The Congressional Deskbook, now in its Sixth Edition, explains the legislative and congressional budget processes along with all aspects of Congress.

Many of the sections are expanded online at CongressProfile.com And an expanded legislative and budget glossary is available online at TCNLG.com

This comprehensive guide to Congress is ideal for anyone who wants to know how Congress really works, including federal executives, attorneys, lobbyists, media and public affairs staff, government affairs, policy and budget analysts, congressional office staff and students.

Complete Table of Contents with links to other material at CongressionalDeskbook.com

In friction stir welding (FSW), a rotating threaded pin tool is inserted into a weld seam and literally stirs the edges of the seam together. To determine optimal processing parameters for producing a defect free weld, a better understanding of the resulting metal deformation flow path is required. Marker studies are the principal method of studying the metal deformation flow path around the FSW pin tool. In our study, we have used computed tomography (CT) scans to reveal the flow pattern of a lead wire embedded in a FSW weld seam. At the welding temperature of aluminum, the lead becomes molten and is carried with the macro-flow of the weld metal. By using CT images, a 3-dimensional (3D) image of the lead flow pattern can be reconstructed. CT imaging was found to be a convenient and comprehensive way of collecting and displaying tracer data. It marks an advance over previous more tedious and ambiguous radiographic/metallographic data collection methods.

A committee chair serves as the leader of a committee, with responsibility for setting the course and direction of the panel for committee members and the House and for managing a large professional and paraprofessional staff. The senior committee staff should ensure the chair's goals are carried out effectively. Once a committee chair is selected during the post-election transition period, he or she, often in consultation with others, makes a series of decisions and takes a series of actions. Some actions complete a committee's duties in the Congress just ending, while other actions are taken in anticipation of the new Congress and then in the new Congress. Some decisions are related to the committee's policy calendar; others to the committee's administrative functions; others to the chair's responsibilities during committee sessions; others to the role of committee members; others to the relationship with the committee's ranking minority member, other chairs, and party leaders; and still others related to subcommittee leaders. Many decisions are made with a deadline imposed by House rules. Specifically, a committee chair controls the selection of committee staff, authorizes expenditures from the committee budget, establishes operational and ethics policies, determines committee travel allocations, decides the content of the committee website, and is responsible for administration of the committee's rooms, paperwork, and other operations. Most committees entrust the drafting of the budget to the committee chair, although a committee's minority party members seek to ensure that they receive an appropriate allocation of resources. Before the chair introduces a funding resolution, the committee approves the chair's draft budget. The House requires its committees to adopt committee rules in an open session and to publish those rules in the Congressional Record and in electronic form not later than 30 days after the committee chair is elected. A chair normally proposes adopting, with amendments the chair offers, the rules under which the committee operated in the previous Congress, and also proposes the number of subcommittees for the committee. A committee chair establishes the committee agenda, calls hearings, selects witnesses and determines the order of their testimony, presides over hearings and markups, chooses any markup vehicle and pursues an amendment strategy, prepares the committee report accompanying legislation, and discusses, or might negotiate, any of these matters with the ranking minority member. The chair maintains order and decorum during committee meetings, and takes various steps to protect the committee's jurisdiction in the referral of legislation and other matters. When a measure is reported by a committee, it is the responsibility of the committee chair to consult the party leadership to determine floor scheduling for the measure. This report covers the period from the House's early organization meetings through the spring district work period, which normally occurs in March or April. The report will be updated after the 113th Congress convenes if House rules or practices affecting chair decisions and actions discussed here change substantively.

The Congressional Deskbook, now in its Sixth Edition, explains the legislative and congressional budget processes along with all aspects of Congress.

Many of the sections are expanded online at CongressProfile.com And an expanded legislative and budget glossary is available online at TCNLG.com

This comprehensive guide to Congress is ideal for anyone who wants to know how Congress really works, including federal executives, attorneys, lobbyists, media and public affairs staff, government affairs, policy and budget analysts, congressional office staff and students.

Complete Table of Contents with links to other material at CongressionalDeskbook.com

On 7 January 2003, the House of Representatives created a Select Committee on Homeland Security. One of its responsibilities is to conduct a "thorough and complete study of the operation and implementation of the rules of the House, including Rule X, with respect to the issues of homeland security". The select committee is required to submit its recommendations on possible changes to the Committee on Rules. Congress has officially, as well as unofficially, conducted these review committees over the past 60 years. Three joint committees, two select committees, two commissions, and party caucuses and conferences have studied various aspects of the house and its committee system. The contemporary system is primarily a product of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, which, among other things, codified committee jurisdictions, streamlined the committee system and instituted a professional committee staffing structure. This book discusses the reform efforts to reorganise the House Committee system since the 1940s.