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| 1. Who is the chairman and ranking member? How are they chosen? |
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The chairman presides over the committee and comes from the party in power within the Senate (the majority party). The ranking member is the committee’s top leader from the minority party. The chairman and ranking member generally are the members of the committee who have the most seniority. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) chairs our committee. Our ranking member is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
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| 2. What is your committee’s jurisdiction? |
We have oversight and legislative responsibilities for:
- The Committee has oversight of the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Forest Service
- National Energy Policy
- Coal production
- Energy related aspects of deepwater ports
- Energy regulation and conservation
- Energy research and development
- Extraction of minerals from oceans and Outer Continental Shelf lands
- Hydroelectric power, irrigation, and reclamation
- Mining education and research
- Mining, mineral lands, mining claims, and mineral conservation
- National parks, recreation areas, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, historical sites, military parks and battle fields, and on the public domain, preservation or prehistoric ruins and objects of interest.
- Naval petroleum reserves in Alaska
- Nonmilitary development of nuclear energy
- Public lands and forest
- Renewable energy resources including biofuels, wind, solar and geothermal sources of energy
- Territorial policy (including changes in status and issues affecting Antarctica, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Marshall Islands)
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| 3. How can I keep up with committee activities on legislation, nominations and so on? |
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There are several ways to do this. We may be biased, but we think the best method is to familiarize yourself with this website, as we post updates, bill summaries, legislative text, news releases, fact sheets, testimony, hearing records, video webcasts and so on. Another first-rate tool for tracking legislation is the Library of Congress website, http://thomas.loc.gov.
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| 4. How does the Committee pick hearing witnesses? |
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All decisions regarding hearings and witnesses are made by the Chairman, the Ranking Member, committee staff, members of the committee and their staffs.
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| 5. If I attend a hearing, can I get a set of testimony while it is occurring? |
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To reduce the amount of paper used during hearings, Committee policy is to provide copies of testimony only to Senators, their staffs and the media. All testimony is available to the public on the Committee website after the hearing has concluded.
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| 6. How can I watch hearings online? |
All hearings are webcast live. To watch a hearing click “Live Webcast” on the left side of the Committee website. In addition, when viewing a live webcast, one may be advised to wait a few minutes for the webcast to begin – a webcast begins to feed once the hearing has officially commenced, and this occasionally may take a few minutes after the set start time.
To watch archived webcasts of hearings, please click on “Hearing Schedule” on the left side of the Committee homepage. Then scroll to the date of the appropriate hearing, and click “View Archived Webcast.”
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| 7. How do I attend a committee hearing? |
For a hearing that is expected to be well attended, those wishing to attend are advised to arrive 30 minutes before a hearing and be prepared to wait outside the hearing room prior to the start of the hearing. Witnesses and their aides are allowed to enter the hearing room 5-10 minutes before the start time of the hearing.
For especially crowded hearings, the committee will arrange for an overflow room, provided one is available.
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| 8. Are your hearings open to the public? |
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All of our hearings are open to the public. The Senate Buildings are open to the public, and no Congressional identification is needed to enter. Archived webcasts of past hearings are available on our website.
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| 9. What agencies does the committee oversee? |
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U.S. Department of Energy … U.S. Department of the Interior … U.S. Forest Service … and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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| 10. Does the committee hire interns? |
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Yes, but mostly during the summer. Other times of the year we tend to host legislative fellows from academic societies, professional groups and Federal agencies. Those interested in an internship or fellowship should send their resume to clerk AT energy.senate.gov.
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| 11. How does the nomination process work? |
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A nomination is an appointment by the President to executive or judicial office that is subject to Senate confirmation. When the nomination reaches the relevant Committee, a majority of the committee’s senators must vote in favor of the nominee. After a nomination passes committee approval, it is then sent to the full Senate floor for further consideration.
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| 12. Where can I find a schedule of upcoming hearings? |
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On the left side of the Committee’s homepage there is a link for the “Hearing Schedule.” This link features the most up to date calendar for the Committee.
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| 13. Where can I send a resume? |
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Electronically, to clerk AT energy.senate.gov.
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| 14. What are your hours? |
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9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Recess hours often are shorter.
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| 15. I have an appointment to meet with a committee staffer, where should I go? |
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Room 304 in the Dirksen Office Building. Our receptionist will notify staff and direct you where to meet them.
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| 16. What is a Committee Calendar? |
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The Committee Calendar contains detailed information on the status of introduced bills, nominations, hearings and other committee activities. You can link to it from the left side of our website’s homepage.
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| 17. What’s the best way to ask a question/comment/suggest/complain/etc.? |
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We always encourage constituents to first contact the two senators from their state with questions and comments. If the comment or request is committee-specific, you can write us an e-mail from the link on our homepage.
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| 18. What is a field hearing? |
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When the committee (or a subcommittee) holds a hearing outside of Washington, that’s a field hearing. Field hearings, when schedule, almost always happen during a recess.
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| 19. What does it mean “to report”? |
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That is a legislative term which means that the committee has voted “to report” a bill or a nomination to the full Senate for further consideration.
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| 20. What is a “business meeting”? |
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A business meeting (also called a mark up) is when a committee meets to discuss, debate, amend and vote on legislation or a nomination. In our committee, all of our markups occur at the full committee level.
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| 21. What is “recess”? |
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A recess is when Congress is not meeting during one of its sessions. Except in summer, recesses usually last one week and often occur around a major holiday.
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| 22. What is a “session”? |
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A session is a time when Congress is conducting business. There are two regular sessions – the first beginning in January after a general election, and the second starting the following January. These sessions usually end in the mid- to late-fall.
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| 23. How often does your committee meet? |
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The full committee meets once or twice a week, often on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One or more of our subcommittees (there are four) hold afternoon hearings a few times a week.
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| 24. How many senators are on your committee? |
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Currently, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has 23 members – 12 Democrats and 11 Republicans. That ratio is proportional to the number of Senators from each party within the entire Senate.
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| 25. What does a Committee do? |
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A committee’s main role is to work on legislation and perform oversight on issues within its jurisdiction.
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| 26. How do I find the text of a bill? |
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Bills in text format can be found at this link provided by the Library of Congress.
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| 27. How can I get a copy of a hearing record? |
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Many recent hearings can be found (in text form) in the hearings section of this site. Hearings that took place at least six months ago can be found in pdf format at GPO Access. Hearings that took place in the 106th Congress can be acquired by sending an email to the Committee's Editor.
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