Committee Work

Harry Reid Decides to Step Down

After originally announcing that he would be running for reelection in 2016, Reid has now decided to retire.  This news came on March 27 along with a farewell video Reid put together explaining his reasoning behind his decision.

Reid stated that his injury did not have any affect on his decision.  Rather, he decided to retire before his accident in January according to Politico.  However, he did state that the injury provided more time for him to deliberate about his decision before announcing it.  This led to him telling his staff that he was running again.

In the video, Reid says that his injury has allowed him to see that he is more concerned with the country, the Senate, and the state of Nevada than that of himself, and so he has decided to step down at the end of his term.

According to Politico, the nonpartisan, Washington-based political journalism organization, as of April 7, Reid was reported to still be unable to see out of his right eye due to the exercising injuries that he suffered in January.  He may not admit that his injury affected his decision to step down, but the stress from the injury definitely could have contributed.

Committee Work

Harry Reid is only in one committee in the 114th Congress.  He is a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence.  Reid is actually an ex officio member of this committee which means he is only a part of it by virtue of his position as Minority Leader.  According to the Committee's website, he is one of four other senators who hold the same position in this committee.  The others being John McCain, Mitch McConnell, and Jack Reed.  He has been an ex officio member of this committee since the 109th Congress.

Reid is the only senator that is a member of only one committee at this time.  I am not entirely sure why, but it is probably due in part to his injury and his leadership position within the senate.

Overview of the Select Committee on Intelligence

The Overview of the Select Committee on Intelligence states that it was created in 1976 with three goals according to the Committee's website:

1. To oversee and make continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the United States Government.
2. To submit to the Senate appropriate proposals for legislation and report to the Senate concerning such intelligence activities and programs.
3. To provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States.

There are always 15 members of the committee excluding the ex officio members.  8 members are from the majority party and 7 from the minority.  This does not change according to the ratio of majority members to minority members in the senate.  The committee remains the same, so that it can remain nonpartisan as such is the nature of intelligence.  

The committee always includes two members, one from each party, from Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary Committees.  

Committee work includes hearings that are held twice a week normally.  These hearings cover topics like intelligence collection programs, intelligence analysis on specific regions or issues, agency activities, threats to national security and Presidential nominations to intelligence positions.  

The Select Committee on Intelligence does not deal with as much legislation as most other committees do.  They do create an annual bill that authorizes funding for intelligence activities and limits intelligence conduct as well.  Sometimes the committee does work  on other laws when they deal with surveillance or other intelligence topics.

So far this year, the Select Committee on Intelligence has voted on the Cybersecurity Bill and upon approval has introduced it as well.  It passed through committee 14-1.  Reid championed a cybersecurity bill back in 2011 and 2012, so I am sure he fought for this one as well.  This committee would have been one of the primary bodies working on the Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program which was the torture report released last year.

Conclusion

Being a member of this committee does not seem to help Senator Reid very much in terms of reelection.  If he was to run it would be a very tough race because this committee allows him to help the nation and serve as a Democratic leader, but it does not help Nevadans specifically at all.  Other committees would definitely be more useful in terms of achieving reelection.  However, being in only one committee does allow Reid to have more time to do party work and introduce legislation in his state's interest outside of a committee as Govtrack shows in his sponsored bills history as he needs to considering he cannot work for his state within another committee.  This site follows legislators' funds and their voting records as well.  In regards to committees, Harry Reid is kind an exception.  He is the minority leader which separates him from other senators.  His older age and injury also seem to have influenced his committee participation as well which is different from most senators.