Committee InfoDescriptionHello representatives, and welcome to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This committee is a standing committee of the US House of Representatives, having jurisdiction over bills and investigations related to the international affairs of the United States. It corresponds to the Senate Foreign Relations committee - together these two must both approve any legislation pertaining to our area. However, unlike the Senate committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs has no jurisdiction over ratification of treaties and approval of presidentially appointed ambassadors. The committee is currently chaired by Representative Howard Berman of California.The committee traces its origins to 1775 when, under the guidance of the Continental Congress, a committee was established to communicate with European powers. After the establishment of the modern US Federal Government in 1789, the committee was revived several times, especially during times of foreign crisis in our early history. Finally, the modern standing committee was created ten years after the War of 1812, making this committee one of the oldest in the House. Despite the lack of influence over appointments and treaties, the House committee has always held significant influence due to ‘power of the purse’ that by Constitutional mandate the House holds; essentially, any new appropriation bill must originate in the House of Representatives. This power has been used to both curb and add to presidential and senatorial initiatives at several key junctures in history. The current committee of the 111th Congress has detailed 17 key areas in a Committee Oversight Plan. These include both the obvious - Iraq, Afghanistan - and more esoteric goals, such as State Department reform. These are all viable topics for bills, and for more information consult the committee website (see below). In order to effectively deal with these numerous issues, the committee further contains several subcommittees, devoted to specific geographical areas or issues. At present, the committee is holding hearings concerning US Strategy in Afghanistan, Aerospace Exports, Sudan, and the state of Caribbean nations. Current legislation in the committee concern sanctions on Iran, aid to Pakistan, and the appropriations bill for fiscal years 2010 and 2011. For more information, visit the House Committee on Foreign Relations website, http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/, or the Library of Congress website, http://thomas.loc.gov -------------- Hi, my name is Jeffrey Ng and I am a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in English. I am also a Civic Scholar. Penn's Civic Scholars program is a cohort of Penn students dedicated to promoting community service, as well as researching and developing capstone projects on specific areas of civic service. I enjoy playing chess and table tennis in my free time, and recently have become interested in tennis. This is my third year chairing for Penn Model Congress, and with the quality of our students, debating gets better every year! I look forward to chairing this year! Hi Representatives, my name is Arka Mallela. I am a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, in the Vagelos Scholars program of the College of Arts and Sciences. I went to Moorestown High School in Moorestown, NJ, where I participated in Model Congress for all four years at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and U. Penn. In this conference, my tenth, I will be both chairing your committee and coordinating the National Security Council simulation. At Penn, other than Model Congress, I participate in Model United Nations and Parliamentary Debate. Other than debating, I play water polo, work in a memory lab, and just recently joined a pre-medical fraternity. If you have any questions, and especially if you are new to model congress, please feel free to contact me at amallela@sas.upenn.edu. I will be more than happy to answer any inquiries you may have regarding the House, foreign relations, model congress, or even Penn in general. I look forward to meeting you in February. Chairs
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Account LoginConference DatesMarch 31 - April 3, 2011 RegistrationRegistration is now closed. InformationClick here for more details about PENNMC 2011! Check us out on Facebook!
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