Question 1
After every two years in America, a class of newly elected senators takes office at the capitol thus assuming the duties and responsibilities of the U.S Senator. The job of the senate is to serve the interests of their Congressional district citizens by introducing bills into the committee and serving on the committee. There are at least 26 committees in the House of Representatives and a number of subcommittees. On the other hand, there are there are 20 committees in the Senate and 68 subcommittees. The senate further has four joint committees in its docket to help it in the simple running of the administrative business. This paper seeks to look at the agriculture committee and the subcommittees from the both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Further, the paper will give insights on the committees’ jurisdiction and its leadership.
Agriculture committee in the House of Representatives
Currently chaired by Frank D. Lucas, who represents the state of Oklahoma, the committee acknowledges that agriculture plays a major role in the country’s economy (Jurisdiction of, n.d). The committee’s minority ranking member is Collin C. Peterson, who represents the minority parties at the committee in the House. In its docket, the committee has five subcommittees namely.
1. Protection, energy, and forestry
2. Departmental tasks, oversight, and nourishment
3. General farm produces and threat management
4. Agriculture, research, biotechnology, and foreign agriculture
5. Livestock, rural development, and recognition (Jurisdiction of, n.d)
These subcommittees are derived from the committee’s mission, and goals. On matters jurisdiction, the X rule, rules and governs the standing committees. X rule highlights the mandate of the committee in terms of agricultural research, rural electrification, economics and education, the dairy industry, animal husbandry, entomology and plant conservation among others (Jurisdiction of, n.d).
Agricultural committee in the senate
Sen. Debbi Stabenow is the Chairwoman of the agriculture, nutrition, and forestry committee, while at the same time she represents the people of Michigan as their Senator. The committee’s minority-ranking member of is Sen. Thad Cochran from the state of Mississippi. Under its sleeve, the committee has five subcommittees namely:
1. Produces, markets places, and threat control
2. Occupations, energy innovation, and rural commercial growth
3. Safeguarding forestry, and the environment
4. Food, field crops, and husbandry research
5. Cattle, dairy, agriculture security, and poultry
On jurisdiction issues of the committee, rule XXV of the standing rules of the senate gives authority over the Senates’ agricultural committee (Jurisdiction, n.d). Just like the rules in the House of Representatives, rule XXV governs on a number of issues. For example, the rule gives authority on matters research and economics, animal husbandry, food stamp programs, human nutrition, soils and nutrition among others (Jurisdiction, n.d).
Question 2
The 112th Congress bill is associated with the year 2011-2012. Regarding the bills that we are drafting, one stands out with its similarity to an already existing bill of the 112th Congress. The law in question that we drafted is ‘To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.’ This draft is similar to bill number H.R.243 of the 112th Congress (2011-2012) ‘patent lawsuit reform act of 2011.’ According to the Legislative, The bill is at an introductory level however there are amendments that have been brought forth to make it better (2011). Rep. Latta, Robert E on July 1, 2011, sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives. The following day (July 2), the house referred the bill to the subcommittee on intellectual property, competition, and the Internet. The committee was to deliberate and act upon the bill, thus allowing it to move to the next stage (Legislative 2011).
Patent law has existed in the United States of America and worldwide for a very long time. The law seeks to protect and promote the development of science and useful arts. Patent law does so by safeguarding the inventors and authors’ creations from being used by a second party without a clear consent from the owner of the invention or the author of the book. Therefore, the law guarantees the right to exclusion of others from making, using, or selling of an invention that does not belong to them. However, after its formation, the Congress created an expiry date for the right, thus creating the chance of the technology or research to be developed further. In the U.S., patent law expires twenty years after the application of the patent to the federal court. In most cases, an infringement to the law comes when an individual makes an already patented product and sells it or tries to make commercial advantage over the product. The rule per what the Congress signed into law stipulates that the protection of products occur when the individual is the first to invent the commodity.
In comparison, what we are proposing about encouraging the advancement of science and valuable arts is a direct mirror of what exists as a law in the U.S Federal court. The only difference is that the proposed rule is yet to cover the many loopholes in the law for it to be enacted. For example, it does not state the extent at which the law is to be legislated.
References
Jurisdiction of the Committee. (n.d). Retrieved from http://agriculture.house.gov/about/jurisdiction-committee
Jurisdiction: United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.ag.senate.gov/about/jurisdiction
Legislative Search Results: Congress.gov-Library of Congress. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.Congress.gov/search?q=%7B%22source%22%3A%22legislation%22%2C%22search%22%3A%22patent%22%2C%22Congress%22%3A112%7D
