Court granting Congress the power to regulate interstate navigation under the Commerce Clause in Gibbons v. Ogden; the work was initiated through the General Survey Act and the first rivers and harbors legislation passed shortly thereafter. While the issue of federally funded improvements was still contentious, it was generally less so by the time the committee was formed.

References

Current United States congressional committees

Senate (list)	Aging (Special) Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Appropriations Armed Services Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Budget Commerce, Science, and Transportation Energy and Natural Resources Environment and Public Works Ethics (Select) Finance Foreign Relations Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Indian Affairs Intelligence (Select) Judiciary Narcotics (Caucus) Rules and Administration Small Business and Entrepreneurship Veterans' Affairs

House (list)	Agriculture Appropriations Armed Services Benghazi (Select) Budget Education and the Workforce Energy and Commerce Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood Ethics Financial Services Foreign Affairs Homeland Security House Administration Intelligence (Permanent Select) Judiciary Natural Resources Oversight and Government Reform Rules Science, Space and Technology Small Business Transportation and Infrastructure Veterans' Affairs Ways and Means (Whole)

Joint (list)	(Conference) Economic Inaugural Ceremonies (Special) Library Printing Taxation

Standing committees, Defunct committees

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2011. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.