The United States Senate Committee on Claims was among the first standing committees established in the Senate. It dealt generally with issues related to private bills and petitions. After reforms in the 1880s that created judicial and administrative remedies for petitioners, it declined in importance, and were abolished in 1946. The United States House of Representatives also had a Committee on Claims until 1946, when both the Senate and House duties were absorbed by the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.
Chairmen of the Committee on Claims, 1816–1947 Jonathan Roberts (R-PA) 1816–1818 Robert Henry Goldsborough (F-MD) 1818–1819 Jonathan Roberts (R-PA) 1819–1820 James J. Wilson (R-NJ) 1820–1821 Benjamin Ruggles (R/NR-OH) 1821–1833 Samuel Bell (W-NH) 1833–1835 Arnold Naudain (W-DE) 1835–1836 Henry Hubbard (D-NH) 1836–1841 William A. Graham (W-NC) 1841–1843 Ephraim Foster (W-TN) 1843–1845 Isaac S. Pennybacker (D-VA) 1845–1847 James Mason (D-VA) 1847–1849 Moses Norris, Jr. (D-NH) 1849–1851 Richard Brodhead (D-PA) 1851–1857 Alfred Iverson, Sr. (D-GA) 1857–1861 Daniel Clark (R-NH) 1861–1866 Timothy Howe (R-WI) 1866–1873 George Wright (R-IA) 1873–1877 Samuel J. R. McMillan (R-MN) 1877–1879 Francis Cockrell (D-MO) 1879–1881 Angus Cameron (R-WI) 1881–1885 Austin F. Pike (R-NH) 1885–1886 John C. Spooner (R-WI) 1886–1891 John H. Mitchell (R-OR) 1891–1893 Samuel Pasco (D-FL) 1893–1895 Henry M. Teller (R-CO) 1895–1899 Francis E. Warren (R-WY) 1899–1905 Charles W. Fulton (R-OR) 1905–1909 Henry E. Burnham (R-NH) 1909–1911 Coe I. Crawford (R-SD) 1911–1913 Nathan P. Bryan (D-FL) 1913–1917 Joseph T. Robinson (D-AR) 1917–1919 Selden P. Spencer (R-MO) 1919–1922 Arthur Capper (R-KS) 1922–1925 Rice W. Means (R-CO) 1925–1927 Robert B. Howell (R-NE) 1927–1933 Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC) 1933–1940 none 1940–1942 Prentiss M. Brown (D-MI) 1942–1943 Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC) 1943–1944 Allen J. Ellender (D-LA) 1944–1947
References
See also List of defunct United States congressional committees