Parliamentary Committees

The Vehicles of the Legislative Process

The National Assembly is composed of several parliamentary committees, each serving a different area.  These committees are crucial to the legislative and oversight processes as it is through these committees that bills are first discussed, investigations are conducted, and ordinary citizen concerns are raised.   Committee chairs and rapportuers are frequently called upon to update parliament during its regular and open sessions on the status of their work, especially if the topic discussed falls under a committee’s focus area. 

Currently, the National Assembly is comprised of 18 such committees, 10 of which are permanent and 8 are temporary.  No committee may have more than 9 members at any given time.  Committee members are elected at the start of each parliamentary session, for one year terms.   MPs may run for as many parliamentary committees as they wish.  There are no limits as to the number of times an MP may serve on any given committee.

The Permanent Committees are:

  1. Committee for Defense and Interior
  2. Committee for State Budget
  3. Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs
  4. Committee on Legislative and Legal Affairs
  5. Committee for Education and Culture
  6. Committee for Health, Social and Labor Affairs
  7. Committee on Foreign Affairs
  8. Committee for Public Facilities
  9. Committee for the Protection of Public Funds
  10. Committee for Public Petitions and Grievances

For more on the National Assembly and its work, please visit the following link:
http://www.kna.kw