Organisation
The committees
Like all parliamentary bodies, the Bundesrat has permanent committees which submit recommendations for decisions to be taken by the body as a whole. Their areas of responsibility correspond to areas of ministerial jurisdiction. Thus, the expertise of the Federal Government is complemented by that of the Bundesrat and the states.
Each of the sixteen states has one member and one vote in each of the committees. This means that the distribution of votes in the committees differs from that of the chamber. The committee meetings are non-public. The states are normally represented by their Premiers in the Foreign Affairs and Defence committees. The relevant ministers attend the other committees, i.e. the so-called "expert committees". All committee members may be represented by "delegated commissioners", i.e. experts from the ministries. This is the only way it is possible to cope with the double function of being a state minister and a member of the Bundesrat at the same time. This right of representation is used most often in the expert committees. Some committees almost always meet in "civil-servant groups". The states' experts, who have come from the state capitals, sit across the table from federal ministry officials who attend as federal "commissioners". Committee consultations of this kind have helped a great deal in ensuring that specialised issues are analysed very objectively and expertly within the Bundesrat, thus guaranteeing an effective check on the work of the federal executive.