The Senate is now divided into between fifty and sixty committees, but the number varies from session to session. The principal committees are those on (1) Foreign Relations, (2) Privileges and Elections, (3) Judiciary, (4) Commerce, (5) Finance, and (6) Appropriations. The Senate selects the members for the different committees by ballot, though it is pretty well determined beforehand how each committee shall be constituted by means of party caucuses (informal meetings of members of the same party to determine upon lines of action that will be supported by all). A committee is always composed of an odd number of members, and both political parties are always represented on every committee, though the majority is, in almost all cases, from that party which has the majority of the members of the Senate. The House of Representatives is organized into sixty committees, ranging, in their number of members, from thirteen down. As regards party representation, their constitution is similar to that of the Senate Committees. The Committee of "Ways and Means," which regulates customs duties and excise taxes, is by far the most important. Other important committees are those on (1) Elections, (2) Appropriations, (3) Judiciary, (4) Foreign Affairs, (5) Manufactures, (6) Commerce, (7) Labor. Every Representative is on one committee, and most of them on several. Unlike the custom in the Senate, in the House the presiding officer has the sole power of appointment, which makes him, next to the President, the most important and powerful government official. The chairman of each committee has, of course, a large power over affairs with which his committee is concerned, and for this reason it is often said that it is the chairmen of these committees who rule the land. The precise amount of effective work done by Congress during the two sessions of the Fiftieth Congress was as follows: There were 4,000 bills introduced in the Senate and 145 Senate joint resolutions: of this number 1,127 bills and joint resolutions passed the Senate, and 554 were either postponed indefinitely or referred to the Court of Claims, so that the total number on which final action was taken by the Senate was 1,681. The committee on enrolled bills examined 667 Senate bills and joint resolutions and sent them to the President and 591 became laws, the number of vetoes, including "pocket vetoes," being 76. The House of Representatives passed 1,561 House bills and sent them to the Senate, and the Senate passed 1,347 of them, leaving 214 to perish. The House passed 56 House joint resolutions and the Senate passed all of them but eight. The House passed, therefore, 2,284 House and Senate bills, and the Senate passed 2,522.