Ways and Means Committee

…under the jurisdiction of the Ways and Means Committee of the House and are considered separately and possibly even at a different time from appropriations. The upper house of Congress, the Senate, plays a secondary role with respect to the budget. Its Appropriations Committee acts as a kind of court…

…later grew into the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In 1797–98 he helped to reduce Federalist-sponsored expenditures aimed at promoting hostilities with France. He was bitterly denounced by Federalists in Congress, and, when the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798, Thomas Jefferson believed they were partly intended to…