What does the Ways and Means Committee do?

The House Ways and Means Committee handles tax legislation, working on federal income tax laws, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, tariffs, and other revenue-related issues. The Ways and Means Committee is one of the oldest and most powerful committees in Congress, with origins dating to the First Congress in 1789. The committee's name comes from the original parliamentary phrase ways and means, meaning the methods of raising government revenue.

Under Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution, all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, not the Senate. This requirement gives the Ways and Means Committee a unique role in initiating federal tax legislation. The committee has jurisdiction over the entire federal tax code, including individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, estate and gift taxes, excise taxes, customs duties, and tariffs.

The committee also has jurisdiction over Social Security, Medicare Part A and Part B, unemployment compensation, child welfare, foster care, and trade agreements. Major tax legislation that has passed through the Ways and Means Committee includes the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (which simplified the tax code), the Tax Reform Act of 1969, the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (which included substantial tax provisions), the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (which lowered corporate and individual rates), and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (which included tax credits for clean energy and a corporate minimum tax).

The chair of the Ways and Means Committee is one of the most powerful positions in Congress, comparable in influence to the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House. Recent chairs have included Charlie Rangel of New York, Dave Camp of Michigan, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (later Speaker of the House), Kevin Brady of Texas, Richard Neal of Massachusetts, Jason Smith of Missouri, and others.

The Senate counterpart to Ways and Means is the Senate Finance Committee, which has similar jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and trade. The two committees often work together on tax legislation, particularly through joint conferences when the House and Senate pass different versions of tax bills.

The Ways and Means Committee also handles trade legislation, including approval of trade agreements that the President negotiates. The Trade Act of 1974 gave the President fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements, with the agreements then voted on by Congress without amendments. This authority is periodically renewed by Congress and has been used for major trade agreements over the decades.